Below is a listing of the classes being offered for Fall 2008. For information on specific times, days and instructors, please check  the Master Class Schedule on NOVASIS.

PHI 1050 - 001 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21252

The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.
Instructors: Geoffrey Karabin

PHI 1050 - 002 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21253

Days: MWF from 08:30 am to 09:20 am

The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.
Instructors: Elizabeth Irvine

PHI 1050 - 003 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21254

Days: MWF from 09:30 am to 10:20 am 

The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.
Instructors: Michael Olson

PHI 1050 - 004 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21255

Days: MWF from 09:30 am to 10:20 am

The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.
Instructors: Raoni Padui

PHI 1050 - 005 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21256

Days: MWF from 10:30 am to 11:20 am

The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.
Instructors: Michael Olson

PHI 1050 - 006 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21257

Days: MWF from 10:30 am to 11:20 am

The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.
Instructors: Raoni Padui
 

PHI 1050 - 007 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21258

Days: MWF from 10:30 am to 11:20 pm

The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.
Instructors: Neil Brophy

PHI 1050 - 008 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21259

Days: MWF from 11:30 am to 12:20 pm

The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.
Instructors: John Immerwahr

PHI 1050 - 009 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21260

Days: MWF from 11:30 pm to 12:20 pm
 
The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.
Instructors: Neil Brophy

PHI 1050 - 010 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21261

Days: MWF from 12:30 pm to 01:20 pm
 
The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.
Instructors: Thomas Busch

PHI 1050 - 012 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21263

Days: MW from 03:00 pm to 04:15 pm
 
The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.
Instructors: Ivan Alexi Kukuljevic

PHI 1050 - 013 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21264

Days: MW from 03:00 pm to 04:15 pm

The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.
Instructors:  Ivan Alexi Kukuljevic

PHI 1050 - 014 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21265

Days: MW 4:30 - 5:45

The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.

PHI 1050 - 015 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21266

Days: TR from 08:30 am to 09:45 am 

The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.
Instructors: Christopher Ruth

PHI 1050 - 016 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21267

Days: TR from 08:30 am to 09:45 am 

The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.
Instructors: Sarah Vitale

PHI 1050 - 017 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21268

Days: TR from 10:00 am to 11:15 am

The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.
Instructors: James Eric Butler (P)

PHI 1050 - 018 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21269

Days: TR from 10:00 am to 11:15 am

The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.
Instructors: Christopher Davidson

PHI 1050 - 019 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21270

Days: TR from 11:30 am to 12:45 pm

The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.
Instructors: James Eric Butler (P)

PHI 1050 - 020 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21271

Days: TR from 11:30 am to 12:45 pm

The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.
Instructors: Christopher Davidson

PHI 1050 - 021 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21272

Days: TR from 01:00 pm to 02:15 pm

The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.

PHI 1050 - 022 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21273

Days: TR from 02:30 pm to 03:45pm

The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.
Instructors: Jeffrey Gower

PHI 1050 - 023 Intro to Philosophy CRN: 21274

 Days: TR from 04:00 pm to 05:15 pm

The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to major texts in the history of philosophy and familiarize them with some of its most important questions. About a third of the course will be spent on ancient and medieval philosophy, with its struggle to answer questions about the nature of reality and its political and metaphysical significance. Then we will move to the moderns, bringing up questions about how it is that we come to know the external world. The course will conclude with the major contemporary critics of modernity and capitalism, critics that attempt to examine the very project of what philosophy does or can do in the modern world.
Instructors:

PHI 2010 - 001 Logic & Critical Thinking CRN: 22707

Days: MWF from 09:30 am to 10:20 am

This course will give you a solid foundation in sentential and predicate logic. It will also teach you to think through arguments more methodically and rigorously; and it will develop your reading and reasoning abilities.
Instructors: Paul Taylor Trussell (P)

