Philosophy Course Descriptions
Spring 2015
PHI 1306. H1
Introduction to Logic
Buras
105
MWF 9:05-955
We study logic for the same reason we study grammar. The aim in both cases is to do better at
something all do all the time. In the case of Logic the aim is to do better at reasoning. Reasoning
is an inevitable part of every area of ordinary life, and every field of academic inquiry. When we
reason, we attempt to track some very important relationships between truths. The goal of
reasoning is to see whether one (or more) truths entails another or makes another more likely.
Logic is the study of these very important relationships between truths. In this class we will study
the most important ways philosophers have devised for systematically tracking these relationships
between truths. We will also learn to evaluate reasoning in ordinary life and in academic study
with the aid of these systems of logic. As an honors section, this course will be especially writing
intensive.
PHI 1306.01
Introduction to Logic
Cartagena
110
MWF 10:10-11:00
Logic is the study of reasoning and argumentation. Studying logic can help you evaluate
competing claims, both in academic contexts and in everyday life. This course will help you to
think critically and coherently by learning and applying logical tools, principles, and methods.
Throughout the semester, we’ll use logic to inform our readings of both popular and
philosophical texts (e.g. New York Times columns and Plato’s Euthyphro) and in writing both
editorial (“op-ed”) and philosophical essays.
PHI 1306.02
Introduction to Logic
Dahm
106
MWF 11:15-12:05
Studying logic helps us to think more clearly, which helps us do all sorts of things: writing a
paper, making plans, discussing a movie, evaluating a political debate, or trying to figure out
whether God exists. In this class, you will learn to understand, evaluate and construct arguments.
We will examine the things that go into making an argument – terms and propositions – and the
structure of good and bad arguments. To do all of this, we will look at a lot of arguments. Some
of them will be famous arguments, like those for and against the existence of God. Some of them
will be arguments about politics and ethics, like those concerning moral relativism. And some of
them will be arguments about pop culture, like those articulating Nicolas Cage’s genius. Through
practice, you will improve your ability to recognize, examine, and communicate arguments in
every area of life.
PHI 1306.03
Introduction to Logic
McAllister
106
MWF 1:25-2:15
There’s good reasoning and there’s bad reasoning. In this course, we’ll learn how to discern the
good from the bad. By the end you’ll know multiple logical systems that will help you recognize
and avoid errors in reasoning. This feature of logic—protection from error—is part of what
makes logic such a valuable tool. Starting with true premises, anything that can be inferred from
those premises through logically valid reasoning will also be true. Thus, formal systems of logic,
when combined with other critical thinking kills, form a powerful tool designed to help inquiring
minds discover truth. The skills learned in this course will, quite simply, make you a better
thinker. This class is recommended to anyone who cares about reasoning well (be it in matters of
ethics, religion, law, relationships, business, politics, healthcare, etc.) and discovering truth.
February 8, 2016
PHI 1306.04
Introduction to Logic
Aho
106
MWF 2:30-3:20
Logic is the study of reasoning and argumentation. Studying logic can help you evaluate
competing claims, both in academic contexts and in everyday life. This course will help you to
think critically and coherently by learning and applying logical tools, principles, and methods.
Throughout the semester, we’ll use logic to inform our readings of both popular and
philosophical texts (e.g. New York Times columns and Plato’s Euthyphro) and in writing both
editorial (“op-ed”) and philosophical essays.
PHI 1306.05
Introduction to Logic
Thornton
110
TR 9:30-10:45
Some ways of reasoning are good. Here’s an example: “If it’s snowing tonight, they’ll cancel the
party. It’s snowing tonight. So they’ll cancel the party.” Some ways of reasoning are bad.
Here’s an example: “If Tom is a turkey, then he’s a bird. Tom is a bird. So Tom is a
Turkey.” That’s bad reasoning because even if the first two sentences are true, the conclusion can
be false. After all, maybe Tom is a penguin or a parrot.
Logic is the art of reasoning well. By studying logic, you will learn what makes some reasoning
good and some reasoning bad, how to spot cases of reasoning poorly, and how to avoid
reasoning poorly yourself. You will practice and strengthen the skills of thinking clearly
and deeply, organizing your thoughts, articulating your views, and giving reasons for your
positions—skills that are valuable in nearly every field of study. This class will prepare you to
reason better, not just about parties and turkeys, but about whatever issues are important to
you, be they ethical, social, practical, or religious.
