Fall 2023

PHIL 1101 - Introduction to Philosophy (multiple sections)

Course Description
Introduction to critical exploration of such issues as knowledge, reality, consciousness and the good life; readings from Plato, Descartes, Kant, Nietzsche, or more recent sources.

PHIL 1102 - Introduction to Ethics (multiple sections; online courses available)

Course Description
Introduction to such social and ethical questions as, “What makes a happy life? What justifies ideas of good and evil? How should we live with others? What is the role of gender and race in society?” The subjects of justice, racism, and oppression, especially as they figure into the American context, are highlighted.

PHIL 1611 - Elementary Logic (multiple sections; online courses available)

Course Description
In this course we will cover topics in both formal and informal logic. Studying logic trains the mind to reason well. Logic has played a foundational role in education for over two thousand years because reasoning well is essential to any intellectual endeavor, whether it be in the sciences, the arts, or the humanities. We will explore everyday uses of logic, historical systems of formal reasoning, and some modern formal logic.

Required Textbook (M50 online versions; always consult your syllabus or instructor before purchasing textbooks)
MindTapV2.0 for Hurley/Watson's A Concise Introduction Logic, 1 term Printed Access Card. 2019. ISBN: 9780357419410

PHIL 3001 - History of Ancient Philosophy
CRN 82044
TR
11:20 - 12:45am
Timothy Roche

Course Description
History of philosophy from 7th century B.C. through early Middle Ages structured around major themes that shaped classical period, attention to cultural and historical settings in which they arose and to which they contributed; readings from philosophical and nonphilosophical sources.

PREREQUISITE
PHIL 1101 or PHIL 1102, or permission of instructor.

PHIL 3411 - Contemporary Moral Problems
CRN 82005
MWF
10:20-11:15pm
Jasper St. Bernard

Course Description
Such important contemporary moral issues as pornography and obscenity, capital punishment, abortion, human rights, "reverse discrimination," and civil disobedience; underlying philosophical ideas for each issue considered and discussed.

PHIL 3460 - Nature/Mind/Knowledge
CRN 89343
MW
12:40-2:05pm
Zachary Auwerda

Course Description
The nature of mind, free will vs. determinism, personal identity and immortality, and the nature and possibility of knowledge.

PHIL 3453 - 19th/20th Century Continental
CRN 95111
TR
1:00-2:25pm
Thomas Nenon

Course Description
This course will explore Kant and German Idealism as an introduction to some writings by the early Marx, then move onto Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals. We’ll begin the 20th century with some texts from Husserl and from Heidegger’s Being and Time, then proceed to some selections from Sartre and de Beauvoir. Some attention may be given to Fanon, Levinas, Foucault, and Derrida.

PHIL 3514 - Biomedical Ethics (multiple sections; online courses available)

Course Description
Discussion of ethical problems raised by contemporary medical practices and biological innovations from standpoint of contemporary ethical theories including abortion, euthanasia, human experimentation and genetic engineering.

Course Description (M50 online versions)
In this course we will begin by learning about moral theory, logic/argumentation, and concepts related to biomedical ethics such as autonomy, paternalism, informed consent, and more. We will then explore case studies in the modules that follow. Such topics include human research, pandemic ethics, abortion, euthanasia, and health care. You will be expected to apply moral theory to cases studies as well as identify relevant concepts.

Required Textbooks (M50 online versions; always consult your syllabus or instructor before purchasing textbooks)
Bioethics: Principles, Issues, and Cases by Lewis Vaughn (multiple editions available)

PHIL 3741 - African American Philosophy
CRN 82022
TR
9:40-11:05pm
Jameliah Shorter-Bourhanou

Course Description
Philosophical investigation of social and political themes which have developed historically in African American culture such as theories of social elevation, civil disobedience, race and racism, and black feminism.

PHIL 3702-M50 - Philosophy of Religion
CRN 82021
Online/Asynchronous
Gerald Azike

Course Description
This course offers a critical examination of religious experience and related theological concepts and theories. Philosophers from a number of global traditions will be studied. Different views concerning ultimate reality, the existence of God, human nature, the problems of human suffering and evil, the afterlife, the ideal society, ethics, and the conflict between faith and reason will be considered.

