Philosophy Courses Offered 4/12/07
For a listing of current courses, click here. More detailed descriptions of undergraduate and graduate courses offered during a given semester or summer session are available by clicking on the links for those courses on the linked page.
NOTE: you may specify a different Session (Spring/Summer/Fall) on the linked page by clicking on the "Session" link and making your selection.
For Undergraduates Only
- 26:001 Problems of Moral Reasoning (3 s.h.)
Ethical thought, with emphasis on its implications for contemporary moral controversies. - 26:033 Philosophy and Human Nature (3 s.h.)
Human nature and its relation to society, knowledge, religion, science, and freedom; philosophical and historical examination of theories of the twentieth century. GE: historical perspectives. - 26:034 Philosophy and the Just Society (3 s.h.)
The nature of individuals and governments and the obligations they have to each other; philosophical and historical examination of theories from Plato through the 19th century. GE: historical perspectives. - 26:036 Principles of Reasoning (3 s.h.)
Elementary logic and its applications. GE: quantitative or formal reasoning. - 26:061 Introduction to Philosophy (3 s.h.)
Issues and arguments; topics may include rational belief, evidence, the self, causation, and the presuppositions of religion. GE: humanities.
For Undergraduates and Graduate Students
- 26:102 Introduction to Ethics (3 s.h.)
Analytical and historical introduction to ethical theories about issues such as the nature of goodness and the nature of right conduct. GE: humanities. - 26:103 Introduction to Symbolic Logic (3 s.h.)
Main ideas and techniques of formal deduction. - 26:104 Introduction to the Philosophy of Science (3 s.h.)
Fundamental issues in scientific method, inductive reasoning, explanation, the distinctive nature of science. - 26:111 Ancient Philosophy (3 s.h.)
Main trends and major figures, such as Plato and Aristotle. - 26:112 Medieval Philosophy (3 s.h.)
Main trends and major figures, such as Augustine and Aquinas. - 26:114 Seventeenth-Century Philosophy (3 s.h.)
Main trends, central arguments, major positions; Bacon and Descartes to Leibniz and Locke. - 26:115 Modern Philosophy (3 s.h.)
Main trends and major figures from Descartes to Kant. Closed to first-year students. - 26:116 Eighteenth-Century Philosophy (3 s.h.)
Main trends, central arguments, major positions; Berkeley to Kant. - 26:118 Twentieth-Century Philosophy (3 s.h.)
Main trends and major figures of twentieth-century philosophy. - 26:131 Aesthetics (3 s.h.)
Major problems in philosophy of the arts. - 26:132 Introduction to Political Philosophy (3 s.h.)
Major problems in political philosophy. - 26:133 Philosophy of History (3 s.h.)
Major problems: objectivity, historiographic methods and theory of interpretation, nature of historical explanations, reduction. - 26:134 Philosophy of Religion (3 s.h.)
Medieval to contemporary treatments of central issues: the nature of faith; the existence and nature of God; religion and ethics; the interpretation of religious texts. Same as 32:146. - 26:135 Philosophy of Law (3 s.h.)
Introduction; the nature of law, legal authority, legal reasoning; issues in criminal law, such as punishment, responsibility; issues in property law; constitutional law. Prerequisite:026:034 or 026:102 or 026:132 or consent of instructor. - 26:138 Philosophical Problems of Artificial Intelligence (3 s.h.)
Major issues and controversies. - 26:141 Existentialist Philosophy (3 s.h.)
Main ideas of existentialism; emphasis on Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre. - 26:143 Philosophy East and West (3 s.h.)
Comparative analysis of ideas in Eastern and Western philosophy. Repeatable: may be taken two times. - 26:144 Indian Philosophy (3 s.h.)
Main ideas and major texts. Same as 032:174. - 26:145 Buddhist Philosophy (3 s.h.)
Introduction to the main ideas of Buddhist philosophy. Same as 032:175. - 26:147 Philosophical Issues (3 s.h.)
A philosophical topic or controversy. Repeatable: may be taken three times. - 26:148 Readings in Philosophy (arr.)
For honors students. Repeatable: may be taken three times. - 26:149 Undergraduate Seminar in Philosophy (3 s.h.)
Intensive small-group discussion of selected philosophical problems. Repeatable: may be taken three times. Consent of instructor required. - 26:150 Topics in Indian Philosophy (3 s.h.)
A single Indian philosopher or philosophical problem. Repeatable: may be taken three times. Consent of instructor required. - 26:151 Topics in Ancient Philosophy (3 s.h.)
A single ancient philosopher or philosophical problem. Consent of instructor required. - 26:152 Plato (3 s.h.)
