PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMEN T OFFERINGS 2015 -16
& DISTRIBUTION REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MAJOR
1. Logic Requirement: PHIL 0180 is required of all majors and minors and should be
completed by the end of the sophomore year.
PHIL 0180 Introduction to Modern Logic (Fall & Spring)
(K. Khalifa, H. Grasswick)
2. History Requirements (to be taken by the end of the junior year):
PHIL 0201 Ancient Greek Philosophy (Fall)
(M. Woodruff)
PHIL 0250 Early Modern Philosophy (Spring)
(L. Besser)
3. ESP (Ethics and Social & Political Philosophy)
PHIL 0205 Human Nature and Ethics (Spring)
(L. Besser)
PHIL 0206 Contemporary Moral Issues (Fall)
(S. Viner)
PHIL 0209 Philosophy of Law (Spring)
(S. Viner)
PHIL 0285 Idea of the Ethical (Fall)
(S. Bates)
PHIL 0322 Liberalism and its Critics (Spring)
(S. Viner)
4. ELMMS (Epistemology, Language, Metaphysics, Mind, Science)
PHIL 0214 Science and Society (Fall)
(H. Grasswick)
PHIL 0220 Knowledge and Reality (Spring)
(K. Khalifa)
PHIL 358 Rationality and Cognition (Spring)
(K. Khalifa)
Additional Electives:
PHIL 0150 Introduction to the Philosophical Tradition (Spring)
(M. Woodruff)
PHIL / GSFS 0234 Philosophy and Feminism CW (Fall)
(H. Grasswick)
PHIL 0286 / CMLT 0286 Philosophy & Literature CW (Fall)
(M. Woodruff)
PHIL/RELI 0320 Seminar in Buddhist Philosophy (Spring)
(W. Waldron) Register through Religion Dept.
Seminars:
PHIL senior & junior majors must take two 400-level seminars. We do not recommend taking
two such seminars at the same time. Joint majors must take one 400-level seminar. PHIL minors
must take at least one course at either the 300- or the 400-level.
PHIL 0418 - Nietzsche & Greek Thought (Spring)
(M. Woodruff)
PHIL 0430 Metaphysics and Epistemology (Fall)
(K. Khalifa)
Winter Term 2016:
(these classes count as electives towards the PHIL major but do not satisfy particular
requirements)
JWST/PHIL 1016 Hannah Arendt: The Politics of Philosophy (Winter)
Hannah Arendt was one of the most dynamic and original thinkers of the twentieth
century. She once described her philosophy as “thinking without banisters,” which meant
engaging the ideas and events of her time without ideological preconditions. Topics of
her work included the Holocaust and Israel, race theory and racism in America,
nationalism, totalitarianism, and moral responsibility under dictatorship. Controversial
but always innovative, her work provides an immediate gateway to the discussion of
ethics, politics, and the purpose of philosophy. We will read selections from her
Eichmann in Jerusalem , Responsibility and Judgement, Origins of Totalitarianism, and
The Jewish Writings. We will also watch interviews and the feature film from director
Margarethe von Trotte, Hannah Arendt (2012). PHL (E. Jacobson, a visiting winter term
instructor)
PHIL 1017 The Pragmatists and Environmental Pragmatism (Winter)
William James and John Dewey approached philosophy as a practical necessity for
interpreting, evaluating, criticizing, and redirecting culture. In this course we will
introduce their philosophies – along with the philosophies of Charles S. Peirce, Jane
Addams, and George Herbert Mead – and explore their continuing relevance for current
struggles, with an emphasis on environmental problems. Our principal focus will be
Dewey, the foremost representative of American pragmatism. We will dedicate at least a
full day each week to environmental pragmatism, a contemporary movement among
philosophers who are struggling to think more perceptively, imaginatively, and
effectively about environmental issues. Course work will culminate in a philosophical
analysis of a chosen environmental problem. PHL (S. Fesmire, a visiting winter term
instructor)