PHIL 4311/6311 - Modern Philosophy: Nietzsche
CRN 82028/82042
TR
1:00-2:25pm
<Practical>
Mike Monahan

Course Description
Though all but ignored during his lifetime, the latter half of the 20th century saw a booming interest in Nietzsche’s work (especially his ethical thought) that continues today. For better or for worse, the style and content of his writings have proven notoriously difficult to interpret, and so we find quite a variety of disparate uses (and abuses) of his work. Hailed as a proto-postmodern in one corner, and as a “naturalistic” theorist on the other, one can find a great variety of philosophical positions that claim, rightly or wrongly, some debt to Nietzsche. This course will look closely and Nietzsche’s writings on ethics, focusing in particular on his mature works (starting with books IV and V of The Gay Science). We will be examining his critique of traditional moral philosophy, his understanding of the challenge posed by nihilism, and his project of the “revaluation of all values”. There are two principle aims of the course. The first is to meet Nietzsche on his own terms in order to best evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of his later
interpreters. The second is to raise the question of whether, in the interstices of his various critiques of ethical thought, it is possible to construct a viable positive account of
a distinctly Nietzschean ethics. In other words, can one find, amidst all the articulations of what ethics is not, a coherent account of what Nietzsche thinks ethics is?

TEXTS: Nietzsche – The Gay Science, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morals, Twilight of the Idols, and Antichrist. Some secondary literature
will also be assigned (Robert Gooding Williams, Richard Schacht, Brian Leiter, Maudemarie Clarke, Ofelia Schutte, Bernard Reginster).

REQUIREMENTS: Class participation (including weekly online participation), one class presentation, final research paper (6,000 words).

PHIL 7201/8201 - Seminar-Classical Philosophy
CRN 82049/82130
R
2:30-5:30pm
<History of Philosophy>
Timothy Roche

Course Description
We begin with a discussion of some books of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics that surround his books on philia (friendship, affection) to establish the philosophical context of his account of philia in that treatise. A second preliminary task will be to examine Plato’s Lysis, a dialogue which clearly influences Aristotle’s own treatment of philia.

After these preparatory readings and discussions, we use Michael Pakaluk’s translation and commentary to engage in an intensive analysis of Aristotle’s discussion of philia in books 8 and 9 of the Ethics. The aim of the course will be to understand and evaluate what Aristotle says about philia (including his remarks on personal friendship, civic friendship, and familial love) and some of what he tells us about eros (passionate/sexual love). We explore the natures of these forms of affection in Aristotle’s moral and political thought while paying special attention to his view of the differences and similarities between philia and eros on the one hand, and the relations between philia and human eudaimonia (living well or happiness) on the other.

Required Course Materials:

Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. (Use translations by Irwin, Crisp, Ross, or Rowe; Crisp and Ross translations available online as library e-books.)
Michael Pakaluk (trans.), Nicomachean Ethics, Books VIII and IX. (OUP). ISBN: 0-19875-104-4.
Plato. Lysis (uploaded to Canvas).
Selected passages from various writings of Aristotle (including, for example, fragments of Aristotle’s lost dialogues, the Topics, the Prior Analytics, De Anima, Rhetoric, Eudemian Ethics, Magna Moralia, Politics, Historia Animalium, and Generation of Animals.). The material will be made available to students in various ways, e.g., through library e-books, Canvas, handouts, etc.
Modern philosophical papers and commentaries on Aristotle’s accounts of philia and/or eros (uploaded to Canvas).

Course Requirements:
A midterm paper and a final paper. Students may substitute a class presentation for the midterm paper. Also, students enrolled in the class will also be required to discuss both primary texts and secondary literature in their final papers or presentations.

