Spring 2008 Philosophy Department Offerings
Course Offered
Logic &
Language
(180.002)
MWF 11
Intro
philosophy
(190.003)
TR 9:25
Professor
E. Thomas
Intro
philosophy
(190.004)
TR 10:50
Oberrieder
Intro
philosophy
(190.005)
MW 3
Oberrieder
Intro to Ethics
(195.004)
MWF 1
Philosophy of
science
(220.001)
TR 9:25
E. Thomas
Oberrieder
E. Thomas
Description
A study of the principles used in distinguishing correct from incorrect reasoning. Special emphasis
will be placed upon the application of these principles to everyday language and reasoning. Topics to
be studied include: informal fallacies, definitions, categorical propositions and syllogisms, elementary
truth functional logic, truth and validity, and induction.
This course aims to introduce the student to philosophy and to foster philosophical thinking about
one’s life. The course will explore, through class discussion, certain fundamental questions and
arguments of ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, and political philosophy, as they arise in and from
the reading of selected works of Plato, Aristotle, Rene Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, and
Immanuel Kant. Some of the questions the course will consider are the following: What is happiness?
Do I really exist? Can I know anything with certainty? Does God exist? What is moral? Not open to
seniors.
This course aims to introduce the student to philosophy and to foster philosophical thinking about
one’s life. The course will explore, through class discussion, certain fundamental questions and
arguments of ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, and political philosophy, as they arise in and from
the reading of selected works of Plato, Aristotle, Rene Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, and
Immanuel Kant. Some of the questions the course will consider are the following: What is happiness?
Do I really exist? Can I know anything with certainty? Does God exist? What is moral? Not open to
seniors.
This course aims to introduce the student to philosophy and to foster philosophical thinking about
one’s life. The course will explore, through class discussion, certain fundamental questions and
arguments of ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, and political philosophy, as they arise in and from
the reading of selected works of Plato, Aristotle, Rene Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, and
Immanuel Kant. Some of the questions the course will consider are the following: What is happiness?
Do I really exist? Can I know anything with certainty? Does God exist? What is moral? Not open to
seniors.
A study of the principal ethical traditions of Western culture and their application to contemporary
moral issues and social problems. Not open to seniors.
Prerequisite: FYS 101
A study of the nature and logic of the sciences and an analysis of the relation of science to other
human concerns: emphasis will be placed on the nature of scientific evidence, explanation, and
theory, the nature and history of scientific discovery; the place of science in understanding humans,
values, and society. Recommended for junior and senior science majors.
Spring 2008 Philosophy Department Offerings (continued)
Course Offered
Early Modern
Philosophy
(314.001)
TR 3
Professor
Rosental
Existentialism
&
Phenomenology
(325.001)
MW 3
Formal Logic
(355.001)
TR 10:50
C.
Thomas
The Art of
Reading a
Platonic
Dialogue
(390.001)
TR 3:05
Oberrieder
Rosental
Description
Prerequisite: One course in philosophy
An intermediate survey in the Early Modern period of philosophy which examines texts by some of
the most prominent philosophers of the time, including (but not limited to) Descartes, Leibniz, Locke,
Berkeley, and Hume. The course will be centered around four major issues in philosophy: philosophy
of mind (what we are), epistemology (what and how we know), metaphysics (what there is and how it
works), philosophical theology (what made everything). Note: this course will not be concerned with
issues in political philosophy, despite great advances in this area during the Early Modern period.
Prerequisite: One course in philosophy
A study of the major themes of existentialism and phenomenology with some attention to their
historical roots in the nineteenth century.
Prerequisite: One course in philosophy or nine semester hours in mathematics or computer science.
This is a study of logic through its history. We look at various approaches to logic from ancient logic
(Aristotle), Medieval, Early Modern and finishing with contemporary mathematical logic. Our focus
will be two-fold: first, to understand the formal systems and learn how to use them; second, to see
how logic informs and relates to issues in philosophy such as metaphysics, theology, and science..
Prerequisite: One course in philosophy, junior or senior status, and consent of the instructor.
The ancient Athenian philosopher Plato was meticulous in the composition of his dialogues and left
nothing in them to chance. Each dialogue is a consciously careful craftwork that exhibits the
beautiful arrangement of an ordered whole. To discover what any dialogue truly means, versus what
it only seems to mean, requires that one read it with a diligence equal to its composition. This course
will read one dialogue of Plato, Protagoras, for an entire semester, in an effort to discover the deepest
meaning of its every word. To aid this inquiry, the course will weekly supplement reading only a few
pages of the dialogue with reading complementary ancient literature that affords insights to illuminate
its meaning. These additional readings include Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey (in selections), Hesiod’s
Theogony and Works and Days (in selections), Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound, and other Platonic
dialogues. The plot of Protagoras is a debate between Socrates and the most famous ancient Greek
sophist, Protagoras, about whether “virtue” is teachable.
Summer 2008 Philosophy Department Offerings
PHI 180 – Logic & Language: Dr. E. Thomas
PHI 290 – Philosophy and Love in Ancient Greece: Dr. Oberrieder (offered abroad in Greece)
PHI 290 – Philosophy and Mythology: Dr. C. Thomas (offered abroad in Greece)
PHI 380 – Human Nature & Art: Dr. C. Thomas (offered abroad in Greece)
2008-09 Philosophy Department Offerings (tentative)
Fall 2008
Spring 2009
PHI 190 – Introduction to Philosophy: Dr. Oberrieder
PHI 195 – Introduction to Ethics: Dr. C. Thomas
PHI 240 – Philosophy of Religion: Dr. Rosental
PHI 250 – Philosophy of Mind: Dr. Rosental
PHI 311 – Ancient Philosophy: Dr. Oberrieder
PHI 316 – Late 19th and early 20th century: Dr. C. Thomas
PHI 180 – Logic & Language: Dr. E. Thomas
PHI 190 – Introduction to Philosophy: Dr. Oberrieder
PHI 195 – Introduction to Ethics: Dr. E. Thomas
PHI 260 – Philosophy of Art: Dr. Rosental
PHI 290 – Philosophy of and for Children: Dr. Rosental
PHI 290 – The American Founding & Philosophy: Dr. Oberrieder
PHI 290 – Philosophy & Medicine: Dr. E. Thomas
PHI 314 – Early Modern Philosophy: Dr. Rosental
PHI 315 – Kant and the 19th century: Dr. E. Thomas
PHI 361 – Nietzsche: Dr. C. Thomas