PHI 631. Plato. (3 h)

Detailed analysis of selected dialogues, covering Plato’s most important contributions to moral and political philosophy, theory of knowledge, metaphysics, and theology.

PHI 632. Aristotle. (3 h)

Study of the major texts, with emphasis on metaphysics, ethics, and theory of knowledge. P-POI.

PHI 641. Kant. (3 h)

Study of Kant’s principal contributions to metaphysics and the theory of knowledge.

PHI 642. Studies in Modern Philosophy. (3 h)

Treatment of selected figures and/or themes in seventeenth and eighteenth century European philosophy. P-POI.

PHI 652. 19th Century European Philosophy: Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche. (3 h)

Surveys the work of important figures in this period, such as G. W. F. Hegel, Soren Kierkegaard, Karl Marx, Rosa Luxemburg, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Edith Stein, addressing issues such as the nature of history, society, nihilism, alienation, and authenticity.

PHI 653. Heidegger. (3 h)

Heidegger early and late. Early Heidegger: the contrast between conformism and authenticity achieved through ‘being-towards-death’; meaning through communal tradition. Late Heidegger: critique of modernity’s reduction of everything to ‘resource’; the ethics of ‘dwelling’ as our proper way of being in the world.

PHI 654. Wittgenstein. (3 h)

The work of Ludwig Wittgenstein on several central philosophical problems studied and compared with that of Frege, James, and Russell. Topics include the picture theory of meaning, truth, skepticism, private languages, thinking, feeling, the mystical, and the ethical. P-POI.

PHI 660. Ethics. (3 h)

Systematic examination of central ethical theories in the Western philosophical tradition. Such theories include Kantian deontology, utilitarianism, Aristotelian virtue ethics, and divine command theory.

PHI 661. Topics in Ethics. (3 h)

P-POI.

PHI 662. Social and Political Philosophy. (3 h)

Systematic examination of the work of selected contemporary and traditional philosophers on topics such as the state, the family, distributive justice, property, liberty, and the common good.

PHI 670. Philosophy and Christianity. (3 h)

Examination of the philosophical foundations of Christian thought and belief. Christian concepts of God and life everlasting, trinity, incarnation, atonement, prayer, sin, evil and obligation.

PHI 671. Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art. (3 h)

Covers such questions as: What is beauty? What is taste? What is art? Must art be beautiful? Can immoral art be good art? Readings may cover historical figures such as Plato or Kant, or may focus on contemporary writers.

PHI 672. Philosophy of Religion. (3 h)

What is religion? Are the gods dead? Is God dead? Is religious belief a symptom of an underlying human weakness or biological process, or could it be a response to the sacred? Must believers rely on something less than knowledge? Are philosophical proofs the way to knowledge of God? What sort of problem is the “problem of evil” and what is its significance? How are religious beliefs like and unlike metaphysical, moral, and modern scientific beliefs? .

PHI 673. Philosophy of Science. (3 h)

Systematic and critical examination of major views concerning the methods of scientific inquiry, and the bases, goals, and implication of the scientific conclusions which result from such inquiry. P-POI.

PHI 674. Philosophy of Mind. (3 h)

Selection from the following topics: the mind-body problem; personal identity; the unity of consciousness; minds and machines; the nature of experience; action, intention, and the will.

PHI 675. Philosophy of Language. (3 h)

Study of such philosophical issues about language as truth and meaning, reference and description, proper names, indexicals, modality, tense, the semantical paradoxes, and the differences between languages and other sorts of sign-systems. P-POI.

PHI 681. Topics in Epistemology. (3 h)

The sources, scope and structure of human knowledge. Topics include: skepticism; perception, memory and reason; the definition of knowledge; the nature of justification; theories of truth. P-POI.

PHI 682. Public Philosophy. (3 h)

This course examines the role of philosophers and the contributions of philosophy to examine and address substantive matters of public importance or concern. P-POI.

PHI 685. Seminar. (2-3 h)

Offered by members of the faculty on specialized topics of their choice. With permission, may be repeated for credit. P-POI.