Course Descriptions -Philosophy

411. Intermediate Logic. (3 s.h.)

Metatheory of the elementary logic of predicates and quantifiers (familiarity with which is presupposed). Proofs that a standard derivation system is both sound and complete; i.e., that all and only logical truths are provable as theorems of the system. Other metalogical issues also explored.

416. Philosophy of Science. (3 s.h.)

Basic issues in the current philosophy of science, and particularly various accounts of such key notations of science as: hypotheses, confirmation, laws, causation, explanation, and theories.

417. Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science. (3 s.h.)

A discussion of feminist perspectives on knowledge in general and science in particular, ranging from feminist empiricism, to feminist standpoint theory, to feminist post-moderism.

422. Contemporary Ethical Theory. (3 s.h.)

Issues in ethical theory that have come to prominence in the 20th century. Both metaethical issues (about the meaning and justification of ethical statements) and normative issues (about obligation, responsibility, and goodness) will be examined.

423. Feminist Ethics and Political Philosophy. (3 s.h.)

429. Philosophy in Literature. (3 s.h.)

Selected philosophical themes as they appear in classical and modern literature.

432. Advanced Aesthetics. (3 s.h.)

Problems in the philosophy of art of ontological and epistemological significance; the nature and characteristics of a work of art, aesthetic and nonaesthetic qualities, representation, and expression; aesthetics, perception theories, aesthetic experience.

433. Advanced Aesthetics. (3 s.h.)

An examination of critical issues in the interpretation of artworks and in the principles of aesthetic evaluation.

435. Classics in Moral Philosophy. (3 s.h.)

Major works in the history of moral philosophy selected from among the writings of such philosophers as Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Hobbes, Spinoza, Hume, Kant, Mill, Nietzsche, Bradley, Ross, and Sidgwick.

443. Philosophy of Law. (3 s.h.)

Selected philosophical questions raised by laws and legal systems, e.g., questions about the nature and limits of law, and about the concepts of legal obligation, legal responsibility, and legal punishment.

444. Philosophy of Mind. (3 s.h.)

An examination of such issues as the nature of thought; the possibility of free will; the nature of persons; materialist theories of mind; mentalism vs. behaviorism; and the innate ideas controversy.

449. Ethics in Medicine. (3 s.h.)

Exploration of ethical issues generated by the application of scientific and technological advances to the preservation, destruction, and programming of human life. Topics may include: ethics of medical research, abortion, euthanasia, behavior control, allocation of scarce medical resources, and the ethics of patient-physician interaction. (Graduate students in philosophy may not receive credit for this course.)

451. Philosophy of Language. (3 s.h.)

Development of a theory of meaning and a criterion of meaningfulness, with a study of selected topics in semantics such as vagueness, metaphor, and the theory of reference.

453. Philosophy of History. (3 s.h.)

Problems of historical knowledge, e.g., problems about the historian's claim to explain historical events (causation in history, reasons for actions, challenges to the objectivity of history) and problems about historical interpretation (including global interpretations of the historical process, such as Hegel's and Spengler's).

468. Indian Philosophy: an Introduction. (3 s.h.)

Beginnings of Indian philosophical thinking in the hymns of Rig Veda and the upanishads and the major schools of Indian philosophy as they took shape during the next thousand years. The latter include samkhya, the Buddhist schools, the Vaiseskika, the Nyaya and the major schools of Vedanta. Issues in metaphysics, epistemology, and logic emphasized.

473. Advanced Greek Philosophy. (3 s.h.)

Interpretation and critical examination of the dialogues of Plato and the works of Aristotle.

475. British Empiricism. (3 s.h.)

477. Continental Rationalism. (3 s.h.)

479. Kant. (3 s.h.)

Selected major philosophical works of Immanuel Kant.

481. Nineteenth-Century Philosophy. (3 s.h.)

Selected European philosophers from Hegel to Bradley.

484. Pragmatism and American Thought. (3 s.h.)

American pragmatism and naturalism, with emphasis on James, Peirce, Royce, Santayana, Mead, Dewey, and Whitehead.

486. Contemporary Continental Philosophy. (3 s.h.)

Phenomenology and Existentialism, with emphasis on such twentieth century philosophers as Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty.

489. Contemporary British and American Philosophy. (3 s.h.)

Selected important figures and topics, e.g., Russell, Wittgenstein, Quine, Putnam; Logical Atomism, Logical Positivism, Linguistic Philosophy, and Analytic Philosophy.

491, 492. Special Topics in Philosophy. (3 s.h.)

616. Seminar in British Empiricism. (3 s.h.)

Selected topics in 17th and 18th century philosophers such as Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Reid.

626. Seminar in Nineteenth-Century Philosophy. (3 s.h.)

631. Seminar in Contemporary Continental Philosophy. (3 s.h.)

636. Seminar in Contemporary British and American Philosophy. (3 s.h.)

661. Seminar in Philosophy of the Physical Sciences. (3 s.h.)

Prerequisite: previous work in philosophy of science or permission of instructor.

701. Seminar in Aesthetics. (3 s.h.)

704. Seminar in Philosophy of Literary Criticism. (3 s.h.)

Topics concern the critic's task of describing, interpreting, and judging literary works, e.g., the language of poetry, metaphor, style, form, symbolism, truth, evaluation, obscenity.

712. Seminar in Ethics. (3 s.h.)

731. Seminar in Philosophy of Mind. (3 s.h.)

Examination of current views of such topics as materialistic accounts of mind, intentionality, the analysis of specific mental phenomena (e.g., belief, consciousness, emotion, desire), ascription of mental attributes to machines.

746. Seminar in Metaphysics. (3 s.h.)

755. Seminar in Philosophy of Language. (3 s.h.)

799. Individually Supervised Work on the Preparation of the Dissertation Proposal. (Variable s.h.)

899. Dissertation Preparation. (Variable s.h.)

951, 953, 955, 957. Tutorial. (1, 3, 6, 9 s.h.)

Supervised individual study of selected topics.

971, 973, 975, 977. M.A. Thesis Research. (1, 3, 6, 9 s.h.)

999. Dissertation Research. (Variable s.h.)

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