Debates about the nature of philosophy in Africa and specific controversies about knowledge, rationality, metaphysics, morality, and politics. African philosophy in a global context.
PHL 200-299 | PHL 300-349 | PHL 350-399 | PHL 400-449 | PHL 450-499
PHL 800-849 | PHL 850-899 | PHL 999
Theories of knowledge, values, and reality. Topics such as objectivity, relativism and cultural diversity, moral responsibility, aesthetic values, the self, existence of God, free will, minds and machines.
Deductive and inductive reasoning. Topics such as rational argumentation, fallacies, definition, meaning, truth and evidence. Techniques for critical reading and thinking.
Philosophical problems of existence, knowledge, and action as addressed in selected readings from the Presocratics, Plato, Aristotle, and Hellenistic philosophers.
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Philosophy from the Renaissance through the nineteenth century, including Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche.
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Husserl, Jaspers, Kierkegaard, Marcel, Nietzsche, Sartre, and de Beauvoir. Topics such as hope, anxiety, bad faith, subjectivity, freedom, social being, phenomenological method.
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Theories of aesthetic value and the nature of art. Works of such aestheticians as Plato, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Tolstoy, Santayana, Wittgenstein, Isenberg, Langer, Murdoch.
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Special topics supplementing regular course offerings, proposed by faculty on a group study basis.
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Formal methods in deductive reasoning. Logic of connectives and quantifiers including identity, functions, and descriptions.
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Inquiry through the writings of some important theorists, their critics and their contemporary followers. Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Mill, Sidgwick.
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Ethical perspectives on humanity's use of and relationship to nonhuman animals, the land, future humans, and the ecosystem itself.
Termination of treatment, truth-telling, informed consent, human experimentation, reproductive issues, allocation of scarce resources, justice and the health care system.
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Ethical dimensions of the relationships between a business and employees, consumers, other businesses, society, government, and the law.
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History of social and political philosophy; problems such as obligation, power, oppression, freedom, equality, and community.
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Debates about the nature of philosophy in Africa and specific controversies about knowledge, rationality, metaphysics, morality, and politics. African philosophy in a global context.
Core themes in peace and justice studies, including concepts of violence, conflict and reconciliation as informed by problems of inequality, power, and recognition. Institutional and practical approaches to nonviolence.
Legal concepts such as punishment, responsibility, rights and duties, and judicial decisions. Legal theories such as natural law, positivism and realism.
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Examination of the desirability of technology, its social forms, and its alternatives. Conventional productivist, ecological progressive, and radical humanist outlooks.
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Conceptual and normative issues in feminist theory. Topics such as sexism, oppression, coercion, control, power, equality, personhood, respect and self-respect, rape, separatism, community, intimacy, and autonomy.
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Marx's philosophical thought and its bearing on science, religion, art and politics.
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Elementary topics in semantics, linguistic pragmatics, and philosophy of language. Meaning, denotation, speech acts, and linguistic relativity.
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Conflicting views about science and values. Such topics as scientific methodology; the objectivity and value neutrality of science; the presuppositions, goals, and limits of science; and science and decision making.
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Special topics supplementing regular course offerings, proposed by faculty on a group study basis.
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A selection of themes (ontology, epistemology, method, ethics) from Plato’s Socratic and constructive dialogues. Content varies by term.
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Aristotle's major works and his major contributions to the metaphysics, psychology, ethics, the arts, and politics. Content varies by term.
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Topics selected from among the works of 17th and 18th century philosophers, e.g., Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, Berkeley, and Hume. Content varies by term.
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A seminar in Immanuel Kant’s critical philosophy in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics, or other areas. Content varies by term.
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Hegel's dialectic and its bearing on both the history of philosophy and issues about science, politics, art and religion.
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Selections from Post-Hegelian German philosophy, Mill and Utilitarianism, early African-American philosophy, Nietzsche and proto-existentialism, or American Pragmatism. Content varies by term.
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Emphasis on important philosophers or movements in the analytic or continental traditions of the 20th century, extending to the present. Variable by term in content and approach.
