A general introduction to the most persisting questions of philosophy: Is there a God? Do I exist? Can I live forever? Do I have free will? How should I live?

An examination of several theories of the nature of self and its relation to society and to the world.

A critical study of alternative theories of the good life, virtue and vice, right and wrong, and their application to perennial and contemporary moral problems.

A topical introduction to philosophy which surveys historical and current work in philosophy of mind and the study of cognition. The material revolves around the reasons we have to attribute minds to people. We explore several reasons for having a mind: the capacity for knowledge, innate representations, language, consciousness, agency, control over the body, freedom from natural causality. This course is particularly useful for those students interested in the cognitive studies program, a coordinate major.

This is an introductory course to Medical Ethics and focuses on the major ethical principles and values related to several aspects of life and death. In the first part of the course, we will examine case studies, the second part of the course will be focused on ethical and conceptual questions regarding the nature and significance of autonomy, decisional capacity, and informed consent, and the third part will be focused on issues relating to social justice, equality, and equity in the practice of medicine.

This course is intended to enhance the student's analytical reasoning skills. Emphasis is placed on the study of arguments and the development of techniques of informal logic for assessing their cogency.

The course concerns techniques of analyzing sentences and arguments by uncovering the formal structures and relations which underlie them. This involves translating ordinary language into the symbolic formulas of elementary logical systems and proving formalized arguments.

Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

The question, What is the meaning of life?, has been regarded as one of the most important and profound of human inquiries. This course will examine a number of different philosophical attempts to address this question.

Students complete a service activity in the community in conjunction with the content of a three-credit co-requisite course. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Students complete a service activity in the community in conjunction with the content of a three-credit co-requisite course. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Transfer Coursework at the 1000 level. Department approval may be required.

A study of ancient Greek philosophy, focusing on the thought of the Pre-Socratics, Plato, and Aristotle.

A study of early modern philosophy, focusing on the period from Descartes through Kant.

Introduction to philosophical issues in the study of mind and consciousness. Topics include: the place of mind in the natural world; mechanism and thought; computer intelligence; consciousness and the mind-body problem; mental causation and explanation.

This course places into dialogue major thinkers of the Eastern and Western traditions, exploring fundamental issues of metaphysics, knowledge and language, ethics, politics and human nature.

A study of classical works of political philosophy in the Western tradition, primarily Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Politics.

A study of classical works of modern political philosophy in the Western tradition, including those of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, or Mill.

Scientific method will be analyzed as a process of stages and illustrated by historical examples. The philosophical presuppositions of science are examined in light of the historical shift from Aristotelian to modern science. Whether change in scientific theories is revolutionary or evolutionary is studied with reference to actual case histories.

A systematic survey of philosophical and foundational theories of mind and cognition of this century. The course begins with the philosophical legacy of earlier centuries (mind/body dualism, consciousness and privileged access, introspection, sense data, and phenomenology), considers the first scientific response to this legacy (behaviorism and the rise of scientific psychology), and then follows the major theoretical positions and debates of this century such as physicalism and reductionism, functionalism and the computer model of the mind, eliminative materialism and neurophilosophy, instrumentalism, and common sense psychology.

This course is about how to deal with moral problems in business management with integrity. The scope and resources for making principled responses to ethical challenges will be examined and a variety of cases will be analyzed.

Examination of philosophical issues not typically covered in existing courses. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Transfer Coursework at the 2000 level. Department approval may be required.

A study of major philosophical ideas and figures in the philosophy of religion.

The Western tradition has two roots: Jerusalem and Athens, or the Bible and Greek philosophy. This course will be devoted to a reading of the Bible with a view to the fundamental philosophic questions it raises. Courses in different semesters will focus on various biblical texts (Genesis; Exodus and Deuteronomy; Samuel and Kings; Job), with relevant philosophic reflections drawn from Plato, Aristotle, Maimonides, Machiavelli, Kant, Kierkegaard, and others. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

A philosophical inquiry into the nature of art in its various forms, including poetry and literature, painting and sculpture, dance and music. Based on readings of classical and contemporary texts, we will address questions such as: What makes an object a work of art? How do different forms of art influence each other? How is art related to scientific inquiry and philosophy? What is the role of art in social and political life?

An introduction to and survey of the mathematical study of formalized logical systems.

A critical inquiry into the major issues of normative and critical ethics. Problems and positions concerning moral conduct and responsibility and the meaning and justification of ethical discourse are discussed in connection with readings from classical and contemporary sources.

A study of characteristic existentialistic themes as exemplified in the writings of thinkers like Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, or Sartre.

A study of major philosophical ideas and figures from Hegel through Nietzsche.

A study of major philosophical issues and figures in 20th-century continental philosophy, including Husserl, Heidegger, and Sartre, among others.

