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Course listings for Philosophy
Spring 2010
Here are brief descriptions of philosophy courses and sections for the semester. In a multisection course, the sections sometimes have different instructors, topics, readings, and requirements. If you have a question about a particular section, the best way to get an answer is to ask the person who will teach it. If that person is unavailable, feel free to ask any Philosophy faculty member, or stop by the Department Office at 24 Kent Way, or call 302-831-2359.
- PHIL = Philosophy
- 031 = Registration Code for philosophy
Requirements
Courses that satisfy Arts and Sciences Group Requirements
Group A
PHIL 100 Philosophies of Life
PHIL 101 Great Western Philosophers
PHIL 102 Introduction to Philosophy
PHIL 202 Contemporary Moral Problems
PHIL 204 World Religions
PHIL 210 Women and Religion
PHIL 216 Introduction to Feminist Theory
Group B
PHIL 301 Ancient Philosophy
PHIL 303 Modern Philosophy
PHIL 312 Late Medieval Philosophy
Group C
PHIL 330 Philosophy of the Mind
Group D
PHIL 205 Logic
PHIL 211 Basic Decision Theory
Courses that satisfy Arts and Sciences Second Writing Requirement
PHIL 465 Senior Seminar
Courses that satisfy University Multicultural Requirement
PHIL 204 World Religions
PHIL 208 Introduction to Jewish Philosophy
PHIL 210 Women and Religion
PHIL 216 Introduction to Feminist Theory
Course Descriptions
PHIL 100 sec. 010 Philosophies of Life TR 9:30-10:45am Jordan
Plato, Christianity, Marxism, Freud, and ecophilosophy are among the theories we will look at this semester. The course is a survey of seven theories concerning the nature of humanity. There will be three tests.
PHIL 102 sec. 010 Introduction to Philosophy MWF 10:10-11:00am Platt
This course offers a historically oriented introduction to the discipline of philosophy. We will survey central areas of philosophical inquiry -- including logic, ethics, metaphysics and the theory of knowledge – by reading key texts from the history of Western philosophy. Readings will include works by Plato and Aristotle about virtue, arguments for the existence of God by Anselm and Aquinas, and texts by Sextus Empiricus, Descartes, Locke and Hume about skepticism and knowledge. The course will conclude with a unit on the nature of scientific evidence and the relationship between religious belief and the theory of evolution.
PHIL 105 sec. 010 Critical Thinking MWF 11:15am-12:05pm Platt
This course challenges you to better understand your own beliefs (and the beliefs of others) and to critically examine the justifications for those beliefs. We will read classical philosophical texts and contemporary articles that exemplify this search for justified true beliefs, and learn basic techniques from philosophical logic that will help you join in this search for yourself. Topics will include conceptual analysis, categorical and truth-functional logic, and common argumentative fallacies. We will also discuss inductive reasoning and the nature of scientific evidence.
PHIL 200 sec. 010 Business Ethics TR 11:00am-12:15pm Schrader
This course will engage the student in thinking philosophically about business ethics. What is the role of business in the 21st Century? How does corporate organization affect the relationship of business to the rest of society? What is the appropriate role for ethics in business decision-making? The course will also engage such issues as affirmative action, employee privacy, environmental obligations, and the challenges of globalization.
PHIL 202 sec. 010 Contemporary Moral Problems TR 2:00-3:15pm Greene
In conducting our ordinary lives, we often need answers to ethical questions. Some of the most serious are literally matters of life and death. These force us to ask questions like: is it ever okay to kill another member of the human species? Is it always okay to kill things which are not members of the human species? We shall consider issues like abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, capital punishment, terrorism and warfare, the welfare of future generations, animals, the environment, and responsibility to those less fortunate than ourselves. Along the way, we’ll consider the role of ethical theory in helping us to address difficult ethical decisions. Students will emerge from the course in a position to make a worthwhile contribution to the discussion of ethical issues in our society.
