Courses Offered in Philosophy

Below are the catalogue descriptions for PHI and LOG. To see what courses are being offered in the upcoming semester see PHI and LOG.

LOG 201 Logic.
3(3-0). Introduction to methods of deductive inference. Concepts of inconsistency and entailment. Truth Functional Statement Logic and Quantifier and Predicate Logic. Representation of logically significant form of statements and arguments. Procedures to discover and notation to write down proofs.

PHI 205 Introduction to Philosophy.
3(3-0). Introduction to selected problems of enduring philosophical importance, including such topics as the nature of morality, knowledge, human freedom, and the existence of God. Content varies with different sections.

PHI 214 Issues in Business Ethics.
3(3-0). An analysis and evaluation of major issues in business ethics. Topics include the social responsibility of business; social justice and free enterprise; the rights and duties of employers, employees, manufacturers, and consumers; duties to the environment, the world's poor, future generations, and the victims of past injustices; the moral status of the corporation; and the ethics of advertising.

PHI 221 Contemporary Moral Issues.
3(3-0). Philosophical analysis and theory applied to a broad range of contemporary moral issues, including euthanasia, suicide, capital punishment, abortion, war, famine relief, and environmental concerns.

PHI 250 Practical Reasoning.
3(3-0). Analysis and criticism of both deductive and inductive argument. Deduction validity and soundness in deductive arguments; definition and the clarification of meaning; disproof by counterexample; common fallacies. Inductive arguments: polls and samples; correlations and causal connection. Conceptual and empirical theories and hypotheses. Arguments discussed with a minimum of formalization.

PHI 298 Special Topics in Philosophy.
3(3-0). Selected studies in philosophy that do not appear regularly in the curriculum. Topics will be announced for each semester in which the course is offered. A copy of any papers, with instructor's comments, will be kept in a department file to help with evaluation of teaching and the curriculum.

PHI 300 Ancient Philosophy.
3(3-0). Western philosophy of the ancient world, with special emphasis on Plato and Aristotle.

PHI 301 Early Modern Philosophy.
3(3-0). Western philosophy of the 17th and 18th centuries, including such philosophers as Descartes, Hobbes, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. [PHI 301 may, at the instructor's discretion, limit its coverage to views and arguments representative of rationalism, empiricism and Kant, so long as students are provided at least brief acquaintance with the philosophers not given detailed consideration. So, for example, the instructor might provide greater depth in discussion of Descartes, Leibniz or Spinoza, Hume, perhaps Locke or Berkeley, and Kant (four or five philosophers in all), rather than surveying the usual seven philosophers.]

PHI 302 19th Century Philosophy.
3(3-0). Western philosophy of the 19th century, including such philosophers as Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Marx and Nietzsche.

PHI 303 Medieval Philosophy.
3(3-0). Philosophy of the Middle Ages. Authors to be studied may include Augustine, Anselm, Avicenna, Maimonides, Aquinas, and Scotus.

PHI 305 Philosophy of Religion.
3(3-0). The existence and nature of God, including such topics as traditional proofs of God, skeptical challenges to religious belief, miracles, the problem of evil, faith and reason, and religious experience.

PHI 309 Contemporary Political Philosophy.
PREREQUISITE(S): One philosophy course. 3(3-0). Current theories about basic concepts in political philosophy, such as liberty, equality, justice, natural rights, and democracy, with special attention to disputes concerning the nature of a just social order.

PHI 310 Existentialism.
3(3-0). Philosophy of Existentialism, including such thinkers as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Doestoevsky, Sartre, Heidegger, and Camus.

PHI 312 Philosophy of Law.
3(3-0). Fundamental legal issues such as what constitutes a law or legal system. Justifications of legal inferences with individual liberty. Philosophical legal issues illustrated by specific legal cases.

PHI 313 Ethical Problems in the Law.
PREREQUISITE(S): PHI 221 or 375. 3(3-0). Explores uses of the legal system, including such topics as the death penalty, plea bargaining, legalizing euthanasia, censorship, Good Samaritan laws, the insanity defense, civil disobedience, preferential treatment.

PHI (STS) 325 Bio-Medical Ethics.
3(3-0). Interdisciplinary examination and appraisal of emerging ethical and social issues resulting from recent advances in the biological and medical sciences. Abortion, euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, compromised infants, aids, reproductive technologies, and health care. Focus on factual details and value questions, fact-value questions, fact-value interplay, and questions of impact assessment and policy formation.