PHI 2010 - 002 Logic & Critical Thinking CRN: 22709

Days: MW from 01:30 pm to 02:45 pm

Argument, or discourse that claims to give reasons for believing something, is a familiar and ubiquitous part of our legal, scientific, economic, political, and moral life. Without arguments—that is, without giving each other reasons for holding certain claims as true and others as false—society could not be held together, unless one supposes that force or habit could do the job for a time. Logic is the study of the formal dimension of arguments. As such it uniquely belongs at once to philosophy, alongside ontology, epistemology, ethics, etc., and to mathematics, where it distinguishes a subdiscipline on the same level as algebra, geometry, or analysis. In this course, we shall try to do justice to logic’s double classification by setting up a conversation between philosophy and mathematics, weaving back and forth between formal proofs and elucidations carried out in the less formal but more searching language of a thought which orients itself according to philosophy’s fundamental questions. Without conflating the two, this conversation will hopefully shed light on both philosophical and mathematical ideas through their mutual elucidation. The course will comprise three units, introducing respectively what are known as 'informal logic', 'formal logic', and 'metalogic'. In the first two parts of the course, we will learn how to build and use some typical logical-mathematical systems—categorical, sentential, and predicate logic—while reflecting upon their philosophical motivation (why build them?) and their particular components (do they work?). At this stage, the drive is toward greater formalization, while at the same time we will remark upon the challenge to formalization that persists in the form—or formlessness—of ordinary language. By the end of Unit Two, you will be empowered to use some basic logical systems to assist your thinking about an endless variety of issues, and also to think about the limits of such systems from the outside. Unit III will introduce you to the interesting techniques and deep concepts of metalogic—the philosophical and mathematical reflection on logical systems and their limitations, which made it possible to think about the very idea of a logical system, about the implications and limitations of this idea, from the inside. The results studied in this section form a key part of the intellectual inheritance of the late nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. They are vital for understanding recent developments in philosophy, mathematics, physics, and information theory which impact the orientation of contemporary life. Moreover, they are often deep, surprising, and beautiful. The leading idea of this part of the course is “incompleteness”, referring to the results first proved by the logician Kurt Gödel in 1931 and subsequently known as the 'First and Second Incompleteness Theorems'. These theorems forever changed our philosophical picture of logic and its powers. Their consequences are still being thought through at the cutting edge of our civilization. You might say that in 1931, logic started talking about itself, and we are still interpreting what it had to say.
Instructors: John Bova (P)

PHI 2010 - 003 Logic & Critical Thinking CRN: 23067

Days: MW from 03:00 pm to 04:15 pm

Argument, or discourse that claims to give reasons for believing something, is a familiar and ubiquitous part of our legal, scientific, economic, political, and moral life. Without arguments—that is, without giving each other reasons for holding certain claims as true and others as false—society could not be held together, unless one supposes that force or habit could do the job for a time. Logic is the study of the formal dimension of arguments. As such it uniquely belongs at once to philosophy, alongside ontology, epistemology, ethics, etc., and to mathematics, where it distinguishes a subdiscipline on the same level as algebra, geometry, or analysis. In this course, we shall try to do justice to logic’s double classification by setting up a conversation between philosophy and mathematics, weaving back and forth between formal proofs and elucidations carried out in the less formal but more searching language of a thought which orients itself according to philosophy’s fundamental questions. Without conflating the two, this conversation will hopefully shed light on both philosophical and mathematical ideas through their mutual elucidation. The course will comprise three units, introducing respectively what are known as 'informal logic', 'formal logic', and 'metalogic'. In the first two parts of the course, we will learn how to build and use some typical logical-mathematical systems—categorical, sentential, and predicate logic—while reflecting upon their philosophical motivation (why build them?) and their particular components (do they work?). At this stage, the drive is toward greater formalization, while at the same time we will remark upon the challenge to formalization that persists in the form—or formlessness—of ordinary language. By the end of Unit Two, you will be empowered to use some basic logical systems to assist your thinking about an endless variety of issues, and also to think about the limits of such systems from the outside. Unit III will introduce you to the interesting techniques and deep concepts of metalogic—the philosophical and mathematical reflection on logical systems and their limitations, which made it possible to think about the very idea of a logical system, about the implications and limitations of this idea, from the inside. The results studied in this section form a key part of the intellectual inheritance of the late nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. They are vital for understanding recent developments in philosophy, mathematics, physics, and information theory which impact the orientation of contemporary life. Moreover, they are often deep, surprising, and beautiful. The leading idea of this part of the course is “incompleteness”, referring to the results first proved by the logician Kurt Gödel in 1931 and subsequently known as the 'First and Second Incompleteness Theorems'. These theorems forever changed our philosophical picture of logic and its powers. Their consequences are still being thought through at the cutting edge of our civilization. You might say that in 1931, logic started talking about itself, and we are still interpreting what it had to say
Instructors: John Bova (P)
 

