PHILOSOPHY (ALSO SEE RELIGION) - PHI

PHI 205Introduction to Philosophy3(3-0-0) F,S
Introduction to selected problems of enduring philosophical importance, including such topics as the nature of morality, knowledge, human freedom, and the existence of God. Content varies with different sections.
Course Offerings: fall sum1 sum2 sprg WolfWare Info


PHI 214Issues in Business Ethics3(3-0-0) F,S
An analysis and evaluation of major issues in business ethics. Topics include the social responsibility of business; social justice and free enterprise; the rights and duties of employers, employees, manufacturers, and consumers; duties to the environment, the world's poor, future generations, and the victims of past injustices; the moral status of the corporation; and the ethics of advertising.
Course Offerings: fall sum1 sprg WolfWare Info


PHI 221Contemporary Moral Issues3(3-0-0) F, S
Philosophical analysis and theory applied to a broad range of contemporary moral issues, including euthanasia, suicide, capital punishment, abortion, war, famine relief, and environmental concerns.
Course Offerings: fall sum2 sprg WolfWare Info


PHI 250Practical Reasoning3(3-0-0)
Analysis and criticism of both deductive and inductive argument. Deduction validity and soundness in deductive arguments; definition and the clarification of meaning; disproof by counter-example; common fallacies. Inductive arguments: polls and samples; correlations and causal connection. Conceptual and empirical theories and hypotheses. Arguments discussed with a minimum of formalization.
Course Offerings: sprg WolfWare Info


PHI 298Special Topics in Philosophy3(3-0-0)
Selected studies in philosophy that do not appear regularly in the curriculum. Topics will be announced for each semester in which the course is offered.


PHI 300Ancient Philosophy3(3-0-0) F
Coreq: PHI 495 for majors only
Western philosophy of the ancient world, with special emphasis on Plato and Aristotle.
Course Offerings: fall sprg WolfWare Info


PHI 301Early Modern Philosophy3(3-0-0)
Western philosophy of the 17th and 18th centuries, including such philosophers as Descartes, Hobbes, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant.
Course Offerings: fall sprg WolfWare Info


PHI 30219th Century Philosophy3(3-0-0) F
Western philosophy of the 19th century, including such philosophers as Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Marx, and Nietzsche.
Course Offerings: fall WolfWare Info


PHI 303Medieval Philosophy3(3-0-0) S
Philosophy of the Middle Ages. Authors to be studied may include Augustine, Anselm, Avicenna, Maimonides, Aquinas, and Scotus.


PHI 305Philosophy of Religion3(3-0-0)
The existence and nature of God, including such topics as traditional proofs of God, skeptical challenges to religious belief, miracles, the problem of evil, faith and reason, and religious experience.
Course Offerings: sprg


PHI 309Contemporary Political Philosophy3(3-0-0)
Preq: One philosophy course
Current theories about basic concepts in political philosophy, such as liberty, equality, justice, natural rights, and democracy, with special attention to disputes concerning the nature of a just social order.
Course Offerings: fall WolfWare Info


PHI 310Existentialism3(3-0-0) F
Philosophy of Existentialism, including such thinkers as Kierkagaard, Nietzsche, Doestoevsky, Sartre, Heidegger, and Camus.
Course Offerings: sprg WolfWare Info


PHI 312Philosophy of Law3(3-0-0) F
Fundamental legal issues such as what constitutes a law or legal system. Justifications of legal interference with individual liberty. Philosophical legal issues illustrated by specific legal cases.
Course Offerings: sum2 sprg WolfWare Info


PHI 313Ethical Problems in the Law3(3-0-0)
Preq: PHI 221, 275, or 375
Explores uses of the legal system, including such topics as the death penalty, plea bargaining, legalizing euthanasia, censorship, Good Samaritan laws, the insanity defense, civil disobedience, preferential treatment.
Course Offerings: fall WolfWare Info


