Philosophy

PHIL 1000. Philosophy of Human Nature. (3 Credits)

This course is a philosophical reflection on the central metaphysical and epistemological questions surrounding human nature, which includes discussion of some or all of the following problems: the body/soul distinction and the mind/body problem; the problem of knowledge (relativism, skepticism, the objectivity of knowledge, faith, and reason); free will and determinism; self and society (subjectivity, personhood, sociality, historicity, and tradition); and the elements of identity (such as race, gender, sexuality, ability, and socioeconomic status). At least 60% of each section of the course is devoted to readings from Plato, Aristotle, Augustine or Aquinas, and Descartes. Each section includes some writings by at least one contemporary figure and one figure coming from a group traditionally underrepresented in philosophy. Selected sections will be offered as Eloquentia Perfecta I seminars.

Attribute: FRPT.

PHIL 1003. Lost Interlocutor: Philosophy of Human Nature. (3 Credits)

This course examines the philosophical views of pre-Socratic thinkers, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, and Ignatius of Loyola and their connections to contemporary science, religion, and Jesuit education. We analyze primary texts, critique theories, compose philosophical arguments, and critically challenge the thinking of multiple perspectives. These skills comprise the greater philosophical tradition that stems from the ancients to us today. Salient themes of our lives—knowledge, understanding, truth, falsity, doubt, goodness, mortality, reality, evidence, belief, love—stir fundamental questions that need systematic investigation in order to make sense of our human nature and give greater purpose to life. Since this Manresa course satisfies the FCRH first year Eloquentia Perfecta I requirement, it stresses critical spoken dialogue and writing-intensive assignments. It also consists of interactive (and fun) out-of-class learning experiences, and the professor even feeds you at most of these. This course satisfies the Philosophy of Human Nature Core requirement for both FCRH and Gabelli students.

Attributes: FRPT, MANR, PHFR, SL.

PHIL 1010. Introduction to Critical Thinking. (3 Credits)

The course is intended to sharpen a student's ability to think clearly, consistently, critically, and creatively. The course objective considers principles of sound judgment and helps students learn how to recognize and analyze arguments present in ordinary spoken and written language, how to distinguish correct reasoning from incorrect reasoning, and how to construct valid, sound arguments.

PHIL 1999. Tutorial. (1 Credit)

Independent research and reading with supervision from a faculty member.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1003.

PHIL 2999. Tutorial. (2 Credits)

Independent research and reading with supervision from a faculty member.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1003.

PHIL 3000. Philosophical Ethics. (3 Credits)

This course involves philosophical reflection on the major normative ethical theories underlying moral decision-making in our everyday lives. The principal focus of the course is a systematic introduction to the main normative ethical theories, i.e., eudaimonism, natural law ethics, deontological ethics, utilitarianism, virtue ethics, and feminism. The differences among these approaches are illuminated by studying various moral issues. In each section of the course, at least half of the readings will be selected from Aristotle and Kant. Each section will include writings by at least one contemporary figure and one figure coming from a group traditionally underrepresented in philosophy.

Attributes: HHPA, HUST, PETH.

Prerequisites: PHIL 1000 or PHIL 1003 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103 or HPLC 1001.

PHIL 3109. Environmental Ethics. (4 Credits)

This senior values seminar surveys major theories in environmental ethics dealing with our moral duties regarding nature: for example, environmental stewardship, sustainable development, environmental justice, ecological virtue ethics, animal rights, biocentrism, Leopold's land ethic, and ecological feminism. It has not only philosophical but also scientific, economic, political, and design dimensions as it deals with such topics as global warming, alternative energy, pollution control, suburban sprawl, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and the prospect of a sixth mass species extinction event threatening the future of human and nonhuman life as we know it. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ENMI, ENST, ENVS, EPLE, ESEJ, ESEL, PHMP, PJEN, PJST, SOIN, SRVL, URST.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

Mutually Exclusive: PHIL 4409.

PHIL 3115. Paradoxes in Value and Morality. (4 Credits)

Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3125. Hume's Ethics. (4 Credits)

David Hume famously (or infamously) declared that “[r]eason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them” (THN 2.3.3). But what does moral theory look like when feelings are the foundation for morality? In this course, we will explore Hume’s sentimentalist moral theory, examining Hume's "A Treatise on Human Nature" and "An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals," along with supplementary excerpts from Hume’s letters and essays, and occasional pieces of secondary literature. We will study Hume's views on meta-ethics, moral psychology (the passions/emotions and sympathy), moral motivation and freedom, moral judgment, virtue (including justice), and happiness. While this course is primarily focused on Hume's own views, we will also engage with present-day Humean positions in moral philosophy. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHMP.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3130. Philosophy of Law. (4 Credits)

This course examines the nature and philosophical foundations of law, with a focus on the relations of justice and morality, and various theories of law, including natural law, legal realism, legal positivism, feminist legal theory, and critical race theory. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHMP.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3131. Philosophy of Economics. (4 Credits)

Economics grew out of philosophy, carrying forward key philosophical ideas that continue to operate as grounding assumptions, goals, and regulatory ideals in the discipline. Some of these philosophical ideas have been challenged on the grounds of realism, coherence, usefulness, consequences, and compatibility with important values like justice, fairness, human dignity, democracy, liberty, equality, and the general welfare. Philosophy of Economics analyzes, criticizes, and creatively rethinks both classical and contemporary texts that deploy and challenge the philosophical ideas that continue to guide economics as a discipline that has great influence in framing and rationalizing public policy. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHMP.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3140. Market Failures, Public Goods, and Justice. (4 Credits)

This course focuses on a fundamental question for social justice: Which goods and services should be provided by free markets, which should generally be supplied by nonprofits (NGOs), and what is the remainder that should be secured by government? No economic background is assumed on the part of the student, but the course will examine economic conceptions of public goods that markets cannot optimally supply, as well as debates about expanding this category. We will consider arguments that some choices concern objective goods and harms that should not simply be left up to consumer decisions in free markets, and consider what the institutional preconditions of effective markets include. A range of public goods, including some at the global level, will also be debated. Readings will include recent popular works on types of market failure that are now widely debated, some philosophical work on public goods, and an introduction to elementary game theory with simple matrices. We will also consider a few recent articles and book chapters arguing that some functions often performed by government should be taken over by the nonprofit sector, and will question what social justice concerns the rapid growth of this sector may raise. Students of all political orientations are welcome! Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: PHMP, PJEC, PJST.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3145. Democracy and Constitutional Order: Classical American Philosophy. (4 Credits)

Democratic justice has two main poles: popular sovereignty and constitutional order. Founders of the American federal government in the Revolutionary period sought to balance these values, but the idea that people might vote for slavery brought them into crisis. This forced civic republicans, including Lincoln, to articulate the moral preconditions of legitimate democracy in a clearer way. With federalist arguments for more centralized power as a starting point, this course will consider alternative conceptions of democratic justification that emerged from the American debates with an eye to contemporary applications. In particular, we will clarify and debate proposed constitutional reforms that are being considered today. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHMP.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3181. Philosophy of Technology. (4 Credits)

This course will explore the philosophy of technology, seeking to understand the way in which technology is transforming our relationships to ourselves, to other people, and to our world. Guiding questions for the course include: What is technology? Is technology necessarily good or bad for human flourishing, or is just neutral? How are science and technology related? Do we need a special ethics of technology? The course will explore multiple traditions and historical periods, with special emphasis on analytic and continental philosophy in the 20th and 21st centuries. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHHN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3195. Political Libertarians and Critics. (4 Credits)

An exposition and critique of political libertarianism - a philosophical theory developed by Ayn Rand, Hayek, Friedman, Nozick, Naveson and others - that has come to dominate neoconservative political thought in the U.S. We will read major libertarian texts and criticisms by David Gauthier, Hazlett, Rawls, Singer, and other defenders of public goods. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: AMST, ASRP, PHMP.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3200. Introduction to Logic. (4 Credits)

A study of the methods and principles that distinguish correct argumentation. Attention is given both to the nature of argument and to its applications. Topics discussed include induction, deduction (including symbolic notation) and the common fallacies. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: LING, PHKM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3204. Symbolic Logic. (4 Credits)

Humans are capable of altering their behavior, verbal and otherwise, in light of deductive consequences and in conformity with standards of logical consistency. Although Aristotle, the Stoics, and others developed formal techniques for the evaluation of logical consequence and consistency, the early 20th Century witnessed an unprecedented expansion in the scope and power of those techniques through the construction of formal languages based on mathematical principles. Students consider the modern development of formal logical techniques including propositional logic, first-order logic, and if time permits, a system of intentional logic (e.g. modal logic), and then explore some of the philosophical issues surrounding them. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: LING, PHKM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 1000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3230. How to Keep an Open Mind: Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives. (4 Credits)

Our world is full of information that we can use to learn truths and correct our mistakes, but it is often difficult to recognize when and how to take advantage of it. When should we have an open mind and when should we stop looking into matters? And what are possible steps we can take to keep our minds open? The course will explore a series of issues on this topic from the perspectives of philosophy and the social sciences, including the nature of epistemic virtue and vice, informational aggregation and “the wisdom of crowds,” rational ignorance, precommitment, adversarial inquiry, and more. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHKM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3235. Theories of Knowledge. (4 Credits)

Analysis and study of the central issues in epistemology; illusion and reality, sense perception, and reason; extent, validity and limitations of human knowledge. Classical and contemporary texts. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHKM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3238. Idealism and Realism. (4 Credits)

Do minds have a privileged position in the world? Do objects, moral values, beauty, and truth exist independently of the mind? Or might objects, moral values, beauty, and truth depend in some way on minds? And if so, how? This course will examine various answers to these and related questions from both historical figures and contemporary figures.