PHIL 7203/8203 - Seminar-Contemporary Philosophy: Aesthetics and Skilled Performance
CRN 82080/82131
T
2:30-5:30pm
<Theoretical>
Shaun Gallagher

COURSE DESCRIPTION
The focus of this seminar is the intersection between aesthetics and skilled performance. Recent philosophical work on skilled performance in the performing arts and athletics, building on work in both phenomenology and science, has provided a nuanced view that describes an integration of multiple factors (motor control, perception, emotion, physical/social/cultural environments). In contrast to some traditional views of aesthetic experience that focus on the observer stance, a different perspective is introduced when we ask about the performer’s experience. We’ll consider Kantian, phenomenological, pragmatic and enactive views on aesthetic experience and their implications for understanding the work of art. Mark Johnson, and several other philosophers, will be guests during the seminar.

TEXTS
Selections from Kant, Lipps, Merleau-Ponty, Wollheim, Gadamer

Contemporary papers by Maria Brincker, Mark Johnson, Hubert Dreyfus, Evelyn Tribble, John Sutton, Simon Höffding, John Carvalho, and others

REQUIREMENTS
Students will be assessed on class participation, one class presentation, and a final research paper (15-20 pages).

PHIL 7514/8514 - Cognitive Science Seminar: Embodied Cognition
CRN 88770/88771
Wednesday
2:20-5:20pm
<Theoretical>
Shaun Gallagher

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Embodied cognition presents an alternative to standard cognitivist views in cognitive science. The seminar will review various approaches to embodied cognition, usually termed the 4Es: embodied, embedded (or ecological), extended and enactive cognition. These approaches motivate a number of contemporary debates and critical responses to questions about the role of brain, body and environment in cognition; notions of representation, affordance, affectivity, dynamical attunement; relations between perception and action, predictive processing and active inference. We’ll also explore the implications for topics pertaining to education, social cognition and psychiatry. Guest lectures by Karl Friston, Mark Johnson, David Kirsh, and others (TBA) in the areas of philosophy, neurobiology, psychology, psychiatry, computer science and AI.

Texts
Gallagher, S. 2023. Elements: Embodied and Enactive Approaches to Cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

A selection of articles by visiting lecturers.

REQUIREMENTS
Students will be assessed on class participation and a final research paper (15-20 pages).

PHIL 7541/8541 - Social/Political Philosophy
CRN 82089/82132
Thursday
5:30-8:30pm
<Practical>
Jameliah Shorter-Bourhanou

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course will focus on the history of black feminist philosophy. We will take an historical intellectual approach to intersectionality, black feminist epistemology, and black women's activism. We will read black feminist philosophers such as Anna Julia Cooper, Patricia Hill-Collins, and bell hooks. Later in the course, we will explore new directions of black feminist philosophy such as transnational black feminism, misogynoir, conjure, and the philosophy of rest.

Texts: TBD

Requirements: TBD

PHIL 7801 - Data Ethics
CRN 96438
MW
12:40-2:05pm
<Practical>
Kevin Taylor

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course will provide an introduction to the emerging, fast-paced field of Data Ethics which includes select readings by leading scholars on the topics of privacy/surveillance (dataveillance), robot ethics (especially autonomous vehicles, carebots and killbots), AI ethics (including algorithmic nudging, machine learning, weak AI versus strong AI), and social media ethics. This course will center around a close reading of the texts against the background of the relevant moral theories discussed. Novel problems and new issues will be addressed as relevant (ex. AI art, ChatGPT, the moral status of data, the possibility of robot enlightenment, etc.).

Special attention will be paid to theoretical approaches to data ethics and less commonly taught philosophies (ex. Virtue ethics and social media, Confucian ethics and Carebots, Buddhism and Intelligent technology, American pragmatism and AI ethics, etc.)

TEXTS:
The Ethics of Information by Luciano Floridi
Additional readings available as PDFs.

REQUIREMENTS:
-Philosophy students will be assessed on class participation (including two in-class presentations) and a final research paper (15-20 pages).
-Non-Philosophy students will be assessed on assessed on class participation (including in-class presentations prepared in consultation with the instructor) and two case study assignments (prepared in consultation with the instructor).