PHI 330 Metaphysics.
PREREQUISITE(S): One course in philosophy. 3(3-0). Metaphysical problems: distinction between appearance and reality, nature of space and time, free will and determinism, mind and body, nature of identity.

PHI 331 Philosophy of Language.
PREREQUISITE(S): One course in philosophy. 3(3-0). Introduction to traditional and modern accounts of the relations between language and reality, the nature of truth, problems of intentionality and propositional attitudes.

PHI 332 Philosophy of Psychology.
PREREQUISITE(S): One course in philosophy or one course in psychology. 3(3-0). Problems and controversies that overlap the boundary between philosophy and psychology: the mind/body problem, behaviorism vs. cognitivism, the prospects for artificial intelligence, and language and the questions of innate knowledge.

PHI 333 Theory of Knowledge.
PREREQUISITE(S): One course in philosophy. 3(3-0). Analysis of such central concepts as knowledge, belief, and truth, and the investigation of the principles by which claims to knowledge may be justified.

LOG (MA) 335 Symbolic Logic.
PREREQUISITE(S): LOG 201 or MA 225. 3(3-0) F. Intermediate level introduction to modern symbolic logic; the concept of proof, mathematical induction, recursion and the relationship between formal and informal theories (examples: group theory, Peano arithmetic). The Godel Theorems and the mathematical study of logic. We very strongly recommend that any student who plans to attend graduate school in philosophy take this course.

PHI 340 Philosophy of Science.
3(3-0). Character and function of explanation in scientific activity, concepts of law and theory, role of inductive confirmation, and relationship between natural and social sciences.

PHI 375 Ethics.
3(3-0). Co-requisite for PHI 494. Examination of traditional questions of philosophical ethics: What are the principles of moral conduct? What sort of life is worthy of a human being? Includes both classic and contemporary literature. [As a prerequisite for higher-level value theory courses, PHI 375 covers: utilitarianism (act and rule), ethical egoism, Kant's moral theory and/or a rights based moral theory, moral relativism, distributive justice and the differences among moral claims, empirical claims, moral principles and moral arguments.]

PHI 376 History of Ethics.
PREREQUISITE(S): One course in philosophy. Co-requisite for PHI 494. 3(3-0). Topics in the history of ethics. Philosophers to be studied may include Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Butler, Hume, Kant, Sidgwick and Nietzsche.

PHI 401/501 Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.
PREREQUISITE(S): For 401, six credits in PHI; for 501, graduate status. No one can receive credit for both PHI 401 and PHI 501. 3(3-0). A text-based critical study of Kant's Crique of Pure Reason focusing on such topics as perception, judgment, knowledge, space, time, substance, causation, and reality.

PHI 415/515 Life Science Ethics.
PREREQUISITE(S): For 415, one course in PHI; for 515, graduate status. Credit will not be given for both PHI 415 and PHI 515. 3(3-0). Recent work in normative evaluation of human actions affecting living things. Advanced readings in moral theory, comparative value assessment, and public policy.

PHI 420/520 Global Justice.
PREREQUISITE(S): For 420, one course in PHI; for 520, graduate status. No one can receive credit for both PHI 420 and PHI 520. 3(3-0). The applications of the ideas of justice and right beyond and across the borders of individual nation states, attending to the facts of globalization and their consequences for political and economic justice and human rights. Topics: skepticism about global justice; transnational distributive justice, pollution, and poverty; national sovereignty, self-determination, and intervention; the ethics of war; international human rights; and global democracy.

PHI 422/522 Philosophical Issues in Environmental Ethics.
PREREQUISITE(S): For 422, one course in PHI; for 522, graduate status.
3(3-0). Arguments and principles surrounding moral questions about the environment: whether non-humans have moral standing; duties to future generations; policy regarding population, common resources, pollution; preserving biodiversity, forests; property rights; efficiency and equity considerations; decision-making associated with global risk-taking, e.g., global warming.

PHI (PSY) 425/525 Introduction to Cognitive Science.
PREREQUISITE(S): One upper-level course in either PHI, PSY, CSC or Linguistics. Credit cannot be given for both PHI/PSY 425 and PHI/PSY 525. 3(3-0). Philosophical foundations and empirical fundamentals of cognitive science, an interdisciplinary approach to human cognition. Topics include: the computational model of mind, mental representation, cognitive architecture, the acquisition and use of language.

