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These are topics not included in the regular catalog. This course may be taken more than once if the subject matter varies sufficiently.

This is an introductory consideration of logical theory: definitions, propositions, and reasoning. Students are taught both the methods used in logical analysis and the reasons behind them. The emphasis is upon dealing with arguments as they are expressed in everyday language. (PI)

This course gives a philosophical account of the existence, principles, and causes of change as it is found in natural things. Particular attention is given to change of substance and purpose in nature. At appropriate places, consideration is given to contemporary discussions of these issues. The course also introduces students to the logical methods and distinctions needed to address such questions. Students are not able to take both PHIL-2100, Principles of Nature and PHIL-2310, Philosophy of Nature for credit. (C)

This course is a general consideration of the philosophical questions associated with the kinds of change found in natural entities. Causality, chance and purpose in nature are also dealt with. Then the implications of this general account for human nature and the cause of nature itself are considered. Students are not able to take both PHIL-2100, Principles of Nature and PHIL-2310, Philosophy of Nature for credit. (C)

This course begins with the distinction of living things from non-living things, followed by the nature of the soul and its kinds. It then treats the relationship between soul and body, and examines sensation, reason, and the emotions in depth. Arguments for and against the immortality of the human soul are taken up, and the problem of free will is discussed. (PI, WP)

These are topics not included in the regular catalogue. This course may be taken more than once if the subject matter varies sufficiently.

The course in ethics deals with the subject matter of ethics and its proper method. It considers the ultimate end of man and the nature of human freedom, followed by the nature of habits, virtues and vices, and the necessity of virtues for a stable moral life. Having examined some of the virtues in detail, the various ways of life in accord with them are discussed. At appropriate places, recent value theories are also examined. (PI, WP)

Political philosophy is an analysis of the foundations of political society and authority made in the light of ethics and man's search for happiness. It includes a discussion of the broad variety of political organizations as they are related both to this foundation and the varying human condition, as well as the relationship of the ideal or utopian to practical life. PHIL-3250, Ethics, strongly recommended. (PI)

This is the first course in a three-semester sequence meeting the general education requirements in the Faith and Philosophical Inquiry Foundation areas. The classes are taught using the Great Books approach. Great texts in philosophy and theology will be read, analyzed, and discussed, with a special emphasis upon the rela-tionship between the two disciplines: the harmony of faith and reason. This first course addresses works written from 600 B.C. through 1000 A.D. (PI)

This is one-half of the third course in a three-semester sequence meeting the general education requirements in the Faith and Philosophical Inquiry Foundation areas. The classes are taught using the Great Books approach. Great texts in philosophy and theology will be read, analyzed, and discussed, with a special emphasis upon the relationship between the two disciplines: the harmony of faith and reason. This course addresses works written from about 1700 to the present. Co-requisite: THEO-3690. (PI)

Metaphysics is a study of being, as such, and is considered under three aspects: being in general, the immaterial world, and the first causes of all things. Metaphysical problems are taken up in detail, followed by a systematic account of the transcendentals (being, goodness, unity) and their properties, and concluding with a consideration of being outside the natural order. (PI)

Also called Philosophy of God, Natural Theology develops a rational approach to the existence and intelligibility of God. The distinction between faith and reason and the method proper to Natural Theology are considered, and arguments about the existence of God, the attributes of God, and God's extrinsic operations are taken up in detail. (PI)

Epistemology studies the nature of human knowledge. It distinguishes among the claims we make (knowledge, faith, belief, and opinion) and inquires into how we know and how we justify our claims (evidence, testimony, and demonstration). The course also addresses some of the more common historical views, such as idealism and realism, rationalism, empiricism, skepticism, positivism, and pragmatism. (PI)

Philosophy of Science (3) (D) Philosophy of science studies scientific methodology itself (as distinguished from the application of that methodology to specific empirical claims or theories). Specific scientific theories and claims are included only as concrete illustrations of methodology, not as primary objects of study. Since scientific methodology itself has undergone historical development, both modern hypothetico-deductive scientific methodology and pre-modern scientific paradigms are investigated as to their respective presuppositions, structures, and implications. In the process, this course also addresses questions of foundationalism, empiricism, skepticism, and historicism.