PHIL 204 sec. 010 World Religions MWF 9:05-9:55am Fox
(Satisfies University multicultural course requirement)
In this course we will take a critical yet sympathetic view of a wide range of religious traditions, including Native American Religion, Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This will require that we allow ourselves both to identify with and maintain our distance from each of the traditions covered. We propose to explore textual and historical roots and fundamental concerns, and to look for similarities and differences. We will not be experts on World Religions after taking this course, but we will be more sensitive to the kinds of issues at stake in the study of religion, and more familiar with the origins and evolutions of today’s living religions, both Eastern and Western.
PHIL 204 sec. 050 World Religions W 7:00-10:00pm Smith
(Satisfies University multicultural course requirement)
Worldviews are best understood, appreciated, and seen if one is viewing them through the eyes of the original viewer. It is with this in mind that we will read and experience accounts from the viewers themselves rather than encounter each view from an outsider-observer vantage point. We will meet people who happen to read from the Torah. We will meet people who recognize the role Esu plays in their lives. We will dialogue with people who call Jesus, Lord, with people who sing praises to Allah, or to Wakantanka, with people, who are devotees of Krishna, and with people who follow the wisdom of Siddhartha. We will meet people and their views of the world. Thus, the objective of this course is not to memorize the holidays of a particular faith tradition, but to remember the people who celebrate them. If we come to know people, then we can more readily understand, appreciate, and see a view held by them.
Our sources of exploration will include: written texts, video, and guest speakers. There will be one paper, 1-2 pages in length, one paper, 5 pages in length, a field study report, and one exam.
PHIL 205 sec. 010 Logic TR 8:00-9:15am Draper
Elementary symbolic logic of truth-functions and quantification. This course covers deductive reasoning: patterns of argument that are logically conclusive by virtue of their form alone. A formal language is developed for expressing the structure of arguments involving connectives like “and”, “or”, and quantifiers like “all”, “some”, “no”. When translated into this formal language, arguments in ordinary English can be proved valid or invalid, and sentences can be evaluated as logically true, logically false, or contingent.
PHIL 208 sec. 010 Introduction to Jewish Philosophy TR 12:30-1:45pm Lagrone (Cross List: JWST 208-010)
(Satisfies University multicultural course requirement)
In this course we will use philosophical approaches to address particularly Jewish questions such as: What is Judaism? What is relationship of revelation and reason? How should one relate to God? How should one respond to the Holocaust? How should Judaism respond to contemporary ethical issues?
PHIL 209 sec. 010 Philosophy of Religion TR 11:00am-12:15pm Jordan
In this course we will examine the classical arguments pro and con for the existence of God. The credibility of miracle-reports, concepts of afterlife, the problem of religious pluralism, and the nature of God are other topics discussed. There will be two in-class exams and one take-home exam.
PHIL 210 sec. 010 Women and Religion TR 9:30-10:45am Laberge
(Cross List: WOMS 210-010)
(Satisfies University multicultural course requirement)
PHIL 211 sec. 010 Basic Decision Theory TR 2:00-3:15pm Boorse
Rational decision-making using only elementary logic and high-school algebra. Decisions under ignorance: max-min rules for preference orderings. Decisions under risk: probability, utility, and the expected-utility rule. Game theory: equilibrium strategies; prisoner’s dilemma. Social choices: voting paradoxes and Arrow’s theorem.
PHIL 216 sec. 010 Introduction to Feminist Theory MWF 10:10-11:00am Reese
(Cross List: WOMS 216-010)
(Satisfies University multicultural course requirement)
PHIL 301 sec. 010 Ancient Philosophy TR 2:00-3:15pm Draper
The course is divided into six topics: the significance of being mortal, the possibility and nature of change, the ideal society, the fundamental nature of reality, the nature of the mind, and the rationality of being moral. We will consider the attempts of various ancient Greek philosophers to address these issues, with an emphasis on Plato, Aristotle and Epicurus. Special attention will be given to Plato’s Republic, widely recognized as one of the greatest works in Western literature.