PHI 2115 - 001 Ethics for Health Care Prof CRN: 23068

Days: TR from 10:00 am to 11:15 am

This section of Ethics for Healthcare Professionals will be a discussion-based examination and analysis of the ethical issues embedded in clinical practice. Drawing heavily on narrative, research, and clinical literature from nursing and medicine, we will reflect on some of the morally salient elements of clinical decision making, with particular emphasis on the interaction and relationships between patients and their healthcare team, patients and their families, healthcare professionals and healthcare institutions, and individual members of various healthcare teams. We will also spend some time talking about the role of ethics in policy-formation, and the interplay between hospital/institutional policy and decisions at the bedside. This course is geared toward future clinicians. Non-clinicians are welcome to take the course, but need to be aware of the professional focus of the readings and assignments. Note: This is a discussion-based course. Students who are not willing to actively prepare for and participate in class discussion should not enroll in this course Instructors:
Instructors: Timothy W. Kirk (P)

 PHI 2115 - 002 Ethics for Health Care Prof CRN: 23069

Days: TR from 11:30 am to 12:45 pm
Instructors: Sarah-Vaughan Brakman (P)
Restrictions: May not be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Continuing Studies

PHI 2115 - 003 Ethics for Health Care Prof CRN: 23070

Days: TR from 04:00 pm to 05:15 pm

This section of Ethics for Healthcare Professionals will be a discussion-based examination and analysis of the ethical issues embedded in clinical practice. Drawing heavily on narrative, research, and clinical literature from nursing and medicine, we will reflect on some of the morally salient elements of clinical decision making, with particular emphasis on the interaction and relationships between patients and their healthcare team, patients and their families, healthcare professionals and healthcare institutions, and individual members of various healthcare teams. We will also spend some time talking about the role of ethics in policy-formation, and the interplay between hospital/institutional policy and decisions at the bedside. This course is geared toward future clinicians. Non-clinicians are welcome to take the course, but need to be aware of the professional focus of the readings and assignments. Note: This is a discussion-based course. Students who are not willing to actively prepare for and participate in class discussion should not enroll in this course Instructors:
Instructors: Timothy W. Kirk (P)
Restrictions: May not be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Continuing Studies

PHI 2121 - X20 Environmental Ethics CRN: 23071

Days: MW from 01:30 pm to 02:45 pm

Environmental Ethics as an area of philosophical inquiry that critically engages questions and issues regarding the ethical relationship between human beings and the natural world that we inhabit. How has the relation between human societies and nature been constructed through ideas, discourses, values, and practices? How ought we behave toward, and interact with what environmental philosophers call the “more-than-human world”? How have the ideas we currently hold toward beings and entities in nature emerged throughout western intellectual history? What ideas within western philosophical and theological traditions may contribute to eco-social crisis, and which ones carry the potential to forge healthy, sustainable, and just relations with the natural world?
This course examines these and other questions in part through a survey of classic and contemporary authors and positions. Areas of environmental ethics explored include:

• Anthropocentric (human-centered) ethics
• Ecocentric ethics
• Environmental Justice
• Ecofeminism
• Social, Political, and Economic Thought and the Environment
• Deep Ecology
• Religious and Faith-Based Responses to Environmental Crisis
• Eco-phenomenology
• Philosophies of Place
• Environmental Theory and Praxis

The course is discussion-based, and students throughout the term engage in a environmental perception and reflection project which entails locating a nearby place in nature, and coming into conscious interaction with it. Students engage in philosophical practice as we inquire into the moral, political, metaphysical, ontological, and epistemological status of that which is called “nature” or “the environment.” A central theme of the course is to identify the ways that philosophical dualisms (normative, metaphysical, hierarchical) have served in the western tradition to separate and subordinate nature to humans, and how such beliefs are entangled with social inequalities. In addition to looking critically at conceptual beliefs and practices that affect the environment, this course explores emerging liberatory positions, movements, and ideas that resist human destruction of the natural environment and seek to transform the way humans relate with the natural world.

Instructors: Chaone Mallory (P)
Attributes: Cross-listed course
Comment: Cross-listed with PJ 2000.

