Course Descriptions
Course Descriptions
PHIL 160
Philosophy of Human Nature
3 Semester Hours
An introductory exploration of central questions and interpretations of human existence, carried on in light of the Catholic intellectual tradition. Satisfies core requirement in all Colleges and Schools.
PHIL 201
Symbolic Logic
3 Semester Hours
An introduction to the techniques of modern mathematical logic, including proofs relying on the logic of truth-functions and quantifiers and their application to arguments in English. No mathematical training presupposed. Required for Philosophy majors.
PHIL 220
Critical Thinking
3 Semester Hours
An introduction to the methods and principles of sound reasoning, with special attention to the analysis of deductive and inductive arguments, informal fallacies, and the nature and purpose of definition. Satisfies core requirement.
PHIL 254
Philosophy in Film
3 Semester Hours
An investigation of the philosophical use of the film medium and an examination of particular philosophical ideas portrayed in films.
PHIL 296
Philosophy Proseminar
3 Semester Hours
An introduction to philosophic research and dialogue through the examination of a philosophic issue or thinker in a seminar setting.
Open to freshman and sophmore majors.
PHIL 298
Special Studies
1-3 Semester Hours
PHIL 299
Independent Studies
1-3 Semester Hours
I
. Morality, Law, and Politics
PHIL 320
Ethics
3 Semester Hours
A study of the questions which a person must ask in forming an intelligent philosophy of moral choice, carried on in the light of the Catholic intellectual tradition. Fulfills the upper-division Philosophy core requirement for all Colleges and Schools.
Junior standing required.
PHIL 321
Bioethics
3 Semester Hours
This course looks carefully at ethical issues that arise in the field of medicine, such as abortion, euthanasia, physican-assisted suicide, and the distribution of medical resources and care. Fulfills the upper-division Philosophy core requirement for all Colleges and Schools.
Junior standing required.
PHIL 322
Business Ethics
3 Semester Hours
This course considers ethical issues that arise in the field of business. Fulfills the upper-division Philosophy core requirement for all Colleges and Schools.
Junior standing required.
PHIL 324
Engineering Ethics
3 Semester Hours
This course looks at ethical questions that arise in the sciences, especially engineering, focusing on examples such as the Challenger disaster and the decisions that led up to it. Fulfills the upper-division Philosophy core requirement for all Colleges and Schools.
Junior standing required.
PHIL 326
Ethics of Love and Marriage
3 Semester Hours
This course focuses on the ethical dimensions of friendship, love, marriage, and commitment. Fulfills the upper-division Philosophy core requirement for all Colleges and Schools.
Junior standing required.
PHIL 327
Ethics and Education
3 Semester Hours
A look at the ethical and justice-related issues posed by the institutions of public and private education in modern democracies, with special focus on education in America. Fulfills the upper-division Philosophy core requirement for all Colleges and Schools.
Junior standing required.
PHIL 328
Media Ethics
3 Semester Hours
An exploration of the ethical challenges of professionals working in the media and communications industries, providing strategies for students to assess ethical dilemmas in business and creative decisions in film, television, popular music, news, public relations, and advertising professions. Fulfills the upper-division Philosophy core requirement for all Colleges and Schools.
Junior standing required.
PHIL 329
Topics in Applied Ethics
3 Semester Hours
An in-depth study of a contemporary ethical issue. Fulfills the upper-division Philosophy core requirement for all Colleges and Schools.
Junior standing required.
PHIL 330
Contemporary Moral Problems
3 Semester Hours
A study from the perspective of ethical theory of selected moral problems of contemporary interest and significance. Fulfills the upper-division Philosophy core requirement for all Colleges and Schools.
Junior standing required.
PHIL 331
Political Philosophy
3 Semester Hours
A philosophical analysis of the purposes and functions of the political state, including an analysis of the limits of political authority. Course content may vary from historical surveys (of, for example, Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Rousseau, Mill) to in-depth treatments of specific schools of political theory.