PHIL 303 sec. 010 Modern Philosophy MWF 1:25-2:15pm Platt
sec. 080 Honors: Modern Philosophy MWF 1:25-2:15pm Platt
(Honors section requires permission from Honors Program)
The modern period in philosophy begins in the early seventeenth century, as scientists like Galileo started to develop a “new science” and as Europe was embroiled in the religious turmoil of the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation. Against this background, the philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth century examined the foundations of science and mathematics, the extent of human knowledge, the nature of the human mind, and the nature of God. In this course, we will analyze the metaphysical and epistemological theories and arguments of the “great” figures of this period, including Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume and Kant. In order to better understand their views, we will also read works by some of their lesser-known contemporaries, including Malebranche, Cavendish and Conway.
PHIL 312 sec. 010 Late Medieval Philosophy TR 2:00-3:15pm Rogers
sec. 080 Honors: Late Medieval Philosophy TR 2:00-3:15pm Rogers
(Honors section requires permission from Honors Program)
In the middle of the Middle Ages Islamic philosophers rediscovered the thought of Aristotle. What followed was centuries of debates on a range of ever-timely questions, including: Can science and religion be reconciled? Is morality universal and objective? If you touch a match to cotton is the cotton more likely to burn than it is to turn into a parrot and fly away? It was these debates which laid the foundations for the so-called Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, and the world as we see it today. In Later Medieval Philosophy we will study the chronological course of these debates, ever mindful that our main question is always, Is the argument in question valid and sound? Reading will be moderate. Discussion is encouraged. There will be four essay tests and a set of quizzes weighted roughly equally in calculating final grade. "Honor's Section: In addition to regular course requirements, a 7-10 page paper and participation in extra discussion groups are also required."
PHIL 313 sec. 010 Killing and Letting Die TR 12:30-1:45pm Greene
Doctors are generally forbidden to actively cause the death of terminally ill patients who are in great pain and want to die. However, they are allowed to withhold treatment from such patients, knowing this will hasten death. Both practices share the morally salient feature that they result in avoidable earlier death. Why is killing condemned but letting die allowed? We will explore this and the acts / omissions asymmetry more generally. It seems that there are cases in which moral attitudes diverge despite equivalence of ethically relevant features. Are such asymmetries real or only apparent? What do they mean for the ethical systems in which they arise?
PHIL 315 sec. 010 Metaphysics MWF 12:20-1:10pm Hanley
Metaphysics is the study of how and what things really are. Modern analytic metaphysics has been especially concerned with modality (the nature of necessity and possibility), personal identity, the mind‑body problem, the nature of time, causation, and freedom of the will; and has been characterized by a fine attention to language and logic. We shall touch on all these concerns, with the focus on modality, an area which in the 1980s saw the publication of two revolutionary works, by Saul Kripke and David Lewis.
PHIL 316 sec. 080 Honors: Time Travel MWF 1:25-2:15pm Hanley
(Honors section requires permission from Honors Program)
The notions of time travel, and of a multiverse, are staples of science fiction that have gained respectability in recent physics and philosophy. We shall examine them in connection with traditional philosophical issues concerning the nature of time, space, change, causation, God, human beings, free will and personal identity.
PHIL 320 sec. 010 Theory of Knowledge MWF 10:10-11:00am Adams
sec. 080 Honors: Theory of Knowledge MWF 10:10-11:00am Adams
(Honors section requires permission from Honors Program)
Epistemology derives from the Greek episteme (“knowledge”) and logos (“account or reason”). The study of epistemology is the attempt to give an account of the source and nature of knowledge.
Knowledge is a highly prized commodity. Secret agents kill to get it. Scientists spend billions of dollars trying to find it. If you knew the winning numbers in the next Powerball lottery, you would become rich by purchasing a ticket with those very numbers.
