Courses

Courses for Winter 2020

 

  • 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 20B. History of Philosophy 
    • From Medievals to Rationalists.
  • PHIL 100A. Ethics 
    • An examination of the fundamental concepts, theories, and problems of moral or political philosophy.
  • PHIL 100D. Philosophy of Mind
    • Discussion of some central questions about the mind: are people identical to their bodies? What is it to feel, believe, or desire something? What distinguishes intelligent thinking from a computer's activities? What is the connection between language and thought?
  • PHIL 100E. Metaphysics
    • ​​Introduction to the philosophical study of the most general and fundamental features of reality. Topics vary, but may include universals, particulars, identity and individuation, substance, the nature of persons, causation, and the nature of time.
  • PHIL 116. Meaning and Reference
    • An examination of the classical theories of meaning and reference: John Stuart Mill, Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, and the theory of direct reference. Investigation of solutions to the classical puzzles of meaning and reference.
  • PHIL 124C. Philosophy of Space and Time
    • Is space a thing or a series of relations holding between objects? Does time pass differently for different observers, or in different parts of the universe? Consideration of these and other questions lead to an examination of contemporary physics.
  • PHIL 133. History of Political Thought
    • A study of one or more important figures from the history of political thought.
  • PHIL 134. Moral Psychology
    • An examination of the nature of desires, emotions, the imagination and other aspects of human psychology, and of the ways these bear on the moral evaluation of people and actions.
  • PHIL 139. Meta-Ethics
    • An examination of problems concerning the meaning and justification of moral judgments.
  • PHIL 145. Punishment and Responsibility
    • An examination of some of the philosophical problems of punishment and responsibility: The rationale of punishment and the legal doctrine of Mensrea; the analysis of conditions of responsibility, relations between punishment, responsibility, retribution, guilt, shame, etc.
  • PHIL 149. Action Theory
    • An examination of philosophical topics connected with human action, e.g. the role of intentions and desires in the explanation and justification of action and the nature of practical reason.
  • PHIL 153. Aristotle
    • The philosophy of Aristotle.
  • PHIL 161. Spinoza
    • The philosophy of Spinoza.
  • PHIL 173. Frege
    • An examination of the work of the German philosopher and logician, Gottlob Frege.
  • 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.
  • PHIL 184. Intermediate Modern Logic
    • Further application and development of the predicate calculus, including the calculi of identity and description. An introduction to the metalogical questions of completeness, consistency, and decidability.