Philosophy Courses: Spring 2021

Linked course titles have extended descriptions. Syllabi provided where available.

Course	Title	Day	Time	Instructor	Room	Syllabus	Description
PHI 107	Theories of Knowledge & Reality	MW	11:40-12:35	Hedger
PHI 107.101	Theories of Knowledge & Reality	TTH	12:30-1:50	Hedger
PHI 107.102	Theories of Knowledge & Reality	MWF	12:45-1:40	Simmons
PHI 107.103	Theories of Knowledge & Reality	TTH	9:30-10:50	Hedger
PHI 107.104	Theories of Knowledge & Reality	TTH	8:00-9:20	Dauksz
PHI 107.105	Theories of Knowledge & Reality	MWF	10:35-11:30	Simmons
PHI 107.106	Theories of Knowledge & Reality	TTH	2:00-3:20	Cook			This course is an introduction to some major questions about knowledge and reality, such as the existence of God, the mind-body problem, free will and the nature and limits of knowledge. Both historical and contemporary readings will be used.
PHI 107.107	Theories of Knowledge & Reality	TTH	11:00-12:20	Huang
PHI 109	Introduction to Philosophy (Honors)	TTH	9:30-10:50	Edwards
PHI/PSC 125	Political Philosophy	MW	10:35-11:30	Rasmussen
PHI 171	Critical Thinking	MW	3:45-5:05	Lu			This is a brand new design for learning and recognizing bad thinking. Instead of bore ourselves with symbols, we will focus on the psychological defects of human reasoning. We will also engage with real-life cases to appreciate the influence of and learn how to avoid bad thinking. Hopefully you will think better and judge thinkings better.
PHI 175,1	Social & Political Philosophy	TTH	12:30-1:50	Sethi			Social and political philosophy is concerned with issues such as the justification of the state, the limits of the coercive power of the state, the relationship between justice and equality, what rights individuals should have, and concerns regarding exploitation. The purpose of this course is to introduce students to several major theoretical issues in social and political philosophy through an examination of the relationships among individuals, groups, and institutions in civil societies. While our main focus will be on the question “What is justice?”, we will also engage with issues regarding rights and their distribution, the notion of power, and the value of equality and freedom. Specifically, we will examine competing political theories (liberalism, libertarianism, communitarianism, socialism, and feminism) to discuss public policy and law, including measures dealing with surrogacy, gun control, immigration, climate change, income inequality, and poverty.
PHI 175.2	Social & Political Philosophy	MW	12:45-2:05	Ryan
PHI 175.3	Social & Political Philosophy	TTH	2:00-3:20	Kohls
PHI 192	Introduction to Moral Theory	MW	10:35-11:30	K. Singh
PHI 192.1	Introduction to Moral Theory	MW	3:45-5:05	J. Singh
PHI 192.2	Introduction to Moral Theory	TTH	9:30-10:50	Ryan
PHI 192.3	Introduction to Moral Theory	TTH	12:30-1:50	Javier-Castellanos
PHI 192.4	Introduction to Moral Theory	TTH	11:00-12:20	Javier-Castellanos
PHI 197	Human Nature	TTH	12:30-1:25	Richardson
PHI 197.1	Human Nature	MW	12:45-2:05	Fernandez
PHI 197.2	Human Nature	TTH	12:30-1:50	Dauksz
PHI 197.3	Human Nature	TTH	3:30-4:50	Shirmohammadi
PHI 200	Philosophy Through Film	TTH	3:30-4:50	Noble
PHI 251	Logic	MW	2:15-3:10	Rieppel
PHI 251.101	Logic	TTH	9:30-10:50	Patterson
PHI 251.102	Logic	TTH	11:00-12:20	Bell
PHI 251.103	Logic	MW	3:45-5:05	De Melo
PHI 251.104	Logic	TTH	2:00-3:20	Tignor
PHI 293	Ethics and the Media Professions	TTH	5:00-5:55	Prescott
PHI/WGS 297	Philosophy of Feminism	MW	2:15-3:35	Cimendereli
PHI 307	Ancient Philosophy	MW	12:45-2:05	Noble
PHI 317/PSC 373	Social Contract Tradition	TTH	11:00-12:20	Koehler
PHI 325	Existentialism	TTH	2:00-3:20	Lambert
PHI/PSC 363	Ethics and International Relations	TTH	6:30-7:50	Morgan			This course examines the fundamental questions of ethics and international relations. Among the topics addressed: raison d'etat (or realism); pacifism; the just war tradition; humanitarian intervention; terrorism; foreign aid; immigration; human rights; nationalism; pandemics and climate change.