PHIL 332
Philosophy of Law
3 Semester Hours
A philosophical analysis of the rule of law and the operation of contemporary legal systems. Topics will include the nature of law and legal obligations, the relation between law and morality, and the criteria for ascribing both civil and criminal (legal) liability.
PHIL 333
Feminist Theory
3 Semester Hours
A survey of the political, epistemological, and metaphysical questions raised for philosophy as traditionally conceived by the claim that sex and/or gender should play a significant role in its self-understanding.
PHIL 334
Images of Women in Philosophy
3 Semester Hours
An exploration of the understanding of women and human nature in the various philosophical traditions.
II. Natural and Social Sciences
PHIL 341
Philosophy of Science
3 Semester Hours
A study of the nature of science, with special attention to the history of science, contemporary scientific developments, and scientific method.
PHIL 342
Philosophy of Biology
3 Semester Hours
A critical examination of central philosophical issues and controversies in the life sciences.
PHIL 343
Environmental Philosophy
3 Semester Hours
This course addresses fundamental issues associated with the human relationship to the natural world. Specific topics will vary from semester to semester.
III. Arts and Literature
PHIL 351
Philosophy and Culture
3 Semester Hours
A study of cultural forms as carriers of meaning and value. Topics may vary from year to year and could include analysis of cultural modes of expression, their interpretation and their origins, cultural pluralism, cultural relativism, and the notion of the transcultural.
PHIL 352
Philosophy and the Arts
3 Semester Hours
A study of the meaning of art and what it can tell us about human beings, the nature of artistic intuition, and the creative process.
PHIL 353
Philosophy and Literature
3 Semester Hours
An investigation of the philosophical use of literature and an examination of philosophical ideas portrayed in a variety of literary works, which may include plays, novels, autobiographies, and short stories.
PHIL 354
Aesthetics in the Catholic Tradition
3 Semester Hours
A survey of aesthetic theories from the Catholic tradition, their application to religious and non-religious works of art, and a consideration of the role of the arts and imagination in Catholic intellectual life and spirituality.
IV. Religion and Theology
PHIL 361
Philosophy of God
3 Semester Hours
The focus of this course is on the debate regarding concepts of God and the arguments for and against God’s existence. It will examine the contributions of both classical and contemporary schools of thought to the debate.
PHIL 362
Philosophy and Christianity
3 Semester Hours
An exploration of central philosophical issues that arise in Christian life—understood as pilgrimage. What is happiness? How does one integrate the immanent and the transcendent? How does Christian praxis relate to the political sphere?
PHIL 363
Personalism
3 Semester Hours
An exploration of the nature of personhood and its implications for building a just society. Major personalist thinkers and critics—including Maritain, Mounier, Wojtyla, Weil, and Bellah—may provide a context for analysis.
PHIL 364
Indian Philosophy
3 Semester Hours
An introduction to Indian philosophy through a study of classic texts and contemporary philosophical developments.
PHIL 365
Chinese Philosophy
3 Semester Hours
An introduction to Chinese philosophy, its subject matter, and methodologies, with special attention to the six philosophical schools and some fundamental philosophical concepts and persistent issues that arise in the development of the Chinese philosophical tradition.
PHIL 366
Philosophy of Religion
3 Semester Hours
A philosophical investigation of the issues surrounding religion and religious beliefs. Possible topics will include: religious language, problem of evil, immortality, theism, and atheism.
PHIL 368
Chinese Ethics and Asian Values
3 Semester Hours
This course explores four schools of thought in ancient China—Confucianism, Taoism, Moism, and Legalism—focusing on each school’s texts, important characteristics, influences, ethical ideas, and their impacts on contemporary Chinese ethical thought.
Offered in Beijing.
V. History of Philosophy
PHIL 381
Ancient Philosophy
3 Semester Hours
A study of pre-Socratic thought, Plato, and Aristotle. Part of the history sequence for majors.
PHIL 382
Philosophy in Late Antiquity
3 Semester Hours
A study of major philosophical currents after Aristotle, including Neo-Platonism, Stoicism, and early Christian reactions to Greek philosophy.
