Philosophy
According to Plato's Socrates, the love of wisdom (philosophia) begins in wonder. In the nearly 2,500 years since Plato made this observation, philosophy has evolved into a vocation of incessant questioning in which nothing is taken for granted. Today, philosophers from a variety of traditions and spheres of inquiry continue to grapple with the field's most enduring questions, questions like: Who am I? Why am I here? What is the nature of reality? How do I know? What should I do? The Department of Philosophy invites students to take up this vocation by introducing them to its history and aiding them in cultivating the critical and creative thinking necessary for its study.
The Department of Philosophy has adopted the following Student Learning Goals:
- The ability to identify arguments and provide counter-arguments
- The critical engagement with and the questioning of one's assumptions
- The thoughtful integration of action with values
- The existential risking of crisis and transformation through self-reflection
- The acceptance of the invitation of philosophy to wonder at the big questions
The Department of Philosophy has also adopted the following Student Learning Outcomes:
- Thinking Skills: Students should be able to construct (or re-construct) a philosophical argument, both verbally and in writing. They should be able to anticipate and clearly articulate counter-arguments. Students should be able to recognize and question their own assumptions/prejudices. Students should be able to frame questions aware that what is asked often determines the response.
- Reading Skills: Students should be able to interpret texts and to recognize and reflect on textual ambiguities. Students should be able to discern the steps of a philosophical argument, as well as the stated and (more importantly) unstated presuppositions of the argument.
- Writing Skills: Students should be able to write logically compelling arguments in a clear, concise, and well-ordered manner.
- Familiarity with some of the central philosophical questions in the history of philosophy (broadly construed): Students should have a rudimentary knowledge of the history of philosophical questions and their attendant concepts and arguments, and be able to recognize versions of these questions in contemporary philosophical discussions. Students should be able to recognize and articulate alternative perspectives to the problems and claims with which they are confronted in contemporary life.
- Students should be able to reflect critically on philosophical questions in the context of their own lives.
LETH 3980 Leadership Ethics Internship 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): Junior standing.
This course provides CAS majors and minors with an opportunity to foster professional and intellectual development through relevant internships. Students will engage in and reflect critically upon a work experience with businesses, industry, government, non-profits, or education. The experience is designed to integrate the student's academic pursuits, personal and intellectual development, and career preparedness through an ongoing reflective process that includes weekly journaling, group meetings, and assigned readings. Its aim, broadly, is to give students the tools to apply ethical theory to their work experiences, and to gain experience in developing the skills of ethical leadership.
PHIL 1101 Introduction to Philosophy 3 Credits
This course is a topical introduction to philosophy. The aim of the course is to introduce students to the vocation of wonder and questioning by engaging students in discussions about some of the basic questions of philosophy.Students will read texts from historical and contemporary writers, and will be asked to develop their own skills of thinking, reading, and writing critically.
PHIL 2200 Ancient Philosophy 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
In this course we will investigate how the earliest practitioners of Western philosophy conceived of their own activity. The word philosophy' stems from two ancient Greek words and means, literally, 'love of wisdom.' A lover of wisdom is one who pursues wisdom rather than possesses it; consequently, we can think of ancient philosophers as founding a history of inquiry into questions whose relevance for human beings ensures their persistence, questions like: What is the nature of the universe? What can be known? and What in any given situation is the right thing to do?
PHIL 2201 Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course will examine texts from representative thinkers from Augustine of Hippo in the period of the post-Constantinian Empire to Thomas More in the Renaissance, all sharing the new conception of philosophy. For Christians, as well as for Muslims and Jews, the enterprise of philosophy took on new motivation: the understanding of one's faith, and addressed new problems, not considered by the ancient Greeks and Romans.
PHIL 2202 Modern Philosophy 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
In light of the development and success of the new mechanistic science in the 17th and 18th centuries philosophers began to reexamine such fundamental philosophical topics as the nature of the human mind, the relationship between the mind and body, the source and scope of human knowledge, the existence of a divine being, and the source and nature of morality. In this course we will trace the development of philosophical thought in the writings of modern philosophers such as Bacon, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley Hume, Reid, and Kant.
PHIL 2204 20th Century Philosophy 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course presents a coherent picture of the main currents of contemporary philosophy in the Western and the non-Western tradition: phenomenology and existentialism, pragmatism and analytic philosophy, Marxism and dialectic materialism, and philosophy of history and culture.