PHI (STS) 325Bio-Medical Ethics3(3-0-0) F,S
Interdisciplinary examination and appraisal of emerging ethical and social issues resulting from recent advances in the biological and medical sciences. Abortion, euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, compromised infants, aids, reproductive technologies, and health care. Focus on factual details and value questions, fact-value questions, fact-value interplay, and questions of impact assessment and policy formation.
Course Offerings: fall sprg


PHI 330Metaphysics3(3-0-0)
Preq: One course in philosophy
Metaphysical problems: distinction between appearance and reality, nature of space and time, free will and determinism, mind and body, nature of identity.
Course Offerings: fall sprg


PHI 331Philosophy of Language3(3-0-0)
Preq: One course in philosophy
Introduction to traditional and modern accounts of the relations between language and reality, the nature of truth, problems of intentionality and propositional attitudes.
Course Offerings: sprg WolfWare Info


PHI 332Philosophy of Psychology3(3-0-0)
Preq: One course in philosophy or one course in psychology
Problems and controversies that overlap the boundary between philosophy and psychology: the mind/body problem, behaviorism vs. cognitivism, the prospects for artificial intelligence, and language and the questions of innate knowledge.
Course Offerings: fall


PHI 333Theory of Knowledge3(3-0-0)
Preq: One course in philosophy
Analysis of such central concepts as knowledge, belief, and truth, and the investigation of the principles by which claims to knowledge may be justified.
Course Offerings: fall


PHI 340Philosophy of Science3(3-0-0) F, S, Sum
Nature of science highlighted by differences between science and pseudoscience, relationships between science and religion, and roles of purpose-directed (teleological explanation) and causal explanation in physical life and social sciences.
Course Offerings: fall sum1 sprg WolfWare Info


PHI 375Ethics3(3-0-0) F,S
Examination of traditional questions of philosophical ethics: What are the principles of moral conduct? What sort of life is worthy of a human being? Includes both classic and contemporary literature.
Course Offerings: fall sprg WolfWare Info


PHI 376History of Ethics3(3-0-0) F,S
Preq: One course in philosophy or permission of instructor.
Coreq: PHI 494 is required for majors.
Topics in the history of ethics. Philosophers to be studied may include Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Butler, Hume, Kant, Sidgwick and Nietzsche.
Course Offerings: sprg


PHI 401Kant's Critique of Pure Reason3(3-0-0) S, (ALTYRODD)
Preq: 6 credits in PHI
A text-based critical study of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason Focusing on such topics as perception, judgment, knowledge, space, time, substance, causation and reality. Cannot earn credit for both PHI 401 and PHI 501.


PHI 415Life Science Ethics3(3-0-0) S
Preq: One course in PHI program
Recent work in normative evaluation of human actions affecting living things. Advanced readings in moral theory, comparative value assessment, and public policy. Credit will not be given for both PHI 415 and PHI 515


PHI 420Global Justice3(3-0-0) S
Preq: One course in Philosophy
Coreq: PHI 494
The applications of the ideas of justice and right beyond and across the borders of individual nation states, attending to the facts of globalization and their consequences for political and economic justice and human rights. Topics: skepticism about global justice; transnational distributive justice, pollution, and poverty; national sovereignty, self-determination, and intervention; the ethics of war; international human rights; and global democracy. No one can receive credit for both PHI 420 and PHI 520.
Course Offerings: sprg


PHI 422Philosophical Issues in Environmental Ethics3(3-0-0) F
Preq: One course in PHI program
Ethical questions about the environment; in particular, what obligations we have to the environment. Topics: animal rights, obligations to species and ecosystems, intrinsic vs. extrinsic value, and policy implications of moral judgments. Credit maynot be received for both PHI 422 and PHI 522. No one who has received credit for PHI 322 can receive credit for either PHI 422 or PHI 522.
WolfWare Info