PHIL 383
Medieval Philosophy
3 Semester Hours
A study of the major philosophical movements from Augustine to Ockham. Part of the history sequence for majors.
PHIL 385
Modern Philosophy I
3 Semester Hours
A study of 17th-century Rationalism and 18th-century Empiricism, including Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. Part of the history sequence for majors.
PHIL 387
Modern Philosophy II
3 Semester Hours
A study of Kant and post-Kantian developments, including 19th-century German idealism. Part of the history sequence for majors.
PHIL 398
Special Studies
1-3 Semester Hours
PHIL 399
Independent Studies
1-3 Semester Hours
VI. Contemporary Movements
PHIL 421
American Pragmatism
3 Semester Hours
A study of 19th and 20th century pragmatism, including the philosophies of Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, and John Dewey.
PHIL 422
The Analytic Tradition
3 Semester Hours
An examination of some of the most influential philosophers whose work constitutes the Anglo-American tradition of the 20th century, including Frege, Russell, G.E. Moore, Wittgenstein, the Logical Positivists, the Ordinary Language Philosophers, and several contemporary post-analytic philosophers.
PHIL 423
Phenomenology
3 Semester Hours
An introduction to phenomenological method through the close study of the works of Husserl and later phenomenologists.
PHIL 424
Existentialism
3 Semester Hours
A study of 20th-century European existential philosophy and its 19th-century forerunners.
PHIL 426
Postmodernism
3 Semester Hours
A study of strategies in Western philosophy from Meister Eckhart and Nicolaus Cusanus to Spinoza/Nietzsche/Scheler, Fichte/Peirce/Mead, Wittgenstein/Heidegger/Gadamer, and Derrida/Foucault.
PHIL 427
Chinese Contemporary Philosophy
3 Semester Hours
An exploration of contemporary Chinese thought, focusing on its relationship to historically important philosophies such as Confucianism and Marxism, as well as to contemporary political, ecological, and religious influences.
Offered in Beijing.
PHIL 428
Spanish Philosophy
3 Semester Hours
An exploration of Spanish (Iberian) philosophical figures and themes, including one or more of the following thinkers: Seneca, Averroës, Maimonides, Llull, Ibn Al’Arabi, Vives, St. Teresa of Jesus, St. John of the Cross, Suárez, Unamuno, Ortega y Gasset, Zubiri, Mora, Marías, and/or Trías.
PHIL 430
Hermeneutics
3 Semester Hours
This course will study philosophical accounts of interpretation and the role it plays in understanding. The course may approach the field through emphasis on a particular figure (e.g., Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, or Paul Ricoeur) or through a particular theme or topic (e.g., narrative identity, religion, or politics)
VII. Major Thinkers
PHIL 451
Major Thinkers
3 Semester Hours
Concentrated study of a single, major philosopher. Repeatable for degree credit.
VIII. Mind and Reality
PHIL 461
Epistemology
3 Semester Hours
An introduction to the principal problems of epistemology as they appear in both classical and contemporary theories.
PHIL 463
Metaphysics
3 Semester Hours
An introduction to classical and contemporary metaphysics, the general theory of being.
Topics often include analogy, essence and existence, matter and form, potency and act, causality, and the transcendentals.
PHIL 464
Philosophy of Mind
3 Semester Hours
An exploration of the nature of mind. Topics may vary and may include consciousness, experience, the self, the historical discovery of mind, and consideration of psychological theories of mental operations. Alternative theories will be critically examined.
PHIL 481
Special Topics
3 Semester Hours
A seminar course which aims to expose students to the current research and special philosophical interests of departmental faculty. Topics vary from semester to semester.
PHIL 494
Ethics Minor Assessment
0 Semester Hours
Assessment of student learning outcomes for the Ethics minor program. Includes completion of survey instruments, senior
exit interview, and other forms of program evaluation.
CR/NC grading only.
Senior Ethics minor program students only.