Attribute: PHME.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3243. Philosophy of Cognitive Science. (4 Credits)

Unlike inanimate objects such as rocks, we are aware of the world around us. Energy from the sun heats both the rock and you, but unlike the rock you also feel the heat, you know that it comes from the sun, you can understand what it is, and can think about it even when it is absent. How exactly are we able to do this? What makes us capable of thinking, feeling, and perceiving? Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary attempt to answer questions like these. This course explores some of the dominant research programs in cognitive science with an eye to understanding and critically evaluating the philosophical assumptions on which they depend. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: NECG, NEUR, PHKM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3250. Problems in Epistemology. (4 Credits)

This course explores central problems in recent epistemology with a focus on debates regarding rational belief, defeasible reasoning, and the nature of evidence. The course will highlight methodological questions concerning the scope and purpose of epistemological reflection and theorizing Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHKM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3253. Relativism and Philosophy. (4 Credits)

This course analyzes and evaluates various forms of contemporary relativism: epistemological, ontological, and moral. It also investigates whether human rationality is so diverse as to be relativistic in nature. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHKM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3254. Philosophy of Perception. (4 Credits)

This course examines a selection from the many contemporary philosophical debates about our perceptual awareness of the external world. The course involves issues in epistemology (e.g. what is perceptual information?), philosophy of mind (e.g. representationalism, perceptual content), neuroscience (e.g. how does the visual system work?), and metaphysics (e.g. color theory). Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: NECG, NEUR, PHKM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3257. Skepticism. (4 Credits)

Skepticism about the possibility of knowledge, and in particular about our knowledge of the external world, has a long history, from Sextus Empiricus to Hume and Berkeley up to a wide array of present-day debates. As it is plausible that epistemological theory emerges from a dialectic with skepticism, analysis of skeptical arguments gives substance to our claims to have achieved knowledge. This course examines many of these arguments, historical and contemporary. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHKM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3258. Relativism and Skepticism. (4 Credits)

On the road to knowledge, skepticism is a "go slow" or perhaps a "stop" sign, while relativism says "the speed limit is yours to determine". Both views challenge sedate norms of epistemology and each other. This course examines in detail contemporary versions of skeptic and relativistic claims about our knowledge of and judgments about, the world and ourselves. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHKM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3266. Philosophy of Science. (4 Credits)

Critical appreciation of the relation of the physical and social sciences to philosophy. The course takes a historical and systematic approach, dealing with the methods and theories of science from the 17th to the 20th century from a philosophical perspective. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: BEHR, BIOE, PHKM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3267. Feyerabend’s Philosophy of Science. (4 Credits)

Feyerabend (1924-1994) was an innovative thinker who proposed a radical philosophy of science drawing on the factive history of science (rather than the myth of science). Participants will read his "Against Method" in addition to selections from his other works, including his reflections on empiricism and epistemology and on his commitment to pluralism and humanitarianism as well as his posthumous (unfinished) "Conquest of Abundance." Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHKM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3301. Problem of God. (4 Credits)

A systematic study of the existence of God, of His nature, of His relation to the world. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: AMCS, PHME, REST.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3306. Faith After the Death of God. (4 Credits)

Can belief in God be justified, or are there compelling reasons to suspend judgment or to believe that there is no God? This course will debate the rationality of faith after death of God and the rise of atheism in modernity. The course will investigate whether it is rational to believe in God and what would be the epistemological foundations necessary for beliefs about the existence of God or about the nature of God. Students will examine proofs for the existence of God from classic sources, e.g., Aristotle, Neo-Platonism, Augustine, Aquinas, and rationalism, as well as from defenders of skepticism and atheism. Students will read major authors on these questions, both classic and contemporary, such as Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, Aquinas, Plantinga, Feser, Eliade. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHKM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3307. Faith and Rationality. (4 Credits)

The course will focus on the rationality of belief in God. What is required for belief in God to be rational? Are there any proofs that God exists? Does the fact of evil in the world prove that God does not exist? What role does religious experience play in the justification of religious belief? Emphasis on contemporary authors. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: PHKM, REST.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3310. Issues in Philosophy of Law. (4 Credits)

This course will examine and critically evaluate different accounts of the nature of law; the relationship between law and morality; the rule of law and constitutional government; judicial review and interpretation; foundations of private law; the foundations of public law. These and related issues in the philosophy of law shall be discussed and illustrated by reference to specific legal cases and controversies. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHMP.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3330. Philosophy of Religion. (4 Credits)

The course will focus on issues in the philosophy of religion from the view point of the divine attributes. Traditional proofs for God's existence, forms of evidentialism and anti-evidentialism, and dilemmas concerning divine simplicity, foreknowledge, as well as the problem of evil, will be treated. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: PHME, REST, RSTE.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3348. Concepts and Reality. (4 Credits)

In the Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant raised the question of how concepts relate to reality. This course will examine 20th and 21st century attempts to answer Kant’s question. Topics discussed may include (1) the nature of concepts, (2) varieties of conceptual schemes, (3) the distinction between descriptive and revisionary metaphysics, and (4) intentionality; authors discussed may include Robert Brandom, John McDowell, Peter Strawson, and Wilfrid Sellars. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHME.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3350. Problems in Metaphysics. (4 Credits)

Nature and methods of metaphysics, our knowledge of being, self-identity and process, the unity and interrelationship of beings, action as unifying principle, causal explanation. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: PHME, REST.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3354. Problem of Evil. (4 Credits)

"Do bad things that happen prove that there is no God? This course shall focus on this question and consider what has been said about it form ancient times right up to what people are saying about it today. We shall pay attention to what has been argued for and against the existance of God given that there is much that is bad in our world. We shall try also to evaluate what a number of philosphers have said about this fact." Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: AMCS, PHME.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3355. Metaphysics. (4 Credits)

This course introduces students to major metaphysical questions and problems, such as free will and determinism, persistence through time, necessity and identity, possible worlds, universals and particulars, change, substance, causation, realism vs. anti-realism, and the prospects of immortality. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHME.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3360. Contemporary Metaphysics. (4 Credits)

An examination of some issues in metaphysics, with an emphasis on 20th and 21st century texts and figures. Topics may include universals and particulars, space and time, constitution, identity and persistence, free will, necessity and possibility, the mind-body problem and causation. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHME.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3412. Philosophy of Emotions. (4 Credits)

Through class discussions, lectures and readings, this course aims, in phenomenological fashion, to analyze human emotions as lived conscious experiences. Stress is placed on the central importance of emotions in human life. The realm of feeling is related to physical and mental health; to knowing and willing; to art, morality and religion. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHHN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3422. Harry Potter and Philosophy. (4 Credits)

This course will use the Harry Potter novels to explore several central themes in philosophy, and will use philosophical analysis to interpret the books and their cultural impact. Some central topics of the course will include: the nature and relationships of minds, souls, and bodies; the conflict of good and evil and some related issues in moral psychology and the ethics of ‘love’; metaphysical implications of the magical world of HP and its enchantment of muggles. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ACUP, AMST, ASAM, ASLT, ASRP, CCUS, COMC, COMM, PHHN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103 or HPLC 1001.

PHIL 3425. Philosophy and the Jesuit Tradition. (4 Credits)

This course offers a philosophical and theological analysis of foundational Jesuit texts—the "Autobiography of St. Ignatius Loyola," "The Spiritual Exercises," and "The Formula of the Institute"—situating them in connection to other currents of thought, both historical and contemporary. Topics considered include the nature of mysticism, the relation of theory and practice, pedagogy and discernment, and the social structure of desire. Readings will include such authors as Thomas a Kempis, Pascal, Schleiermacher, Hegel, Rahner, J-L Marion, and M. Henry. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: PHHN, THEO.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3501. Ancient Philosophy. (4 Credits)

This course aims to acquaint the student with the basic problems and directions of Western philosophy as developed in its early and decisive phase by the principal thinkers of ancient Greece, Pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus are among the figures that can be treated, as well as Stoicism and Epicureanism. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: CLAS, OCHS, OCST, PHAN, REST.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3502. Pre-Socratic Philosophy. (4 Credits)

Participants in this course will explore the tradition of philosophy as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle knew and responded to this tradition. Particular attention will be paid to ancient theories of the physical world and the universe as well as to the influence on contemporary thinkers, such as Nietzsche and Heidegger. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: CLAS, PHAN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3504. Stoics and Skeptics. (4 Credits)

This course is an examination of philosophy during the extraordinarily dynamic era that began after Alexander the Great had spread Hellenistic ideals throughout the ancient world. The course will enter into the debates among the five major schools of Hellenistic philosophy - Stoicism, Skepticism, Cynicism, Epicureanism and Neo-Platonism. Students will read representative authors from each school, but since philosophy was regarded as a way of life during this period, students will read authors from many walks of life, such as the Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius, the statesman, Cicero and the Poet, Virgil. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: CLAS, PHAN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3520. Philosophy of Aristotle. (4 Credits)