PHIL 2205 Ancient Medicine & Philosophy 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
The various methods for investigating the human body have been subject to foundational questions of scientific investigation, religious sanction, social condemnation and philosophical impasse. In this class, we will look at the way in which Ancient Greek medical practitioners and philosophers took up these investigations, negotiated problems of method, and profoundly influenced the ways we talk about, think about and treat the body today.
PHIL 2206 Philosophical Perspectives on Women in Classical Literature 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
Ancient Greek and Latin literature presented its audience with a cast of characters who continue to enjoy social, political and cultural currency. Antigone and Oedipus, Helen and Paris, Cassandra and Prometheus have all had a hand in shaping western thought about the natures of beauty and freedom, the limits of human knowledge, and the role of law.In this course we will focus specifically upon the literary characterizations of women found throughout the ancient Greek and Latin worlds.
PHIL 2209 Existentialism 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
The word existentialism describes a particular attitude toward the creation of meaning out of an inherently meaningless existence. Despite the diversity within the tradition, the existentialists of the 19th and 20th century often address questions pertaining to human freedom and responsibility, values and nihilism, anguish and affirmation, authenticity, and the absurd. This course traces how existentialism has answered these questions. In so doing, students are encouraged to rethink the foundation of their own existence and personal values, while understanding the implications of Dostoyevsky's "If God is dead, then everything is permitted" and Sartre's "Man is condemned to be free."
PHIL 2210 Phenomenology 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course introduces students to phenomenology. Considered by many to be the most important theoretical movement of the 20th-Century, phenomenology is both a philosophical tradition and a method. From its founder Edmund Husserl to authors like Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, Derrida, and Levinas, to more recent voices in broader gender and race discussions, phenomenology still has significant influence today in existentialism, hermeneutics, and deconstruction. Students will engage in questions such as these: What is phenomenology? How is it practiced? What distinguishes this method from other approaches? What are its key contributions?
PHIL 2211 The American Philosophical Experience: Struggle, Evasion, and Love in 'Pragmatic America' 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
American Philosophy is often understood as a mere extension of strands of European philosophical thought, a derivative tradition shaped by the intellectual currents of the so-called Old World. This course challenges that assumption, offering a philosophical history that foregrounds the struggles and transformations that have defined philosophical inquiry in America. From the earliest encounters between Indigenous peoples and European settlers to the ongoing legacies of slavery and emancipation, American philosophy emerges not as a continuation of European traditions but as a response to and reckoning with these defining struggles.
PHIL 2215 Philosophy of Science 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
Science and philosophy have always proceeded hand in hand, with the major figures in Western science being heavily influenced by the philosophy of their times and the major figures in Western philosophy heavily influenced by the science of their times. In this course we will explore the interconnections between philosophy and science. In doing so we will find some of the most deep, difficult, and fundamental questions there are, but with the "lens of science," so to speak, focusing these questions more sharply than they are often otherwise focused.
PHIL 2216 Philosophy and Biology of Evolutionary Theory 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course explores the question of evolutionary theory from the perspectives of philosophy and biology. From the biological perspective, the course focuses on genetics, adaptive evolution, neutral evolution, the genetic impact of selection on populations, the origin and maintenance of genetic variation, the importance of development in evolution, the expression of variation, and coevolution. From the philosophical perspective, the course focuses on evolution as theory and ideology, the critique of the adaptationist program, evolution and contingency, typological versus population thinking, and the developmental systems critique. Crosslisted with BIOL 1095.
PHIL 2217 Logic 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course provides a basic acquaintance with prevailing systems and methods of logic, notably traditional (Aristotelian) and modern (standard mathematical) logics.
PHIL 2218 Philosophy and Biochemistry of Food and Eating Practices 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
An essential and necessary component of our daily lives, food offers itself as one of the most interesting topics of cultural and scientific discussion. This course is designed to analyze food and eating practices from the twofold perspective of philosophy and biochemistry. The intersections of philosophy and biochemistry will be highlighted in topics such as "Food as Art" (juxtaposing the aesthetic and biomolecular properties of food) and "Food in Culture" (contrasting how societies prepare and eat food with the nutrition and technology of food science). To accomplish our learning goals and spur lively discussions, we will combine a lecture with activities such as trips to farms, museums, American "terroirs", guest lectures, and in-class laboratory activities. Crosslisted with CHEM 1072.
PHIL 2220 Philosophy of Religion 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course inquires into the nature of religion in general from the philosophical point of view. That is, it employs the tools of critical analysis and evaluation without a predisposition to defend or reject the claims of any particular religion.
