PHIL352 SP26
Philosophy of Law (PHIL352)
Dr. Amanda Trefethen
Mondays · 5:30pm–8:15pm · LA5–246
This course will introduce students to the study of philosophical topics related to law and its adjudication. Some of the questions we will address include: What is law? Why, when, and how are we constrained by the law? Is there an essential relationship between law and morality? Can there be a ‘right answer’ in legal disputes? And what does it mean to have ‘liberty’? Toward this end, we will analyze the theoretical debates between legal positivism and natural law, as well as engage in a discussion of more specific legal and normative topics such as free speech rights, privacy rights, paternalism, and the constitutional commitments to due process and equal protection. Our readings will include works by such philosophers and legal scholars as Aquinas, Austin, Dworkin, Fuller, Hampton, Harris, Hart, Mill, Radin, Rawls, and Thomson.
GE/GR areas: 3 UD / UD C (humanities), 4 UD / UD D (social science), GWAR WI (writing)
[Back up to current course descriptions]
PHIL330 SP26
Philosophy of Religion (PHIL330)
Dr. Patrick Dieveney
Tuesdays & Thursdays · 12:30pm–1:45pm · LA5–149
This course explores various issues and questions that arise in the philosophy of religion. Some of these questions include: What arguments have been proposed to establish God’s existence? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What challenges emerge concerning the compossibility of the attributes traditionally associated with God? Why require that God’s existence is necessary? Might we accept an ‘imperfect’ God? While the centerpiece of the course concerns the nature and existence of God, along the way we will touch on some common questions that arise in theology. These include: How is the existence of evil in the world compatible with the existence of the Judeo-Christian God? How is God’s omniscience compatible with free will?
[Back up to current course descriptions]
PHIL370 SP26
Rationality and Decisions (PHIL370)
Dr. Wayne Wright
hybrid (online & in-person Thursdays) · 11:00am–12:15pm · LA5–149
This course introduces students to formal techniques for making and evaluating decisions. In order to develop their skills in representing and analyzing decisions, students will be exposed to concepts and methods from areas such as symbolic logic, probability theory, and game theory. While we will be interested primarily in normative issues (having to do with how one ought to reason), we will also take note of empirical findings regarding how human beings tend to actually make decisions. The course is aimed at equipping students with tools they can use to improve the decisions they make and to avoid common errors of reasoning.
GE area: 2 UD / UD B science
[Back up to current course descriptions]
PHIL400 SP26
PHIL400: Business Ethics
Dr. John Vella
Chavva Olander
Dr. Amanda Parris
Dr. Keith Kaiser
Amy Umaña
Sections 01–07 [see schedule of classes for dates, times, locations]
Ethics is a branch of philosophy. Normative ethics is primarily about the moral standards of rightness and wrongness that govern action. By contrast, applied ethics is concerned with the practical application of normative ethics—that is, with the deployment of normative concepts in present and future situations, and with an eye toward determining what agents ought to do in their workaday circumstances. Among these applications is business ethics, which is the philosophical study of the applied ethical dimensions of productive organizations and commercial activities.
This course will raise ethical questions both internal and external to business organizations as they arise in our globalized economy. We will consider various important ethical questions pertaining to competitive markets and corporate responsibility, economic justice and consumer rights, the use and protection of information, employee rights and corporate responsibilities, affirmative action, and environmental responsibility.
Notes:
- This course is cross-listed with BLAW400, and so satisfies that requirement for any student in the College of Business.
- This course can satisfy GE areas 3 UD / UD C or 4 UD / UD D
[Back up to current course descriptions]
PHIL403 SP26
Medical Ethics (PHIL403)
Melissa Ramirez
Section 01: Tuesdays & Thursdays · 9:30am–10:45am · LA5–355
Section 02: Mondays & Wednesdays · 12:30pm–1:45pm · LA5–246
Dr. Patrick Dieveney
Section 03: Asynchronous Online
In this course, we will be exploring a range of issues in contemporary biomedical ethics. Topics discussed in the course include ethical issues concerning the professional-patient relationship, human and animal research, physician-assisted suicide, abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, and social justice and health-care policy. The primary goal in the course is to introduce students to various ethical issues in the biomedical sciences and equip them with the analytical tools necessary to appreciate the various positions and arguments. In the process, students will also gain an understanding of historically prominent theories in normative ethics, such as virtue ethics, Kantian ethics, and utilitarianism. The course should prove beneficial to those for whom this may be their only philosophy course (no prior background in philosophy is required), and it will provide a good background for those who might wish to pursue further studies in philosophy.
