PHIL-Philosophy

PHIL 21 Wilderness Studies

Through the writings of Abbey, Peacock, and others, attempts to understand the interaction of human beings and the wilderness—especially as this interaction has developed in the U.S. Concern to understand the spiritual conditions under which this interaction might become less destructive to non-human organisms and ecosystems.

Credits

5

PHIL 80R Introduction to Philosophy of Biology

Introduction to core philosophical issues in the biological sciences. Covers such conceptual issues as the nature of evolutionary theory; choosing the unit of selection; the relationship between evolution and development; whether all biological phenomena are reducible to genes; and the definition of adaptions, and how to identify them.

Credits

5

Cross Listed Courses

BIOL 80R

PHIL 80T Introduction to Feminist Philosophy

A survey of key authors, texts, and issues constituting recent feminist philosophy. Authors such as Wollstonecraft, Beauvoir, Firestone, and Gilligan provide a background for more contemporary feminist explorations of rights, justice, autonomy, and responsibility. Questions about the relation of mind and body, emotions and belief, knowledge and situation, self and identity are also explored from various feminist perspectives.

Credits

5

Instructor

Jocelyn Hoy

PHIL 102 Medieval Philosophy from Augustine to Ockham

Survey of medieval thought with special emphasis upon the two leading philosophers of that age: St. Augustine and St. Thomas of Aquinas. Course 101 is strongly recommended prior to taking this course.

Credits

5

PHIL 109 Poststructuralism and After

The three major poststructuralist philosophers are Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Gilles Deleuze. After studying their rejection of phenomenological accounts of consciousness and agency—as well as their program for studying power, bio-power, multiplicity, difference, and repetition,—current critics , such as Slavoj Zizek and Judith Butler, are also read for contrast between the methods of phenomenology, genealogy, and critical theory.

Credits

5

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): PHIL 9; PHIL 11 or PHIL 22 or PHIL 24; PHIL 100A or PHIL 100B or PHIL 100C.

Quarter offered

Spring

PHIL 110 Heidegger

A close study of early and late texts by Martin Heidegger, especially Being and Time.

Credits

5

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): course 9; and course 11 or 22 or 24; and course 100A or 100B or 100C; and course 106 or 107 or 108 or 109 or 111.

Quarter offered

Fall

PHIL 120 Philosophical Writing

Training in philosophical thinking and its expression in written form.

Credits

5

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): PHIL 100A or PHIL 100B or PHIL 100C; and satisfaction of Entry Level Writing and Composition requirements. Enrollment is restricted to philosophy majors.

PHIL 131 Philosophy of the Self

Self, Self-Deception, Self and Other: Exploration of selected problems in philosophical psychology (e.g., personal identity, disembodied minds, bad faith, private languages) through readings in modern and contemporary philosophy and psychology.

Credits

5

PHIL 137 Practical Rationality

Examines challenges to what has been a dominant understanding of practical rationality: the claim that reason can never guide action in itself; that acting against one's better judgment is necessarily irrational; that emotions disrupt rather than facilitate practical reasoning.

Credits

5

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): PHIL 9; PHIL 11 or PHIL 22 or PHIL 24; PHIL 100A or PHIL 100B or PHIL 100C.

Quarter offered

Winter

PHIL 145 Brave New World: Ethical Issues in Genetics

Study of ethical issues involved in recent and upcoming advances in genetic research and technology such as genetic engineering, cloning, human embryo research, genetic experimentation, use of an individual's genetic information, and the manipulation of human evolution. Also discusses fundamental issues such as the moral responsibility of scientists, our obligations to future generations, and the notion of human perfectability.

Credits

5

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): PHIL 100A or PHIL 100B or PHIL 100C.

PHIL 150 Moral Aspects of Decision Making

How should you act when any course of action would contradict the rules of morality? This situation is the question of dirty hands. It is connected to the doctrine of double effect: the claim that although willing evil as a means to some good result is always wrong, it is permissible to cause evil as a side effect while aiming at a good result. Discussions include practical issues, such as democracy's combat against terrorism; and theoretical issues, such as the difference between action and omission, and the connection between goodwill and good (or bad) results.

Credits

5

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): PHIL 100A or PHIL 100B or PHIL 100C; or consent of instructor.

Quarter offered

Fall

PHIL 151 Modern Theories of Justice

Questions of social and distributive justice are as ancient as Aristotle; yet, modern philosophy, with its developing notions of democracy and quality, has added much sophistication and subtlety to these questions, especially since the publication of John Rawls' A Theory of Justice (1971). Issues discussed include: personal relations, concept of community, the notion of the State, and global justice.

Credits

5

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): PHIL 100A or PHIL 100B or PHIL 100C; or consent of instructor.

Quarter offered

Spring

PHIL 154 Philosophy in Literature

Story, drama, and poetry considered as sources of philosophical perspective or as particular challenges to philosophical interpretation. Also, discussion of literary and imaginative elements in philosophical writing. One course in philosophy is strongly recommended prior to taking this course.

Credits

5

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): PHIL 100A or PHIL 100B or PHIL 100C.

PHIL 170 The Interpretation of Religion

A study of different philosophical responses to religious belief and practice, from the classical proofs of religion, to skeptical critiques of religious experience, to conceptual issues in the interpretation of religious texts.

Credits

5

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): PHIL 9; and PHIL 11 or PHIL 22 or PHIL 24; and PHIL 100A or PHIL 100B or PHIL 100C.

Quarter offered

Spring

PHIL 176 Indian Philosophy

An intensive study of the thirteen principal Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita with a view to understanding their philosophic-religious content.

Credits

5

PHIL 178 Ancient Chinese Philosophy

A study of Confucian and Daoist responses to the questions of how to restore order to society and how to conduct oneself at the individual level in the wake of breakdown of traditional norms and values in ancient China.

Credits

5

PHIL 180A Consciousness

Topic is the nature of consciousness. Two recent theories by analytic philosophers of mind are discussed for their answers to the questions of why living beings become conscious, and what defines consciousness.

Credits

3

PHIL 180F Insults and Intentions

What kind of injury is an insult? Is its infliction determined by the insulter or the insulted? What does it reveal of the character of each? What is its role in social and legal life (from play to jokes to ritual to war, and from defamation to fighting words to harassment)? Philosophical, anthropological, psychoanalytic, and legal approaches to the questions are emphasized.

Credits

3

PHIL 201 First Quarter Seminar

First quarter required course for philosophy graduate students. Introduces the work of the philosophy faculty members to the new graduate students. Helps new students form a cohort. Each week different faculty members will visit the class and discuss materials of their own as well as materials or topics that they study.

Credits

5

Instructor

Paul Roth

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to philosophy graduate students.

Quarter offered

Fall

PHIL 219 Intermediate Logic

Natural deduction and semantics of first order predicate logic. Metatheory, including completeness theorems for propositional and predicate logic.

Credits

5

Instructor

The Staff

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): PHIL 9. Enrollment is restricted to graduate students.