PHIL 2221 The Question of Theology 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
19th- and 20th-century continental philosophy calls into question the traditional understanding of religion, God, transcendence, incarnation, sacrifice, responsibility, evil, and ritual. This course explores the transformation of the traditional understanding of these ideas in the wake of thinkers such as Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Bataille, Lacan, Levinas, Girard, Nancy, Derrida, and Marion.
PHIL 2222 Evil 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course explores the problem of evil from the perspectives of theology and philosophy. The course considers God and evil, classical theodicies (reasonable justifications of God before the prevalence of evil), modern philosophical accounts of evil, social evil, and the possibility of belief in the face of evil. Within the context of these subjects, the course addresses the following questions: What is evil? What are the roots of evil? What effect does an individual's understanding of evil have on their understanding of the human being, of God, and of religion? What is our responsibility in the face of evil?
PHIL 2223 The Problem of God 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course studies the problem of the existence of God, including the metaphysical and epistemological issues entailed therein, as developed by such thinkers as Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, Descartes, Hume, Spinoza, Kant, and Hartshorne.
PHIL 2224 Critical Thinking 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course is designed to help students use the fundamentals of logic and rational discourse to sharpen and focus their argumentative abilities, to better evaluate claims for both soundness and validity, to identify bias and rhetorical devices, and to become more responsible social and political agents through enhanced analytic thinking.
PHIL 2230 Philosophy of Self and Subjectivity 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
In 446 BCE, the Greek poet Pindar crafted this line: "What is someone? What is someone not? A person is the dream of a shadow." What does it mean to be a self or a subject? While most people would claim to know themselves, it is not always entirely clear what a "self" is. This course examines the development and parameters of the self and subjectivity through the lens of major philosophical figures. First using a historical approach, then applying methods from contemporary schools of thought, the course investigates the self as both an anchor of security and source of complexity.
PHIL 2240 Introduction to Asian Philosophies 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course provides a philosophical overview of the major philosophical traditions that originate in Indian and China, including significant philosophical responses and contributions to them from throughout greater Asia. These traditions include, but are not limited to, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism. Emphasis is given to philosophical exegesis of texts and practices; some comparison with Western traditions may also be included.
PHIL 2241 Confucianism 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
Confucianism is a reflective tradition that for over 2500 years has shaped social norms and moral values in East Asia. It underlies traditional political theory and religious practice and remains the template for social interactions. In this course we examine the Confucian tradition through its major figures and primary texts, from the Analects of Confucius (551-479 BCE) to the writings of contemporary Confucians. Emphasis is given to drawing out the philosophical content of Confucian thought by engaging both traditional commentaries and recent philosophical interpretations. We also assess the appropriateness of regarding certain practices and institutions as Confucian.
PHIL 2242 Yoga: Philosophy and Practice 3 Credits
This course engages in careful, critical and caring inquiry regarding yogic perspectives on the mind, body, consciousness, happiness, individual/social well-being, and human flourishing. It aims to do so by introducing students to the philosophical study of yoga through responsible engagement with its theoretical principles, its embodied practices, and the questions that the globalization of yoga raises for its development in the future. The course will explore these questions in an experiential, comparative, and interdisciplinary way.
PHIL 2245 Death, Dying, and the Meaning of Life 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s):PHIL 1101.
One thing is for certain: we will all at some point die. How are we to live our lives in light of this fact? Does death rob our lives of meaning, or might it actually provide meaning to our lives? How do advances in end of life care affect our view of both death and life? How might our examination of these questions illuminate broader ethical and policy issues? This course will explore these and other related questions.
PHIL 2250 Ethical Theory 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course presents an in depth examination of how moral judgments are justified. The history of philosophy has led to a number of different theoretical frameworks that seek to set out methods for moral justification. We examine several of these methods and reflect upon how they support and/or contradict each other and what is at stake when moral systems conflict. In addition to examining the writings of philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Kant, Nietzsche, Mill, and Rawls, students will be asked to consider how these theoretical frameworks apply in actual cases.
PHIL 2251 Ethical Theories in America 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course examines the growth and development of ethical theory in America. America's first philosophers, Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, et al, distinguished their philosophies in terms of religious, political, and social values. This ethical stance became a tradition in America. The course examines this tradition in the writings of representative American philosophers.
PHIL 2252 Philosophy as a Way of Life 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course examines the idea that philosophy should guide us in living good lives, a prominent view among ancient Greek and Roman philosophers. The course covers the question of what it is to live well or flourish as a human being, as well as spiritual exercises that are meant to assist one in living well or flourishing, including practices of meditation, writing, and manual labor. Our goal is not only to understand the competing positions of these authors, but also to determine whether philosophy as a way of life might have a role to play in the contemporary world.
