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.

A study of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, focusing primarily on Kant's seminal work, Critique of Pure Reason.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This course addresses what it means to say that human beings are persons having freedom and subjectivity; examines the different powers of the human person, including the powers of understanding, willing, feeling, and loving; studies the difference between body and soul, as well as the unity of the two in humans; and explores the question of the immortality of the soul. Some classic texts from the tradition of Western philosophy are read.

This course studies key texts from Thomas Aquinas. The focus is on the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas, but special attention is paid to his commentaries on Aristotle and on his Christian interpretation of ancient philosophy. The challenge that modern science and modern philosophy presents to Thomistic metaphysics is also discussed, with special attention paid to the highly influential critique made by Immanuel Kant.

This course explores philosophical issues in the West from the second to the 14th century, in particular the impact of Greek philosophy on the development of Christian thought. There are three natural stages of this interaction: 1) Defensive philosophy (apologetics): responses to rational objections brought to bear against Christianity; 2) Methodology: reflection on the interaction between faith and reason, and, in particular, the nature of theology as a science; and 3) Constructive philosophy: struggles from within over a systematic metaphysics and ethics.

This course explores questions such as: What is feminism? What are the main schools of feminist thought? What is patriarchy? What is gender and does it differ from sex? Are there only two sexes? Are there only two genders? What is homosexuality? What are the different views on how same-sex attraction arises? Do feminism and Christianity have convergent trajectories? Is there a place in the church for those from the LGBTQ community? What are the cultural forces that format the thinking about these questions?