Perhaps no philosopher in the history of the world has been as influential in as many ways as Aristotle. A paragon of insight, systematicity, and rigor, he has inspired philosophers for over two thousand years. He remains an icon of Western intellectual culture, and his influence can be discerned even now in fields as diverse as history, theology, rhetoric, theatre, psychology, metaphysics, biology, law, political theory, ethics, and logic. This course introduces students to key features of his philosophical framework. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: CLAS, MVPH, MVST, PHAN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3522. Aristotle's Ethics. (4 Credits)

This course will be an advanced treatment of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. We will examine the text cover to cover as well as utilize a running commentary on the text. We will study some of the major questions about the ethics: what is the precise scope of eudaimonia, can non-aristocrats practice his ethics, why is courage limited to the battlefield, is Aristotle's account of justice coherent, how are we supposed to practice the intellectual virtues, and how is genuine friendship supposed to be a case of loving another when it is based on self-love? Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHAN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3525. Philosophy of Plato. (4 Credits)

This course is a general introduction to Plato’s thought on ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics as represented by dialogues from his early and middle periods. Readings from the early dialogues will include the Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and the Protagoras. Readings from the middle dialogues will include the Meno, Phaedo, Gorgias, Phaedrus, and the Republic. No previous study of Plato is required. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: CLAS, MVPH, MVST, PHAN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3526. Plato: The Unread Dialogues. (4 Credits)

Although Plato wrote at least 28 dialogues, his philosophy is usually taught from only a few, such as the Apology, Meno, Phaedo, and Republic. This course examines his philosophy as expounded in the many dialogues seldom read in undergraduate courses. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: CLAS, PHAN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1102 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3530. Philosophy After Constantine. (4 Credits)

This course will discuss some of the various ways in which the Christian East was influenced by and employed ancient philosophy in order to grapple with central philosophical questions such as the nature of the soul, its relation to the body, human freedom and choice, fate and providence, the pursuit of virtues and vices, the role of reason and of beauty, and the divine energies. Thinkers discussed may include Gregory of Nyssa, Nemesius of Emesa, Maximus the Confessor, and John of Damascus. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: MVPH, MVST, PHAN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3552. Medieval Philosophy. (4 Credits)

The origins of medieval philosophy. The Carolingian renaissance. Anselm. Abelard and 12th-century humanism. Philosophical currents of the 13th century; introduction of Aristotle into the University of Paris; the reaction of the Augustinian philosophers to Aristotle; Bonaventure, Aquinas and Siger of Brabant. Duns Scotus. William of Ockham and the rise of nominalism. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: MVPH, MVST, OCHS, OCST, PHMD.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3557. Confessions of Augustine. (4 Credits)

A study of St. Augustine's most popular philosophical work, The Confessions. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: AMCS, CLAS, MVPH, MVST, OCHS, OCST, PHMD, REST, RSHR.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3559. Dante and Philosophy. (4 Credits)

By examination of the Divine Comedy and other works by Dante, this course will consider such important philosophical themes and divine providence, free choice of the will, the sources of ethics, and the nature of happiness. The course will involve study of various ancient and medieval thinkers whom Dante used to explore the perennial questions of human existence. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: MVPH, MVST, PHHN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3560. Philosophy of Aquinas. (4 Credits)

Historical setting, doctrinal influences, themes of knowledge and the meaning of person; metaphysics and God; freedom and ethics; and reason and revelation. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: MVPH, MVST, PHMD.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3565. Four Medieval Thinkers. (4 Credits)

This course introduces the thought of Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas and Buridan, and its influence on the development of medieval philosophy, especially in the philosophy of mind and natural theology Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: MVPH, MVST, PHMD, REST.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3570. Beauty in the Middle Ages. (4 Credits)

This course will be an investigation of medieval theories of beauty and aesthetics. Classic texts will be drawn from three periods: antiquity, the early Middle Ages, and thirteenth-century Scholasticism. Authors will include Plato, Plotinus, Augustine, Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, Bonaventure, and Aquinas. A component of the course will examine certain moments in medieval art in order to investigate the relation between theory and art. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: MVPH, MVST, PHMD.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3591. Medieval Political Philosophy. (4 Credits)

An investigation of the major political theories of the Middle Ages from the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West until the eve of the Protestant Reformation. Students will read the classic texts of this era from Augustine's "City of God" to Masilius of Padua's "The Defender of Peace." Special attention will be given to different theories of kingship and of the basis of political authority and the relationship between papacy and empire. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: MVPH, MVST, OCHS, OCST, PHMD, PJRJ, PJST.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3600. Descartes and the Rationalists. (4 Credits)

The course considers the great rationalist systems of philosophy on the continent in the pre-Kantian period. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHCM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3601. Modern Philosophy. (4 Credits)

A history of philosophy from Descartes to contemporary times, including Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, Hegel and others. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHCM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3604. Rationalists and Empiricists Epistemologies. (4 Credits)

This course will address the epistemological problems stemming from Descartes’ “methodological skepticism” and their proposed solutions in early modern philosophy ranging from Descartes through British Empiricism to the rationalism of Kant. The course will also trace the conceptual roots of the problems of modern epistemologies in late-medieval philosophy, and seek their resolutions for contemporary philosophy through this historical analysis. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHCM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3606. Early Modern Philosophy: Self and World. (4 Credits)

In this class, we will read, examine, and interpret the works of several figures in Early Modern philosophy (roughly the 17th and 18th centuries). Along with the revolutions in scientific theory and practice that characterized this period, there were revolutions in the ways we understand fundamental philosophical questions and their possible answers. Some of the topics we will focus on are the nature of the human being as a thinking and feeling creature, the gendered human being, the human being in relation to other animals, and the human being in relation to other human beings. Readings will be chosen from Montaigne, de Gournay, La Boetie, de las Casa, Hobbes, Cavendish, Locke, Descartes, Elisabeth of Bohemia, Malebranche, de Lambert, du Chatelet, Hume, Voltaire. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ACUP, PHCM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3609. Modernity and Its Critics. (4 Credits)

The debate about modernity looms larger than ever: is it to be rejected or defended? This course will investigate major thinkers of modern philosophy and its political orders leading up to the Enlightenment, such as Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, and will explore the question of what constitutes “the Enlightenment project.” After examining major elements of “modernity,” students will turn to influential critics, both from pre-modern and post-modern perspectives, who have been calling us to reject modernity, in whole or in part, whether because of its claims to universal reason, its illusory notion of the self, its conquest of nature, its abandonment of the classical ideal of the virtues, or its secularism and loss of transcendence and meaning. In the final section of the course, readings will turn to modernity's recent defenders. Students will be asked to weigh in on the debate over modernity and to find their own voice in dialogue with modernity’s defenders and critics. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHCM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3610. Ethics in the Enlightenment. (4 Credits)

This course studies ethical themes, theories, and debates through the period of time broadly known as the Enlightenment. Topics covered may include: the relationships between ethics and aesthetics, ethics and politics, and ethics and religion; the role of the emotions in ethics; the challenges posed by ethical diversity and controversy; and the development of specific theories, including utilitarianism, sentimentalism, Kantian deontology, and virtue ethics. Authors studied may include Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Mandeville, Butler, Rousseau, Hume, Voltaire, Diderot, Montesquieu, Smith, Condorcet, de Grouchy, de Vastey, Wheatley, Cugoano, Wollstonecraft, de Gouges, Bentham, Kant, and Lessing. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHCM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3620. Immanuel Kant. (4 Credits)

A study of Kant's philosophy concentrating on the Critique of Pure Reason. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHCM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3622. Kierkegaard. (4 Credits)

Known occasionally as the “founder of existentialism,” Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855) had a profound and lasting impact on philosophical reflection on the nature of the self, faith, ethics, rationality, and the possibility and meaning of philosophical discourse more generally. This course will take a comprehensive approach to Kierkegaard’s thought, reading selections from both his pseudonymous works and religious discourses, as well as looking at those, like Heidegger, Sartre, and de Beauvoir, among others, who were significantly influenced by Kierkegaard’s writings. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHCM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3623. Marx as a Philosopher. (4 Credits)

Karl Marx is more commonly approached as an economist, sociologist, or political theorist than as a philosopher. But this class will explore the original philosophical positions offered by Marx as well as the philosophical basis and results of his often polemical exchanges with others. Topics include Marx’s philosophy of history, philosophical anthropology, materialist critique of idealism, as well as his normative social and political philosophy. We will also discuss Marx’s theory of revolution and his stance on the limits of philosophy itself. The goal is to develop the possible internal consistency, social applicability, and limits of Marx’s philosophy. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: PHCM, PJSJ, PJST.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3630. Nietzsche. (4 Credits)