PHI (PSY) 425Introduction to Cognitive Science3(3-0-0)
Preq: One upper-level course in either PHI, PSY, CSC or Linguistics
Philosophical foundations and empirical fundamentals of cognitive science, an interdisciplinary approach to human cognition. Topics include: the computational model of mind, mental representation, cognitive architecture, the acquisition and use of language. Credit cannot be given for both PHI/PSY 425 and PHI/PSY 525
Course Offerings: sprg WolfWare Info


PHI 440The Scientific Method3(3-0-0) S
Preq: One upper-level course in philosophy
Detailed examination of core issues in the philosophy of science: the confirmation of scientific theories, falsification, projectibility, the nature of scientific explanation, laws of nature, and causation. Credit cannot be given for both PHI 440 and PHI 540


PHI 445Philosophy of Biology3(3-0-0) S
Preq: One 300 or 400-level course in philosophy or biology
Central issues in the philosophy of biology such as units of selection, philosophy of ecology, species, fitness, adaptationism, reductionism, development and innateness, evolutionary progress, and viability of applications of evolutionary theory to culture and "human nature". Pre/Corequisite for following course: Corequisite for PHI 496; Credit cannot be given for both PHI 445 and PHI 545
Course Offerings: sprg


PHI 450Software and the Ethics of Ownership3(3-0-0) S, Alt yrs(odd)
The rightness or wrongness of treating computer programs as private property, for the purposes of marketing and regulating/excluding use. Brief look at law of patent and copyright. Offered on-line only; on-campus attendance required for final exam.Credit cannot be given for both PHI 450 and PHI 550


PHI 475Ethical Theory3(3-0-0) S
Preq: PHI 375 (Ethics), or PHI 376 (History of Ethics) or permission of instructor.
An introduction to some central themes and issues in ethical theory. Topics in normative and meta-ethics such as consequentialism, deontology, virtue ethics, constructivism, realism, relativism, subjectivism, and expressivism. Readings primarily from contemporary literature.
Course Offerings: sprg


PHI 494Writing in Ethics1(1-2-0)
Preq: PHI 250, LOG 201 or 335 and one other course in philosophy
Coreq: One of PHI 221, 275, 298, 306, 309, 311, 313, 375, 422 or 498
A substantial paper in ethics, assigned by the instructor of the corequisite.
Course Offerings: fall sum1 sum2 sprg


PHI 495Writing in History of Philosophy1(1-2-0) F,S
Preq: PHI 250, LOG 201 or 335 and one other course in philosophy
Coreq: One of PHI 298, 300, 301, 302 or 498
A substantial paper in history of philosophy, assigned by the instructor of the corequisite.
Course Offerings: fall sum1 sum2 sprg


PHI 496Writing in Contemporary Philosophy1(1-2-0)
Preq: PHI 250, LOG 201 or 335 and one other course in philosphy
Coreq: One of PHI 298, 305, 306, 330, 331, 332, 333, 340, 425, 440, 498
A substantial paper in contemporary philosophy, assigned by the instructor of the corequisite.
Course Offerings: fall sum1 sum2 sprg


PHI 497Writing in Logic, Representation and Reasoning
F, S
Preq: LOG 201 or 335, and one other philosophy course, not PHI 250
Coreq: One of LOG 335, 435/535, PHI 298, 330, 331, 332, 333, 340, 425/525, 440/540, 445/545
A substantial paper in logic, representation and reasoning, assigned by the instructor of the corequisite. enrollment subject to departmental approval; may be repeated for credit
Course Offerings: fall sum1 sum2 sprg


PHI 498Special Topics in Philosophy1-6
Preq: Six credits in PHI program
Detailed investigation of selected topics in philosophy. Topics determined by faculty members in consultation with head of the department. Course may be used for individualized study.
Course Offerings: fall sum1 sum2 sprg WolfWare Info


PHI 501Kant's Critique of Pure Reason3(3-0-0) S, (ALTYRODD)
Preq: Graduate Standing
A text-based critical study of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason focusing on topics such as perception, judgment, knowledge, space, time, substance, causation, and reality. Credit not allowed for both PHI 401 and PHI 501.