PHIL 2255 Leadership Ethics Seminar 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): Two 2000- or 3000-level philosophy courses, junior standing.
What does it mean to be a "real" leader? How are we to understand the relationship between leadership and the common good? What might inspire ethical leadership in the world today? The goal of this seminar is to synthesize and build upon your work in leadership ethics. To this end, students will be invited to explore and articulate your own philosophical responses to the following difficult questions: What makes a leader credible? What does it mean to influence another responsibly? What is power? How might leaders work for justice? To help in this endeavor, students will read some of the ways that philosophers have wrestled with these questions. Readings will challenge us to think critically about our own assumptions regarding the nature and importance of leadership. This critical process will encourage students to determine the qualities they hope to embody as a leader in the future.
PHIL 2256 The Ethical Dimension of Engineering & Computing: The Social Responsibilities of Engineers 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
Engineering is not only a technical profession — it is also a deeply ethical one. Every design choice, safety measure, and project decision carries implications that affect individuals, communities, and ecosystems. This course offers an introduction to the ethical dimension of engineering and computing practices, emphasizing the responsibility engineers bear in shaping the world. We will explore major ethical theories, the principles embedded in professional codes of conduct, and structured frameworks for making moral decisions under uncertainty. Students will engage with real-world case studies, participate in role-based simulations, and develop their ability to navigate complex ethical challenges in engineering.
PHIL 2260 Social and Political Philosophy 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course analyzes the writings of leading social and political thinkers, with special consideration of the movements of protest and dissent.
PHIL 2263 The Concept of Human Rights 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
Bosnia, Somalia, Guatemala, the Holocaust: The notion of human rights and accusations of human rights violations are a constant presence in our political environment and in the formulation of U.S. foreign policy. This course follows the emergence of this concept from the political and ethical thought of the Greeks, to the Enlightenment, to the explicit formulation of "human rights" in the 20th century as a guiding principle of international relations.
PHIL 2264 Philosophy of Law 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course examines the major questions of legal philosophy, the nature of legal rights and legal duties, the definition of law, and the grounds of legal authority.
PHIL 2265 Philosophy and Economic Anthropology 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course examines the economy from philosophical and anthropological perspectives. We will investigate why people produce and exchange things, why they seek to amass things in some circumstances and give them away in others, and how our modern understandings of value, debt, and rationality emerged.
PHIL 2266 Philosophy, Catholic Social Teaching and the Economy 4 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course will read the work of 20th-century German and French thinkers alongside Catholic social teaching. This reading will provide the resources to call into question the paradigm of neoclassical economic theory (coupled with the ascendency of neoliberalism), and to open up the possibility of a different future, one that is driven by convictions about how a human being and a human community can flourish.
PHIL 2267 (De)Colonizing the Human 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course approaches the problem of colonialism and coloniality, as well as the task of decolonization from a philosophical perspective. As such, attention will be paid to generating the problem space and question sets needed to de-naturalize the everyday colonial structures that shape our human condition.
PHIL 2268 Critical Race Theory 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): Two courses in philosophy.
Although race can be considered as one of several physical features of an individual, this course will investigate the recent research and literature in the field of Critical Race Theory that critiques this purely biological conception. For the purpose of understanding how race functions in our socio-political world, this body of work treats the concept as a social construction, drawing heavily on the phenomenological and existential traditions.Pertinent themes like lived experience, authenticity, and racial privilege will be explored using key texts (by Jean-Paul Sartre, Franz Fanon, Lewis Gordon, and Robert Bernasconi, to name a few). Previously PHIL 3360.
PHIL 2269 Contemporary Black Feminism 4 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course will serve as an introduction to Contemporary Black Feminisms. Readings will provide occasion to discuss the history of black feminism, black feminist epistemologies and praxis, and black feminist theory. We will consider the reception of these concepts in the U.S., exploring especially race but also gender as central to the development of and resistance to western forms of thought.
PHIL 2270 Aesthetics 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
The course examines aesthetic experience and concepts like imitation, expression, and psychic distance, considers the relationships among the various arts, and explores the role of art in life.