Participants will discuss Nietzsche’s reflections on tragedy and music before going on to his Human, All-too Human as well as his reflections on the ‘death of God’ in “The Gay Science.” Readings include his best known but arguably most difficult book, “Thus Spoke Zarathustra.” Topics to be explored include current debates on transhumanism, including the affirmation of life and the body. Additionally, we will underscore posthumanism and what Nietzsche called ‘loyalty to the earth.’ Reading “Beyond Good and Evil” with its sequel, “On the Genealogy of Morals,” this course foregrounds Nietzsche’s theory of knowledge, including the ‘Prejudices of the Philosophers’ in “Twilight of the Idols.” Reading his “Ecce Homo” as a companion throughout, we will reflect on Nietzsche’s “the eternal return of the same” along with his negative ontology—“no truth,” “no facts”—and the ubiquity of ‘Will to Power.’ Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHCM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3631. 19th Century Philosophy. (4 Credits)

Study of post-Kantian developments in philosophy. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHCM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3643. Heidegger: Being and Time. (4 Credits)

A course on Martin Heidegger's Being and Time, one of the most important philosophical works of the twentieth century. Readings in addition to noteworthy commentary will include some of the political controversies associated with Heidegger's thought. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: COLI, PHCO.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3652. Contemporary French Philosophy. (4 Credits)

This course introduces the work of French thinkers from the 20th and 21st centuries. Themes under consideration might be subjectivity, violence, justice, embodiment, and epistemology. Figures covered may include Badiou, Deleuze, Derrida, Foucault, Irigaray, Kofman, Le Doeuff, Lyotard, Merleau-Ponty, and Ranciere. Reference may also be made to recent developments of French theory in the Anglo-American context, including in feminist theory and social and political philosophy. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: AMST, ASRP, COLI, INST, ISEU, JWST, PHCO.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3653. Latin American Philosophy. (4 Credits)

This course will introduce students to select texts in Latin American and Caribbean Philosophy. Central themes will include the (persistent) effects of the colonial period, the inheritance of various European philosophies, and the possibility of a distinctive Latin American Philosophy. Currents and thinkers may include Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Simon Bolivar’s influence, Leopoldo Zea and Positivism, the Negritude Movement in Martinique, Liberation theology and philosophy, and Latina/o Thought in North. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: AMST, ASRP, COLI, INST, ISLA, LAHA, LAIN, LALS, PHCO, PJSJ, PJST.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3655. Philosophy and Language. (4 Credits)

Early in the 20th Century, philosophy took what has been called "the linguistic turn." While continental structuralists and post-structuralists developed theories according to which all concepts are interpretative, in analytic philosophy, positivists tried to reduce many key questions of metaphysics and epistemology to issues of usage. This course will survey major contemporary theories of sense, reference, and meaning that have developed since the mid-20th century, explaining their methodological implications for the analysis of other philosophical topics. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: COLI, PHKM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3661. Husserl and Heidegger. (4 Credits)

This course investigates the nature, methods, and development of phenomenology through a study of its two major, German thinkers. The course will compare and contrast the views of Husserl and Heidegger on (1) the concept and method of Phenomenology; (2) intentionality; and (3) subjectivity. It will also illustrate the differences between the two by examining their failed collaboration on the Encyclopedia Britannica entry for phenomenology. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHCO.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3662. Merleau-Ponty: Philosopher of the Body. (4 Credits)

This course is devoted to an intensive study of one important and innovative book: Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception, one of the most groundbreaking and influential works of philosophy in the 20th century. Rejecting the assumption that mind and body are separate, Merleau-Ponty offers an account of the sensorimotor body as the subject of experience rather than giving that role to consciousness or a disembodied mind. His rich, first-person, descriptive account of perception demonstrates that the animate body in sensation and movement is our original meaning-making relation to the world. While our study will focus on reading systematically through this single primary text, we will also have a few readings that contextualize influences on Merleau-Ponty, as well as his impact on current scholarship. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHCO.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3664. Contemporary Thomism. (4 Credits)

A study of recent Thomistic thought, beginning with Leo XIII's encyclical Aeternis Patris. This course will focus on such figures as Jacques Maritain, Yves Simon, Joseph Pieper, and Karol Wojtyla in dialogue with other contemporary philosophical schools of thought. Special attention will be given to topics such as the difference between power and authority, natural law theory, the metaphysics of existence, and realist epistemology. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: PHCO, THEO.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3665. Philosophy and Judaism in the 20th Century. (4 Credits)

This course is devoted to the thought of Jewish philosophers in the 20th century on such topics as the ethical encounter between self and other; chosenness and election; Jewish-Christian relations; redemption and messianism; forgiveness and hospitality; as well as responses to the Shoah, to Zionism, and to the Palestinian question. We will take up these themes as discussed in the texts of such thinkers as Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Simone Weil, Walter Benjamin, Jean Wahl, Emmanuel Lévinas, Hannah, Arendt, Vladimir Jankélévitch, Jean-François Lyotard, Jacques Derrida, and/or Judith Butler. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: COLI, JWST.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3667. Philosophy of Space and Time. (4 Credits)

Space and time are fundamental features of the physical universe in which we live, and are essential to our consciousness of the world. Philosophers from Augustine to Leibniz and Kant have asked what time is, whether it is a real feature of the causal order of nature or rather imposed by our conscious experience. Developments in 20th century physics and philosophy have forced us to rethink the relation of space and time, reconsider whether the future might be as real as the past, and whether time really "moves" forward. The course will explore the leading contemporary theories and draw connections with developments in science. No advanced background in physics is required. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHME.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3670. Existentialism. (4 Credits)

A survey of themes in the main 19th and 20th century existentialist writers, such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger, Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: COLI, INST, ISEU, PHCO.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3671. Phenomenology and Existentialism. (4 Credits)

An investigation of themes central to the development of phenomenology and existentialism. Themes to be studies might include methodology, intentionality and consciousness, subjectivity, anxiety or dread, embodiment, emotions, the Other, authenticity, freedom, agency and action, history and historicity, the individual versus community, social and political responsibilty. Readings will be drawn from Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Soren Kierkegaard, and Friedrich Nietzsche. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHCO.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3672. Continental Philosophy of Religion. (4 Credits)

An introduction to contemporary philosophy of religion from a Continental perspective, considering issues of religious experience, the manifestation (or "truth") of faith, and/or a philosophical analysis of religious practices. The course may include texts from thinkers such as Paul Ricoeur, Jean-Luc Marion, Michel Henry, Jean-Louis Chrétien, Jean-Yves Lacoste or John D. Caputo. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: PHCO, PHHN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3673. Existentialism and Literature. (4 Credits)

Existentialism and Literature seeks to examine how the ideas of existentialist philosophy--in such thinkers as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Marcel, Sartre, Camus, Blanchot and Merleau-Ponty--are expressed in and through literature. Alongside philosophical writings, we will read literary works by such writers as Dostoevsky, Rilke, Kafka, Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Camus. Themes include the nature and structure of the self; authenticity and inauthenticity; alienation and the fear of death; meaning and meaninglessness, and the existence or absence of God. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: COLI, PHCO.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3674. Philosophy of the Novel. (4 Credits)

A philosophical consideration of the novelistic form as a phenomenon of modernity and in relation to myth and tragic consciousness. Readings will be from authors such as Euripides, Racine, Pascal, Freud, Lukacs, Goldmann, Freud, and Girard. Note: This four-credit course will be reading-intensive. In addition to the philosophical literature, students will be expected to read Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" and Dostoevsky's "Demons" in their entirety. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: COLI, PHHN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103 or HPLC 1001.

PHIL 3701. Human Rights Theories: Foundations and History. (4 Credits)

This course will introduce students to the main philosophical theories of human rights, including both “political-legal” accounts and “moral” (or orthodox) theories that focus on the “inherent dignity” of persons. The main goal is to understand and evaluate proposed justifications and critiques of human rights in historical context. We will consider how western conceptions of human rights grew out of natural law and early modern accounts of natural rights—especially in Enlightenment ethical thought—before being globalized in the 20th century. The course will include readings addressing challenges based on cultural differences, and non-Western approaches to human rights. While considering 20th- and 21st-century proposals, we will also assess libertarian opposition to social and economic rights, and whether human political rights have different grounds than basic personal liberties. We will also consider historical and imaginative examples, and how to understand more specific human rights as opposed to highly general categories. But the focus of this course is on the philosophical accounts, rather than on ways that human rights inform global institutions and connect with issues concerning global justice more broadly. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: IPE, PHMP, PJSJ, PJST.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3702. Rights, Justice, and Global Governance. (4 Credits)

This course introduces students to three philosophical accounts of global justice, and related weaker and stronger conceptions of regional and global governance institutions that may be needed to realize global justice. To evaluate institutional proposals, we will use some elementary game theory to explain the concept of global public goods, along with a handful of closely related economics concepts that are useful in evaluating global trade, finance, the work of international NGOs, treaty regimes, and other global systems. No background in these areas is assumed; everything needed will be supplied in the course content. Using these tools, we will consider cases that illustrate threats and obstacles, including military and economic pressures from tyrannical regimes, democratization, extreme poverty and popular growth, environmental challenges and sustainable resource use, oppression of women, and certain emerging technologies. We will also explore how human rights ideals may be qualified or appear differently within such an institutional framework and a sketch of “basic structures” at regional and global levels.This course builds on Theories of Human Rights but that is not a prerequisite. The course does not cover treaties and concepts related to Just War Theory in any depth, as these are the focus of another elective. The course involves no ideological litmus test; all political views (including agnosticism) are welcome in our conversations. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: PHKM, PJCR, PJEC, PJST.

Prerequisites: HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103 or PHIL 3000.