PHI 2121 - X21 Environmental Ethics CRN: 23072

Days: MW from 03:00 pm to 04:15 pm

Environmental Ethics as an area of philosophical inquiry that critically engages questions and issues regarding the ethical relationship between human beings and the natural world that we inhabit. How has the relation between human societies and nature been constructed through ideas, discourses, values, and practices? How ought we behave toward, and interact with what environmental philosophers call the “more-than-human world”? How have the ideas we currently hold toward beings and entities in nature emerged throughout western intellectual history? What ideas within western philosophical and theological traditions may contribute to eco-social crisis, and which ones carry the potential to forge healthy, sustainable, and just relations with the natural world?
This course examines these and other questions in part through a survey of classic and contemporary authors and positions. Areas of environmental ethics explored include:

• Anthropocentric (human-centered) ethics
• Ecocentric ethics
• Environmental Justice
• Ecofeminism
• Social, Political, and Economic Thought and the Environment
• Deep Ecology
• Religious and Faith-Based Responses to Environmental Crisis
• Eco-phenomenology
• Philosophies of Place
• Environmental Theory and Praxis

The course is discussion-based, and students throughout the term engage in a environmental perception and reflection project which entails locating a nearby place in nature, and coming into conscious interaction with it. Students engage in philosophical practice as we inquire into the moral, political, metaphysical, ontological, and epistemological status of that which is called “nature” or “the environment.” A central theme of the course is to identify the ways that philosophical dualisms (normative, metaphysical, hierarchical) have served in the western tradition to separate and subordinate nature to humans, and how such beliefs are entangled with social inequalities. In addition to looking critically at conceptual beliefs and practices that affect the environment, this course explores emerging liberatory positions, movements, and ideas that resist human destruction of the natural environment and seek to transform the way humans relate with the natural world.
Instructors: Chaone Mallory (P)
Attributes: Cross-listed course
Comment: Cross-listed with PJ 2000.

PHI 2140 - 001 Phil of Criminal Justice CRN: 23073

This course begins, and spends most of its time, examining the debate between opposed views on 19 issues in crime and criminology. Then Sr. Helen Prejean, spiritual advisor to two men on death row, gives her “eyewitness account of” their “wrongful executions.” She gives much evidence of the innocence of Joseph O’Dell, executed by Virginia in 1997, and of Dobie Gillis Williams, executed by Louisiana in 1999.
The teacher’s style is primarily lecture with extensive use of the blackboard. There are three tests, each on one-third of the course material. The student must do two of the three assigned five-page paper topics.
The required texts are:
1) Thomas Hickey, ed.. Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Crime and Criminology, 7th ed. (Dubuque, Iowa: McGraw-Hill, 2006) ISBN 0-07-319490-5.
2) Sr. Helen Prejean, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions (New York: Vintage Books, 2005) ISBN 0-679-75948-4.

PHI 2140 - 002 Phil of Criminal Justice CRN: 23074

Days: TR from 01:00 pm to 02:15 pm

This course begins, and spends most of its time, examining the debate between opposed views on 19 issues in crime and criminology. Then Sr. Helen Prejean, spiritual advisor to two men on death row, gives her “eyewitness account of” their “wrongful executions.” She gives much evidence of the innocence of Joseph O’Dell, executed by Virginia in 1997, and of Dobie Gillis Williams, executed by Louisiana in 1999.
The teacher’s style is primarily lecture with extensive use of the blackboard. There are three tests, each on one-third of the course material. The student must do two of the three assigned five-page paper topics.
The required texts are:
3) Thomas Hickey, ed.. Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Crime and Criminology, 7th ed. (Dubuque, Iowa: McGraw-Hill, 2006) ISBN 0-07-319490-5.
4) Sr. Helen Prejean, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions (New York: Vintage Books, 2005) ISBN 0-679-75948-4.
Instructors: Joseph Betz (P)

PHI 2300 - 001 Philosophy of Law CRN: 23075

Days: TR from 11:30 am to 12:45 pm
Instructors: James J. McCartney (P)

PHI 2300 - 002 Philosophy of Law CRN: 23076

Days: TR from 02:30 pm to 03:45 pm
Instructors: James J. McCartney (P)

PHI 2420 - 001 Philosophy of Women CRN: 23077

Days: MW from 03:00 pm to 04:15 pm

While philosophy claims to address universal questions including human nature, knowledge, ethics, and politics, what philosophers have written about women in the context of these supposedly universal discussions has often simply excluded them, or even worse, has seemed explicitly misogynistic.   In Philosophy of Women we will read the relatively recent works of feminist philosophers who have tried to address the historical oversights and political exclusions of past philosophers.  Recent feminist philosophers have tried to address the problem of women’s exclusion in two different ways; some promote equality as the means of rectifying past and present injustices, while others embrace difference as the principle that should undergird philosophical thought.   We will study writers from both camps and compare these two broad trends in feminist thought throughout the semester. 

