PHIL BC 1001xy Introduction to Philosophy

Survey of some of the central problems, key figures, and great works in both traditional and contemporary philosophy. Topics and texts will vary with instructor and semester.
General Education Requirement: Reason and Value (REA). General Education Requirement: Ethics and Values.
3 points

PHIL V 1401x Introduction to Logic

Explicit criteria for recognizing valid and fallacious arguments,together with various methods for schematizing discourse for the purpose of logical analysis. Illustrative material taken from science and everyday life.
General Education Requirement: Quantitative and Deductive Reasoning (QUA).
3 points

PHIL V 2003x Introduction to the Philosophy of Art

Introductory course in the philosophy of art. What is art? Should we try to define art? Should photographs count as art? What does it mean to have an aesthetic experience? Can one person�s judgment be better than another�s? Why do we enjoy watching tragedies or horror movies?
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

PHIL V 2100y Philosophy of Education

Drawing on classical amd contemporary sources, discussion will focus on the conditions necessary to produce free and responsible citizens of a just and democratic society. Readings from Plato, Rousseau, Dewey, and others. - C. Cammarano
General Education Requirement: Ethics and Values.
3 points

PHIL V 2101x History of Philosophy I: Pre-Socratics through Augustine

Exposition and analysis of the positions of the major philosophers from pre-Socratics through Augustine.
General Education Requirement: Reason and Value (REA). General Education Requirement: Ethics and Values.
4 points

PHIL V 2110x Philosophy and Feminism

Is there an essential difference between women and men? How do questions about race relate to questions about gender? Is there a 'normal' way of being 'queer'? An introduction to philosophy and feminism using historical and contemporary texts, art, and public lectures. Focus includes essentialism, difference, identity, knowledge, objectivity, and queerness.
General Education Requirement: Reason and Value (REA). General Education Requirement: Ethics and Values. Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

PHIL V 2201y History of Philosophy II: Aquinas through Kant

Exposition and analysis of the positions of the major philosophers from Aquinas through Kant.
General Education Requirement: Reason and Value (REA).
4 points

PHIL V 2301y History of Philosophy III: 19th & 20th Century Philosophy

Exposition and analysis of texts by Kant and major 19th-century European Philosophers.
Prerequisites: None. General Education Requirement: Reason and Value (REA). General Education Requirement: Ethics and Values. Not offered in 2012-2013.
4 points

PHIL V 2400x Psychology and Philosophy of Human Experience

We will discuss some of the most fundamental questions that one can pose about human experience. For example, we will investigate how we experience time, whether anything really has color, the difference between imagining and seeing, whether beauty is subjective, how we understand other people's emotions, the ways in which the human mind is structured and the extent to which our minds are functionally fractionable. By drawing on both scientific and philosophical texts we hope to combine the best features of both approaches. - Joshua New
3 points

PHIL V 3237x Late Medieval and Modern Philosophy

Study of one or more of the major philosophers from the Renaissance through the 18th century. Sample topics: substance and matter; bodies, minds, and spirits; identity and individuation; ideas of God; causation; liberty and necessity; skepticism; philosophy and science; ethical and political issues. Sample philosophers: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Conway, Locke, Berkely, Hume, Kant. - E. Paul
Prerequisites: One philosophy course or permission of the instructor. General Education Requirement: Reason and Value (REA).
3 points

PHIL V 3251y Kant

Explores the connections between theoretical and practical reason in Kant's thinking with special attention to the Critique of Pure Reason and the project of "transcendental" philosophy.
3 points

PHIL W 3264 19th Century Philosophy

Examines major themes of Hegel's philosophy, emphasizing his social and political thought. Topics include Hegel's critique of Kant, the possibility of metaphysics, the master-slave dialectic, and the role of freedom in social institutions. Readings from Fichte illuminate how Hegel's thought develops out of Kant's idealism.
Prerequisites: PHIL V2201, V2301 or V3251. Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

PHIL V 3352 20th Century European Philosophy

Reading and discussion of Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and Foucault. Topics include the crisis in metaphysics, the question of being, the structure of human existence, subjectivity, motivated irrationality, perception, the body, sociality, art, science, technology, and the disciplinary organization of modern society.
3 points