PHIL 3710. Healthcare Justice. (4 Credits)

This course focuses on intersections between philosophical theories of justice and healthcare. Topics covered include distributive justice and issues involving scarce resources, such as the allocation of organs to transplant, prioritization for ICU beds in a pandemic, and triage methods in disaster scenarios; issues of social, political, and structural justice, such as access to tertiary care, social determinants of health, and structural competency in medical education; and issues of epistemic justice, such as allegations of medical error, assessments of medical expertise, and judgments of patients’ decisional capacity and competency. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: BEHR, BIOE, PHMP.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3711. Humanitarianism and Philosophy. (4 Credits)

We are all familiar with aid agencies asking for donations to support their life-saving work. Often these appeals aim to stimulate compassion for the suffering of distant strangers in ways that prompt us to act. This course takes humanitarian action—broadly construed as organized attempts to alleviate the suffering of distant strangers—as a point of departure for analyzing a range of issues using the tools of moral and political philosophy. We will attempt to better understand the nature and scope of our moral obligations to distant strangers as well as the nature and value of moral sentiments like compassion and their relation to justice. We will engage different frameworks for evaluating various modes of humanitarian action by non-governmental organizations, governments, and international bodies. We will also critically examine the modes of representation used to portray the suffering of distant strangers. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: HHPA, HUST, INST, ISIN, PHMP, PJCR, PJST.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3712. Global Environment and Justice. (4 Credits)

Ethical principles of sustainability and an "endowment model" of intergenerational justice applied to the world's largest-scale environmental problems, such as usable land and food yields, fresh water supplies, loss of rainforests and biodiversity, clean air and global warming, fossil fuels and alternative energies, and population growth and poverty. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: BEHR, ENMI, ENST, ESEJ, ESEL, GLBL, HHPA, HUST, INST, ISIN, PHMP, PJCP, PJEN, PJST, SOIN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3713. Human Rights and Global Justice. (4 Credits)

This interdisciplinary class will focus on the development of the human rights paradigm in international law and philosophical questions about how we can justify universal basic rights. For example, are universal rights consistant with a wide array of varying cultures and ways of life? Are concepts of rights somehow inherently "western" or "individualist", and can relativist doubts about human rights be answered? We will also look at some debates about the content of such rights, e.g. rights to educational opportunity, to welfare or subsistence, to basic health care, to membership in a culture, to immigration, to a sustained environment and other controversial cases. We will also consider humnitarian intervention in the name of rights, problems with the UN system, and ways that the international order could be restructured if we take seriously the idea that there are universal basic rights to freedom from tyranny and to development out of poverty. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: HHPA, HUST, INST, ISIN, LAHA, LALS, PHMP, PJSJ, PJST.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3714. Kant and Hegel. (4 Credits)

This course will examine the relationship between the philosophical writings of Immanuel Kant and G.W.F Hegel. Kant's philosophy was understood by many of his contemporaries primarily as a philosophy of freedom, and in the first part of this course we will attempt to understand the pivotal role that the relationship between nature and freedom plays in both Kant's theoretical and moral writings. During the second part of the course, we will examine both Hegel's criticisms of Kant's philosophy and the ways in which Hegel's philosophy, neverthless, attempts to develop particular Kantian insights. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHCM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3715. Kant on Morality and Religion. (4 Credits)

In the 18th century, Immanuel Kant developed a theory of autonomy that revolutionized moral and religious thought. This course will examine Kant’s moral philosophy and philosophy of religion in writings like the Critique of Practical Reason, Critique of Pure Reason, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, Metaphysics of Morals, and Religion within the Boundaries of mere Reason. Topics discussed may include (1) Kant's categorical imperative, (2) Kant's theory of human autonomy, (3) Kant's concept of God, (4) Kant's theory of moral belief in God and immorality, (5) Kant's treatment of the problem of evil, and (6) Kant's view of the relationship between morality and revealed religion. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: BEHR, BIOE, PHCM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3716. Hegel and His Successors. (4 Credits)

An introduction to the philosophy of Hegel (focusing on the Phenomenology of Spirit) with a consideration of some important 19th & 20th century interpretations and criticisms. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHCM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3720. African American Philosophy. (4 Credits)

Using texts by Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, W.E.B. DuBois, Alain Locke, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, James H. Cone, Angela Davis, Cornel West, Patricia Hill Collins, Howard McGary, William E Lawson, Leonard Harris, Lucius Outlaw and others, this course will focus on pillars, prophets and prospects for African American philosophy, a 'philosophy born of struggle' created by profound critical and transformative voices from times of chattel slavery to the present that plays an influential role in American philosophy and American society today. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ADVD, AFAM, AMST, ASRP, COLI, PJSJ, PJST, PLUR, WGSS.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3722. Native American Philosophy. (4 Credits)

This seminar-style course will explore the philosophical contributions of Native Americans (also known as American Indians, and best known by the names these diverse people have given themselves), including insights about how to preserve our biotic community and to live with one another amidst our American pluralism in ways that are spiritually satisfying. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ACUP, ADVD, AMST, ASRP, COLI, ENST, ESEJ, ESEL, PJEN, PJST, PLUR.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3725. Philosophies of Race. (4 Credits)

This course presents a survey of philosophical approaches to questions of race and racism. The approaches discussed may include the historical perspectives on race (on questions of the social ontology of race and analyses of the emergence of race in the colonial context), phenomenological perspectives (interrogating how racialization works on the level of the self and identity), political perspectives (in relation to contemporary political institutions such as the prison industrial complex), and intersectional theories of race (interrogating how race interlocks with other categories of oppression, such as gender and sexuality). Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ACUP, AMST, APPI, ASHS, ASRP, COLI, PHHN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3731. Philosophy of the City. (4 Credits)

This course interweaves philosophical reflections on the nature and need of cities, from ancient times to the present, with classical and contemporary works on: urban planning theory and practice, sociology, economics; and political science: Readings will include Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities; Sharon M. Meagher, ed., Philosophy and the City; Classic to Contemporary Writings, Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout, ed., The City Reader (Sixth Edition); and Margaret Kohn, The Death and Life of the Urban Commonwealth. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: AMST, ASRP, PHHN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3756. Chinese Philosophy. (4 Credits)

A study of the philosophical traditions of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism (including Ch'an, which spread to Japan as Zen) with special attention to the tension between ethico-political and mystical-religious dimensions of these traditions. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: CNST, GLBL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3757. Japanese Philosophy. (4 Credits)

This course introduces students to major figures and concepts in Japanese philosophy, including Dōgen, the founder of Soto Zen, and his concept of "being-time"; Nishida Kitarō, the founder of the Kyoto School, and his concept of "pure experience"; and two of Nishida’s students, Watsuji Tetsurō and his concept of “betweenness" and Kuki Shūzō and his concept of “detachment." The course also introduces a number of other well-known figures in Japanese philosophy, including those in the Japanese philosophical canon and those who are currently gaining recognition both in Japan and internationally. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: GLBL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3759. Buddhist Philosophy. (4 Credits)

The course is a historically-based introduction to Buddhist philosophy that gives students a basic understanding of the central ideas, issues and approaches in the various Buddhist traditions. Students will be encouraged to bring Buddhist philosophy into dialogue with some Western philosophical perspectives. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: CNST, GLBL, INST, ISAS, REST.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3770. Daoist and Zen Philosophy. (4 Credits)

An examination of the classic Chinese texts of philosophical Daoism (Daodejing and Zhuangzi) and the related schools of Chinese Chan and Japanese Zen Buddhism. We will balance discussion of these traditions in their original Asian context with assessment of their relevance for contemporary issues such as personal well-being and environmental ethics. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: CNST, GLBL, INST, ISAS.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3800. Internship. (3 Credits)

Internship.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3810. Democratic Theory. (4 Credits)

Democratic theory draws on diverse intellectual, historical, and philosophical traditions to analyze and propose solutions to issues of identity, community, inclusion, capabilities, powers, opportunities, and sustainability as these emerge within contemporary living in the realms of politics, economics, ethics, and culture. In this course, students will study the historical development of democratic theory, some of the contemporary issues on which democratic theorists focus, and some of the differing methods and perspectives that theorists from diverse philosophical traditions—e.g., analytic, pragmatic, continental, and critical-theoretical—bring to these issues. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHMP.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3815. Political Philosophy. (4 Credits)

This course explores various conceptions of justice on both national and international levels, from the perspective of contemporary political philosophy. Topics include distributive justice, the politics of recognition, reparations for past injustices, the process of transition from unjust to just regime, global justice, and environmental justice. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHMP.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3850. Hermeneutics. (4 Credits)

Hermeneutics is the philosophical theory and practice of interpretation. The course will focus especially on Hans-Georg Gadamer’s and Paul Ricoeur’s philosophical approaches to understand and interpreting texts and experiences in the realms of art, history, religion, literature (especially narrative), formation of the self, politics and justice. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: COLI, PHKM.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3865. Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School. (4 Credits)

This course traces the development of the Frankfurt School of critical social theory, which began in 1920s Frankfurt and combined Hegelian-Marxist philosophy with Freud and Weber. We read philosophers who inspired this tradition (Marx, Lukacs) and those who were central in its development (Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse, Fromm, Habermas). Topics may include alienation and reification; the foundations of critical theory and ideology critique; critiques of the "culture industry," technology, and instrumental reason; and attempts to expand this tradition by theorizing about gender and race. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: JWST, PHCO.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3901. Philosophical Issues of Feminism. (4 Credits)

