Instructors' Course Descriptions for Summer 2012
The following descriptions of courses being offered by the Philosophy Department in Summer 2012 were submitted by the course instructors. Exceptions are descriptions in brackets {…}, which have been adopted from the Undergraduate Catalogue (students desiring further information regarding the specific content of courses with bracketed descriptions are advised to contact the instructors directly).
Specific information regarding the dates, times, and locations of these courses may be found in the Registrar’s official Schedule of Courses for Summer 2012.
If the instructor is designated as ‘Staff’, the actual instructor for the course has yet to be determined. If you are looking for a complete syllabus for a course, check the Syllabi area for availability.
Descriptions
PHI 2010 Introduction to Philosophy - Mr. Herzog
This course is an introduction to the discipline of philosophy. ¬†We will examine four areas of philosophy (religion, knowledge, mind, and ethics), investigating the central problems of each area, and weighing various influential attempts to address those problems. ¬†We will cultivate some of the basic skills needed to reason well, such as careful reading and critical thinking, so that you will be enabled to offer your own considered contributions to rational dialogue, and to think well about some of humanity’s most important questions.
PHI 3700 Philosophy of Religion - Mr. Perez
This course will cover problems in philosophical theology, including the nature of God, arguments for God‚Äôs existence, the problem of evil, and the relation between faith and reason. Our central question will be: does God exist? For our purposes, God is to be understood as a being that is omniscient, omnipresent, omni-benevolent, omnipotent, creator of the universe and worthy of worship. The view according to which such a being exists is called ‘theism’. The focus of this course will be on arguments for and against theism. Note that while only some religions are consistent with theism, theism is more general than any particular religion. Arguments for/against theism, therefore, are not necessarily arguments for the truth/falsity of a particular religion. Therefore, even though this course will cover issues that are connected with various religions, it is not a study of religion.
PHI 3930 Free WIll - Mr. Falke
Most people believe that they have free will. If they went to the beach, for example, they typically think that it was their choice to go. They furthermore tend to think that this choice was, in some important sense, up to them, i.e. they could have chosen not to go. However, it is quite unclear whether this view of ourselves matches our scientific worldviews. According to one scientific worldview, everything in the world is determined. Given any state of the universe and the laws of nature, every subsequent state occurs necessarily. If this is correct, it seems that at no point we can act and choose to act other than we actually do. But then it does not seem to make sense to hold people morally responsible for what they have done, for they never could have done otherwise. According to another scientific worldview, the world is indeterministic. But if this is true, our choices and actions seem random and strangely disconnected from our desires, intentions, and wishes. We might be free in some sense, but not in the sense required for being held morally responsible for our actions and choices.
Either something went quite wrong in the train of thought just sketched, or many of our attitudes towards other people are quite unreasonable. If this leaves you puzzled, taking this course is a good idea, for we will look at the main philosophical arguments for and against the existence of free will. Students will come out of this course with a good overview of the free will debate. Course grades will be determined by participation, two papers, and ten in-class quizzes.
Required texts: 1) Kane, Robert (2005): A Contemporary Introduction to Free Will. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN-13: 978-0195149708. 2) Watson, Gary (ed.) (2003): Free Will, 2nd Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN-13: 978-0199254941.
PHI 2010 Introduction to Philosophy (online) - Dr. Westmoreland
This course is an introduction to some of the central questions in philosophy, including How do we do philosophy? and Who are we? To investigate these questions we will encounter some classic texts as well as approaches prevalent in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Students will study selections of works by Plato, Descartes, Rousseau, Nietzsche, and others. The course divides into three sections. In the first section we will read several of Plato’s dialogues. We will use these dialogues to develop what philosophical inquiry is, how to do it, and what may be at stake in doing philosophy. In the second section we will turn to theoretical philosophy, looking to texts in epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind. In the third section we will examine texts in practical philosophy that relate to ethics and social & political philosophy. This is an online course.
PHI 2100 Logic - Mr. Belic
This course is an introduction to logic, both formal and informal. Our interest in informal logic is to learn to identify arguments in colloquial speech and text, identify and use correct forms of reasoning as well as avoid various types of fallacies. We will also look at reasoning within the discipline of formal logic. In this part of the course, we will be introduced to categorical logic, propositional logic and inductive logic. Students should note that some sections of the course require work with proofs.
PHI 2630 Contemporary Moral Issues - Mr. Walker
Moral philosophy is both central to philosophy and to intellectual inquiry in general. Furthermore, it is of both practical and personal importance since the proper understanding of and response to moral dilemmas is not only a part of every individual’s life but the lives of societies as well. This course serves as an introduction to philosophical thinking about contemporary moral topics. In addition to briefly exploring standard frameworks for ethical thinking, we will primarily tackle controversial moral issues such as the death penalty, abortion, the treatment of non-human animals, sexual morality, and so forth. In addition to the readings, students will be required to take four take-home exams.
PHI 3930 Philosophy of Ayn Rand - Mr. Claypool
The work of Ayn Rand has been quite influential outside of academic circles. While many have found her ideas insightful, others have found them barely worth considering. In this course, we will give central elements of her philosophy a close look, attempting to arrive at a fair and clear assessment of her arguments and positions. To do this, we will give Leonard Peikoff’s Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand a careful review, reading at least the first half of it. We will also look at the work of other thinkers, to get their perspectives on topics covered by Rand and Peikoff. In particular, we will aim to understand Rand’s position on metaphysics, epistemology, human nature, reason, value, and (time permitting) virtue, as well as to understand and evaluate the arguments she advances for those positions, especially in light of what other thinkers have to say about those topics.