Philosophy Courses: Spring 2021
Undergraduate and Graduate
Other semesters:
Spring 2021
| 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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. |