Philosophical exploration of issues raised by historical and contemporary reflection on the relationship between the sexes. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: PHHN, WGSS.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3903. Philosophy and Feminist Theory. (4 Credits)

A philosophical exploration of issues raised by historical and contemporary reflection on the relationship between the sexes. In this course, we will explore how the tradition of philosophy has responded to gender and account for the struggles to bring feminist discourse to philosophical theory. We will examine the connections between Marxist, post-modern, existentialist and phenomenological theories to the issues of women and gender-identity politics. Counts for Women's Studies. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: COLI, PHHN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3904. Feminist Philosophy. (4 Credits)

A survey of feminist philosophy, focusing on its contributions to social and political philosophy. Balances historical and issue-based approaches, surveying feminist contributions to philosophical accounts of rights, equality, and personhood, as well as power and oppression, liberation and resistance, subjectivity and sociality. Figures studied may include Mary Wollstonecraft, Simone de Beauvoir, Shulamith Firestone, Gayle Rubin, bell hooks, Catharine MacKinnon, Marilyn Frye, Nancy Fraser, Sandra Bartky, Iris Marion Young, Audre Lorde, Patricia Hill Collins, Monique Wittig, Judith Butler, Sally Haslanger, and Martha Nussbaum. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ACUP, AMST, APPI, ASHS, ASRP, JWST, PHMP, PJGS, PJST, WGSS.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3905. Philosophy of Disability. (4 Credits)

This course deals with disability as a philosophical concept, asking what disability is and how disability relates to how one lives a good life. It will cover a variety of issues surrounding disability, such as whether there is any coherent definition of disability at all, what the different candidates for the definitions of disability are, who gets to define what disability is and why, the value of testimony, and the role of social movements in defining disability. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: DISA, DIUL, PHHN, PJSJ, PJST.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3906. Emotions and the Good Life. (4 Credits)

Whereas Oscar Wilde thought "The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray," Francis Bacon thought the emotions were essential to our experiencing the world as we do: "For a crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a thinking cymbal, where there is no love." George Santayana thought our humanity diminished without a proper emotional life: "The young man who has not wept is a savage, and the old man who will not laugh is a fool." This course will investigate the nature of the emotions, their relation to cognition, and the role they play in the good life for humans. Readings will be drawn from authors as diverse as Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, William James, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Nancy Sherman. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHHN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3907. Existentialist Feminism. (4 Credits)

Existential Feminism includes the classical existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre in dialogical exchange with the feminist thinking of Simone de Beauvoir. Philosophies like Nietzsche, Heidegger, Bataille, Merleau-Ponty, Marcuse, Foucault, and Bourdieu (via the sociology of Michel de Certeau), in addition to Lacanian psychoanalytic theory can illuminate thinkers like Luce Irigaray but also, and in another context, the writings of authors like Elfriede Jelinek and the political thinker, Hannah Arendt. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHCO.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3908. Philosophy of Happiness. (4 Credits)

The class examines the major theories of happiness in the Western philosophical tradition. Attention will also be given to some religious traditions, Asian philosophies, and contemporary discussions of happiness in philosophy and psychology. Throughout there will be consideration of the relationship between happiness and morality. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHHN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3910. Shakespeare and Aquinas. (4 Credits)

A philosophical study of human emotions by reading "in tandem" certain plays of Shakespeare and the treatises by Thomas Aquinas on the passions and on human nature in general. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: MVPH, MVST, PHMD.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3920. Evil Choices. (4 Credits)

What makes a bad choice evil? And what motivates somebody to do evil? Are only morally depraved persons capable of making evil choices? Or can an evil choice be made by someone who might be considered good or even admirable under other circumstances? Is it possible to choose evil for evil’s sake? Or is every evil choice motivated by a desire to obtain some good, for oneself or for others? This course explores these questions with the help of great philosophers throughout history. We consider ancient accounts of evildoing (Plato and Aristotle), medieval views on Lucifer (Augustine, Anselm, and Aquinas), modern approaches to radical evil (Kant), and contemporary reflections on the Holocaust. We will also read some contemporary psychological research. Our goal is not only to better understand evil, but also to shed some light on human nature and our capacity to choose good in the face of evil. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHHN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3930. Philosophy and Literature. (4 Credits)

Philosophy and Literature is devoted to the study of philosophical theories of literature, including studies of literary and poetic language, of the relationship between literary and other kinds of knowledge, of the philosophical meaning of literary works, and of questions regarding the status of the author and reader in the work of literature. The course covers readings from the history of philosophy and from recent philosophical and literary sources. Philosophers and authors studied include Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Iser,Blanchot, Bachelard, Sartre, Nehamas, and de Bolla, as well as literary works by Rilke, Proust, Moravia, and writers of Holocaust literature. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: COLI, OCST, PHHN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3935. Ethics and Mental Health. (4 Credits)

This course focuses on concepts central to our understanding of mental health, ways in which those concepts impact categorization and treatment of mental disorder, and ethical issues that arise in mental health care contexts as well as concerning mental health in wider social contexts. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHMP.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3940. Neuroethics. (4 Credits)

As research into the brain and the mind has advanced, distinctive ethical issues have arisen in neuroscience, neurology, and neural engineering, constituting a growing field of inquiry known as neuroethics. This course will introduce neuroethics through a discussion of topics such as changes to identity through neural stimulation and pharmaceuticals, disorders of agency, disorders of consciousness, cognitive and moral enhancement, addiction and responsibility, traumatic brain injury, lie detection and neuroimaging, memory loss and manipulation, artificial intelligence, brain death, and neurodiversity. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: BEHR, BIOE, NECG, NEUR, PHMP.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3943. Philosophy and Science Fiction. (4 Credits)

The genre of science fiction is used to explore philosophical topics and questions related to the most fundamental, existential, and meaningful aspects of human experience, such as: What does it mean to be human, or a person, and why does that matter? What is the purpose of life? Are technological advances a blessing or curse? Moreover, good philosophical theorizing can help us imaginatively inhabit disparate worlds, to explore the boundaries of what exists, what could be possible, and even what should be the case. This course will cover topics predominant in science fiction, which may include: transhumanism, consciousness and personhood, personal identity and social situatedness, race and gender, the nature of time and time travel, free will, possibility and other worlds, and the meaning of life. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHHN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3944. Philosophy and Poetry. (4 Credits)

Philosophy has engaged poetry since Plato and Aristotle and has been articulated, as it is famously said, in "poetic" terms from its inception with Anaximander's first fragment as well as Parmenides, Empedocles, and Heraclitus. We will discuss Plato’s political and epistemological views on poetry in addition to Nietzsche, often regarded as a poet, along with Heidegger on Rilke and Hölderlin and Stanley Cavell on Wallace Stevens. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: COLI, PHHN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3945. Philosophy and Art. (4 Credits)

Philosophy and Art is a course in philosophical aesthetics for upper-level students with interests both in philosophy and in the various artistic and literary disciplines. Starting from a historical survey of discussions of art, we consider issues such as mimesis and representation, the ontological and epistemological value of art, the structure of artistic experience, and the status of the artist as the origin of the work of art. Readings include selections from Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud, Dewey, Merleau-Ponty, Heidegger, Danto, Foucault and de Bolla, and are presented in conjunction with studied attention to works of visual art as well as works in other media. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: COLI, PHHN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3970. Humanity's Value. (4 Credits)

Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: BEVL, BIOE.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3975. Philosophy as a Way of Life. (4 Credits)

This course considers the role of philosophy in a happy life. Is a philosophical reflection necessary for a life worth living? Special attention will be given to the ancient Greek conception of philosophy as a way of life, especially in the writings of Plato and the Stoics, but modern understandings of philosophy will be considered as well. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHHN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3978. Philosophy and Digital Media. (4 Credits)

Participants in this course will examine the classic distinction, beginning with Plato, between orality and literacy, with an overview of the signal changes in mass reproduction from books to lithographs, photographs, film, and audio recording to today’s digital, online and cell-phone mediated culture, including texting and the Twitter and Instagram suffusion of everyday life, old new media like faxes and email, not to mention the ever changing varieties of social media, blogs, feeds, etc. To explore the changes wrought by the various technological means of ‘reproduction,’ ‘communication,’ and ‘representation,’ on human life and expression, authors to read include Walter Benjamin and Martin Heidegger as well as Theodor Adorno, in addition to McLuhan, Anders, Kittler, Baudrillard, and a bunch of ever changing new names. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHHN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3979. Philosophy and Media. (4 Credits)

Philosophy has been concerned with media since Plato’s Phaedo. Beginning with a discussion of orality and literacy and moving to explore so-called “new media,” including cell phone accessibility and its texting culture to the Twitter and Instagram suffusion of everyday life, faxes/email, Facebook, YouTube, etc. Participants will also review the signal change in the 19th C. from traditional print forms to photography, films, and recording. Examining the change wrought by technological means of reproduction on human life and expression. Possible authors include Benjamin, Adomo, Illich, de Certeau, Anders, Kittler, Attali, Baudrillard, Vinilio, and Laruelle. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHHN.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3980. Contemporary Issues in Metaethics. (4 Credits)