We would like to know many things that we do not know. Is there life on other planets? Will computers someday actually be able to think? There are also many things that we do know. We know enough physics, engineering, and computer science to send people to the moon and return them safely to Earth. Pick up any encyclopedia and you will have a partial list of what we now know. What you will not find is an answer to the question “What is it for a person to know something?” This question does not only ask things such as whether Tom knows Joe is drug-free. It asks what is required for such knowledge. For example, how accurate must a drug test be to be able to give knowledge? To ask such a question is to turn the pursuit of knowledge upon itself. What is it for someone to know something?
This course will attempt to answer the above question. We will read attempted answers. We will also consider objections to those attempted answers. For instance, we will consider arguments for skepticism--the view that very little if anything actually is known. We will examine the arguments for skepticism and see whether they succeed or fail. Students will develop the critical reasoning skills of appraising arguments. They will learn to evaluate theories of knowledge. Some theories are better than others, and students learn ways of telling which theories are better and why.
The course will involve reading of original philosophical texts. It will involve critical appraisal of arguments. Students will write a series of papers evaluating theories of knowledge. There will also be some short quizzes on reading and lecture material. There will also be a final exam. The class will be in a lecture and discussion format. Discussion will be encouraged and will play a large part in the course.
PHIL 330 sec. 010 Philosophy of Mind MWF 11:15am-12:05pm Schueler
(Cross List: CGSC 330-010)
Many people think that the self or mind (or center of consciousness) is somehow different from the brain and the rest of the body. For instance, the idea that there is life after death seems to entail this. In fact the mere existence of consciousness seems to suggest that the self or mind is totally different from the body. Scientific research into the brain, however, finds no such center of consciousness and promises to explain all mental activity physically. But that is also puzzling since such mental states and activities as choice, decision, belief, desire, and the like play a central role in explaining how human beings think and act.
This course will examine such topics as whether the mind (or self) is somehow a separate entity from the body, the nature of consciousness, the intentionality of mental states, whether computers can have minds, mental causation, and the relation between mind and brain. Grades will be based on several short papers and a final exam. Readings will be taken from both contemporary and classical sources.
PHIL 390 sec. 080 Honors Colloquium: TR 11:00am-12:15pm Draper
The Pursuit of National Security: History, Law and Ethics
(Honors section requires permission from Honors Program)
The course focuses on historical, legal and ethical questions raised by the way that national security has been, and is, being pursued by the U.S. federal government. The course is interdisciplinary, drawing from film, history, law, literature, philosophy, politics, and religion. Specific topics include: (1) the nature and value of war, (2) the original understanding of the federal government’s war power, (3) the principle of noncombatant immunity, (4) torture and harsh interrogation techniques, (5) international law governing war, and (6) the use of military force in Afghanistan. Students will write a series of analytical essays, some general and theoretical in nature (e.g., What methods should federal judges use to interpret the law?), others more specific and practical (e.g., Should the Military Commissions Act be repealed?). Texts include: United States Constitution; Antonin Scalia, A Matter of Interpretation; John Locke, Second Treatise on Government; excerpts from the Illiad; Hamdi v Rumsfeld; War Crimes Act; Military Commissions Act; and others.
PHIL 418 sec. 010 Meaning and Language Use TR 12:30-1:45pm Tomioka
(Cross List: LING 418-010 & CGSC 418-010)
PHIL 465 sec. 010 Senior Seminar: Freedom & Science TR 3:30-4:45pm Rogers
(Satisfies A&S second writing requirement)
sec. 080 Honors Senior Seminar: Freedom & Science TR 3:30-4:45pm Rogers
(Honors section requires permission from Honors Program)
(Satisfies A&S second writing requirement)
Recently some experimental psychologists have claimed to demonstrate experimentally that human beings do not have free will. This extreme claim will be examined in light of various questions including: What do we mean by "free will"? Do these experiments show what they are said to show? If not, what sort of experimental results (if any) would show that human beings do not have free will? Is there evidence for freedom? What is the experience of choice like? Is there such a thing as character? If so, how is it formed? What are the moral limitations of psychological experimentation on human beings?
