PHI (Philosophy)

PHI 101 Big Questions (4 hours)
This course introduces students to the key components of philosophical methodology and the practice of philosophy through an exploration of some of the major questions raised throughout the history of philosophy. Socrates’ dictum “… an unexamined life is not worth living” will be taken as the motto. Philosophy, in other words, is not just a way of thinking, but a way of life that requires examination of ideas and the world in which we live with clarity and courage. Offered every fall.

PHI 102 Ethical Theory (4 hours)
In this course, students are introduced to the 7 major normative theories that constitute the study of ethics and morality as well as contemporary moral and social issues. Works will be drawn from both the analytic and the Continental traditions as well as contemporary and historical philosophical texts.  Offered every spring.

PHI 200 Independent Study in Philosophy (1-4 hours)
This course provides the opportunity for an intense study of diverse topics under the direct supervision of the instructor. The student and instructor will collaborate to develop the content of the course, which must be approved as outlined by the Independent Study Policy. (Sec. 6.15.)

PHI 201 How to Win an Argument: Principles of Critical Thinking (4 hours)
This course is a survey of formal and informal techniques used in evaluating and analyzing arguments. Syntax, semantics and proof systems of both propositional logic (the truth-functions). Offered biennially in the spring.

PHI 202 How Ought We Live? And Introduction to Ethics and the Good Life (4 hours)
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that investigates the set of questions that arise when we think about the question “how ought one act, morally speaking?” In this course students will become acquainted with ethical theories that provide standards for determining whether an action is right, wrong, good, or bad. They will also apply these theories to contemporary social issues such as abortion, capital punishment, and animal rights.

PHI 204 What is Justice? Plato and the Philosopher Kings (4 hours)
In this course, we will investigate the metaphysical, epistemological, and political doctrines of Plato, who is the best known and most widely studied of all the ancient Greek philosophers. Our investigation will focus primarily on two of Plato’s texts: Meno and The Republic. These two dialogues, beginning with The Republic and finishing with Meno cover Plato’s most influential political, metaphysical, and epistemological doctrines. What is Justice? What is the Ideal State and who should Rule? What is Virtue? And what does it mean to Learn and to Know? In this course, we will examine Plato’s answers to these questions and question those answers. Ideally, by the end of the course you will have enriched your own thinking on these perennially relevant questions. Offered biennially in the spring.

PHI 205 Aristotle (4 hours)
This course is a study of the philosophy of Aristotle through a reading of his major works. Readings will include portions of the Logic, Physics, DeAnima, Metaphysics and Nicomachean Ethics. Offered biennially in the fall.

PHI 206 The Search for Truth (4 hours)
The early modern period (early 1600s to mid-1700s) is one of the most fertile in philosophy’s history and the period when many of philosophy’s central themes and methods come to be most clearly articulated. The central question of this course is “What is truth?” and the goal of the course will be to acquire a basic understanding of the thought of the continental Rationalists and their views on the nature, sources, and extent of truth and knowledge and how these views have given rise to the perplexing question of truth and its distinction from facts, opinion, and belief that remains as relevant as ever in today’s contemporary world. The views of the early modern philosophers are interesting in themselves, have influenced the vast variety of contemporary conceptions of truth and knowledge, essential to the study of more recent philosophy and helpful in gaining a sense of the intellectual life of early modern Europe. Offered biennially in the spring.

PHI 207 Aesthetics (4 hours)
What makes something a work of art and not a pile of bricks? Presumably the same thing that makes something a work of art and not a collection of particles of non-organic matter suspended in linseed oil and pressed against a prepared oak panel. But what is that thing? Put more broadly: is there a real distinction between what counts as a work of art and what doesn’t? Over the course of the semester various philosophical attempts to come to terms with these sorts of questions will be examined. Offered biennially in the fall.

PHI 208 Philosophy of Science (4 hours)
Philosophical analyses of central scientific concepts – prediction, explanation, evidence, and laws will be explored in this class. There will be a special emphasis on the distinction between science and pseudoscience and the relation between theory and observation. Offered biennially in the spring. 