PHI 1306.06
Introduction to Logic
Padgett
106
TR 11:00-12:15
There are two main goals for this course: (i) to teach you how to do proofs in the three systems of
logic we will look at, and (ii) to give you an understanding of how to construct good arguments
(and, consequently, how to spot bad arguments). Put another way, the second goal of the course is
to make you a more rigorous thinker. In some ways, (ii) is accomplished through (i). Since logic
is the study of inferences at the most general level, if you understand why one claim follows from
another, you will better be able to understand whether someone has given you a good argument.
In this way the applications of logic are sundry.
February 8, 2016
PHI 1306.08
Introduction to Logic
Bryant
110
TR 2:00-3:15
Simply put, logic is the study of arguments. We encounter arguments all the time as people try to
give us reasons to believe claims about topics ranging from religion, ethics, and politics to less
important matters. Some of these arguments are good – they give us good reason to accept their
conclusions. Some of them are bad – they do not give us good reason to accept their
conclusions. It's important to be able to tell the difference because there are plenty of bad
arguments to be had in areas in which it's important to not be deceived. So, you need to study
logic because it will help you tell good arguments from bad arguments. As an added bonus, the
skills learned in the course will be of particular use to students preparing for exams such the
LSAT and the GRE.
This course will introduce you to the basics of logic. Among other things, you will be introduced
to Aristotelian logic, propositional logic, truth tables, inductive logic, and fallacies. By studying
these topics you will come to understand the structure of arguments and learn how to evaluate
arguments that you encounter and construct good ones of your own. This will make you a better
person, at least in some respects.
PHI 1307.01
Critical Thinking: Logic, Law and Medicine
Younger
106
MWF 12:20-1:10
This course teaches skills for critical thinking. Students will learn to clearly articulate and defend
their beliefs as well as how to respectfully and constructively critique the beliefs of others. We
will use these skills to consider moral issues in medicine, including but not limited to
controversies surrounding infertility treatment, health insurance, mental illness and
euthanasia. The primary goal of the course is to help students enjoy the life of the mind and
develop stronger interpersonal relationships through more meaningful dialogue. Historically,
many students also find these skills important in preparing for graduate school examinations, such
as the MCAT, LSAT, GRE, etc. and in preparation for job interviews.
PHI 1308.01
Introductory Topics in Ethics: Ethics and Tolkien’s Fiction
Beary
106
MWF 9:05-9:55
It is not a secret that Tolkien’s Catholic faith informed all his scholarship and writing. It
is, therefore, not surprising to find that The Lord of the Rings and other tales of Middle Earth
present their reader with a deeply moral view of the world. In this course, we will read Tolkien
alongside other authors like Thomas Aquinas and Alasdair MacIntyre in order to explore such
questions as what does being good mean, why should one bother being good, and whether
morality is ultimately relative to groups and societies. We will also consider the free races
of the Middle Earth and their individual representatives when we examine such topics as
technology, war, human relationship with nature, friendship, and gender roles.
PHI 1308.02
Introductory Topics in Ethics: Living the Good Life
West
106
MWF 10:10-11:00
What does it take to live a good life? Is it, most fundamentally, about the pursuit of pleasure,
fame, or wealth? Or does happiness come from pursuing a life of moral virtue? Or from following
the commands of reason? Or from calculating the best possible consequences of our actions? Or
from friendship with God? Is happiness something we invent, or something to be discovered and
pursued? Through an exploration of some significant figures in the history of ethics (including
Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant, Mill, and Nietzsche) along with more recent thinkers (such as C.
S. Lewis and Robert C. Roberts), this course will examine these and related questions. As we
read, discuss, and write about these questions, we will try to gain a deeper awareness of what the
truly happy life might be—and how we might live it.
February 8, 2016
PHI 1308.03
Introductory Topics in Ethics: Love and Sex
Pruss
108
TR 9:30-10:45
Love is essential to a flourishing human life. But love comes in many forms: love between
parents and children, comfortable affection between close friends, passionate romantic love,
charity in reaching out to a stranger in kindness, the mysterious relationship between God and
human beings, caring respect among co-workers, and so on. One of the things we will be
examining is what, if anything, do all of these things have in common that one might call them all
―love‖? We will specifically look at two kinds of love: friendship and romantic love. What
reasons do we have for having and being friends? How should we choose our friends? How is
romantic love different from friendship? The first half of the course will be devoted to questions
about love, friendship and romantic love. We will read Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Soren
Kierkegaard, C. S. Lewis as well as some recent philosophical pieces. In the second half, we will
try to apply what we have learned about love to questions about marriage and sexuality. What is
marriage and should one bother with it? What is sex and should one bother with it? We will end
by looking at specific controversial questions like pornography, pre-marital sex, contraception
and homosexuality, hoping to gain an understanding of the arguments on both sides of these
heated debates, and to engage in these debates in a cool and rational way. Authors read in this
second part of the course will include, among others, Thomas Aquinas, Immanuel Kant, Andrea
Dworkin, John Paul II and Peter Singer. We will not shy away from theological questions along
the way, and indeed some of the texts we will read will have a significant theological component,
though we will approach them primarily in a philosophical way, through rational argument.