Metaethics steps back from moral debates to ask metaphysical, epistemological, and semantic questions about morality itself. The metaphysical questions seek to understand the nature of morality, asking questions such as: are there objective moral facts, or is morality culturally determined? If there are objective moral facts, are they like scientific facts? The epistemological questions seek to understand how we can know or be justified in believing moral claims. The semantic questions seek to understand what we mean when we use moral terms: are we making truth claims or are we just expressing our feelings? In this course, we will explore contemporary answers to these kinds of questions. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: BEHR, BIOE, PHMP.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3981. Ethics and the Internet. (4 Credits)

More and more of us are living our lives online, and much of our social infrastructure is increasingly mediated by digital networks. These realities present us with a host of new ethical and political questions. For example, is the internet good for ordinary users, or does it represent a massive threat to their mental or physical health? What has become of the right to privacy in the digital age? What should we think about the idea that social media users are actually products and not consumers? Do social media sites represent important tools for positive social change, or do they promote and enable violence and extremism? And what should we make of the potentially disturbing phenomenon of online shaming? In this course, students will engage with all of these questions, examining both classic and recent work by moral philosophers and social theorists. Students will leave this course better equipped to understand and critically analyze the internet and the role it plays in our lives. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: PHMP.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3990. Environmental Worldviews and Ethics. (4 Credits)

Survey of environmental philosophy worldviews and ethics such as the universe story, deep ecology, the land ethic, zoocentrism, biocentrism, ecofeminism, ecotheology, utilitarian economics, environmental pragmatism, ecological virtue ethics, and environmental justice. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: AMST, ENST, ENVS, ESEJ, ESEL, INST, ISIN, PHMP, PJEN, PJST.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 3999. Tutorial. (3 Credits)

Independent research and reading with supervision from a faculty member.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4001. Politics and Biopower. (4 Credits)

This course will examine the recent trend in Continental Philosophy that makes central the concept of life in understanding contemporary politics. The primary focus will be on the work of Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben, with readings also by Carl Schmitt, Hannah Arendt, Judith Butler, and others. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: BEHR, BIOE, PHMP.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4044. Modern Ethical Theories. (4 Credits)

This course is an introductory survey of major theories and themes in twentieth-century moral philosophy. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: BEHR, BIOE, PHMP.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4205. Seminar: Justice and Social Identity. (4 Credits)

This senior values seminar examines the multicultural environment of today's Western democracies which demands group recognition that challenges prevailing conceptions of justice and selfhood, and forces philosophers to rethink how our personal identify is formed and interpreted in relation to society. Ethnic and cultural aspects of personal identity and their implications for pressing issue in democratic justice will be studied. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: EP4, HHPA, HUST, PJRC, PJST, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4301. Happiness and Well-Being. (4 Credits)

An investigation into the nature and value of happiness and well-being (understood as connected concepts) from the perspective of both psychology and philosophy. Emphasis will be placed on research about the topic in each discipline, but efforts will also be made to explore fruitful interactions between the two disciplines in understanding the topic. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: ICC.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4302. Environmental Policy and Ethics. (4 Credits)

This seminar is designed primarily for philosophy, environmental studies and natural science majors and presuppose substantial previous course work in one or more of these disciplines. Using these disciplines, the ethical dimensions of environmental problems will be explored from an interdisciplinary perspective. Requirements include a 40 page essay blog, three class presentations, and a hands-on learning practicum outside of class (minimum 1 hr per week). Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: AMST, APPI, ASHS, ASRP, ENMI, ENST, ESEJ, ESEL, ICC, PJEN, PJST.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4303. Human Error: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives. (4 Credits)

This course takes error in human judgment and reasoning as its central topic. Human error is something we know about firsthand: we all make mistakes. That's a platitude, but in this course we will try to say more. Through reading and discussion of classic and recent work by philosophers and psychologists, we'll think carefully about error and the significance of error for our intellectual lives. What factors lead us to err? What kinds of mistakes are there to make? What's the reasonable response to learning that we may have make an error? What can be done to get things right more often? Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: ICC.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4304. The Philosophy and Economics of Law. (4 Credits)

This course examines the different ways in which philosophers and economists think about the law, with a focus on property, tort, contract, and criminal law. Readings are both historical and contemporary. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: BIOE, ICC.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4305. The City as Text: Modernity and Moderism in London. (4 Credits)

This course examines the relationship between theoretical ideas of modernity and the literature and art criticism of modernism, with London as its cultural geography. Philosophical descriptions of modernity and theories of Marx, Darwin and Freud serve as a basis for understanding transformations in human self-understanding that characterize the mid 19th to early 20th centuries. We examine modern literary works influenced by these transformations, all written and set in London, by Dickens, Kipling, Rhys, Woolf, Eliot, Yeats, and the modernist art critics Fry and Hulme. Interconnections between theory, literature, and art are emphasized through readings and excursions in the city. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4310. Human Rights in Context. (4 Credits)

Human rights have become a universal language of protest. When and how did this happen? What are human rights and how are they justified? Do they mean the same thing in all the contexts in which they are invoked around the world? To address such questions we focus on how different methodologies – mainly historical, philosophical, and ethnographic – produce knowledge about human rights. For instance, what can we learn by identifying historical continuities and discontinuities between different conceptions of rights? What can we learn about human rights from the kind of conceptual analysis that many philosophers do? How can the “thick description” of ethnography help us understand the meaning and effects of human rights discourse in various settings? Finally, can historical, philosophical, and ethnographic approaches to human rights be fruitfully combined? Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: BEHR, ICC, PJCR, PJIN, PJST.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4315. Jane Austen and Moral Philosophy. (4 Credits)

This course will examine the novels of Jane Austen as works of moral philosophy, asking both how these works of fiction can be considered as such and also what moral questions and positions we can find in them. Moral topics to be considered include the role of emotions in morality, moral education and the cultivation of virtue, moral perception and judgment, and the relation of the individual to society. We will also read selections from works (philosophical and literary) by authors who were near contemporaries of Austen’s, including Samuel Johnson, David Hume, Jane Collier, Hannah More, Adam Smith, and Mary Wollstonecraft. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: COLI, ENGL, ICC.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4366. Scientific Progress and the History of Science. (4 Credits)

Scientific progress is astounding. In a few short centuries, human civilization has gone from not knowing what the speed of light is, to measuring gravitational waves in distant galaxies and sending messages to one another on invisible electromagnetic waves that permeate the space around us. But understanding exactly what it means to say that progress was made in a particular episode in the history of science is a difficult historical and philosophical puzzle. Our class focuses on characterizing scientific progress, and to do so, we’ll draw on resources from both the history of science and the philosophy of science. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: ICC.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4405. Freedom of Expression and Toleration. (4 Credits)

This course will examine ethical and political questions regarding freedom of expression and toleration. We live in a world of diverse viewpoints and diverse religious beliefs. In the United States, the freedom to express these viewpoints and exercise those religious beliefs is guaranteed by the First Amendment. But what ethical and political values can be taken to underlie these rights? How should the state act in order to uphold those ethical and political values? How should the state act in order to uphold those ethical and political values? How should individuals react when encountering viewpoints and beliefs at odds with their own? And how might underlying ethical and political values guide us regarding controversial cases of free expression? This course will attempt to answer these questions. The course will focus primarily on the philosophical foundations of free express and religious toleration but will also consider how those philosophical foundations relate to further controversial cases of speech. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: EP4, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4407. Gender, Power, and Justice. (4 Credits)

The seminar examines the impact of gender norms, roles and assumptions on the moral structure of social life. The seminar will draw on the extensive materials available from feminist theory of ethics, law, and society; the developing body of work on the cultural construction of masculinity, and its moral and social impacts; and new interest in gender differences and women's welfare in global context. The subject cannot fail to be fundamental to student's personal experiences of social and political life. especially as they make the transition from college years to the workplace or to professional training. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ADVD, AMST, APPI, ASHS, EP4, VAL, WGSS.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4408. Hospitality and Cosmopolitanism. (4 Credits)

This course examines contemporary approaches to hospitality as it relates to "otherness" and cosmopolitanism. Issues addressed include personal and political forgiveness, representations of cultural and racial "others" in media and literature, and the relation between the search for identity and openness to foreigners. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: EP4, OCHS, OCST, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4409. Environmental Ethics. (4 Credits)

This senior values seminar surveys major theories in environmental ethics dealing with our moral duties regarding nature, including environmental stewardship, sustainable development, environmental justice, ecological virtue ethics, animal rights, biocentrism, Leopold's land ethic, and ecological feminism. It has not only philosophical but also scientific, economic, political, and design dimensions, as it deals with such topics as global warming, alternative energy, pollution control, suburban sprawl, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and the prospect of a sixth mass species extinction event threatening the future of human and nonhuman life as we know it. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ENMI, ENST, EP4, ESEJ, ESEL, INST, ISIN, PJEN, PJST, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

Mutually Exclusive: PHIL 3109.