PHI 210 Feminist Philosophy (4 hours)
By and large, feminists argue for the equal dignity of women and against the oppression of women. But what does it mean to be a “woman”? What is “oppression”? What is the nature of the equality towards which feminists strive? And what conceptions of woman throughout the history of ideas—particularly throughout the philosophical tradition– ground not only the historical oppression of women but also the feminist fight against the oppression of women? In this course, we will examine works by some of the most influential thinkers in the history of Western philosophy. We will not only examine what these thinkers said about the nature of “woman” but also how these conceptions gave rise to oppressive treatment of women and inform the variety of divergent views that constitute the feminist movement. We will also examine a variety of texts by feminist philosophers and theorists with the aim of illuminating the multifaceted nature of the philosophical commitments of feminism and its response to the historical devaluation and oppression of women. The course contains three broad components: The Portrayal of Women in the Philosophical Tradition, Feminist Critiques of the Philosophical Tradition, and The Intersection of Feminist Philosophy and Various Types of Feminism–radical, socialist, liberal, multicultural, etc. Cross-listed as WGS 210. Offered biennially in the spring.

PHI 211 What’s Love Got to do with It? An Examination of Historical and Contemporary Philosophical Accounts of Friendship, Love and Sex (4 hours)
This course will serve to introduce students to the history of philosophy and to introduce students to questions about friendship, love, and sex that have occupied the majority of thinkers that make up the Western philosophical canon. The aim of the course is twofold: (1) to articulate each philosopher’s account of the nature of friendship, love, and sex and (2) to use this acquired knowledge to enhance one’s own thinking about friendship, love, and sex. Students will develop their aptitude for philosophical analysis and will deepen their understanding of the nature of these social relations as they appear not just in philosophical contexts but also in a broad range of other disciplines. Cross-listed as WGS 211.

PHI 290 Special Topics in Philosophy (1-4 hours)
Courses of selected topics will be offered periodically as determined by the needs of the curriculum. Prerequisites can vary based on the topic selected. See individual course listings for each semester for the specific topic and any prerequisites.

PHI 302 How Do I Know? A Study of Epistemology (4 hours)
This course will cover various issues concerned with the nature and validity of human knowledge. The topics studied will include the distinction between knowledge and belief, arguments for and against skepticism, perception and our knowledge of the physical world and the nature of truth. Offered triennially in the fall.

PHI 303 Space, Time and God (4 hours)
This course examines our conception of the universe as a totality, both in its own nature and in relation to an external cause. We will consider whether space and time are “absolute” realities or only systems of relations among objects, whether they are finite or infinite and whether or not there logically could exist space-time universes in addition to our own. The course will conclude with the question of whether our space-time universe is self-sufficient or requires an ultimate cause or explanation (God) outside of itself. 

PHI 304 Philosophy of Mind (4 hours)
This course involves the study of philosophical questions about the nature of human persons. Students will examine 1) the mind-body problem – the nature of the mind and consciousness and the relation of consciousness to physical processes within the body; 2) personal identity – what makes a person one mind or subject both at a single moment and over time; 3) free will – the status of a person as a free agent and the relation of this freedom to the causally determined processes in the person’s body.

PHI 305 Nietzsche (4 hours)
In this course students will study the philosophy of Nietzsche through a reading of his major works, including The Birth of Tragedy, The Uses and Abuses of History for Life, Thus Spake Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ. Students will also study some contemporary and influential readings of Nietzsche.

PHI 306 What is Real? A study of Metaphysics (4 hours)
Metaphysics is that branch of philosophy that conducts the most general inquiry possible into the nature of reality. It asks questions like: What is Real? What is the nature of space and time? What is substance? What is the distinction between substances and those characteristics – properties – shared by multiple substances? What is the nature of possibility and necessity? Offered biennially in the fall.

PHI 307 Existentialism: The Meaning of Life (4 hours)
Existentialism has a gloomy reputation, and that reputation is wholly undeserved. Far from being a moody, angst-ridden meditation on the futility of human existence, existentialism is focused on everyday experience and on the extent to which philosophical reflection always and already takes place in the context of a world. It seeks to illustrate the task, as Merleau-Ponty has it, “not of explaining the world or of discovering its conditions of possibility, but of formulating an experience off the world.” It’s on this notion of a formulation of experience that this course will concentrate, focusing specifically on questions about the human condition and whether or not life has meaning. Does life have meaning? If not, is it still worth living? What gives life its value, its suffering, its joys, and its purpose? Offered biennially in the fall.

