Courses

Courses for Fall 2019

  • PHIL 1. Short Introduction to Philosophy
    • An introductory course in western philosophy.
  • PHIL 3. Critical Thinking
    • Practical reasoning, argumentation, and the analysis of language as instruments of sound thinking in everyday life.
  • PHIL 4. Introduction to Ethics
    • An examination, at an introductory level, of such ethical issues as: why be moral, moral relativism, the nature of virtues and vices; and possibly consideration of practical ethical problems such as abortion or war.
  • PHIL 20A. History of Philosophy 
    • From Thales to Aristotle.
  • PHIL 100A. Ethics 
    • An examination of the fundamental concepts, theories, and problems of moral or political philosophy.
  • PHIL 100F. Introduction to the Philosophy of Science 
    • An introduction to the philosophical analysis of the concepts and methods of science, treating such topics as: explanation, confirmation, causation, scientific laws, the interpretation, meaning and reference of scientific theories, theory reduction and theory change, and scientific revolutions.
  • PHIL 112. Philosophy of Religion
    • A study of some of the following topics: religious language, the existence and nature of god, the problem of evil, religious experience, religion and morality, the rationality of religious belief.
  • PHIL 121. Political Philosophy 
    • Analysis of fundamental political conceptions; the state, sovereignty, political obligation, natural rights, natural law, etc.
  • PHIL 130. Freedom and Determinism 
    • Determinism is the doctrine that the laws of nature plus the past necessitate the future. Is determinism compatible with the view that we often act freely and are often morally responsible for what we do?
  • PHIL 131. Advanced Topics in Applied Ethics 
    • Advanced Topics in Applied Ethics.
  • PHIL 138. Normative Ethics 
    • An examination of what makes actions morally right or wrong and people morally good or bad.
  • PHIL 141. History of Ethics 
    • A study of one or more historically important moral philosophers.
  • PHIL 151. Pre-Socratics 
    • A study of the pre-Socratic philosophers.
  • PHIL 152. Plato 
    • The philosophy of Plato. 
  • PHIL 176. Historical Philosophers 
    • Examination of historical philosophers beyond those covered in Philosophy 106 and 151-166.
  • PHIL 183. Beginning Modern Logic
    • ​An introduction to the concepts and methods of moder symbolic logic. Emphasis is placed on problems of translating english expressions into logical symbols and on the development of skills in using the formal proof procedures of sentential and predicate logic.