PHI 1308.04
Introductory Topics in Ethics: Contemporary Ethical Issues
Tweedt
106
TR 12:30-1:45
In the first part of this course, we’ll discuss and answer some of the most difficult questions in
ethics: Is there an objective standard for what’s right and wrong? If so, what makes an action
right or wrong? How should we decide what to do in tough situations? Can we luckily end up
doing the right thing? Do moral standards give us a good reason to think God exists? And if it
does, what is the relationship between God and moral standards? In the second part of this course,
we’ll consider particular cases: Is it ever okay to violate someone’s privacy, and if so, when? Is it
ever okay to do something you know is wrong to an individual if you know it will greatly benefit
larger numbers of people? Is abortion morally permissible? We’ll discuss these and other issues
with the goal of both understanding the main arguments and learning how to reason about ethics
in a clear and effective way.
PHI 1309.01
Introduction to Medical Ethics
Beaty
108
TR 11:00-12:15
This course is an introduction to Medical Ethics. The course surveys three clusters of issues
in medical practice that are fraught with moral and legal puzzles: the relation between
patients and health care professionals (e.g. confidentiality, truth-telling, informed consent,
and so on); intervention in the beginning and ending of human life (e.g., abortion, treatment
of seriously ill infants, physician assisted suicide, etc.); and the just distribution of resources
(e.g. health care reform, emphasis on primary care vs. specialization, etc.). We will think also
about the extent to which one’s faith commitments -- one’s world view (Buddhism, Christian
Theism, Judaism, being Muslim, Naturalism, Nation-State Liberalism, or modern hedonisms,
etc.) -- are appropriate, relevant features of such discussions. For example, can we speak
meaningfully of Christian medical ethics in contrast to secular approach to medical ethics? If
so, how does such a perspective differ from self-identified secular approach?
February 8, 2016
PHI 1321.01
Introductory Topics in Philosophy
Anderson
108
MWF 10:10-11:00
We all want answers, but rarely examine the questions we ask. How do we question well? Is
there such a thing as a bad question? Can I be confident in what I know? In this course, we
will look at these and other central philosophical questions, using close readings of
classical and contemporary texts as our starting points—works from Plato, Aristotle,
Descartes, and Hume, among others, then moving to modern authors such as C.S. Lewis.
Classes will be discussion based—composed of very little to no lecture. Instead, we will
wrestle with big ideas and hard questions through Socratic dialogue.
PHI 1321.02
Introductory Topics in Philosophy
Dougherty
106
TR 9:30-10:45
Most know Lewis through his "children's" books, The Chronicles of Narnia. But Lewis was a
man acquainted with grief from childhood through his adult life. In this class we will read
Lewis's autobiographical reflections on the death of his beloved wife, as well was examine his
treatment of death and suffering in his fiction and essays. Like the Oxford system in which Lewis
was educated, the class is discussion-based and there is a reading journal, a mid-term essay of
2400-2800 words, and a final project.
PHI 2305.01
Philosophy and Religion
Buras
105
MWF 11:15-12:05
This class explores the intersection between philosophy and religion by examining the
philosophical questions raised by death and Christian beliefs about the afterlife. Is death to be
feared? Can death harm us? Is life after death even possible? Is it reasonable to hold any beliefs
at all about what happens beyond the grave? Are specially Christian teachings about life after
death coherent? Plato taught that philosophy, practiced properly, is nothing other than
preparation for death. This course will aim to be philosophical in this ancient sense of the term.
PHI 3301.01
Moral Philosophy
Kruschwitz
105
TR 11:00-12:15
How can we make sense of morality and its relationship to human happiness and well-being?
What kinds of lives should we choose and what sort of character we should we aspire to have?
After we examine the challenges to the institution of morality from Friedrich Nietzsche (18441900), we will compare the rich moral psychologies and normative ethical theories of four pivotal
thinkers. In the theories of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) we
encounter a “modern” conception of human freedom that places God at arm’s length in the moral
life and shifts the focus to rules and obligations. Like Aristotle (384-322 BC), who lived fifteen
centuries before, Aquinas (1225-1274) emphasizes the roles of happiness, virtues and vices, and
character formation in the moral life, but with new twists that derive from the biblical view of
morality. Class sessions feature small group discussions and presentations as well as minilectures.