PHIL 4410. Love and Empire. (4 Credits)

The course is an examination of philosophy as practiced in ancient Rome. The Romans took to philosophy just as the Republic was teetering on the brink of collapse and the Empire taking shape. In this era, most people sought peace but found only strife. Some insisted that the purpose of life was pleasure, others duty. Nearly all agreed that there was no time for academic obscurities, only the big questions: the meaning of life, the possibility of knowing, the nature of love, the value of friendship, the best form of government, the rightness of empire, and the character of death. Philosophy was a passionate search for the wisdom that would lead to the good human life and the well-run empire. It was “ordinary people” who engaged in philosophy, from every walk of life, whether emperor (Marcus Aurelius) or slave (Epictetus), politician (Cicero) or poet (Vergil). Seneca philosophized while serving as the Emperor Nero’s chief advisor; Marcus Aurelius wrote his meditations while fighting barbarians on the frontier. Students will study all five of the major schools of Hellenistic philosophy that arose after the conquests of Alexander the Great— Stoicism Skepticism, Cynicism, Epicureanism, and Neo-Platonism—each found disciples in the Roman Empire. The Roman philosophers were often outstanding writers—masters of rhetoric—who presented their philosophy in poems, plays, or personal diaries. Hence special attention will be given to the philosophical “battle of the poets,” Lucretius vs. Vergil, as they fought for the soul of the Roman world. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: CLAS, EP4, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4412. Classical Values: Art of Living. (4 Credits)

This course considers the art of living a human life, focusing on classical values including poetry and philosophy, with special attention to the Stoic conception of the cultivation or care of the self. Readings include Homer and Pindar as well as Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius and commentaries ranging from Nietzsche and Foucault to Pierre Hadot, Alasdaur MacIntyre, and Alexander Nehamas. Previously PHIL 3512. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: CLAS, EP4, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4413. Religion and Morality. (4 Credits)

An exploration of the religious life in terms of the question, What does it mean to be religious? The seminar will then study differing views of the relation of the religious to the moral life, personal and social, including the formation of conscience and moral judgment, from writers such as Augustine, Kierkegaard, Kant, Levinas and Marx. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: EP4, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4416. Art, Morality, and Politics. (4 Credits)

The seminar explores the inter-relationship among artistic, moral and political values. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: AMST, COLI, EP4, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4418. Issues of Life and Death. (4 Credits)

The objective of this course is to make students aware of several issues in biology and medicine that require moral reflection, judgment, or decision, while also indicating how justified moral conclusions are reached. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ADVD, AMCS, AMST, APPI, ASHS, ASRP, BEVL, BIOE, EP4, HHPA, HUST, LPHP, REST, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4422. Harry Potter and Philosophy (ICC). (4 Credits)

This course will use the Harry Potter novels to explore several central themes in philosophy, and will use philosophical analysis to interpret the books and their cultural impact. Some central topics of the course will include: the nature and relationships of minds, souls, and bodies; the conflict of good and evil and some related issues in moral psychology and the ethics of ‘love’; metaphysical implications of the magical world of HP and its enchantment of muggles. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: AMST, CCUS, ICC.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4423. Business Ethics. (4 Credits)

Business ethics is the study of moral values and conduct in business institutional contexts. The seminar will combine study of ethical theories with analysis of case studies involving real-world ethical issues that managers, employees, firms and other business stakeholders are dealing with today and that members of the class may face in the future. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: EP4, PJEC, PJST, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4425. Buddhist Moral Thought. (4 Credits)

This course focuses on Buddhist ethical thought and practice, as well as interpretations and developments of this from Western perspectives. We will discuss topics such as karma, happiness, enlightenment (nirvana), meditation and moral development, emotions such as compassion and anger, as well as free will, responsibility, and determinism. We will also examine practical issues such as human rights, environmental ethics, and war and violence. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: EP4, INST, ISAS, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4430. Education and Democracy. (4 Credits)

In this seminar we will investigate the relationship between education and democracy. In what ways does democracy depend on education? Do some educational practices promote democratic values better than others? Should education be in the service of politics at all? We will examine answers to these questions and others found in a number of different philosophical traditions, reading the work of authors such as John Dewey, Paolo Friere, bell hooks, Martha Nassbaum, and Jacques Ranciere. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: EP4, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4436. Rethinking Citizenship. (4 Credits)

This course will reflect on the concept of citizenship, the rights and responsibilities, the practice of citizenship and some contemporary challenges to the notion of citizenship. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: EP4, LALS, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4442. Fantasy and Philosophy. (4 Credits)

An interdisciplinary study of moral themes in J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings." The course focuses on Tolkien's artistic treatment of such philosophical questions as the lure of power, good and evil, freedom and fate, the nature of the divine, the natural environment and the function of literature in human life. We may consider similar themes in the works of other prominent fantasy authors. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: EP4, MVPH, MVST, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4444. AI, Sci Fi, and Human Value. (4 Credits)

Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: CCUS, COMC, COMM, EP4, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4455. Respectful Disagreement. (4 Credits)

This seminar concerns a problem that has broad practical implications, concerns how we should conduct our intellectual lives, and is of great interest in philosophy: what should we do when we find out that someone we consider just as intelligent and informed as we are on a certain topic disagrees with us on that topic? If we stick with our opinion are we being arrogant? If we give up our old belief are we considered spineless? We all hold opinions we know are denied by people we consider our peers or even superiors on the relevant topic, whether it's religious, political, or specific to our favorite fields of study. This seminar examines this common situation. Previously PHIL 3255. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: EP4, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4470. Lincoln: Democratic Values. (4 Credits)

This senior seminar will survey key themes in American political philosophy from the Federalist Papers to the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, focusing on rival conceptions of the moral conditions that must be met for democratic government to count as legitimate, or capable of making law that deserves our principled allegiance. Using famous texts by Henry Jaffa and Gary Wills, we will consider the relation between popular sovereignty and human rights; the balance between personal conscience and constitutional order; and arguments for greater centralization of power for essential coordination and to secure basic justice. We will reconstruct this ideal of democratic justice from the tradition of ‘civic republicanism’ as it developed in the Federalist and Whig parties up to 1860. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: AMST, PJCR, PJST, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4473. War and Peace: Just War Theory. (4 Credits)

This seminar in applied ethics will examine the history and development of just war doctrine with special attention given to its medieval and classical theorists, e.g., Augustine, Aquinas, Vitoria, Suarez and Grotius. Students will debate the central questions just war theory was developed to address: what war is, whether war may be waged, and if so under what circumstances and in what ways. Before investigating just war theory, students will examine two rival ethical theories about war, namely, pacificism and realism. The closing weeks of the semester will focus on current issues and challenges for just war doctrine, especially pre-emptive war, terrorism, and counter-insurgency. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: BEVL, EP4, INST, ISIN, MVPH, MVST, PJCR, PJIN, PJST, PJWT, REST, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4480. Technology and Values. (4 Credits)

This senior values seminar examines the challenge that modern technology presents to our traditional ethical standpoints and, ultimately, to the very idea of an ethical culture insofar as modern technology has shifted from merely serving the culture to shaping the culture in fundamental ways regarding the measure of our humanity. Previously PHIL 3180. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: EP4, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4484. Freedom and Responsibility. (4 Credits)

The course will investigate several problems concerning freedom, responsibility and the morality of punishment. Is freedom possible in a world completely governed by physical laws? How can I be blamed (or praised) for my actions, given that upbringing, character, and environment are largely matters of luck? Is the practice of punishing criminals morally justifiable? How? Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: BEHR, BIOE, EP4, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4486. Evil, Vice, and Sin. (4 Credits)

This senior values seminar takes a negative strategy in approaching moral questions by focusing on actions labeled "evil", "vicious", "sinful" in order to create an opportunity for reflecting on the reality and experience of evil from which we might evolve some positive conception of "value" as well as the context and nature of moral choice and conscience. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: AMST, ASRP, EP4, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4490. Itineraries of Desire. (4 Credits)

This seminar explores some of the major ways in which desire (broadly construed to include appetite, longing, yearning, attraction, drive, etc.) has been understood and described in the history of philosophy and in contemporary society. Philosophers frequently marginalize desire, considering it to be contrary to reason, unpredictable, or even an obstacle to the quest for knowledge. But desire is an essential dimension of the human condition, and it can reveal aspects of ourselves that are yet unknown to us. From Plato’s dialogues on eros to Lady Gaga’s “Shallow,” human beings have felt compelled to express, interrogate, and pursue their deepest desires. Students will have the chance not only to learn what authors and intellectuals have written on the topic, but also to reflect on the way they themselves think and live their desires. To this end, they will confront perennial questions about desire and deliberate about their answers. What is desire? Is it a unified phenomenon or are drive, appetite, and longing essentially different from one another? Is desire for the sake of something (such as virtue or knowledge) or is it the arbitrary result of our biology? Would the latter diminish the value of desire itself and of what is desired? Is something desired because it is good, or is it good because it is desired?.

Attributes: EP4, VAL.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4800. Internship. (4 Credits)

Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4990. Senior Thesis: Philosophy. (4 Credits)

A work of supervised philosophical research of at least 10,000 words. To register students must get the permission of the associate chair for undergraduate studies in the Spring semester of their junior year.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.

PHIL 4999. Tutorial. (4 Credits)

Supervised individual study project.

Prerequisites: PHIL 3000 or HPLC 1001 or HPRH 1002 or HPRH 1103.