An introduction both to major figures in the analytic tradition such as Frege, Russell, and Quine, and to major problems such as meaning, reference, and truth.

Readings in American philosophy from early 17th century to late 19th century, covering representative thinkers from the Puritans to the pragmatists.

Readings in American philosophy from the pragmatists to the present.

Survey of main figures and movements in logical empiricism. Topics may include meaning and verification, the nature of philosophical inquiry, the unity of scientific discourse.

Exploration into the logic, methods, and foundations of social sciences such as psychology, economics, and political science.

An in-depth reading of one or more of the Platonic dialogues.

A study of major thinkers in the Christian, Islamic, and Jewish traditions, such as Augustine, Aquinas, Alfarabi, Averroes, or Maimonides.

Exploration of Descartes’ writings that focuses on his place in and influence on the scientific and religious revolutions of the 17th century.

This course will compare the predominant Western conception of humanity's place in nature with alternative conceptions, including those held by non-Western thinkers.

An introduction to epistemology. Topics may include the problem of skepticism, theories of epistemic justification, the nature of empirical knowledge, a priori or mathematical knowledge, and our introspective knowledge of our mental states.

An introduction to one or more topics in metaphysics, including causality, identity, modality, existence, persons and minds, universals and particulars, space and time, and the nature and possibility of metaphysics itself.

An introduction to the study of meaning in natural languages. The central techniques involve extending the methods of logical semantics for formal languages. No prerequisites, but prior exposure either to generative grammar (e.g., ANTH 3590) or symbolic logic (e.g., PHIL 1210) would not be wasted.

This course provides an overview of Buddhist ethics, including a comparison of Buddhist and Western ethical theories, the Buddhist presentation of intention and action theory, and an examination of some key topics from Buddhist moral psychology, such as care, the afflictions, and equanimity.

This course examines the metaphysical, epistemological, religious, and psychological dimensions of Buddhism, while also tracing its development from India into Southeast Asia, China, Japan, and the West.

The historical development of philosophies concerning the good life, moral duty and right, choice and consequences, freedom and necessity in their personal and social nature.

Many contemporary moral and political controversies concern sex- and gender-related issues, and there are also difficult conceptual and theoretical questions about the nature of sex and gender. This course introduces students to some of those practical and theoretical questions by examining work in philosophy, both historical and contemporary, that theorizes about sex, gender, and justice. It examines some foundational theoretical questions (e.g., what sex and gender are, what sex- and gender-related injustice is, and what individuals and the state ought to do about it) and some contemporary moral and political questions (e.g., questions about the gendered division of labor, the gender pay gap, abortion, the #MeToo movement, and trans rights). Students will learn to use the tools of philosophical analysis to achieve a better understanding of the difficult issues implicated in these important theoretical and practical questions.

A systematic and critical study of ethical problems in medicine concerning the physician-patient relationship, life and death, and social responsibility.

A study of the arguments and positions advanced by philosophers with regard to the need for and justification of social and political institutions and with regard to the character of human rights, justice, and the good society.

Investigates the philosophical arguments surrounding the most controversial moral issue of our time, including arguments about moral status, the rights of women, personhood and its potential, and the development of pain and consciousness.

This course surveys the prominent ethical theories of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It considers both theories of meta ethics and normative ethics. Theories to be examined include: relativism, subjectivism, egoism, moral realism, utilitarianism, Kantianism, contractualism, virtue theory, and Existentialism.

Western culture has a double source, the Bible and Greek philosophy, or Jerusalem and Athens. Are the two traditions harmonious or do they stand in some essential tension with each other? This course will approach that question by examining the response of some important Jewish thinkers, Maimonides in particular, in their encounter with the teachings of Plato and Aristotle.

A study of the character and justification of law and legal systems. Legal realism, legal positivism, and natural law theories are explored as are such law-related issues as punishment, the enforcement of morals, and the grounds of legal responsibility.

This course offers a critical examination of philosophical issues involving crime and punishment. In the first half, we will ask what forms of behavior, if any, the state is entitled to declare to be criminal, focusing on such issues as drug abuse, prostitution, blackmail, gambling, hate speech, suicide, pornography, ticket scalping, insider trading, and gun control. In the second half, we will ask what forms of punishment, if any, the state is entitled to impose on those who violate those laws, if any, which are permissible, focusing on such issues as capital punishment, corporal punishment, and competing justifications of punishment in general.

This course examines diverse philosophic treatments of anarchy. Specific topics may include: various anarchist views, such as those embracing private or communal property; defenses of anarchism based in natural rights, autonomy, efficiency, or avoidance of pernicious tendencies of states; theories according to which the state is justified as a means for addressing conflicts or deficiencies endemic in an anarchic state of nature; arguments regarding the authority of states and our obligations to obey laws; philosophical fiction concerning anarchistic utopias or related themes.