PHIL 2272 Philosophy of Film 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
Philosophy of film is one of the leading branches of philosophical aesthetics. While informed by and partly related to disciplines such as film studies, film theory, and film criticism, philosophy of film privileges a cognitive approach to the interpretation and study of film, an approach according to which film might be seen as doing philosophy per se, thus providing an original contribution to the overall philosophical panorama. The course begins with a critical overview of the most significant ontologies of film. Such a discussion is then followed, in the second and third units, by the exploration of issues pertaining to both the tradition of film studies and to the aforementioned cognitivist tradition. Among the issues considered, specific attention is given to the question of narrative, to emotions and film, and to the relation between fiction and nonfiction. A last unit will instead open the discussion to the relation between film and television and, more speculatively, to the future of film in the age of digital technologies.
PHIL 2276 Criminal Law and Philosophy 4 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course provides an introduction to the principles, concepts, and structures of criminal law. Students will explore philosophical questions about the nature of criminal responsibility, key elements of criminal offenses and defenses, and selected social and ethical issues concerning the criminal justice system.
PHIL 2281 Philosophies of Love and Sex 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course examines some of the major trends within traditional and feminist philosophies of love and sex. Possible topics include the nature of erotic love, the construction of sexual activity, and the social/political reality of pornography and prostitution.
PHIL 2282 Violence and the Sacred 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
Is religion essentially violent? How have religious principles been used to justify abuse? Who suffers the physical and spiritual effects of this hostility? What actions might we take in response to such suffering? This course examines the intersection of violence and the sacred, especially as it has emerged and been confronted within the Catholic/Christian tradition. Attention is paid to the works of both traditional and feminist philosophers. Possible topics include: child abuse, domestic violence, and racial violence.
PHIL 2283 Philosophy and Pornography 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course examines some of the major trends within traditional and feminist philosophies of pornography. Possible topics include the nature of pornography, the relationship between pornography and the construction of sexual desire, and the social/political consequences of pornography in our communities. Students must be at least 18 years of age.
PHIL 2284 The Sexual Life 3 Credits
Sex is one of the most significant forces at work in the world today. However, people rarely get together to openly and critically question what we think about sex and how our thinking influences the ways we understand our selves and each other.
PHIL 2285 Women and Horror 3 Credits
This course takes up the complicated genre of horror in light of the feminist tradition of philosophy. It can in many cases reinforce problematic gender
stereotypes, but it can also provoke a rethinking of the myths and assumptions about women's experiences today. This course is both an exercise in
philosophical questioning as well as a study of the horror genre.
PHIL 2900 Special Topics (Shell) 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1101.
This course explores a specific topic in the discipline of philosophy, in an effort to deepen students' vocations of incessant questioning not only by exploring a specific thinker, question, or historical period, but also by further developing their own thinking, reading, and critical writing skills.
PHIL 3300 Plato 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): Two courses in philosophy.
This course covers central ontological and epistemological themes in selected early, middle, and late Platonic dialogues, paying particular attention to Plato's inclination to identify virtue with knowledge.
PHIL 3301 Aristotle 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): Two courses in philosophy.
This course introduces Aristotle through a selection of his works, exploring their relation to other works, their place in the scheme of the sciences, and thoroughly investigating their subject matter.
PHIL 3304 Aquinas 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): Two courses in philosophy.
This course focuses on Aquinas's most mature work, Summa Theologiae. This work exemplifies the Christian intellectual reaction to Islamic Aristotelianism, while at the same time bearing witness to Thomas's belief in the unity of truth. The course examines and analyzes such questions as the existence and intelligibility of God, the nature and powers of the human composite, human destiny, the human act, good and evil, providence and freedom, natural law, and the virtues.
PHIL 3307 Descartes 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): Two courses in philosophy.
Three years after he finished college, Descartes got stuck in a snowstorm on his way to fight in a war. Alone in his room, he reflected on his education, coming to believe that many of the things he had been taught in college were pretty dubious. He also realized that he had believed many things all his life without giving thought to his reasons for believing them. He decided the best thing he could do was rid himself of all his old beliefs and then, relying only on his own mind, replace them with only those beliefs for which he could find good reasons. This course discusses the development and results of Descartes' search for truth.
PHIL 3310 Hume 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): Two courses in philosophy.
This course offers an in-depth understanding of the philosophy of David Hume. Hume, one of the most interesting (and influential) of the 18th-century philosophers, made major contributions to our understanding of causation, morality, and the mind, to name just a few. Hume began with principles that seemed quite plausible but, taking these ideas to their logical conclusions, arrived at a philosophy that is, to say the least, surprising.
PHIL 3311 Kant 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): Two courses in philosophy.