PHI 400 Advanced Independent Study in Philosophy (1-4 hours)
This course provides the opportunity for an advanced, intense study of diverse topics under the direct supervision of the instructor. These offerings are generally suited for junior or senior students. The student and instructor will collaborate to develop the content of the course, which must be approved as outlined by the Independent Study Policy. (Sec. 6.15.)

PHI 401 The Philosophical Response to the Scientific Revolution (4 hours)
This course is a study of the philosophical systems of Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz. Each of these philosophies is an attempt to come to terms with the scientific picture of the world which had been given to the West by Copernicus and Galileo. The course begins with the materialist philosophy of Hobbes, followed by Descartes’ dualistic (between mind and matter) view of the created world and then considers Spinoza’s pantheistic monism and Leibniz’s idealistic atomism as responses to the difficulties in the Cartesian philosophy.

PHI 403 Heidegger’s Being and Time (4 hours)
This course involves a close and patient reading of one of the most important and difficult works of Continental philosophy. An effort will be made to avoid speaking “heideggerianese” and to translate the dense language of the text into a way of speaking accessible to students. Prerequisites: PHI 205 or PHI 206, plus any other additional Philosophy course.

PHI 404 20th Century Continental Philosophy (4 hours)
Continent philosophy is a somewhat contentious notion for two reasons. First, there are some who doubt whether it is philosophy at all. Secondly, there are those who wonder whether it is actually a helpful description. What this course intends to do is look at French philosophy with a German accent, takings as its guiding thread Derrida’s celebrated claim that philosophy today is a continual dialogue with Hegel, Husserl and Heidegger. Prerequisites: 12 semester hours in philosophy courses with a grade of “C-” or higher.

PHI 405 20th Century Analytic Philosophy (4 hours)
Analytic philosophy has come to dominate philosophy in English-speaking countries. It is difficult to characterize easily because it is not really dominated by any one overarching issue or methodology, but instead by an overlapping set of issues and methodologies. It is characterized, too, by a respect for the natural sciences and the methodology of modern linguistics. This course will focus on the logical positivist movement that grew out of classic British empiricism and the simultaneous development of Frege and Russel’s views. Then the Quinean rejection of logical positivism will be traced and Quine’s extreme naturalism, concluding with Kripke and a return to a classic style of philosophy. Offered biennially in the spring. Prerequisites: 12 semester hours in philosophy courses with a grade of “C-” or higher.

PHI 406 Philosophy of Language (4 hours)
Philosophy of language is traditionally an inquiry into the most general features of structured communication. This course will deal with questions such as the nature of meaning (how is it that words come to mean things?), the nature of linguistic content (what do words express?), and the analysis of conversation (including metaphor, non-literal meaning, presupposition, and conversational implicature). Prerequisites: PHI 206 and any other Philosophy course.

PHI 490 Advanced Special Topics in Philosophy: Philosophers (1-4 hours)
Advanced courses of selected topics will be offered periodically as determined by the needs of the curriculum. These offerings are generally suited for junior or senior students. Prerequisites can vary based on the topic selected. See individual course listings for each semester for the specific topic and any prerequisites.

Specifically, this Philosophy course is an intensive study of the thought of a single important philosopher or group of philosophers

PHI 491 Advanced Special Topics in Philosophy: Philosophical Issues and Problems (1-4 hours)
Advanced courses of selected topics will be offered periodically as determined by the needs of the curriculum. These offerings are generally suited for junior or senior students. Prerequisites can vary based on the topic selected. See individual course listings for each semester for the specific topic and any prerequisites.

Specifically, this Philosophy course is an intensive study of selected philosophical questions usually of special relevance to the present day. Previous courses have explored topics such as Philosophy of History, War and Its Justification and Philosophical Issues in Women’s Rights; and What Counts As Art? (that included a trip to New York City).

PHI 495 Internship in Philosophy (1-12 hours)
An internship designed to provide a formalized experiential learning opportunity to qualified students. The internship generally requires the student to have an application (which satisfies all internship requirements developed by the academic program that oversees the internship) and to obtain a faculty supervisor in the relevant field of study. All internships are graded on a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory basis. Prerequisites are determined by the academic program overseeing the internship course.