In order to study the movements within feminist philosophy we will: Define sex and gender, Discuss men’s and women’s identities in the contexts of family, politics, and  society, Define feminism, Identify various types of feminism, Discuss metaphysical, epistemological, social and political, and ethical issues that relate specifically to sex and gender. Readings will include seminal works by Simone de Beauvoir, bell hooks, Luce Irigaray, excerpts by many other authors, and references to thinkers throughout the history of philosophy.
Instructors: Katie H. Grosh (P)
Attributes: Diversity Requirement 2, Writing Enriched Requirement

PHI 2420 - 002 Philosophy of Women CRN: 23078

Days: MWF from 11:30 am to 12:20 pm

While philosophy claims to address universal questions including human nature, knowledge, ethics, and politics, what philosophers have written about women in the context of these supposedly universal discussions has often simply excluded them, or even worse, has seemed explicitly misogynistic.   In Philosophy of Women we will read the relatively recent works of feminist philosophers who have tried to address the historical oversights and political exclusions of past philosophers.  Recent feminist philosophers have tried to address the problem of women’s exclusion in two different ways; some promote equality as the means of rectifying past and present injustices, while others embrace difference as the principle that should undergird philosophical thought.   We will study writers from both camps and compare these two broad trends in feminist thought throughout the semester. 

In order to study the movements within feminist philosophy we will: Define sex and gender, Discuss men’s and women’s identities in the contexts of family, politics, and  society, Define feminism, Identify various types of feminism, Discuss metaphysical, epistemological, social and political, and ethical issues that relate specifically to sex and gender. Readings will include seminal works by Simone de Beauvoir, bell hooks, Luce Irigaray, excerpts by many other authors, and references to thinkers throughout the history of philosophy.
Instructors: Katie H. Grosh(P)
Attributes: Diversity Requirement 2, Writing Enriched Requirement

 
PHI 2450 - X22 Catholic Social Thought CRN: 23079

Days: MWF from 11:30 am to 12:20 pm

This course is designed to examine the last century of Catholic Social Thought from Rerum Novarum to present. In 1891, Leo XIII makes it clear that Catholic Social Thought is grounded in the social and political philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. Reflections, therefore, on the Aristotelean-Thomistic understanding of the virtues (especially the distinction between justice and charity) and their respective duties will serve for making clear the basic principles of Catholic teaching. Aquinas’ reliance on Augustinian thought is also reiterated in this tradition. In Catholic Social Thought the axiological nature of our social, political, and economic systems are analyzed philosophically as well as scripturally. The duty of the Church to be a voice in evaluating these systems is confirmed in several papal encyclicals as well as several pastoral letters of the American bishops. This rich tradition of social philosophy and moral theology may one day cease to be what the Center for Concern has termed the Church’s “best kept secret.”
Instructors: Daniel T. Regan (P)
Attributes: Cross-listed course
Comment: Cross-listed with PJ 2600.

PHI 2710 - 001 Theories of Knowledge CRN: 23080

Days: TR from 11:30 am to 12:45 pm

In this course we shall consider what it means to think critically about the things that we supposedly “know.” Concentrating on a variety of views, such as those of Plato, Thomas, Descartes and Kant, we shall consider questions concerning the difference between appearance and reality, opinion and knowledge, and the role of the sensation in claims of knowledge.
Instructors: Helen S. Lang (P)

PHI 2750 - 001 Philosophy of Art CRN: 23081

Days: MW from 04:30 pm to 05:45 pm

PHI 2900 - X23 TOP: Faith & Reason CRN: 23082

Days: TR from 01:00 pm to 02:15 pm

This course will use philosophical reasoning to examine several problems that have vexed the Jewish and Christian religions. We will focus on three questions in particular: What, if anything, can we know about God? What is the relationship between faith and reason? And if God is all good, all knowing, and all powerful, then why does evil exist? Popular films will be used to spark discussion and introduce readings about these questions.

Instructors: Michael M. Waddell (P)
Attributes: Cross-listed course, Writing Enriched Requirement
Comment: Cross-listed with THL 3790.