PHIL 467 sec. 010 Seminar: Ethics in Nanoscience TR 12:30-1:45pm Powers
(Cross List: MSEG 367/667 & PHYS 367/667)
This course investigates the societal, environmental, and ethical issues that come out of rapid advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology. In analyzing these issues, we will present a broad picture of the current status of nanotechnology and introduce some basic concepts and theories of ethics. We will then overlay the two to critically reflect on the future of responsible technological development in this area. There are no pre-requisites to the course.
PHIL 467 sec. 011 Seminar: Advanced Logic TR 3:30-4:45pm Boorse
(Cross List: CGSC 467-011)
(400 Level Section Meets With 600 Level Section)
This spring, the logic seminar will survey three major systems of infinite numbers, all with close relations to predicate logic. Two of them are extensions of the natural numbers {0,1,2,3,...}. One is infinite cardinals, which resulted from Cantor=s discovery that, in a certain sense, some infinite sets are bigger than others. For example, there are more reals than rationals or integers. Since, as Cantor showed, the set of all subsets of a set always has more members than it does, there is an unending sequence (to say the least!) of larger and larger infinite cardinals. Another system is infinite ordinals, which correspond to different ways of ordering infinite sets. The arithmetic of infinite cardinals is boring, since X + Y = XY = max (X,Y); only exponentiation gets you a bigger number. But the arithmetic of infinite ordinals is unusual, since neither addition nor multiplication commutes.
The third system is the hyperreals of nonstandard analysis, which extend the real numbers to include both infinitesimals B numbers with absolute value smaller than any positive real number, yet not zero B and their reciprocals, which are infinite. This amazing system was discovered only about 50 years ago by Abraham Robinson. In some sense, it may vindicate the original construction of the calculus using infinitesimals. Certainly it sheds interesting new light on limit concepts basic to calculus. (continued on next page)
We will construct these three number systems carefully and develop their arithmetic and order properties, but we won=t have time to go deeply into any of them. Also, at the beginning of the course, to warm up, we=ll look at how to construct the integers, rationals, reals, and complex numbers out of just the natural numbers and a bit of set theory.
There will probably be time for a little philosophical discussion, but the course is mostly a math course. Your background should include either PHIL 205 or its equivalent, or some Amathematical maturity.@ The only other prerequisite is interest in the infinite.
PHIL 667 sec. 011 Seminar: Advanced Logic TR 3:30-4:45pm Boorse
(Cross List: CGSC 667-011)
(600 Level Section Meets with 400 Level Section)
This spring, the logic seminar will survey three major systems of infinite numbers, all with close relations to predicate logic. Two of them are extensions of the natural numbers {0,1,2,3,...}. One is infinite cardinals, which resulted from Cantor=s discovery that, in a certain sense, some infinite sets are bigger than others. For example, there are more reals than rationals or integers. Since, as Cantor showed, the set of all subsets of a set always has more members than it does, there is an unending sequence (to say the least!) of larger and larger infinite cardinals. Another system is infinite ordinals, which correspond to different ways of ordering infinite sets. The arithmetic of infinite cardinals is boring, since X + Y = XY = max (X,Y); only exponentiation gets you a bigger number. But the arithmetic of infinite ordinals is unusual, since neither addition nor multiplication commutes.
The third system is the hyperreals of nonstandard analysis, which extend the real numbers to include both infinitesimals B numbers with absolute value smaller than any positive real number, yet not zero B and their reciprocals, which are infinite. This amazing system was discovered only about 50 years ago by Abraham Robinson. In some sense, it may vindicate the original construction of the calculus using infinitesimals. Certainly it sheds interesting new light on limit concepts basic to calculus.
We will construct these three number systems carefully and develop their arithmetic and order properties, but we won=t have time to go deeply into any of them. Also, at the beginning of the course, to warm up, we=ll look at how to construct the integers, rationals, reals, and complex numbers out of just the natural numbers and a bit of set theory.
There will probably be time for a little philosophical discussion, but the course is mostly a math course. Your background should include either PHIL 205 or its equivalent, or some Amathematical maturity.@ The only other prerequisite is interest in the infinite.
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