Prerequisites: All required courses for the Ethics minor program either already completed or currently in progress.
PHIL 495
Senior Assessment
0 Semester Hours
Assessment of student learning outcomes in the field of philosophy. Includes completion of survey instruments, senior exit interview, or other forms of end-of-program evaluation.
CR/NC grading only.
Senior Philosophy majors only.
Prerequisites: All required courses for the major in Philosophy completed or currently in progress.
PHIL 498
Special Studies
1-3 Semester Hours
PHIL 499
Independent Studies
1-3 Semester Hours
PHIL 500
Senior Project
3 Semester Hours
A research and writing project completed under the guidance and direction of a faculty supervisor.
Graduate Courses
PHIL 602
Plato
3 Semester Hours
An exploration of selected dialogues, informed by a study of the various interpretations of the dialogues from Aristotle to the present.
PHIL 604
Aristotle
3 Semester Hours
A close study of Aristotelian texts. Aristotle’s psychology, metaphysics, or ethics and politics may be emphasized in a given semester.
PHIL 606
Classics of Chinese Philosophy
3 Semester Hours
A study of the classic texts of the Confucian and Daoist traditions, including the Analects , Mencius , Doctrine of the Mean , The Great Learning , Daodejing , Zhuangzi , and The Art of War .
PHIL 608
Plotinus
3 Semester Hours
A study of a wide range of Plotinus’ works, aimed at articulating his understanding of the fundamental structures of reality, of thought, and of human life in relation to their transcendent source. The main emphasis will be on metaphysical and gnoseological themes, but the ethical, aesthetic, and spiritual dimensions of Plotinus’ thought will also be considered.
PHIL 609
Augustine
3 Semester Hours
A study of central philosophical topics in Augustine’s thought, focusing primarily but not exclusively on the earlier phases of his work. Issues to be thematized include truth, beauty, unity and number, interiority, divine illumination, eternity and time, and the problem of evil.
PHIL 610
Philosophy in Late Antiquity
3 Semester Hours
A study of major philosophical currents after Aristotle, which may include Neo-Platonism, Stoicism, and early Christian reactions to Greek philosophy.
PHIL 612
Practical Wisdom
3 Semester Hours
A study of Aristotle’s notion of phronesis as understood by medieval thinkers.
PHIL 614
Aquinas
3 Semester Hours
An exploration of major themes in the thought of the 13th-century Dominican Thomas Aquinas through seminal works such as the Summa Theologiae and the Summa Contra Gentiles.
PHIL 616
Divine and Human Willing
3 Semester Hours
A study of the nature and role of the will, both human and divine, in Duns Scotus and William of Ockham.
PHIL 618
Divine Foreknowledge and Human Free Will
3 Semester Hours
A study of medieval refl ection on the foreknowledge question from Augustine’s De ordine to Ockham’s Divine Foreknowledge and Human Freedom, including writings of Boethius, Anselm, Aquinas, and Scotus.
PHIL 624
Early Modern Philosophy
3 Semester Hours
A study of selected thinkers and themes in 17th and 18th century European philosophy, focusing on the major works of seminal philosophers such as Descartes, Spinoza, Malebranche, Pascal, Locke, Leibniz, Berkeley, and Hume. Topics may include reality, knowledge, perception, reason, causation, identity, substance, mind, and God.
PHIL 626
Pascal
3 Semester Hours
A close reading of the Pensées and selected shorter works with special attention to their relevance for contemporary debates in philosophy of religion over the nature of faith, the ethics of belief, and religious pluralism.
PHIL 630
Kant
3 Semester Hours
An in-depth study of selections from the three critiques and other writings, with attention to the relevent secondary literature.
PHIL 634
Hegel
3 Semester Hours
A close reading of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit with the aid of the major commentators.
PHIL 636
Kierkegaard
3 Semester Hours
A study of Kierkegaard’s philosophical psychology through an examination of his pseudonymous works, including Either/Or, Fear and Trembling , Repetition, The Concept of Anxiety, Concluding Unscientific Postscript, and The Sickness Unto Death.