PHI 2900 - X24 TOP: Faith & Reason CRN: 23083

Days: TR from 02:30 pm to 03:45 pm

This course will use philosophical reasoning to examine several problems that have vexed the Jewish and Christian religions. We will focus on three questions in particular: What, if anything, can we know about God? What is the relationship between faith and reason? And if God is all good, all knowing, and all powerful, then why does evil exist? Popular films will be used to spark discussion and introduce readings about these questions.
Instructors: Michael M. Waddell (P)
Attributes: Cross-listed course, Writing Enriched Requirement
Comment: Cross-listed with THL 3790.

PHI 2990 - 001 TOP: Intimacy CRN: 23087

Days: TR from 02:30 pm to 03:45 pm Instructors: Timothy W. Kirk (P)
Attributes: Writing Enriched Requirement

PHI 2990 - X19 TOP: The Problem of Love CRN: 23084

Days: TR from 08:30 am to 09:45 am

Instructors: David C. Schindler (P)

Reading a broad survey of philosophical discussions of love, we will focus on a basic question: is it possible to love something or someone other than oneself? Or, to put the question another way, is it possible to transcend selfishness? Beginning with reflections on this question offered by Plato and Aristotle, we will trace the development of their ideas through the Christian middle ages, and compare a number of contemporary interpretations. Among the various issues we will address are the relationship between the self and the other, the relationship between eros and agape, love and altruism, love and the legitimate desire for self-fulfillment, the question of whether it is, in fact, possible to love God and the question whether Christianity adds anything to our conception of the nature of love. Fulfills an upper level Philosophy in the Core Curriculum.

Attributes: Cross-listed course, Writing Enriched Requirement
Comment: Cross-listed with HUM 4350.

PHI 2990 - X43 TOP: Nature of Human Freedom CRN: 23085

Days: TR from 02:30 pm to 03:45 pm Instructors: David C. Schindler (P)

History of philosophy texts discussing meaning of freedom, (Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Hobbes, Locke, Spinoza, Leibniz, Schiller, Schelling).  Relationship of intellect and will, freedom and the good, free choice and determinism, and autonomy and respect for others. 

Attributes: Cross-listed course, Writing Enriched Requirement
Comment: Cross-listed with HUM 3170.

PHI 3020 - 001 History of Ancient Philosophy CRN: 23093

Days: TR from 01:00 pm to 02:15 pm

This is a course that will focus on the origins of Western thinking. We will study Thales, Anaximander, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides and Democritus as examples of early Greek thinking. To some extent these early thinkers represent cosmological and mythological relationships to the world that provide alternative approaches to what in later Greek philosophy became more “philosophical” and scientific views. We will then turn to Plato and a study of two of his major works, The Republic, still considered one of the great classics of literature and political philosophy in the West and The Symposium, his famous dialogue on love. Plato’s Republic is an especially important source book. Many of his ideas about human community have been formative throughout the ages, and we will approach a study of this text not only for the sake of knowing his ideas, but also from our contemporary perspective on the issues he raises. Finally we will study Aristotle’s Metaphysics (and related topics as they arise from the Physics and Ethics), a work whose concepts are still today formative for our culture.
Texts
Hyland, Drew The Origins of Philosophy Humanity Books 1573923508
Plato The Republic of Plato trans. A. Bloom, Basic Books 0465069347
Plato The Symposium, trans. Nehamas and Woodruff, Hackett
Aristotle, McKeon, R. ed., The Basic Works of Aristotle 0375757996
Instructors: Walter Brogan (P)

PHI 3030 - 001 History of Medieval Philosophy CRN: 23096

Days: TR from 10:00 am to 11:15 am

One of the major forces that shaped medieval thought was the intermingling of philosophy and the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). This course will introduce students to the history of medieval philosophy by examining how the relationships among philosophy and these religions unfold in major thinkers’ engagements with issues like the relationship between faith and reason, natural theology, divine naming, creation, God’s foreknowledge, predestination, the problem of evil, the nature and immortality of the soul, free will, personhood, happiness, virtue, natural law, etc. Authors to be studied will likely include: Augustine, Boethius, Avicenna, Anselm, Al-Ghazali, Averroes, Maimonides, Bonaventure, and Aquinas.
Instructors: Michael M. Waddell (P)

