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Courses

A summary of each course to help with your selection.

Academic Year

Programs

Course ID

Course ID	Course
PHIL 306	PHIL 306 Philosophy of Culture, Media, and Technology Course Credits: 3 A critical investigation of the philosophical questions and assumptions that underly the relationship among culture, media, and technology. Students will investigate the philosophical underpinning and the anthropological import of various views of culture, media, and technology, asking critical moral questions about their tendencies to change and shape our human way of being. Prerequisite(s): 3 sem. hrs. of philosophy, or instructor permission.
PHIL 310	PHIL 310 Issues in Social Justice Course Credits: 3 An examination of ethical issues that pertain to social justice, addressing such topics as the distribution of wealth, the difference between equality and equity, the effects of globalization, and the morality of war. Cross-listed: POLS 310 Prerequisite(s): 3 sem. hrs. of philosophy or political studies or third year standing.
PHIL 313	PHIL 313 British Empiricism Course Credits: 3 A study of empiricist philosophy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Selected writings of Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume are analyzed and interpreted. As we discuss each author’s ideas, we will evaluate their positions on the limits of knowledge and experience, the intelligibility of revelatory truth, the existence of God, the divisibility of reality, the role of nature, and the ethics and politics of human life. Prerequisite(s): 6 sem. hrs. of philosophy. NB: Not offered every year. See department chair
PHIL 314	PHIL 314 Reason and the Enlightenment Course Credits: 3 A study of rationalist philosophy in the European Enlightenment period of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Selected writings of Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz are analysed and interpreted. As we discuss each author's ideas, we will evaluate their positions on: the limits of reason, the intelligibility of revelatory truth, the existence of God, the divisibility of reality, the role of nature, and the ethics and politics of human life. In the process of dialoguing about these ideas, we shall also study the historical importance of the Enlightenment in modernity as well as the original intent of the philosophers in question with attention to their historic context. We shall also assess the enduring relevance of the Enlightenment to the modern age. Prerequisite(s): 3 sem. hrs. of philosophy. NB: Not offered every year. See department chair
PHIL 315	PHIL 315 Kant Course Credits: 3 A study of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, focusing primarily on Kant's seminal work, Critique of Pure Reason. Prerequisite(s): 9 sem. hrs. of philosophy. NB: Not offered every year. See department chair
PHIL 320	PHIL 320 Social and Political Philosophy Course Credits: 3 An examination of foundational ideas and problems in political life and thought. Both classical and contemporary texts are used. Concepts to be treated include the state, society, the citizen, democracy, liberty, equality, authority, obligation, and disobedience. Cross-listed: POLS 320 Prerequisite(s): 3 sem. hrs. of philosophy or political studies or third year standing.
PHIL 331	PHIL 331 Environmental Philosophy Course Credits: 3 Explores the theological and philosophical dimensions of the doctrine of creation and from there highlights the various philosophical shifts of outlook that helped usher in modern naturalism and its notions of nature. We will investigate the metaphysics behind the fact/value dichotomy, various environmental ethical frameworks, the case for the moral status of non-human animals and abiotic entities, the evolution of the ecological crisis, the conceptual substructures of some popular contemporary environmental frameworks, and some of the agendas of response to our current ecological crisis. Cross-listed: GENV 331 Prerequisite(s): 2nd year status or instructor's permission NB: PHIL/GENV 221 and PHIL/GENV 331 may not both be taken for credit.
PHIL 333	PHIL 333 Philosophy and Literature Course Credits: 3 This course surveys major ancient, medieval, modern, and postmodern approaches that attempt a theory of literature. The course places modern and postmodern theories in historical perspective by reading key ancient and medieval authors. In particular, resources from the Latin Scholastic tradition most relevant to contemporary debates about literary theory are highlighted. Prerequisite(s): 3 sem. hrs. of philosophy. NB: Not offered every year.
PHIL 340	PHIL 340 Moral Philosophy Course Credits: 3 The problem of determining standards of right and wrong as well as the problem of determining what is of value in itself. The moral theories of prominent philosophers, both ancient and modern, are examined. Prerequisite(s): 3 sem. hrs. of philosophy (PHIL 106 or 210 are recommended) NB: Not offered every year. See department chair

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