PHIL 638
Heidegger
3 Semester Hours
A study of major themes in Heidegger’s philosophy, beginning with Being and Time and including other major texts from the later periods of his thought.
PHIL 640
Wittgenstein
3 Semester Hours
A close study of the Philosophical Investigations along with the Tractatus and On Certainty. Topics include the nature of mind, language, and the relation between language and the world in the philosophy of Wittgenstein.
PHIL 642
Hermeneutics
3 Semester Hours
A consideration of the philosophical questions raised by the interpretation of historically and culturally distant texts and artifacts. We will pay close attention to the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer, the most famous 20th century exponent of “philosophical hermeneutics.”
PHIL 644
Critical Theory
3 Semester Hours
A look at contemporary “critical theorists,” scholars who—inspired by Kant, Hegel, Marx, and Freud—share two apparently incompatible convictions: first, that philosophy must acknowledge the historical, economic, political, psychological and sociological factors that constrain and distort our thinking; and second, that this discipline of radical self-criticism can lead to insight, change, and growth.
PHIL 647
American Philosophy
3 Semester Hours
A study of issues and movements in American Philosophy, such as Transcendentalism, Pragmatism, and Neo-Pragmatism.
PHIL 648
Lonergan
3 Semester Hours
A study of Lonergan’s cognitional theory, epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics, in Insight and later works.
PHIL 654
Contemporary French Philosophy
3 Semester Hours
A study of twentieth-century fi gures in French philosophy. This seminar may be devoted to one or more of the following figures: Bergson, Marcel, Ricoeur, Levinas, Foucault, Derrida, and/ or Deleuze.
PHIL 656
Epistemology
3 Semester Hours
This course addresses the philosophical dimensions of the cognitive life. It explores questions about the nature and sources of knowledge—and even its very possibility. Such questions lead to further considerations about, for example, skepticism and the problem of epistemic regress; the foundationalism vs. coherentism and internalism vs. externalism debates; the classical debates between rationalism and empiricism and, too, realism and idealism. The course might also investigate fresh developments in virtue epistemology, social epistemology, and feminist epistemology.
PHIL 662
Metaphysics
3 Semester Hours
An exploration of the thesis that the personal self is the most dynamic dimension of reality, contrasting both classical metaphysics and phenomenological realism with a range of reductionist accounts of the person. Particular points of contact include economism, scientism, and individualism.
PHIL 664
Philosophy of Mind
3 Semester Hours
A examination of the nature of mind and its relation to the physical world. Topics might include consciousness, subjectivity, the self, personal identity, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, artifi cial intelligence, and cognitive ethology.
PHIL 666
Philosophy of Science
3 Semester Hours
A detailed philosophical examination of some aspect of natural science. Topics might include science and pseudoscience, scientific explanation, theoretic confirmation, laws of nature, scientific revolutions, scientific realism, and social constructivism.
PHIL 670
Social and Political Philosophy
3 Semester Hours
A study of the interrelation of the person and community, focusing on such questions as: Is the human person, at the deepest level, a whole rather than a part? How can we best evaluate contractarian, utilitarian, and natural law views of the common good? Does liberal individualism do justice to either the person or the common good?
PHIL 672
Virtue Ethics
3 Semester Hours
A study of contemporary reappropriations of Aristotle by such authors as MacIntyre, Anscombe, Veach, and Porter.
PHIL 678
Ethics
3 Semester Hours
A survey of major ethical theories including those of Aristotle, Kant, and Mill.
PHIL 682
Topics in Philosophy and Religion
3 Semester Hours
A study of selected topics in the philosophy of religion, such as God, faith and reason, including an examination of both historical and contemporary discussions of these topics.
PHIL 696
Teacher Orientation and Practicum
0 Semester Hours
PHIL 697
Comprehensive Examinations
0 Semester Hours
CR/NC grading.
PHIL 698
Special Studies
1-3 Semester Hours
PHIL 699
Independent Studies
1-3 Semester Hours
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