PHI 3720 - 100 Marx & Marxism CRN: 23097

Days: T from 06:10 pm to 08:50 pm

As a foundation, we'll focus on the key philosophical works of Marx and his comrade Engels. This will include (parts of) The German Ideology, Grundrisse, Capital, and later social/political writings (e.g., on the Paris Commune). In addition we'll look at some more modern interpretations of the Marxist position and what can be done with it in a contemporary context. Written work includes several short reaction-to-texts papers, one exam, one short paper, and one longer paper.
Instructors: Michael H. Prosch (P)
Attributes: Writing Enriched Requirement

PHI 4140 - 001 Phil of Contemporary Music CRN: 23098

Days: MW from 04:30 pm to 05:45 pm

In this course, we will define music as contemporary if it is popular with performers and audiences who are young and/or in touch with what is culturally current. Since nothing becomes popular without support from broad institutional forces, we will study the way popular music forms a soundtrack for the social and economic powers, practices and beliefs that, in turn, make that music popular. The properly philosophical aspect of our study will involve defining what is musical about popular music. The cultural theoretical aspect of our study will involve defining how pop, rock, hip hop, dance, punk, funk, soul and jazz music contribute to the institutional forces which support it. In both studies we will privilege space over time, ethnography over history, imagination over the Law and simulation over autonomy. We will identify the significance of contemporary music in terms of its dependence on commodity fetishism, its politics of resistance (somehow deeply rooted in nostalgia), its covert racism and sexism, and in the reservoir of alcohol and drugs that fuels its culture industry. We will also discuss issues associated with file-sharing and the intimidating practices of the RIAA.
Instructors: John Carvalho (P)

PHI 4150 - 001 Philosophy & Film CRN: 23099

Days: TR from 02:30 pm to 03:45 pm

This course will explore the relationship between film and philosophy. We will begin by examining the philosophic debates about the historic emergence of film and its links to various conceptions of the nature of human thought. This will lead us to the question of the relationship between film and the unconscious as well as to the problem of the connections between the appearance of film (c. 1895) and the development of psychoanalysis (c. 1900). Against the backdrop of this first major section of the course, we will then examine the links between film and temporality since the “seventh art” is often considered to by the art of time par excellence. In particular, we will concentrate on the nature of time, memory, and history as well as on the temporal models used to think the history of film. In the final section of the course, we will situate film in a larger context in order to inquire into the relationship between film and the other arts, film and politics, and film and the new media of the televisual and digital age. Through the course of our investigation, we will have the opportunity to discuss the role of technology in the arts, competing descriptions of human thought, theories of memory, psychoanalysis and its description of the human psyche, modes of representation and revelation proper to film, rival conceptions of temporality, competing historiographical paradigms, narrative structure within and outside of film, theories of ideology, the politics of film, the emergence of new televisual technology, and many other topics proper to the study of philosophy and film.

In addition to being presented with some of the major philosophic issues in film and media studies, students are expected to come away from the course with a solid grasp of some of the major movements in film history (including the first “films,” early avant-garde cinema, Surrealism, classic Hollywood cinema, Italian Neo-Realism, the French New Wave, New German Cinema, the Hong Kong “School,” and contemporary independent film). They will also be made familiar with some of the most important film and media theorists of the 20th and early 21st centuries (Baudrillard, Bazin, Bellour, Musser, Williams). Finally, they will be exposed to the ideas of important philosophers whose work can be related, directly or indirectly, to issues in film (Adorno, Benjamin, Bergson, Deleuze, Freud, Rancière, Sartre, Plato).
Instructors: Gabriel Rockhill (P)

PHI 4850 - 001 German Existentialism & Phenomenology CRN: 23100

Days: TR from 04:00 pm to 05:15 pm Instructors: Walter Brogan (P)

This is a course that is designed for students interested in developing an advanced grasp of philosophy from a contemporary perspective. We will be studying two major authors of recent European philosophy, Friedrich Nietzsche as a representative of Existentialism and Martin Heidegger as a representative of Phenomenology. We will be reading important texts from each of these authors and considering their ideas and philosophical insights. Since both Existentialism and Phenomenology have had a major intellectual impact on our culture, we expect the discussion of these works to be both challenging and exciting. Through these seminal thinkers, we expect to develop a profounder philosophical grasp of what it means to be human, and of such notions as reality, world and temporality. Among the themes that will especially be emphasized: What is existentialism and phenomenology? What does it mean to be human? Being in the world, truth, language and communication, what it means to know and understand being, the future of human being, the use of equipment and the age of technology, etc.
 

