Fall 2024

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
Sean Driscoll

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
10:20-11:15am
Justin Wooley

Course Description
In an age that has seen international conflict, climate crisis, and political turmoil, we are confronted with a number of ethical dilemmas that demand our attention as modern subjects. In this class, we will explore several contemporary moral problems such as issues of academic freedom, state surveillance, and mass incarceration. Through the work of figures like Angela Davis, W.E.B. DuBois, and Michel Foucault, we will explore the philosophical implications of these issues and establish various approaches for navigating the pressing demands of our contemporary lives.

PHIL 3451 - Existentialism
CRN 85236
TR
9:40-11:05 am
Mary Beth Mader

Course Description
You exist, but what does it mean that you exist? What could your life mean, and what choice do you have about its meaning? Many existentialist philosophers argue that we have more choice about our life’s meaning than we often tend to think.

An introduction to existentialist arguments through select key philosophical texts and literary works from influential 19th and 20th-century movements in European philosophy and the United States.

Topics include:

Death and the meaning of life
Western theism and the self, as well as the "death of god"
Ethics: Human freedom and responsibility, [in]authenticity, absurdity
Emotions: Anguish, guilt, shame
Social Identities: Race, gender, ethnicity
Political Philosophy: Punishment, vengeance, justice

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 3514-001
CRN 82010
MWF
9:10-10:05am
Caner Yildirim

Course Description
This course aims to familiarize students with some of the central issues, positions, and arguments in biomedical ethics. In this course we will investigate the moral and philosophical issues surrounding the practice of health care, health care system and emerging bio-technologies. Some of the major problem areas we will focus on include patient autonomy, confidentiality and consent, biomedical experimentation on humans and animals, use of biomedical big-data, reproduction and reproductive technologies (e.g. abortion and sterilization), genetic enhancement (e.g. stem cell research), euthanasia, universal right to health care, race and gender based health care disparities, global health ethics (e.g. global health care disparities, responses to pandemics such as Covid-19, AIDS).

PHIL 3515 - Climate Change, Ethics, and Environment
CRN 89740
ONLINE

Course Description
This course is intended as a survey of the topics addressed in environmental ethics: non-anthropocentric ethics and the deep ecology movement, animal ethics and the use of animals for biomedical research, ecofeminism, environmental racism, indigenous environmental philosophy, social ecology, and the ethics of climate change economics and technology.

PHIL 3720 - Asian Philosophy
CRN 96976
MW
12:40 pm-02:05 pm
Kevin Taylor

Course Description
This course covers the development of Asian philosophy and religious philosophical thought. Concentration will be on those traditions with continuing significant sociological, political, and literary influence. The course will include a survey of the foundations of Chinese thought in Confucianism, Legalism and Daoism: Indian thought in the Vedas, the Upanisads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga-sutras, followed by an introduction to Buddhism (the four noble truths, no-self, the eightfold path) and major philosophical developments of Buddhist philosophy in China and Japan. Contemporary approaches to Asian Philosophy will be explored at the end of the course (including but not limited to Comparative Philosophical approaches to Asian traditions).

PHIL 3751 - Philosophy of Race & Racism
CRN 96988
TR
1:00-2:25pm
Jameliah Shorter-Bourhanou

Course Description
This course will focus on race, racism, and anti-racism. First, we will explore ideas about race from the history of philosophy from philosophers such as Immanuel Kant. Next, we will learn about approaches to historical ideas of race from philosophers such as W.E.B. DuBois, Zora Neale Hurston, and Audre Lorde. Last, we will learn about strategies for dealing with racism from scholars such as Derald Wing Sue.

PHIL 4441/6441 - Recent Continental Philosophy
<Theoretical>
CRN 82031/82043
TR
1:00 pm-02:25 pm
Kas Saghafi

Course Description
This course introduces students to several major thinkers in 20th Century Continental/European thought (including phenomenology, structuralism, critical theory, and hermeneutics) through readings of primary sources.