PHIL V 3353 European Social Philosophy

Historical survey of European social philosophy from the 18th to the 20th century, with special attention to theories of capitalism and the normative concepts (freedom, alienation, human flourishing) that inform them. A further topic will be the relation between society and the state. Readings from Smith, Hegel, Marx, and Weber.
Prerequisites: One philosophy course or permission of the instructor. General Education Requirement: Social Analysis (SOC).
3 points

PHIL BC 3398xy Independent Study

Open to students who wish to pursue a project on an individual basis. The study consists in a combination of readings and papers over one semester under the direction of an appropriate instructor. The project and enrollment for the course are both subject to departmental approval.
1-3 points.

PHIL V 3411xy Symbolic Logic

Sentential and first-order logic; the significance of a formal system and its use for analysis of meaning and language. Technical exercises are combined with analysis and parsing of English texts. A weekly required discussion section in addition to lectures. - A. Varzi
General Education Requirement: Quantitative and Deductive Reasoning (QUA).
4 points

PHIL W 3551x Philosophy of Science

Philosophical problems within science, and about the nature of scientific knowledge, from 17th- 20th centuries. Sample problems: space, time, and motion; causes and forces; scientific explanation; theory, law, and hypothesis; induction; verification and falsification; models and analogies; scientific revolutions.
Prerequisites: One philosophy course or permission of the instructor. General Education Requirement: Reason and Value (REA). Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

PHIL V 3601 Metaphysics

Systematic treatment of some major metaphysical topics, e.g., necessity, causality, particulars and universals, personal identity. Readings from classical and contemporary authors. - C. Rovane
4 points

PHIL V 3685y (Section 01) Philosophy of Language

Examines the Semantics and pragmatics of the various "if-then" constructions in natural language.
3 points

PHIL V 3701x Ethics

Introduction to the central problems of moral philosophy; alternative moral ideals and their philosophical formulations; the status and justification of moral judgments; reasons for action; individual rights and social justice.
Prerequisites: One philosophy course or permission of the instructor. General Education Requirement: Reason and Value (REA). General Education Requirement: Ethics and Values.
4 points

PHIL V 3710x Law, Liberty and Morality

Examination of classic philosophical theories about the rule of law, relations between law and morality, legal reasoning, and their implications for selected contemporty legal problems.
Prerequisites: Enrollment limited to 40 students. General Education Requirement: Ethics and Values. Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

PHIL V 3720x Ethics and Medicine

Philosophical examination of moral issues in medical theory and practice. Analysis of the ethics of the doctor-patient relationship, e.g., informed consent, truth-telling, paternalism; topics in bioethics, e.g., abortion, euthanasia, experimentation on humans; justice and access to health care; human genetics. - S. Fisher
Prerequisites: Limited enrollment by permission of the instructor. First-day attendance required. General Education Requirement: Reason and Value (REA). General Education Requirement: Ethics and Values.
3 points

PHIL V 3960 Epistemology

Knowledge of the external world, of other persons, and of ourselves. Selections from traditional and modern texts will be studied. Discussion section required. Unrestricted enrollment.
4 points

PHIL BC 4050x Senior Seminar

Intensive study of a philosophical issue or topic, or of a philosopher, group of philosophers, or philosophical school or movement.
3 points

PHIL BC 4051x Senior Thesis

A substantial paper, developing from an Autumn workshop and continuing in the Spring under the direction of an individual advisor.
3 points

PHIL BC 4052y Senior Thesis

A substantial paper, developing from an Autumn workshop and continuing into the Spring under the direction of an individual adviser.
3 points

PHIL G 4340 Topics in Phenomenology

Central issues in phenomenology -for example, intentionality, perception, and embodiment- in Husserl, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty, and with reference to relevant contemporary literature in philosophy and psychology.
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

PHIL G 4495y Perception

This course addresses the fabulously rich range of issues about the nature of perception, including: perceptual mental representation and its content; computational explanation; justifying beliefs; knowledge and thought about perception; and perception of music. Perception is an interdisciplinary subject par excellence. Readings will be drawn from philosophy and psychology, aesthetics, and artificial intelligence.
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points