PHI 5000 - 001 The Problem of Evil CRN: 23103

Days: MW from 01:30 pm to 02:45 pm

The problem of evil is conventionally formulated as a challenge to a providential order: if the world is designedly good, why do so many things seem so bad? The problem persists in altered form even in the absence of providential assumptions. Suppose that things are, in themselves, neither good nor bad: why are human beings, now assumed to be designers of value, so often intent on designing misery? This seminar takes up both classical and modern approaches to the problem of evil. The difference between the two approaches is roughly that the former, but not the latter, is at home with the notion of natural value. We’ll make matters more precise as the seminar proceeds. Our basic question is whether evil is fundamentally a philosophical issue—as opposed to, say, a pharmacological or technical challenge.
Instructors: James R. Wetzel (P)
Attributes: A&S Research Requirement, Writing Intensive Requirement

PHI 5000 - 002 Language: House of Being CRN: 23105

Days: MW from 03:00 pm to 04:15 pm

Twentieth-century philosophy is, distinctively, philosophy of and about language. We will consider the unique priority of language for philosophy and reflect on the legacy of linguistic philosophy in both the analytic and continental traditions. We will also consider the cultural and political significance of language in the twentieth century, including implications for technology, communications theory, and mass media. Is language best understood as a means to an end, a system of signs, or the ambiguous site of our dwelling on the Earth? How is the traditional philosophical understanding of language as a tool or a means of expression altered or interrogated by the growing cultural prevalence of what might be called “linguistic technologies,” technologies of media, information, and representation? Readings from Saussure, Frege, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, and Derrida, as well as select readings from my new book Philosophy and the Vision of Language (Routledge, 2008).
Instructors: Paul M. Livingston (P)
Attributes: A&S Research Requirement, Writing Intensive Requirement

PHI 5000 - 003 Adv Sem for Phil Majors CRN: 23108

Days: TR from 01:00 pm to 02:15 pm
Instructors: Sarah-Vaughan Brakman (P)
Attributes: Research Requirement, Writing Intensive Requirement

PHI 5000 - X25 TOP: Jewish & Islamic Philosophy CRN: 23107

Days: TR from 04:00 pm to 05:15 pm

Instructors: Julie Klein (P) This course is a window into a central period in Muslim and Jewish intellectual history. We will explore medieval Jewish and Islamic philosophy against the backdrop of the Aristotelian and Platonic inheritance. In essence, our leading question will be: How did thinkers in these two monotheistic traditions appropriate ancient Greek philosophy? What inspiration did it provide? What adaptations were required? What innovations were made? Major themes for the course include the nature of philosophy and its relationship to revelation and to law; the nature of prophecy and theories of governance; theories of human cognition; and theories concerning the creation and nature of the world. Authors to be studied include such giants of the Islamic tradition as al-Farabi, Avicenna (Ibn Sina), al-Ghazali, Averroes (Ibn Rushd), and such giants of the Jewish tradition as Maimonides (Moshe ben Maimon), Gersonides (Levi ben Gershom). Greek learning had a remarkable posterity among readers of Arabic, who translated and commented on the Greek inheritance in centers such as Baghdad. Jewish thinkers were also active as translators, and those who lived under Islamic rulers were literate in Arabic. Still others were influenced by Islamic philosophy in translation. Maimonides, for example, had an extensive knowledge of Islamic philosophy (falsafa) and the dialectical theology known as kalam. He wrote his masterpiece, The Guide of the Perplexed, in Arabic (Dalālat Alhā’irīn); the authoritative Hebrew translation (Moreh Nebuchim) was made by Samuel ben Judah ibn Tibbon. Gersonides was fascinated by Ibn Rushd’s commentaries on Aristotle. We will devote ourselves to these major thinkers and to the ways they discuss their predecessors. Along the way, we’ll consider historical questions about the availability, transmission, and translation of manuscripts. Not all of our philosophers had the same texts, and not all of our philosophers’ works survived into modernity.

All primary source material will be in English translation. In keeping with the research-oriented character of the seminar, we will also read significant secondary articles and books in the disciplines of philosophy, history, and religion. No prior coursework in Islam or Judaism is assumed. Class sessions will proceed in a seminar discussion style. All students will be required to write a series of short papers and will produce a term paper.

Attributes: Cross-listed course, A&S Research Requirement, Writing Intensive Requirement
Comment: Cross-listed with THL-5990.

PHI 6000 - 001 Research Seminar CRN: 23109