Philosophy

This course provides an overview of key concepts, methods and authors in both fields. These introduce the student to the types of reasoning required for the pursuit of in-depth analysis in each discipline. Emphasis on topics and authors varies with the particular instructor.

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy inquiring into the nature and conditions of knowledge and truth. Epistemologists ask such questions as: How should we define knowledge? Is knowledge generated by reason or experience? How has knowledge of nature been represented in Western philosophy and science? Is knowledge objective? What constitutes adequate justification for holding a belief? Do attributions of epistemic credibility vary among knowers from different social, cultural, and economic locations? How do power and ideology shape our experiences of the world? Students explore questions such as these and others as they submit their own beliefs about the nature of knowledge to philosophical examination. The course readings and situating context for inquiry will vary each time the course is taught, with each iteration focusing on a particular period or school of philosophical thought. Possible contexts include seventeenth century philosophy or other periods in the history of philosophy, critical theory, pragmatism, analytic philosophy, phenomenology, and feminist philosophy. This course will be offered in 2022-23, and in alternating years thereafter.

This course examines metaphysical and moral questions that philosophers have raised about social and political life. Among questions treated might be: What are the grounds, if any, of the obligation of a citizen to obey a sovereign? Are there basic principles of justice by which societies, institutions and practices are rightly evaluated? What is democracy, and how can we tell if an institution or practice is democratic? To what degree do economic institutions put limits on the realization of freedom, democracy and self-determination? Readings might include excerpts from the works of Plato, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and Marx, as well as numerous contemporary philosophers. This course will be offered in 2021-22, and in alternating years thereafter.

The purpose of this course is to evaluate the social impact of technology in the areas of biology/biotechnology, biomedical engineering and chemistry. The focus of the course will be on the human values in these areas and how they are affected by new technological developments. The course will deal with problems such as human experimentation, behavior control, death, genetic engineering and counseling, abortion, and the allocation of scarce medical resources. These problems will be examined through lectures, discussions and papers. This course will be offered in 2021-22, and in alternating years thereafter.

This course examines the meanings of social categories such as gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, nationality, and species. What are the philosophical and religious foundations of the categorizations of beings operative in our contemporary cultures? How do attributions of same and different, normal and abnormal, rational and irrational, human and nonhuman shape social and political processes of inclusion and exclusion? Are social categories real, constructed, or both? This course focuses primarily on intersectional approaches to oppression and identity that see social categories such as gender, race, and class as mutually constitutive rather than separable. Course readings span a range of philosophical and religious traditions including Continental philosophy, analytic philosophy, Latina/o studies, feminist theory, queer theory, critical race theory, disability studies, and environmental studies. Students may not earn credit for both PY 2716 and RE 2716. This course will be offered in 2021-22, and in alternating years thereafter.

This course will focus on the following questions: What is the scope of the current environmental crisis? What does this crisis reveal about the philosophical presuppositions and dominant values of our intellectual worldviews and social institutions? How can existing social theories help explain the environmental crisis? What implications does the crisis have for our sense of personal identity? What moral and spiritual resources can help us respond to it? Readings will be taken from contemporary and historical philosophers and naturalists.

This course focuses on two important movements in nineteenth and twentieth century philosophy, existentialism and phenomenology. Readings might include works by Kierkegaard, Dostoyevsky, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Beauvoir, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Levinas, and Fanon, as well as contemporary readings by feminist, critical race, and queer theorists working within these traditions. Students will also encounter some of the great works of existentialist fiction and cinema. Themes that may be explored include the relationship between self and other, the tension between freedom and responsibility, the possibility of ethics after World War II, and the problem of ethical and political commitment in an alienating world.

This course is an in-depth consideration of the meaning, value, and consequences of scientific inquiry. Questions explored may include: Does science yield truth? Are the results of scientific inquiry more a reflection of the workings of the human mind than of those of the external world? Do pivotal scientific concepts like gene, electron, photon, species, and ecosystem point to entities that actually exist? Does the history of science, which includes many refutations of theories once believed to be true, raise questions about whether currently accepted theories should be trusted? By what methods does a scientific community validate knowledge claims and how are these processes affected by social, political, and economic contexts? Does a scientist have a responsibility to conduct morally conscientious research? How does the development of technology affect our spiritual and moral characters? In what ways is science similar to religion and in what ways is it different? The focus of this course may vary each time it is offered from an examination of science in general to an investigation of the foundations of specific branches of science such as physics, biology, environmental science, or social science.

This course offers a general introduction to modern moral theory. What makes one action wrong, and another right? What are our moral duties towards others? Do moral values change over time, making beliefs about right and wrong simply “relative,” or are moral values objective, holding true for all people, everywhere, at all times? Should emotions play a role in ethical deliberation, or should we aspire to be purely rational when engaged in moral thought and action? Is it okay to cheat on an exam, so long as everybody else does it? Do we have a right to use animals in laboratory experiments? Is eating meat ethical? Is it wrong to share a racist or sexist joke? Should abortion be legal? Students will learn how to apply key moral concepts to real-world problems and situations after closely studying several moral theories, including utilitarianism, Kantianism, and feminist care ethics. Other topics covered include moral relativism, psychological hedonism, and ethical egoism.

Spirituality is a philosophical perspective which stresses the role of virtue in happiness and morality; a psychological perspective on emotions and desire; and an essential dimension of religious life. Found in all religions, it is also personally important for the tens of millions who describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.” This course will investigate the many dimensions of spiritual thought and practice, focusing on questions such as: What Similarities/differences exist among the spiritual teachings of traditional religions? What is a spiritual experience, a spiritual lesson, a spiritual life? What is the role of spiritual practices such as yoga, meditation, and prayer? What is the place of spirituality in medicine (e.g.,meditation as treatment for stress), our relation to nature (e.g., the experience of a sunset), and political life (e.g., Gandhi, King, spiritual environmentalism)? Beyond scientific knowledge, technological expertise, and common sense, is there such a thing as wisdom? This course will be offered in 2022-23, and in alternating years thereafter.

This course is organized around an advanced or specialized topic in philosophy and provides preparation for HU 3900 Inquiry Seminars in philosophy and religion. Emphasis on topics and authors will vary with instructor, but will typically involve the study of: a particular philosopher (e.g., Plato, Marx, Dewey, Arendt); a particular philosophical tradition (e.g., Pragmatism, Analytic Philosophy, Buddhism, Feminism); a particular philosophical problem or topic (free will, globalization, consciousness, social movement, justice); or a particular philosophical classic (Aristotle’s Ethics, Hobbes’s The Leviathan, Beauvoir’s The Second Sex). The topical theme of the course will be provided as a modified course title in the course description posted online. This course may be repeated for different topics.

This course will focus on philosophical questions concerning the following topics: the existence and nature of God; the compatibility of God and evil; the nature of religious faith and the relationship between religion, science and ethics; interpretations of the nature of religious language; the philosophically interesting differences between Western and Eastern religions; philosophical critiques of the role of religion in social life. Authors may include: Hume, Kant, Kierkegaard, Buber, Tillich, Daly, Nietzsche and Buddha. This course will be offered in 2022-23, and in alternating years thereafter.

This course is organized around an advanced or specialized topic in religion and provides preparation for HU 3900 Inquiry Seminars in philosophy and religion. The focus will vary, but the material will be drawn from a particular religious thinker, a particular religious tradition or a particular historical or contemporary problem. The topical theme of the class will be provided as a modified course title in the course description posted online. This course may be repeated for different topics.