Required Texts
Walter Benjamin “On the Concept of History” in Selected Writings vol. 4 1938-40, edited by Howard Eiland and Michael W. Jennings, [Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, 2006]
ISBN-10: 0674022297; ISBN-13 ‏: ‎978-0674022294

Theodor Adorno,The Culture Industry [Routledge, 2001]
ISBN-10 : ‎9780415253802; ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0415253802

Martin Heidegger, “On the Essence of Truth” in Basic Writings [Harper Perennial]

Claude Levi-Strauss, "The Writing Lesson” in Tristes Tropiques, translated by Patrick Wilcken [Penguin, 2012]
ISBN-10 ‏: ‎ 0143106252; ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0143106258

Jacques Lacan, “The Instance of the Letter in the Unconscious” in Ecrits [W.W. Norton, 2007]
ISBN-10 ‏: ‎0393329259; ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393329254

Hans Georg Gadamer, “The Ontology of the Work of Art” in Truth and Method [Bloomsbury Academic]
ISBN-10: ‎9781780936246; ISBN-13: ‎978-1780936246

Carl Schmitt, Political Theology [University of Chicago Press, 2006]
ISBN-10: ‎0226738892; ISBN-13 ‏: ‎978-0226738895

Some of the reading will be made available electronically as a pdf

Recommended Texts
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism [Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1973]
ISBN-10 ‏: ‎ 0156701537; ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0156701532

Ferdinand de Saussure,Course in General Linguistics [Open Court, 1998]
ISBN-10: ‎0812690230; ISBN-13 ‏: ‎ 978-0812690231

PHIL 7201/8201 - Seminar Classical Philosophy
"Plato's Cratylus"
CRN 82049/82130
R
2:30 pm-05:30 pm
Sean Driscoll

PHIL 7203/8203 - Seminar Contemporary Philosophy
"Pragmatism and Phenomenology"
CRN 82080/82131
M
02:30 pm-05:30 pm
Shaun Gallagher

Historically there were limited connections among proponents of pragmatism and proponents of phenomenology (with a few exceptions); indeed, there was zero personal contact between the major figures in these traditions (Peirce, James, Dewey on the side of pragmatism; Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty in phenomenology). The notable influence of James on Husserl’s philosophy was primarily in the area of psychology and was unrelated to James’ later work on pragmatism. Nonetheless, there are significant theoretical parallels, for example, between Peirce and Husserl, and between Dewey and Merleau-Ponty. More explicit connections start to emerge in neo-pragmatism (e.g., Rorty), and in recent work on embodied cognition which in some respects has been said to involve a ‘pragmatic turn’. The seminar will explore all of these connections and disconnections.

PHIL 7514/8514 - Cognitive Science Seminar
CRN 88770/88771
W
2:20 pm-05:20 pm
Instructor: TBA

PHIL 7551/8551 - Seminar Ethical Theory
"Artifical Intelligence and Philosophy"
CRN 85240/85241
T
2:30 pm-05:30 pm
David Miguel Gray

Course Description:

This course focuses on the development of AI (broadly construed to include tradional logic-based models – GOFAI - as well as models that make use of Machine Learning. We will seek to
understand how some common ML models work (e.g., basic, spiking, and convolutional neural networks) as well as the architecture for organizing the models (e.g., transformer architecture used in GPT and possibly Mamba). We will also look at some recent applications of AI in the natural sciences and the business world.

We will also look at philosophical defenses and critcisms that artficial intelligence is, well, intelligent. We will look at some classic and modern critques of the intelligence of AI (e.g., Hubert Dreyfus’ Heideggerian-inspired critques, contemporary versions of Fodor and Pylyshyn’s productivity and systematicity critques, and Penrose’s Gödelian-inspired critique). We will also look at some of the ethical concerns AI has posed (focusing on privacy and explainability) and the recent policies that governments and corporations have implemented to reduce harm and risk, respectively.