This course will serve as a philosophical overview to a variety of unique experiences, including delusions, drug experiences, and religious experiences, and will analyze these from the perspective of philosophy of psychology.

Science, according to most, is our best way of gathering objective knowledge about the world. But what, if anything, guarantees the “objectivity” of science? While we tend to think of our current scientific theories as providing us with knowledge, how do we know those theories will not be displaced by better ones, as theories in the past have been? Moreover, how should we reconcile the fact that science is geared towards knowledge with the fact that it is pursued by individuals with their own political aims, biases, and values? In this course, we will consider what characteristics of science allow for objective knowledge.

This course addresses questions such as the following: What is consciousness and why is it puzzling, if not mysterious? Is consciousness one phenomenon or many? What mechanisms and competencies underpin consciousness? Where (brain location)? Who are the possessors of consciousness, phylogenetically and ontogenetically? Why consciousness: its rationale and functions? How does consciousness emerge from matter (if at all)?

This course will serve as an overview to theoretical approaches and debates in cognitive science, viewed through a philosophical lens.

A systematic introduction to the recent and dynamic interdisciplinary research area in naive psychology or theory of mind. The course begins with the philosophical debates about naive or folk psychology, then surveys the main empirical data, key experiments and hypotheses about ape and child interpretation of minds, and concludes with a comparative analysis of several much debated proposals about how the interpretation of minds is accomplished through innate mechanisms (modules), by simulation or in terms of a naive theory.

This class is an advanced undergraduate overview of imagination, construed as cognitive competence. In an interdisciplinary spirit, covering data and theories from philosophy, cognitive and developmental psychology as well as neuroscience, the class surveys such topics as the evolutionary reasons for imagination; the cognitive and cerebral mechanisms of imagination; the format of imaginative representations-pictorial versus symbolic; the ontogeny of imagination; and connections between imagination and reasoning, deliberation and foresight.

An introduction to the philosophy of language and mental representation. Major topics: the relations between language and thought, models of mind, representation as computation, the language of thought, mental imagery, propositional attitudes, meaning and intentionality.

An examination of terrorism and counter terrorism with emphasis on moral issues.

As any biological capacity, the mind must have evolved. Can evolution explain its design? The mind has many components, from perception to language and thinking. Are they all products of natural selection, of other evolutionary forces, or of no such forces at all? Can evolution explain the uniqueness of the human mind? What could be the factors that explain this uniqueness: tool making, language, social life? In attempting to answer these questions, the class brings an evolutionary perspective to some important topics in philosophy of mind and philosophical psychology and offers a multidisciplinary introduction to the emerging but rapidly developing field of evolutionary cognitive science.

Students complete a service activity in the community in conjunction with the content of a three-credit co-requisite course. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Students complete a service activity in the community in conjunction with the content of a three-credit co-requisite course. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Students complete a service activity in the community in conjunction with the content of a three-credit co-requisite course. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Students complete a service activity in the community in conjunction with the content of a three-credit co-requisite course. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Students complete a service activity in the community in conjunction with the content of a three-credit co-requisite course. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

For especially qualified seniors with approval of the faculty director and the Office of Academic Enrichment. Students must have a minimum of a 3.400 overall grade-point average and a 3.500 grade-point average in the major.

Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Discussion of topics related to the place of mind in the natural world. Topics may include mental causation, materialism and dualism about mind, fundamental and derivative reality. Prerequisites: PHIL 2010, PHIL 2020, or PHIL 2030; or permission of instructor.

Explores important questions about the law and legal systems, including: What is law? What are the criteria for legal validity? What is the relation between law and morality? What are the conditions for criminal responsibility?

An advanced critical inquiry into the major issues of normative and critical ethics. Problems and positions concerning moral conduct and responsibility and the meaning and justification of ethical discourse are discussed in connection with readings from classical and contemporary sources.

Translation of propositions into quantified formulas with single-place and relational predicates. Deduction by quantification rules. Also, theorematic development of an axiomatic logistic system.

This course treats soundness and completeness of first-order systems of deduction, arithmetical coding of syntax, unprovability of consistency, and undefinability of truth. The course develops these topics and reflects on their philosophical significance. Instructor approval strongly recommended.

A study of historical and contemporary skepticism about knowledge.

This course will introduce students to interdisciplinary research at the intersection of philosophy and neuroscience. The course will cover both historical and current material. Topics will include the relationship between neuroscience and psychology, neuroscience and the "self," the neural correlates of consciousness, and the localization of function in the brain.

An examination of basic problems of metaphysics (e.g. being, substance, universals, identity, freedom) as treated by the main traditions in classical and contemporary thought.