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Emphasis on one of the less frequently taught themes, philosophers, and movements in the history of philosophy.
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Discussion of movements, issues, or figures in Continental and European Philosophy. Content varies by term.
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Investigation of logical concepts. Philosophical significance of twentieth-century results in logic. Related issues in the semantics and pragmatics of natural language.
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Twentieth-century discussions of universalization, utilitarianism, nature of a moral theory, moral language, relativism, skepticism, theory and practice, weakness of will, moral education, and justification.
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Philosophically puzzling features of medical research, policy, and practice. Issues in theories of knowledge, personal identity, reference and meaning.
Main contemporary figures in the liberal tradition and their critics.
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Philosophical issues about race and the black experience. Nature of racism, relationship of science to race, debates about identity, public policy and race.
Ethical issues such as racism, health care disparities, war, genocide, famine, agricultural intensification, economic liberalization, democratization, gender equity, globalization, and environmental degradation.
Selected topics in philosophical approaches to law such as critical race theory, constitutional theory and international law.
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Philosophical issues in a framework of feminist politics and critique. Standpoint theories, care/justice ethics, ontological status of genders/races, theories of power/domination, determinism/freedom.
Theories and concepts of knowledge, belief, epistemic justification, certainty, and reason.
Basic concepts employed in trying to understand the nature of things. Concepts include universals, particulars, things, kinds, properties, events, persons, change, causality, chance, existence, possibility, necessity, space, and time.
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Modern theories of the mind, other minds, and the mind's relation to the body. Theories include dualism, behaviorism, criteriology, reductive and eliminative materialism, and functionalism.
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Cognitive processing of information by animals, humans, and computers. Relevant issues in philosophy, linguistics, psychology, neurophysiology, and artificial intelligence.
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Problems, assumptions, and arguments of modern aesthetic theory examined in the context of debates over modernity and modernist artistic practice.
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Structure of scientific theories and explanation. Causation, prediction, induction, confirmation, discovery, and scientific progress.
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Philosophical and methodological issues in biology. Topics such as functional explanation, classification, the structure of evolutionary theory, reductionism, observation and measurement, or value-neutrality.
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Explanations, theories, and concepts in social science. Topics such as historicism; reductionism; rationality and relativism; comparison of logical empiricist, interpretive, and critical theory approaches.
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Current and future roles of biotechnology in agriculture: scientific basis, applications. Environmental, social, and ethical concerns.
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Supervised special projects arranged by an individual student and a faculty member in areas supplementing regular course offerings.
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Special topics supplementing regular course offerings, proposed by faculty on a group study basis.
Advanced, variable topic seminar for undergraduate majors. Seminar presentations. Substantial paper.
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Individual research project supervised by a faculty member that demonstrates the student's ability to do independent research and submit or present a major paper. See prerequisites and application form on the department's undergraduate site.
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The practice of graduate and professional work in philosophy: reading, writing, presentation, critique and revision; rigor of argument and clarity of expression; areas and methods of inquiry; cooperation and dialogue in inquiry; conferences, professional activities, and employment.
Theoretical and pedagogical issues in teaching philosophy: the nature of philosophy, designing a course and syllabus, lecturing, leading discussions, designing assignments, evaluation, classroom dynamics, using technology, teaching various areas of philosophy.
Major figures, themes, or periods in ethics or aesthetics. Topics vary.
Major figures or themes in 19th and 20th century continental philosophy.
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Major figures, themes, or periods in ethics or aesthetics. Topics vary.
Major figures, themes, or periods in social and political philosophy. Topics vary.
Selected topics in metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of mind.
Survey of how different disciplines explore the cognitive processes underlying intelligent behavior.
Ethical, political, theoretical, and methodological issues in medicine and health care.
Selected topics in the philosophy of the special sciences, in the metatheory of science, and in the social studies of science.
Special projects, directed reading, and research arranged by an individual graduate student and a faculty member in areas supplementing regular course offerings.
Study of ethical and policy issues in hospital and governmental agency settings.
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Directed research leading to a master's thesis in partial fulfillment of Plan A master's degree requirements.
Doctoral dissertation research.