The philosophy of religion is aimed at understanding the nature and epistemic status of religious belief in general and particular religious doctrines, which may cover any of the following issues: (a) naturalist, anti-realist/pragmatist, and realist accounts of the character of religious belief; (b) evidentialist and non-evidentialist accounts of the epistemic warrant for religious belief; (c) the evaluation of particular types of purported evidence for and against religious belief; or (d) the philosophical evaluation of particular religious doctrines. The texts may be taken from both historical and contemporary sources. (PI)

This course addresses philosophical questions and problems surrounding the nature of mathematical reasoning and the status of mathematical objects. While some familiarity with mathematics is desirable, no particular level of expertise is presupposed. Topics and positions to be covered include mathematical realism (platonic and non-platonic) and anti-realism, logicism, formalism, intuitionism, and structuralism. Some emphasis is placed upon the relation between early mathematics-envisioned as a part of philosophy-and the subsequent development of philosophy of mathematics as a separate discipline, along with recent attempts to recover the tradition. Prerequistes: PHIL-2010, and PHIL-2100 or PHIL-2310. (PI)

Ancient philosophy encompasses Greek and Roman philosophical thought from about 600 BC to 300 AD. The Pre-Socratic thinkers, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, the Epicureans, and Plotinus are emphasized. (PI, WP)

Medieval philosophy encompasses Christian and Islamic philosophical thought from about 300 AD to 1500 AD. St. Augustine, Boethius, Pseudo-Dionysius, St. Anselm, Avicenna, Averroes, St. Thomas, Duns Scotus, and William of Occam are emphasized. (PI, WP)

This is an introductory survey of the history of Islamic philosophy from its beginnings with the legacy of Greece, Alexandria, and the Orient down to the present day, with readings from primary sources focusing on two issues: metaphysics and political philosophy. (PI)

Early modern philosophy is a survey of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century philosophy. Detailed consideration is given to those philosophers and schools of thought that have strongly influenced contemporary thought and, in particular, to the conflict between the Rationalism of Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz and the Empiricism of Bacon, Locke, Berkeley and Hume. The survey concludes with an introduction to the synthesis of Kant. (PI, WP)

This course begins with the Kantian synthesis and some of the major developments of and reactions to it (Hegel, Kierkegaard, Marx, and Nietzsche). It continues with a consideration of phenomenology, existentialism, and postmodernism and attempts to recover the philosophical tradition (Maritain and Strauss). (PI, WP)

The course begins with the late 19th-century antecedents of Anglo-American Philosophy in the realisms of Frege and Peirce and the idealism of Bradley. It continues with consideration of later American pragmatism as found in James, Dewey, and Rorty and logical atomism, logical positivism, emotivism, and naturalism as treated by analytic philosophers such as Russell, Wittgenstein, Moore, Carnap, Ayer, Quine, Rawls, or McIntyre. (PI, WP)

Social ethics is concerned with human freedom and responsibility within a pluralistic society. Authority, freedom, subjectivism, and determinism, as well as some key ethical problems concerning man in relationship to society, are looked at in detail. On the level of the family, such problems as birth control, abortion, and divorce are addressed, while on the level of the wider society, such questions as problems within the corporate structure, and between the corporation and society, private property, the ethics of welfare, censorship, civil disobedience, punishment and respect for law are dealt with.

This course deals with both demonstrative and dialectical logic, and is a systematic treatment of standard logical topics: argumentation, definition, and the elements that constitute them. It also takes up the subject matter of logic according to the classical tradition as well as contemporary schools.

This is a more advanced consideration of questions associated with the nature of matter, becoming, and causality, as well as with related questions concerning space, time, and the infinite, as well as the good, i.e., purpose, in nature. Chance is contrasted with contemporary indeterminism and the role of the former in nature, and some of the contemporary problems pertaining to the nature of motion, space and time are dealt with. The relationship of mathematics and modern science to the philosophy of nature is also taken up.

Aesthetics deals with philosophical questions concerning the arts. Problems related to distinctions in the fine arts and their media, creation, expression and imitation in the fine arts, the relation of art to ethics, and beauty in nature and art are all dealt with. (PI)

This course is concerned with the nature of law, including a comparison of descriptive and prescriptive law, an investigation of natural law both historically and systematically, and the relationship of natural law to human positive law, to constitutional law, to the "law of nations" and to custom. (PI)

This course is open to juniors and seniors only and is required of all philosophy majors taking the professional major. It may be taken more than once if the subject matter varies sufficiently.

Philosophy majors finishing up their junior year may choose to submit an application to write and publicly defend a senior philosophy thesis as one of their elective courses. While the department sees in the writing and defense of a thesis an extremely valuable "capstone" experience, students should note that the approval process is competitive, and that some applications may not be approved. Enrollment in the course will not go beyond the number of philosophy faculty able to direct a thesis in a given year. (WC)

This course is open to philosophy majors only. This course may be taken more than once if the subject matter varies sufficiently.

This course is open to philosophy majors only. This course may be taken more than once if the subject matter varies sufficiently.

These are topics not included in the regular catalog. This course may be taken more than once if the subject matter varies sufficiently.