This seminar offers students the opportunity to develop more deeply their understanding of the origins and nature of moral attitudes and beliefs, and thus to probe more fully issues to which they had been introduced in previous courses in ethics. Optional Capstone for senior majors and second semester juniors with 5110 add-on. Writing Practicum option.

Free will is one of the main puzzles in philosophy. While human beings ordinarily think that their choices are free, it is difficult to see how this conception can go together with modern scientific conceptions of nature. The problem is not only to establish whether human beings have free will, but whether it is an intelligible conception at all. This course will examine major approaches put forward to solve this puzzle, drawn from contemporary as well as classical sources.

Investigates the causes of human behavior, the nature of action and human agency, the relations between intentions, motives, desires, and beliefs, how to individuate and describe actions, and the nature of free action.

Discussion of topics in philosophy of language (reference, meaning, descriptions, truth) with an emphasis on how these topics bear on issues in metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and logic.

A systematic philosophical and interdisciplinary examination of major theories of perception.

A survey and evaluation of major theories of mental representation drawing on recent work in philosophy of mind, cognitive psychology, linguistics, semantics, and artificial intelligence. Major topics: linguistic representation, the language of thought, propositional attitudes, mental imagery, and innate representations.

The mind-body problem, knowledge of other minds, and problems about thought, action, and feelings are discussed in the light of readings from classical and contemporary sources.

An in-depth study of one or more of the Platonic dialogues, Republic, Theaetetus, Sophist, Statesman, Parmenides, Philebus or Timaeus, with reading and discussion of related dialogues as background. Course may be repeated 6 times for credit.

An in-depth study of one or more of the Aristotelian treatises, Metaphysics, Physics and De anima, Ethics, Politics, or the logical writings. Course may be repeated 6 times for credit.

A detailed critical examination of the political philosophy of John Locke. Locke is arguably the pivotal figure in the development of modern individualist liberalism. Both historically and philosophically, the course examines Locke's doctrines of natural law, freedom, property rights, contractually grounded government, rights of resistance and rebellion, and the rights of toleration

Descartes, Spinoza, and/or Leibniz examined individually and as contributors to one of modern philosophy's historical developments.

Locke, Berkeley and/or Hume examined both individually and as contributors to one of modern philosophy's historical developments.

An examination of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Topics include Kant's epistemology (e.g. his Copernican Revolution), as well as his metaphysics (e.g. freedom and the self).

An examination of Kant's Groundwork and Critique of Practical Reason. Topics include Kant's view of the nature of morality, the role of the Categorical Imperative, as well as his views on worth, respect, dignity and autonomy.

A close reading and critical examination of selected major works of Hegel.

A close reading and critical examination of selected major works of Nietzsche.

A close reading and critical examination of selected major works of Heidegger.

This course will focus on the most important political philosophers of the 17th century , e.g., Hugo Grotius, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke--authors who founded and set the agenda for much of modern western political philosophy. A central theme of the course will be the attempts by these authors to reconcile the autonomous pursuit by individuals of their own self-preservation and happiness with moral order and social cooperation. What sort of state (if any) with what sort of authority (if any) facilitates individual freedom, justice, and social order? (Optional Capstone)

A study of alternative conceptions of economic justice including the conceptions offered by utilitarians, contractarians, natural rights theorists, and Marxists. Other topics include the just distribution of natural resources and the choice between command and market economies.

Examination of ethical issues regarding treatment of nonhuman beings. Major topics include moral extentionism, as well as critiques of attempts to extend human-centered moral doctrines to nonhuman beings.

An examination of conceptions of gender in the history of philosophy and in contemporary philosophic discussions. Topics may include relations between gender and identity, ethics, law, and science.

A study of the justice of relations among nations and among individuals across national boundaries. Topics include international distributive justice, the ownership of global resources, the morality of secession, just war, and terrorism.

Central topics in philosophical logic are covered, including reference, predication, vagueness, logical form, counterfactuals, propositional attitudes, logical truth, and paradoxes.

An analysis of contemporary approaches to normative concepts in politics, concentrating on political philosophers such as Arendt, Marcuse, Oakeshott, Rawls, and Strauss.

An examination of the utilitarian tradition and the modern debate over whether some version of utilitarianism is likely to serve as the most adequate moral and political philosophy.

A study of the liberal moral and political philosophy of John Stuart Mill, including his utilitarian ethics, doctrine of individual liberty, theory of constitutional democracy, and analysis of capitalism versus socialism.

Students complete a service activity in the community in conjunction with the content of a three-credit co-requisite course. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes. For description, consult department. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

For specific offering, see the Schedule of Classes. For description, consult department. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Thesis option for Masters students wishing to receive course credit for the thesis.

Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.