DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY FALL 2015
PHIL 11000
Intro to Philosophy
TR
25220
12:30pm-1:20pm
WTHR 104
Kelly, D.
LLEC
MWF 58231
9:30AM-10:20am
BRNG 1268
Staff
MWF 58233
4:30pm-5:20pm
BRNG 1268
Staff
MWF 58234
2:30pm-3:20pm
BRNG 1230
Staff
MWF 58235
3:30pm-4:20pm
BRNG 1268
Staff
TR
14690
10:30am-11:45am
BRNG 1268
Cover, J.
TR
14691
12:00pm-1:15pm
BRNG 1268
Staff
Dist
57098
Arr hours
Staff
Lrng
The basic problems and types of philosophy, with special emphasis on the
problems of knowledge and the nature of reality.
PHIL 11100/H
Intro to Ethics
TR
25242
10:30amWTHR 172
Frank, D.
LLEC
11:20am
TR
45414
3:30PM-4:15PM
BRNG 1230
Harris, L.
TR
45413
1:30pm-2:45pm
BRNG 1230
Harris, L.
MWF 25236
1:30pm-2:20pm
BRNG 1268
Song, Y.
MWF 45411
4:30pm-5:20pm
BRNG 1230
Staff
TR
H22
10:30 AM-11:45
BRNG 1248
Kain, P.
14695
AM
Dist
57099
Arr hours
Staff
Lrng
A study of the nature of moral value and obligation. Topics such as the
following will be considered: different conceptions of the good life and
standards of right conduct; the relation of nonmoral and moral goodness;
determinism, free will, and the problem of moral responsibility; the
political and social dimensions of ethics; the principles and methods of
moral judgment. Readings will be drawn both from contemporary sources
and from the works of such philosophers as Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas,
Butler, Hume, Kant, and J. S. Mill.
PHIL 11400
MWF
68226
Global Moral Issues
1:30pm-2:20pm
BRNG 1230
MWF
58631
3:30pm-4:20pm
BRNG 1230
MWF
54086
12:30-1:20pm
BRNG 1230
Dist Lrng
Arr hours
A systematic and representative examination of significant contemporary
moral problems with a focus on global issues such as international justice,
poverty and foreign aid, nationalism and patriotism, just war, population
and the environment, human rights, gender equality, and national selfdetermination.
PHIL 12000
Critical Thinking
MWF
25246
2:30-3:20pm
BRNG 1268
Dist Lrng 10361
Arr hours
This course is designed to develop reasoning skills and analytic abilities,
based on an understanding of the rules or forms as well as the content of
good reasoning. This course will cover moral and scientific reasoning, in
addition to ordinary problem solving. This course is intended primarily for
students with nontechnical backgrounds
Staff
Staff
Staff
Staff
Staff
PHIL 15000
Principles of Logic
MWF 63152
12:30pm-1:20pm
BRNG 1268
Tulodziecki, D.
MWF 68228
10:30am-11:20am
BRNG 1268
Bertolet, R.
A first course in formal deductive logic; mechanical and other procedures
for distinguishing good arguments from bad. Truth-tables and proofs for
sentential (Boolean) connectives, followed by quantificational logic with
relations. Although metatheoretic topics are treated, the emphasis is on
methods.
PHIL206
Philosophy of Religion
TR
14676
10:30am-11:45am
BRNG 1230
Draper, P.
The course encourages critical reflection on traditional and contemporary
views about God and other religious ideas. Topics include arguments for
God's existence, the problem of evil, understanding the divine attributes,
miracles, religious pluralism, and life after death.
PHIL 219
Introduction to Existentialism
MWF
25258
11:30am-12:20pm
BRNG 1268
Marina, J.
This course will be an exploration the existentialist movement through a
Bernstein, M. careful analysis of both the philosophical and literary works of some of its
most prominent expositors. Readings will include Nietzsche, Kierkegaard,
Dostoevsky, Heidegger, Sartre and Kafka. Requirements will be a midterm,
a final, one short 5-7 page paper and a class presentation.
PHIL 221
Intro to Philosophy of Science
MWF
14677
11:30am-12:20pm
BRNG 1230
Curd, M.
An introduction to the scope and methods of science and to theories of its
historical development. Topics include scientific revolutions, theories of
scientific method, the nature of scientific discovery, explanation, and the
role of values in scientific change.
PHIL 225
Philosophy and Gender
MWF
25259
9:30am-10:20am
BRNG 1230
Song, Y.
An examination of the beliefs, assumptions, and values found in traditional
and contemporary philosophical analyses of women. A range of feminist
approaches to knowledge, values, and social issues will be introduced.
PHIL 23000
Religions of the East
MWF
68740
4:30pm-5:20pm
HIKS B853
Purpura, A.
(REL 230) A study of the history, teachings, and present institutions of the
religions of India, Southeast Asia, China, and Japan. This will include
Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism,
and Zoroastrianism.