GE/GR areas: 3 UD / UD C (humanities) and GWAR WI (writing)
[Back up to current course descriptions]
PHIL413/513 SP26
PHIL413/513: Continental Rationalism
Dr. Lawrence Nolan
Mondays & Wednesdays · 3:30pm–4:45pm · LA5–149
Descartes, Malebranche, Spinoza, and Leibniz were among the most systematic philosophers who ever lived. They thought on a grand scale, and tried to develop philosophical systems that would provide solutions to every conceivable philosophical problem. They are known to us today primarily for their epistemologies, especially for their shared view that reason is the primary source of knowledge and that senses are deceptive and unreliable. For this, they are known as ‘rationalists’. But equally important for understanding their work, and the relation between them, are their respective metaphysics. This course will examine both aspects of their work.
We shall begin by examining Descartes’ famous attempt to attain ‘perfect knowledge’, to defeat skepticism, and to ground the new mechanistic science. We will then turn to some fundamental issues in his ontology, including his account of the nature of God, human and divine freedom, and the status of universals.
Although his work is less well known than the other two, Malebranche is an important transitional figure. On one hand, he accepted many of the basic Cartesian doctrines—most notably that a human being is a union of two radically distinct substances (mind, body). On the other hand, he anticipated many of the doctrines that Leibniz later developed with greater precision and sophistication, e.g., the view that this is only one of an infinite number of possible worlds that God could have created. Malebranche and Leibniz were also very concerned with theodicy, i.e., with the effort to reconcile the presence of evil in the world with the existence of a supremely perfect creator.
Malebranche and Leibniz both offered fascinating critiques of Descartes’ philosophy on different fronts, and this will be among the emphases in this course. As a Cartesian himself, Malebranche offered the most interesting and important ‘insider’ criticisms of Descartes’ theory of the mind and self-knowledge, the method of doubt, the theory of innate ideas, and human and divine freedom. Leibniz developed some of Malebranche’s criticisms and then offered one of the most original critiques of the Cartesian theory of individuation, showing that Descartes could not account for the identity and individuality of substances. As we shall see, many of Malebranche and Leibniz’s criticisms rest on very different conceptions of the nature of God and of creation from that of Descartes.
PHIL415/515 SP26
PHIL415/515: Marx
Dr. Max Rosenkrantz
Tuesdays & Thursdays · 2:00pm–3:15pm · LA5–246
This course will be devoted to a careful reading of substantial selections from Volume I of Capital, supplemented with selections from the 1844 Manuscripts, Grundrisse, and (time permitting) Volumes II and III of Capital as well as Theories of Surplus Value. In addition, we will read a number of works by later writers that illuminate the issues Marx discusses. We will cover the central issues in Marxist theory: the origins of capitalism, class, the labor theory of value, exploitation, ‘early’ versus ‘late Marx’, technology, formal and real subsumption, the accumulation of capital, class composition, the falling rate of profit and economic crisis.
Although this course is offered through the Department of Philosophy, no knowledge of (or even interest in) philosophy will be presupposed. We’ll just read some Marx!
[Back up to current course descriptions]
PHIL451 SP26
Liberty and Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in American Law (PHIL451)
Dr. Amanda Trefethen
Tuesdays · 7:00pm–9:45pm · LA5–246
GE/GR areas: C2/3B, UD C/3-UD, HD, I
This course will examine the nature of philosophical concepts, such as liberty, justice, and equality, against the backdrop of the treatment of marginalized groups in American law. Through the study of numerous legal cases and philosophical works, we will look at how the law has identified and distinguished different groups on the basis of race, ethnicity, and gender; how these distinctions have been justified and implemented under the law; and how it is the law has come to reject differential treatment on these bases. In the process, we will ask various questions relevant to contemporary moral problems such as: what is justice? Is race real? What is it for citizens to be equal under the law? When should differences matter? Do we have a duty to compensate for the wrongs of the past?