Analysis of main ideas and major texts. Consent of instructor required. - 26:153 Aristotle (3 s.h.)
Analysis of main ideas and major texts. Consent of instructor required. - 26:158 Descartes (3 s.h.)
Major works such as the Discourse on Method, as well as lesser known works such as The World. Consent of instructor required. - 26:160 Spinoza and Leibniz (3 s.h.)
Analysis of main ideas and major texts. Consent of instructor required. - 26:163 Berkeley and Hume (3 s.h.) Comparative and critical examination of metaphysical and epistemological views of 18th-century empiricists George Berkeley and David Hume; theory of ideas, perception, skepticism, limits of knowledge, scientific and philosophical method, role of God in Berkeley's and Hume's philosophical systems.
- 26:166 Kant (3 s.h.)
Analysis of main ideas and major texts of Kant's metaphysics and epistemology. Consent of instructor required. - 26:173 Heidegger (3 s.h.) Critical examination of main ideas and major texts of Heidegger's, including texts from both Heidegger's early and later periods, but with particular attention to Being and Time, and a focus on his analyses of Being and Being-in-the-world. Consent of instructor required.
- 26:174 Sartre (3 s.h.)
Phenomenological and existentialist works. Consent of instructor required. - 26:176 Frege and Russell (3 s.h.)
Main ideas and major texts of the metaphysics and logic of Frege and Russell. Consent of instructor required. - 26:177 Wittgenstein (3 s.h.)
Main ideas, major texts. Consent of instructor required. - 026:179 Quine
Major ideas, major texts. Consent of instructor required. - 26:180 Analytic Ethics (3 s.h.)
Selected topics in contemporary ethics. Consent of instructor required. - 26:182 History of Ethics I (3 s.h.)
Ancient and medieval ethics, with emphasis on Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas. Consent of instructor required. - 26:183 History of Ethics II (3 s.h.)
Early modern and 19th-century ethics, emphasizing the British moralists, Kant, the classical utilitarians. Consent of instructor required. - 26:185 Political Philosophy (3 s.h.)
Selected topics in political philosophy. Consent of instructor required. - 26:186 Metaphysics (3 s.h.)
Fundamental topics; major works, both classical and contemporary. Consent of instructor required. - 26:187 Epistemology (3 s.h.)
Selected problems in contemporary theory of knowledge. Consent of instructor required. - 26:188 Philosophy of Mind (3 s.h.)
Selected contemporary topics. Consent of instructor required. - 26:189 Philosophy of Language (3 s.h.)
Selected contemporary topics. Consent of instructor required. Same as 103:163. - 26:191 Mathematical Logic (3 s.h.)
Presentation of central metatheorems relating to decidability, completeness, and model theory; second-order logic. Consent of instructor required. - 26:192 Modal Logic (3 s.h.)
Formal techniques of modal logic developed and applied to problems in linguistic analysis and modal semantics, with discussion of related philosophical issues. Consent of instructor required. - 26:194 Philosophy of Science (3 s.h.)
Discussion of central topics in philosophy of science — for example, scientific explanation, confirmation, and the meaning of scientific theories; survey of major twentieth-century developments in these areas. Consent of instructor required. - 26:196 Philosophy of the Human Sciences (3 s.h.)
Explanation and understanding, theories and reduction, values and ideology, freedom and causality. Consent of instructor required. - 26:198 Topics in Philosophy (3 s.h.)
Intensive study of a single philosopher or philosophical problem. Repeatable: see department for maximum times/s.h. Consent of instructor required.
For Graduate Students
All of the following courses are repeatable except 26:245 and 26:247.
- 26:220 Seminar: Philosophy of Language (3 s.h.)
- 26:221 Seminar: Metaphysics (3 s.h.)
- 26:222 Seminar: Epistemology (3 s.h.)
- 26:223 Seminar: Philosophical Analysis (3 s.h.)
- 26:224 Seminar: Philosophy of Science (3 s.h.)
- 26:225 Seminar: Philosophy of Religion (3 s.h.)
- 26:226 Seminar: Ethics (3 s.h.)
- 26:227 Seminar: Ancient Philosophy (3 s.h.)
- 26:228 Seminar: Medieval Philosophy (3 s.h.)
- 26:229 Seminar: Modern Philosophy (3 s.h.)
- 26:245 Research: Value Theory (arr.)
- 26:247 Research: Metaphysics and Epistemology (arr.)
- 26:249 Research: Logic and Philosophy of Science (arr.)
- 26:251 Research: History of Philosophy (arr.)
- 26:253 Thesis (arr.)