PHIL 23100
Religions of the West
MWF 68741 12:30pm-1:20pm
WTHR 160
Ryba, T.
A comparative study of the origins, institutions, and theologies of the three
major Western religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
PHIL 260
Philosophy of Law
TR
25261 1:30pm-2:20pm
ME 1012
Yeomans, C.
A discussion of philosophical issues in the law: a critical examination of
such basic concepts in law as property, civil liberty, punishment, right,
contract, crime and responsibility; and a survey of some main philosophical
theories about the nature and justification of legal systems. Readings will
be drawn from both law and philosophy.
PHIL 275
TR
45406
Philosophy of Art
9:00am-10:15am
BRNG 1230
Smith, D.
A survey of the principal theories concerning the nature, function, and
value of the arts from classical times to the present.
PHIL 280
Ethics and Animals
MWF
25263
11:30am-12:20pm
MTHW 210
Bernstein, M.
An exploration through the study of major historical and contemporary
philosophical writings of basic moral issues as they apply to our treatment
of animals. Rational understanding of the general philosophical problems
raised by practices such as experimentation on animals or meat-eating will
be emphasized.
PHIL 30100
History of Ancient Philosophy
TR
25264
3:00pm- 4:15pm
BRNG 1268
Frank, D.
This is a first course in the history of philosophy in antiquity, covering a
period of almost a thousand years. The course divides into three main
parts. We begin at the beginning (where else?) when philosophy emerged
from non-philosophical modes of thought in the 6th century BCE. We will
trace the intellectual paths blazed by the first philosophers, Thales,
Anaximander, Anaximenes, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, and Parmenides.
Then we turn to the giants of philosophy in antiquity, Socrates, Plato, and
Aristotle. Finally, we will spend some time on philosophy after Aristotle, a
very rich intellectual period that saw the rise of Epicureanism, Stoicism,
and Skepticism--competing schools of philosophy, indeed ways of life.
PHIL 302
History of Medieval Philosophy
TR
14679
9:00am-10:15am
BRNG 1268
Brower, J.
This course is survey of some of the main trends and major figures of
medieval philosophy. Our emphasis will be on close reading and analysis
of representative texts in medieval metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics,
but some attention will also be given to broader philosophical traditions
that develop during the thousand years separating late antiquity from the
Renaissance. Readings (in English translation) will include selections from
the work of Boethius, Anselm, Abelard, Aquinas, and Scotus.
PHIL 303
History of Modern Philosophy
TR
25267
1:30pm-2:45pm
BRNG 1268
Cover, J.
The history of philosophy, like logic and ethics and epistemology and
metaphysics, is a traditional area of academic philosophy with a his tory of
its own. As practiced in the past, and as we will pursue it in this course, it
isn’t history (of a certain subject) but philosophy (with a certain focus). The
focus is the content of historically important philosophical texts during the
so-called early modern period (roughly 1600-1800). Of these influential
thinkers, we shall examine selected philosophical writings of five:
Descartes, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. Readings and lectures will
focus primarily on metaphysical and epistemological topics, since those are
the philosophical topics of central concern to these important figures.
PHIL 402
Medieval Christian Thought
TR
14680
12:00-pm-1:15pm
BRNG 1230
Brower
This course is designed to introduce some of the main trends and major
figures of the Christian Middle Ages (roughly 400-1400 A.D.). Our
emphasis will be on the way thinkers from this period make use of
philosophy in theology, especially in developing their views about the
nature and existence of God, the function and limits of religious language,
and the proper understanding of particular religious doctrines such as
Trinity, Incarnation, and Atonement.
PHIL 43500
Philosophy of Mind
TR
14681
3:00pm-4:15pm
BRNG 1248
Kelly, D.
The main goal of this course is to explore the nature of the mind. We will
consider the relationship between the mind and the body, and the mental
to the physical more generally. We’ll ask, and look at some candidate
answers to, questions like “What is a mind, and what are its component
parts? How does a mind work? How are minds related to brains, and to the
physical bodies that they seem to animate and control? How do minds
represent the world around them? What is a self? What is the nature of
consciousness? Could other animals, aliens, machines or other types of
entities have minds, or be conscious? How would we know? How can
empirical efforts like the cognitive sciences help shed light these
questions? Could scientific theories of the mind supplant our intuitive
conceptions of the mind? If so, what would be the implications?”
PHIL 45000
Metalogic
MWF 63206
10:30-11:20am
BRNG 1230
Tulodziecki, D.
An introduction to metatheoretic studies of formal axiomatic systems.
Basic set theory is developed for use as a tool in studying the propositional
calculus. Further topics include many-valued logics and metatheory for
modal or predicate logic.
PHIL 51000
Phenomenology
F
14682
2:30pm-5:20pm
BRNG 1248
Marina, J.