LOG 435/535 Advanced Logic & Metamathematics.
PREREQUISITE(S):For 435, LOG 335; for 535, graduate status. 3(3-0). Advanced topics in logic and metamathematics: proof procedures, first-order theories, soundness and completeness theorems, recursive functions, the formalization of arithmetic, the Goedel Incompleteness Theorems. Emphasis on mathematical study of logic and mathematics.

PHI 440/540 The Scientific Method.
PREREQUISITE(S): For 440, upper-level course in philosophy; for 540, graduate status. 3(3-0). Detailed examination of core issues in the philosophy of science: the confirmation of scientific theories, falsification, projectability, the nature of scientific explanation, laws of nature, and causation.

PHI 445/545 Philosophy of Biology.
PREREQUISITE(S): For 445, one 300 or 400-level course in philosophy or biology or permission of instructor; for 545, graduate status. Co-requisite for PHI 496. 3(3-0). Central issues in the philosophy of biology such as units of selection, philosophy of ecology, species, fitness, adaptationism, reductionism, development and innateness, evolutionary progress, and viability of applications of evolutionary theory to culture and "human nature."

PHI 475/575 Ethical Theory.
PREREQUISITE(S): For 475, PHI 375 or PHI 376; for 575, graduate status. Co-requisite for PHI 494. 3(3-0). An introduction to some central themes and issues in ethical theory. Topics in normative and meta-ethics such as consequentialism, deontology, virtue ethics, constructivism, realism, relativism, subjectivism, and expressivism. Readings primarily from contemporary literature.

PHI 494 Writing in Ethics.
PREREQUISITE(S): LOG 201 or 335, and one other philosophy course; COREQUISITE(S): one of PHI 221, 250, 298, 309, 313, 325, 375, 376, 415, 420, 422, 475, or 498. (If PHI 298 or 498 is used, its topic must be in value theory.) 1(1-2). Not available during summers. A substantial paper in ethics, assigned by the instructor of the corequisite. This must be an addition to work assigned for the corequisite. It is the student's responsibility to secure the agreement of the corequisite's instructor to supervise this work. Only tenured or tenure-track faculty may offer PHI 494; see the list of Philosophy faculty included on this website. A copy of any papers, with instructor's comments, will be kept in a department file to help with evaluation of teaching and the curriculum.

PHI 495 Writing in History of Philosophy.
PREREQUISITE(S): LOG 201 or 335, and one other philosophy course; COREQUISITE(S): one of PHI 250, PHI 298, 300, 301, 302, 303, 310, 401, or 498. (If PHI 298 or 498 is used, its topic must be in history of philosophy.) 1(1-2)F,S. Not available during summers. A substantial paper in history of philosophy, assigned by the instructor of the corequisite. This must be an addition to work assigned for the corequisite. It is the student's responsibility to secure the agreement of the corequisite's instructor to supervise this work. Only tenured or tenure-track faculty may offer PHI 495; see the list of Philosophy faculty included on this website. A copy of any papers, with instructor's comments, will be kept in a department file to help with evaluation of teaching and the curriculum.

PHI 496 Writing in Contemporary Philosophy.
PREREQUISITE(S); PHI 250, LOG 201 or 335, and one other philosophy course; COREQUISITE(S): one of PHI 298, 305, 330, 331, 332, 333, 340, 425, 440, 445, 498. (If PHI 298 or 498 is used, its topic must be in contemporary philosophy.) 1(1-2). Not available during summers. A substantial paper in contemporary philosophy, assigned by the instructor of the corequisite. This must be an addition to work assigned for the corequisite. It is the student's responsibility to secure the agreement of the corequisite instructor to supervise this work. Only tenured or tenure-track faculty may offer PHI 496; see the list of Philosophy faculty included on this website. A copy of any papers, with instructor's comments, will be kept in a department file to help with evaluation of teaching and the curriculum.

PHI 497 Writing in Logic, Representation and Reasoning.
PREREQUISITE(S): LOG 201 or 335, and one other philosophy course, not PHI 250; COREQUISITE(S): one of LOG 335, 435, PHI 298, 330, 331, 332, 333, 425, 440, 445, 498. (If PHI 298 or 498 is used, its topic must be in logic, representation and reasoning.) 1(1-2)F,S. Not available during summers. Training in writing and research in logic, the representation of knowledge and belief, formal accounts of reasoning, and other uses of formal methods in philosophy. Topic chosen by instructor. Requires one substantial paper.This must be an addition to work assigned for the corequisite. It is the student's responsibility to secure the agreement of the corequisite instructor to supervise this work. Only tenured or tenure-track faculty may offer PHI 497; see the list of Philosophy faculty included on this website. A copy of any papers, with instructor's comments, will be kept in a department file to help with evaluation of teaching and the curriculum.