PHI 373	Philosophy of Science	TTH	12:30-1:50	Swiderski
PHI 378	Minds and Machines	TTH	11:00-12:20	Van Gulick
PHI 383	Free Will	MW	12:45-2:05	Demirtas
PHI 387	Epistemology	MW	3:45-5:05	K. Singh
PHI 395	Philosophy of Art	MW	3:45-5:05	Osborne
PHI 396	Stem Cells and Society	TTH	12:30-1:50	Fortier
PHI 400/600	Better Writing in Philosophy (and Everywhere Else)	W	6:45-9:30	Gorovitz			Writing well is hard, slow work. It requires developing the ability to be an effective critic of one’s own drafts, and it requires iterative clarification of one’s thinking. Those who study philosophy – professionally, as an undergraduate major, or even as a minor – often struggle to explain to others, in writing or in conversation, what the discipline is, how it works, why it matters, and what it has to do with the concerns of non-philosophers. The ability to do that well, however, is empowering in many ways. It improves one’s writing in philosophy, and the skills are applicable to the writing one does in any other domain. In this course we will write, review, revise, re-write, revise, reconsider, revise, and ultimately rejoice. I will use some of my own works – such as newspaper editorials, media interviews, or public addresses, as illustrative examples.
PHI 401	Seminar for Philosophy Majors	TTH	2:00-3:20	Anderson
PHI 422/622	20th Century French/German Philosophy	T	5:00-7:50	Lambert
PHI 565	Philosophy of Language	TTH	12:30-1:50	Edwards
PHI 617	Proseminar: History of Philosophy	W	6:30-9:15	Beiser			This course will be a survey of some major thinkers of early modern philosophy: namely, Montaigne, Bacon, Leibniz, Spinoza, Locke and Berkeley. We will be examining closely the chief arguments of some of their major works: Montaigne’s Apology for Reymond Sebond; Bacon’s New Organon; Spinoza’s Ethics, Part One; Leibniz’s Discourse and Monadology; Locke’s Essay concerning human Understanding; and Berkeley’s Principles of human Knowledge. These writings are fundamental for an understanding of modern epistemology. Doubtless, you will have read some of them before; but now is the chance to improve your understanding of them. The purpose of this seminar is to get you started in writing, discussing and reading philosophy on a graduate level. For this reason, there is a fairly heavy writing component: four short essays, all of which are due during the semester. It is also expected that everyone participate in the discussion during the seminar. This should serve as an occasion to lose your fears and inhibitions in discussing philosophy.
PHI 750.1	Seminar: Recent Issues in Consciousness	M	3:45-6:30	Van Gulick
PHI 750.2	Seminar: Humor	TH	3:30-6:15	Anderson
PHI 860	Seminar in Ethics: Recent Work in Ethics	W	3:45-6:30	Bradley
PHI 880/PSC 800	Seminar in Social & Pol. Phil: Recent Work in Democratic Theory	T	3:30-6:15	Baynes			Recent empirical and normative criticisms of democracy provide an occasion for examining its form and justification. Justifications often appeal to either outcomes or procedures (fairness/political equality) but these can conflict with each other and/or may not be fundamentally democratic (e.g., epistocracy). This seminar will explore some recent work in democratic theory including such topics as the justification of democracy (is it intrinsically and/or instrumentally valuable?), democracy’s relation to basic rights and liberties, and debates about the best form of, and appropriate limits to, democratic decision-making (deliberative vs. aggregative models, the role of diversity and majority rule, forms of representation, etc.). Given recent events, we may also consider arguments about the place of judicial review in a theory of democratic government.