We will be reading philosophical texts by Mill, Zack, Rawls, Minow, Douglass, Okin, King Jr., MacKinnon, Matsuda, Appiah, and Nagel, among others. Students will also get an introduction on how to read and analyze U. S. Supreme Court cases.
[Back up to current course descriptions]
PHIL493/593 SP26
PHIL 493/593: Special Topics in Metaphysical Studies: Philosophy of Fiction
Dr. Nellie Wieland
Mondays & Wednesdays · 9:30am–10:45am · LA2–206
This special topics course is in the philosophy of fiction.Although we will refer to many works of fiction, literature, music, and other representational arts, the focus of this class will not be studying those works. Instead, it will be a class about the nature of fictions themselves.
Topics that might be included:
- The nature of literature and fiction. Are they valuable and why? These questions are about how fictions are defined, how it makes possible new work, whether fictional, literary, or artistic works ought to have value and if so what kind? We may also ask about the purpose of fictional, literary, or artistic works and what they can do for philosophy. And, whether fictional works written with immoral intentions can still be good.
- The nature of authors and works. Questions about authorship, being a creator of a work, and the nature of the work itself are more complicated than they first appear.
- How and why we participate in fictions. These questions are about why we feel feelings about fictions. The feeling of these feelings will lead us to the paradox of fiction which we will try and untangle. This will bear on our understanding of emotions, the imagination, and the nature of belief.
- How fictions are created or generated. Here we will try and figure out what they are so we can know when we’re saying something true about them. We’ll talk about how fictions are generated, and how they can span worlds, and why this might be relevant to our participation in fictions.
- The puzzle of imaginative resistance. This is about why we sometimes can’t imagine that seemingly simple claims are true in a fictional world.
- Theories of moralism and immoralism in aesthetics. This has to do with the evaluation of immoral elements in fictional works (as opposed to the immoral intentions of the author). We sometimes root for bad guys. This says something about our psychology, but in this class we look at what it says about the aesthetics of a work. Is a work aesthetically better or worse if it makes the audience sympathetic to immorality?
Readings that might be included:
Jorge Luis Borges, selected texts
Gregory Currie, The Nature of Fiction
David Hume, ‘On Tragedy”
David Hume, ‘Of the Standard of Taste”
David Lewis, ‘Truth in Fiction”
Derek Matravers, Fiction and Narrative
Kendall Walton, Mimesis as Make Believe
Noel Carroll, The Philosophy of Horror
Tamar Gendler, ‘Alief and belief’
Tamar Gendler, ‘The puzzle of imaginative resistance’
Richard Moran, ‘The expression of feeling in the imagination’
Colin Radford, ‘How can we be moved by the fate of Anna Karenina?”
David Suits, ‘Really believing in fiction’
Kendall Walton, ‘Fearing fictions’
Noel Carroll, ‘Art and ethical criticism’
Noel Carroll, ‘Moderate moralism
Justin D’Arms & Daniel Jacobson, ‘The moralistic fallacy’
Anne Eaton, ‘Robust immoralism’
Berys Gaut, Art, Emotion, and Ethics
Daniel Jacobson, ‘In praise of immoral art’
Matthew Kieran, ‘Art and morality’
[Back up to current course descriptions]
PHIL496/596 SP26
PHIL 496/596: Special Topics in Axiology
Topic: Meaning and Life
Dr. Marie Jayasekera
Mondays & Wednesdays · 2:00pm–3:15pm · LA5–149
This course will explore a range of questions related to meaning and life. How should we understand the term ‘meaning’ when applied to life? What is the difference between a happy life and a meaningful life? Is meaning in life just a matter of our attitudes towards life or the activities that make up our life? What is the relationship between God, work, achievement, morality, and time to life’s meaning?
Note: This course will not take up the perspective of a range of religious and philosophical traditions that provide answers to these questions. Instead, we’ll explore answers to these questions and others mainly using readings from contemporary analytic philosophy.
Students enrolling in this course should be willing to work through challenging texts, participate wholeheartedly in small group discussions and activities, and critically reflect on their own views related to meaning and life.