PHI 498 Special Topics in Philosophy.
PREREQUISITE(S): Six credits in PHI. 1-6. Detailed investigation of selected topics in philosophy. Topics determined by faculty members in consultation with head of the department. Course may be used for individualized study. A copy of any papers, with instructor's comments, will be kept in a department file to help with evaluation of teaching and the curriculum.

PHI 515 Life Science Ethics.
PREREQUISITE(S): Graduate status. Credit will not be given for both PHI 415 and PHI 515. 3(3-0). Recent work in normative evaluation of human actions affecting living things. Advanced readings in moral theory, comparative value assessment, and public policy.

PHI 520 Global Justice.
PREREQUISITE(S): Graduate status. No one can receive credit for both PHI 420 and PHI 520. 3(3-0). The applications of the ideas of justice and right beyond and across the borders of individual nation states, attending to the facts of globalization and their consequences for political and economic justice and human rights. Topics: skepticism about global justice; transnational distributive justice, pollution, and poverty; national sovereignty, self-determination, and intervention; the ethics of war; international human rights; and global democracy.

PHI 522 Philosophical Issues in Environmental Ethics.
PREREQUISITE(S): Graduate Status. 3(3-0). Arguments and principles surrounding moral questions about the environment: whether non-humans have moral standing; duties to future generations; policy regarding population, common resources, pollution; preserving biodiversity, forests; property rights; efficiency and equity considerations; decision-making associated with global risk-taking, e.g., global warming.

PHI (PSY) 525 Introduction to Cognitive Science.
PREREQUISITE(S): Graduate status or consent of instructor. Credit for both PHI(PSY) 425 and PHI(PSY) 525 is not allowed. Philosophical foundations and empirical fundamentals of cognitive science, an interdisciplinary approach to human cognition. The computational model of mind, mental representation, cognitive architecture, the acquisition and use of language.

LOG 535 Advanced Logic & Metamathematics.
PREREQUISITE(S): Graduate status. 3(3-0). Advanced topics in logic and metamathematics: proof procedures, first-order theories, soundness and completeness theorems, recursive functions, the formalization of arithmetic, the Goedel Incompleteness Theorems. Emphasis on mathematical study of logic and mathematics.

PHI 540 The Scientific Method.
PREREQUISITE(S): Graduate status. Credit cannot be given for both PHI 440 and PHI 540. Detailed examination of core issues in philosophy of science: confirmation of scientific theories, falsification, projectibility, nature of scientific explanation, laws of nature, and causation.

PHI 545 Philosophy of Biology.
PREREQUISITE(S): Graduate status or permission of instructor. 3(3-0). Central issues in the philosophy of biology such as units of selection, philosophy of ecology, species, fitness, adaptationism, reductionism, development and innateness, evolutionary progress, and viability of applications of evolutionary theory to culture and "human nature."

PHI 575 Ethical Theory.
PREREQUISITE(S): Graduate status. 3(3-0). An introduction to some central themes and issues in ethical theory. Topics in normative and meta-ethics such as consequentialism, deontology, virtue ethics, constructivism, realism, relativism, subjectivism, and expressivism. Readings primarily from contemporary literature.

PHI 598 Special Topics in Philosophy.
PREREQUISITE(S): Must have graduate standing. Detailed investigation of selected topics in philosophy under supervision of a faculty member.

PHI 635 Advanced Independent Study in Philosophy.
PREREQUISITE(S): Must have graduate standing. Independent study of advanced topic in philosophy under supervision of a faculty member.

PHI 798 Advanced Topics in Philosophy.
PREREQUISITE(S): Must have graduate standing. Detailed investigation of selected advanced topics in philosophy. Topics determined by faculty members in consultation with head of department.

PHI 816 Introduction to Research Ethics.
PREREQUISITE(S): Graduate standing. Institutional rules guiding the responsible conduct of research (RCR) and their philosophical justification. Rudiments of moral reasoning and their application to RCR. Topics: plagiarism, falsification and fabrication of data, and ethics versus custom, law, science, and religion.

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