This class offers a critical exploration of classical readings in
phenomenology, with special attention to their relevance to hermeneutics
and contemporary philosophy of mind. Readings will include large chunks
of Husserl's Logical Investigations and Cartesian Meditations, Heidgegger's
Being and Time, Sartre's Being and Nothingness, and time permitting,
readings from Merleau-Ponty. Some of the assigned secondary reading is
designed to build bridges between this material and problems in
contemporary philosophy of mind.
PHIL 52400
W
14683
Contemporary Ethical Theory
8:30am-11:20am
BRNG 1248
Kain, P.
A study of a number of central positions and issues in contemporary angloamerican ethical theory. The course will begin with an examination of
several metaethical positions developed between 1903 and 1971
(intuitionism, emotivism, prescriptivism and several forms of ethical
naturalism). This will provide the background for an examination of
important recent developments of classical normative theories
(utilitarianism, contractarianism, Platonism, virtue ethics, and natural law
theory) and current metaethical debates (internalism & externalism about
reasons, sensibility theory, expressivism, realism and antirealism.) There
may some particular focus on the concepts of dignity and respect.
PHIL 54000
Studies in Social and Political Philosophy
TR
14684
9:00am-10:15am
BRNG 1248
McBride, W.
The semester will be divided equally between the analyses of two classics
published just over a century apart: Marx’s Capital, Volume 1, and John
Rawls’ A Theory of Justice.
PHIL 58000
Pro-seminar in Philsophy: Philosophy of Liberation
T
14685
6:30pm-9:20pm
BRNG 1248
Harris, L.
The seminar will engage in contemporary debates regarding competing
conceptions of liberation and the agency of social kinds (epistemic, moral
and ontological). The seminar will probe the following questions central to
debates: What is 'oppression' such that 'liberation' counts as its relief? Is
liberation to be understood in terms of good simpliciter, agglomerative,
relative or plural? Is considering social kinds, e.g., the working class, the
poor, victims of racism, women, the subaltern, etc., agents of universal
human liberation warranted or is an individualist conception of agency
preferable? Students will be required to focus on one author and consider
what that author means by liberation and the social kinds they consider
invested with special epistemic, moral or ontological agency. The seminar
will benefit by visits from some of the authors we will study through
interactive teleconferences.
PHIL 61000
TR
14686
Seminar in Recent Continental Philosophy
12:00pm-1:15pm
BRNG 1248
Smith, D.
This seminar will examine the ethic-political thought of the French
philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995). The first half of the seminar will
focus on the ethics of immanence that Deleuze explores in his readings of
Nietzsche (Nietzsche and Philosophy), Spinoza (Expressionism in
Philosophy), and Foucault (Foucault). The second half will examine the
political philosophy that Deleuze’s developed with Félix Guattari in their
two volume work Capitalism and Schizophrenia (Anti-Oedipus, A Thousand
Plateaus), with particular emphasis on their typology of social formations:
“primitives,” the State apparatus, the nomadic war machine, the capitalist
axiomatic, and the “machinic phylum.” Requirements include seminar
presentations and a final research paper.
PHIL 66500
Philosophy of Language
W
14687
2:30pm-5:20pm
BRNG 1248
Bertolet, R.
This will be an advanced tour of some of the most important issues in some
of the main areas in the philosophy of language. These will include: the
distinction between meaning and reference; the workings of names,
natural kind terms, descriptions, and indexicals; propositional attitudes
and attitude ascriptions; theories of meaning; and speech act theory. For
most of the semester we will read classic papers in the Martinich & Sosa
anthology (Philosophy of Language, Oxford, 6e 2013). At the end of the
semester we will work thorough a recent book. I cannot at this point say
what that will be. Current contenders are Yablo’s Aboutness and Fodor
and Pylyshyn’s Minds without Meanings but other works may come to
seem better choices in the coming months. This approach allows us to
consider two genres, papers mostly written as journal articles on specific
topics, and a book-length treatment touching on one or more of those
topics.
PHIL 68000
Seminar in Philosophy
TR
14688
1:30pm-2:45pm BRNG 1248
Draper, P.
This seminar focuses on one of the most fundamental concepts in
philosophy of science and epistemology: the concept of (supporting)
evidence. It seeks to explicate that concept and then to use that
explication to address various problems and mysteries concerning scientific
reasoning, theory choice, induction, and knowledge.
PHIL 68400
Studies in British Empiricism
M
14689
2:30pm-5:20pm
BRNG 1248
Jacovides, M.
An intensive study of Locke, Berkeley, or Hume, or of certain themes and
ideas that played an important role in the development of their
philosophies. Variable subject matter. Prerequisite: PHIL 30300.
Please contact Sue Graham (CLA Counseling and Student Services for
more information) at 765-49-44976 or sgraham@purdue.edu
See URL Philosophy Courses for additional information