PHI 3310.01
History of Philosophy – Classical
Roberts
105
MWF 9:05-9:55
The practitioners of ancient Greek philosophy designed it not just to tickle our minds and make us
think, but to make us think as human beings so that we might become better and wiser human
beings. In PHI 3310 we will read some of the oldest, most influential, most beautiful, and greatest
texts in the history of Western philosophy, mostly from Plato and Aristotle, and will try to let the
texts work on our minds in the way they were designed to work. These texts have set questions
that are still seriously discussed today, and have shaped the philosophy, literature, and more
broadly the thinking, of Western civilization.
February 8, 2016
PHI 3312.01
History of Modern European Philosophy
Evans
105
TR 9:30-10:45
This course is designed to provide the student with a basic acquaintance with the most important
western philosophers of the modern period (roughly 1600-1900)--both their ideas and arguments-and with a few of the most important texts of that period. Of course the vast amount of terrain
means the coverage will be selective; nevertheless, the aim of the course is to provide a
comprehensive overview of an important three hundred years or so of philosophy in the west.
Major overarching themes and continuing problems will be highlighted, and attention will be
given to understanding the implications of this history for the situation of philosophy today. We
will also look at the role Christian faith has played in the history of philosophy and the
implications of that history for faith today.
PHI 3320.01
Philosophical Issues in Feminism
Wright
105
TR 2:00-3:15
Feminist theorists have challenged the negative assessment of the body within philosophical
discourse. This course will survey recent developments in feminist philosophy, focusing on the
contested nature of embodiment in feminist thought and the intersections between feminist
philosophy as it is historically understood and developing debates within body studies, one area
of feminist theory. Topics will include theories and definitions of gender, cultural inscriptions and
evaluations of the body, theories of power and politics of the body, evaluations of the body in
science and biomedicine, and assessments of the position of women in the history and discipline
of philosophy. No philosophy background is necessary, but readings will approach feminism
from a philosophical point of view.
PHI 4311.01
Epistemology
Dougherty
106
TR 2:00-3:15
This class surveys a number of core issues in contemporary epistemology concerning knowledge,
evidence, justification of belief, the relationship between belief and action, skepticism,
intellectual virtue, and the ultimate intellectual goods. As the title suggests, the readings will all
be debates between adherents to opposing views, which should make for a lively class. Naturally,
the class will be mostly discussion-based.
PHI 4320.01
Philosophy of Religion
Evans
110
TR 11:00-12:15
This seminar-style course will focus on the question of the relationship between God and
morality. Dostoevsky’s character Ivan Karamazov famously claimed that if God does not exist,
then “everything is permitted.” We will examine a number of arguments intended to show that
God is in some way essential to morality, as well as arguments designed to show that morality is
independent of God. Philosophers who will be considered include classical philosophers such as
Aquinas and Kant, as well as more contemporary thinkers (such as C. S. Lewis, Erik Wielenberg,
Robert Adams, C. Stephen Evans, and Angus Ritchie).
PHI 4324.01
Philosophy in Literature
Jacobs
108
MW 1:00-2:15
PHILOSOPHY VERSUS LITERATURE starts from the reference in the Republic to "the ancient
quarrel between philosophy and poetry." We will explore the relations between philosophy and
literature, asking whether they must "quarrel" or whether they can be complementary means of
approaching truth; we will ask further whether there are distinctive varieties of serious
philosophical work that literature is best suited to do. In addition to the relevant portions of the
Republic, texts may include:
February 8, 2016
• Lucretius, De Rerum Natura
• Sir Philip Sidney, Defence of Poetry
• Montaigne, selected essays
• Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
• Kant, selections from the Critique of Judgment
• Kierkegaard, Either/Or
• Iris Murdoch, The Good Apprentice and selections from Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals
• Stanley Cavell, selections from The Claim of Reason
• Martha Nussbaum, selections from Love's Knowledge
• Mark Edmundson, selections from Literature against Philosophy, Plato to Derrida: A Defence
of Poetry
PHI 4340.01
East Asian Philosophy
Cooper
106
TR 3:30-4:45
The course is designed to acquaint the student with the texts that define the Hindu, Buddhist and
Sikh traditions. The close reading of these texts also provides a sound foundation for
understanding important dimensions of Asian cultures. The course will focus on discussion of
these texts in order to clarify their perspectives and meaning. In doing so, the student should gain
a valuable insight into these traditions and their importance in the Twenty First Century.
