Students will apply philosophical perspectives to questions regarding the challenges presented by the use of biotechnology on humans, plants, and animals. Does philosophy offer ways to assess the goals of biotechnology? Is philosophy able to judge what is unethical? How does the philosophical ideal of wisdom bear upon biotechnology? How can philosophy help to articulate the relationship between humans, animals, and nature in general? How can philosophy help to situate biotechnology as part of our ability to live a good life within society?

A study of the propositional calculus, quantification theory, the theory of definite descriptions, and other topics in modern symbolic logic..

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.