Almost everyone recognizes that through experience the human mind is shaped by the world. Immanuel Kant, however, argued for the revolutionary claim that the world is shaped by the human mind. In developing this position Kant was led to formulate a radical view concerning the nature of space and time. It also led him to draw striking conclusions about our knowledge of ourselves, objects, causation, God, freedom, and immortality: conclusions that changed philosophy forever. In this class we will study Kant's revolution in philosophy.
PHIL 3314 Nietzsche 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): Two courses in philosophy.
This course deals with the thought of one of the leading philosophical figures of the 19th century, Friedrich Nietzsche.In terms of both style and content, Nietzsche was an innovator who called into question the traditional notions of science, systematic knowledge, ethics, and culture as such.The task of the course is to examine several themes central to Nietzsche's work, among them the will to power, the perspectival approach to truth, the concept of genealogy, the revaluation of values, eternal recurrence, and the death of God.
PHIL 3317 Heidegger 3 Credits
This course will explore the work of Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century. The course will take the form of a close reading of Being and Time (1927) and “What is Metaphysics?” (1929). The hinge around which the course will turn is Heidegger’s existential analysis of death. The course will also examine a variety of responses to the work of Heidegger: Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception ; Jonas, “Evolution and Freedom”; Levinas, Time and the Othe r; Blanchot, The Space of Literature ; and Derrida, Aporias .
PHIL 3321 Knowledge 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): Two courses in philosophy.
The focus of this course is to examine the fundamental questions concerning human knowledge. For example: What is knowledge? Can I know anything? Do I know something because I can trace it back to some indubitable foundation or because it fits together with everything else like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle? Can I have knowledge without being able to say how I know it? Do men and women know things in different ways? Is knowledge something I can gain on my own or is knowledge essentially a social activity?
PHIL 3323 Philosophy of Mind 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): Two courses in philosophy.
This course acquaints students with the most recent philosophical theories on the workings of the mind. Although it emphasizes philosophical theories of the mind, it also pays close attention to the philosophical implications of recent research in sciences such as psychology and neuroscience. This is an exciting topic; join us on this quest to address the Delphic dictum: Know Thyself!
PHIL 3331 Philosophy of Language 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): Two courses in philosophy.
This course introduces the student to the philosophy of language: its themes, complexities and problems. Employing a historical approach, the course surveys key philosophers who investigate the meaning, source and structure of language. Typically their primary question investigates various ways that the human person, while immersed within a context, understands language. After a brief investigation of ancient and medieval thinkers, the course focuses on a number of modern and contemporary figures who represent the mainstream discussion of the philosophy of language, including representatives of both analytic and continental traditions.
PHIL 3340 Critical Theory 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): Two courses in philosophy.
This course examines the 20th century philosophical movement of cultural critique arising out of the association of German Jewish scholars known as the Frankfurt School. Central problems within this movement include the persistence of violence within human reason, the various forms and forces of ideology, the relation of political activity to artistic activity, the proper undertaking of immanent social critique, and the possibility of freedom in societies that are increasingly authoritarian. Representative thinkers within this field include Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, and Walter Benjamin.
PHIL 3350 Advanced Topics in Ethics 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): Two courses in philosophy.
This course examines questions pertaining to the status and content of morality, such as the following. Are there universal moral truths, and what makes them true? Is morality objective, or is it constructed by communities or individuals? What makes an action right or wrong? What reasons do we have to be moral? This course examines competing answers to such questions and considers philosophical defenses of them.
PHIL 3990 Independent Study 1-3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): Two courses in philosophy.
Upon request and by agreement with an individual professor in the department, a student may conduct a one-semester independent study on a specific philosophical topic.
PHIL 4999 Capstone Experience in Philosophy 3 Credits
Prerequisite(s): Two courses in philosophy.
This course is the culminating experience in a student's study of philosophy at Fairfield University. Students will be asked to reflect on their philosophical writings and activities over the course of their study, to synthesize and expand a selection of these, to critically and collegially engage with other students for the mutual improvement of their philosophical projects, and to prepare for a philosophical life after graduation regardless of their career choices. Open to philosophy majors and minors only.
Professors
Brill
Keenan, chair (interim)
Associate Professors
Bayne
Drake
Labinski
Assistant Professors
Al-Obaidi
Bentley
Botti (Visiting)
Cooney
Davenport (Visiting)
Funes Maderey
Harrison (Visiting)
Lin
Sheff (Visiting)
Stevenson
Assistant Professors of the Practice
Fernandez
Smith, J.
Lecturers
Corcoran
Lott
Merritt
Paone
Faculty Emeriti
DeWitt
Long
Naser
Newton