PHI 4353.01
Philosophy of Language
Kvanvig
107
TR 9:30-10:45
This course introduces students to the main issues and theories in twentieth-century philosophy of
language, focusing specifically on linguistic phenomena. Part I explores several theories of how
proper names, descriptions, and other terms bear a referential relation to non-linguistic
objects. Part II surveys competing theories of linguistic meaning and compares their various
advantages and liabilities. Part III introduces the basic concepts of linguistic pragmatics, includes
a detailed discussion of the problems of indirect force, and Part IV examines linguistic theories of
metaphor.
PHI 4361.01
Social Philosophy
Rosenbaum
105
MWF 10:10-11:00
The large topic of Plato’s Republic is justice, what it is and how it might be achieved. Plato is a
well-known skeptic about democracy, and his thought about justice is integral to his skepticism
about democracy. We’ll read Plato carefully and try to understand his objections to democracy.
Then we’ll read other interesting sources about justice and democracy, including W.E.B. DuBois,
Karl Marx, Milton Friedman, John Dewey and Michael Sandel.
PHI 4363.01
Philosophy and Medicine
Marcum
145 Earle Hall
TR 12:30-1:45
Modern American medicine is undergoing several important crises, including quality and cost of
care. In response to these crises a competing model for medical knowledge and practice has
arisen over the past several decades. In this course, the biomedical model and its humanistic
competitor are explored in terms of their metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical dimensions.
February 8, 2016
PHI 5311.01
Readings from Philosophers: Nietzsche and the Greeks
Schultz
110
R 2:00-4:45
Friedrich Nietzsche began and ended his brief academic career as a professor of Classical
Philology. His first full-length work, The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music, captures
the dynamism of Greek culture by exploring the agonistic relationship between Apollonian
rationality and Dionysian spirituality. In 1879, Nietzsche resigns from his academic appointment
at the University of Basel and turns his creative energies toward understanding the deep malaise
he senses in European culture. As Nietzsche develops his own philosophy in works like Beyond
Good and Evil, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and On the Genealogy of Morals, he seems to abandon
his interest in the Greeks. However, in Twilight of the Idols, one of the last works Nietzsche
completed before his collapse into insanity, he returns to consider the “Problem of Socrates.” He
admits “I am so close to Socrates that I find myself always doing battle with him.” Again and
again, Nietzsche asks himself the penetrating question: “What I Owe the Ancients?” And he
answers this question, at least in part, by using Socrates as an implicit interrogative partner in
Ecce Homo and by upholding Dionysius as a model for cultural revolution. In this seminar, we
will explore Nietzsche’s complex relationship with Greek philosophy by reading several works
from the classical tradition alongside Nietzsche’s own assessment of them. As an added bonus,
this course will help prepare graduate students for the comprehensive exams in Ancient and 19th
century.
PHI 5315.01
Topics in Classical Philosophy: Reading Aristotle's Ethics
Roberts
107
M 2:30-5:15
This course will consist mostly of a close reading of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. As
collateral reading, we will read some essays by contemporary philosophers on various topics of
Aristotle’s text.
PHI 5318.01
Logic for Philosophers
Pruss
107
TR 12:30-1:45
This course is optimized to cover topics in philosophy that all philosophers working in any of
the central areas of philosophy--metaphysics, ethics and epistemology--should have a grasp
of. Specific topics will be: first order logic, set theory, probability theory, modal logic.
PHI 5321.01
Anderson
Topics in Epistemology: Contemporary Issues and Debates
107
W 2:30-5:15
This course is a graduate level introduction to current topics in contemporary
epistemology. The last 50 years of contemporary epistemology have largely been a
response to Gettier in one way or another. Starting with Gettier’s seminal article, we will
read key texts that have shaped the way epistemology is investigated today. Topics will
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include: evidence, disagreement, fallibilism, contextualism, virtue epistemology,
testimony, and defeat. The last fourth of the course will examine recent applications of
these topics to philosophy of religion, including but not limited to divine hiddenness and
the rationality of belief in miracles.
PHI 5361.01
Topics in Contemporary Philosophy of Religion: Faith and Humility
Kvanvig
107
T 2:00-4:45
This course will focus on the virtues of faith and humility. For faith, the course will investigate
the nature and value of faith, and the focus will be primarily on intellectual humility though much
of the literature will also cover humility more generally.
February 8, 2016