PHI 515Life Science Ethics3(3-0-0) S
Preq: Graduate standing
Recent work in normative evaluation of human actions affecting living things. Advanced readings in moral theory, comparative value assessment, and public policy. Credit will not be given for both PHI 415 and PHI 515


PHI 520Global Justice3(3-0-0) S
Preq: Graduate standing
The applications of the ideas of justice and right beyond and across the borders of individual nation states, attending to the facts of globalization and their consequences for political and economic justice and human rights. Topics: skepticism about global justice; transnational distributive justice, pollution, and poverty; national sovereignty, self-determination, and intervention; the ethics of war; international human rights; and global democracy. No one may receive credit for bot PHI 420 and PHI 520.
Course Offerings: sprg


PHI 522Philosophical Issues in Environmental Ethics3(3-0-0) F
Preq: Graduate standing
Ethical questions about the environment; in particular, what obligations we have to the environment. Topics: animal rights, obligations to species and ecosystems, intrinsic vs. extrinsic value, and policy implications of moral judgments. Credit maynot be received for both PHI 422 and PHI 522. No one who has received credit for PHI 322 can receive credit for either PHI 422 or PHI 522.
WolfWare Info


PHI (PSY) 525Introduction To Cognitive Science3(3-0-0) F
Preq: Graduate standing
Philosophical foundations and empirical fundamentals of cognitive science, an interdisciplinary approach to human cognition. The computational model of mind, mental representation, cognitive architecture, the acquisition and use of language. Credit for both PHI(PSY) 425 and PHI(PSY) 525 is not allowed
Course Offerings: sprg WolfWare Info


PHI 540The Scientific Method3(3-0-0) S
Preq: Graduate standing
Detailed examination of core issues in philosophy of science: confirmation of scientific theories, falsification, projectibility, nature of scientific explanation, laws of nature, and causation. Credit cannot be given for both PHI 440 and PHI 540


PHI 545Philosophy of Biology3(3-0-0) S
Preq: Graduate Standing
Central issues in the philosophy of biology such as units of selection, philsophy of ecology, species, fitness, adaptationism, reductionism, development and innateness, evolutionary progress, and viability of applications of evolutionary theory to culture and "human nature". Students cannot get credit for both PHI 445 and PHI 545.
Course Offerings: sprg


PHI 550Software and the Ethics of Ownership3(3-0-0) S
Preq: Graduate standing
The rightness or wrongness of treating computer programs as private property, for the purposes of marketing and regulating/excluding use. Brief look at law of patent and copyright. Credit cannot be given for both PHI 450 and PHI 550


PHI 575Ethical Theory3(3-0-0) S
Preq: Graduate Standing.
An introduction to some central themes and issues in ethical theory. Topics in normative and meta-ethics such as consequentialism, deontology, virtue ethics, constructivism, realism, relativism, subjectivism, and expressivism. Readings primarily from contemporary literature. Students may not receive credit for both PHI 475 and PHI 575.


PHI 598Special Topics in Philosophy3(3-0-0) F,S
WolfWare Info


PHI 635Advanced Independent Study In Philosophy1-6 F,S
Independent study of advanced topic in philosophy under supervision of a faculty member.


PHI 798Advanced Topics In Philosophy3(3-0-0)
Preq: Graduate standing
Detailed investigation of selected advanced topics in philosophy. Topics determined by faculty members in consultation with head of department.


PHI 816Introduction to Research Ethics1(1-0-0) F,S
Preq: Graduate standing
Institutional rules guiding the responsible conduct of research (RCR) and their philosophical justification. Rudiments of moral reasoning and their application to RCR. Topics: plagiarism, falsification and fabrication of data, and ethics versus custom, law, science, and religion.
Course Offerings: fall WolfWare Info