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Winter 2013
Department of Philosophy
Course Offerings and Descriptions
ASEM 2436
CRN 4308 Life and Death
M/W 10-11:50 | Candace Upton
This course is a study of several ethical issues related to life and death. For example, what's so bad about terminating early-term pregnancies, given all our other practices that compromise the value of human life? If someone deserves to die, does it really follow that we should inflict death upon that person? Is there any morally relevant difference between bringing about death and allowing death? If we are going to benefit from the death of others, are we obligated to be closely involved in their death? The aim of the course is to enable students to identify logically or factually faulty routes that others have taken en route to answering these questions and, instead, identify more fruitful paths of ethical argumentation. To achieve this goal, we will study relevant findings from scholars in philosophy, both logical and ethical, legal studies, economics, psychology, and sociology.
ASEM 2692
CRN 3461 or 4309 Philosophy of Migration and Global Citizenship
T/TH 12-1:50 or 4-5:50 | Thomas Nail
Philosophy of Migration and Global Citizenship is designed to introduce students to major philosophical and political questions in migration, globalization, and citizenship studies: What is citizenship? Why are more people migrating in the 21st century than any other time in history? Why are the numbers of illegal migrants increasing? What is different about modern borders and how are they affected by globalization? Is global citizenship possible or desirable? What are the aims of migrant justice movements? This course will introduce students to the fields of citizenship studies, political theory, and globalization by reading and discussing a wide variety of writings on these topics from Aristotle to Giorgio Agamben. Students will understand how philosophers, legal scholars, political scientists, activists, and journalists have responded to the key political questions concerning migration, globalization, and citizenship.
ASEM 2698
CRN 3476 Justice and Legal Obligation
M/W 4-5:50 | Jeff Brown
This seminar will provide students with an introduction to the major theories of judicial decision-making and the basic philosophical problems involved in understanding the concept of how law binds citizens, especially judges, in a liberal democracy. This seminar focuses on how judges ought to decide cases in a liberal democracy. Should judges just apply the law or the original intent of the lawmakers? Should they decide disputes by appeals to non-legal sources, such as moral or economic principles? Are judges just really appealing to their own political preferences when deciding cases? Is that problematic?
PHIL 2007
CRN 4532 Philosophy and Video Games
T/Th 10-11:50 | Jere Surber
Anyone who has played a video game of the last two or three 'generations,' like Fallout, Grand Theft Auto, or Bioshock, has likely discovered that such games frequently pose readily identifiable philosophical questions. In fact, video games pose a number of distinctively philosophical issues at several levels: within their own narratives, as newly emergent interactive media that some believe are now approaching the threshold of being regarded as 'artworks,' and even as vehicles for reconsidering some more traditional philosophical issues from new perspectives. In this course, we'll consider and discuss both some of the more traditional philosophical issues that video games present as well as some of the novel and broader problems with which they confront us, such as questions regarding 'artificial intelligence,' the limits of digital computation, 'play' versus 'narrative,' and 'virtual reality.' This course will serve both as an introduction to philosophy as well as an exploration of some more recent themes in digital media studies; the philosophy of computing and information; and new developments in the philosophical fields of metaphysics, philosophy of mind, ethics, political thought, and aesthetics.
PREREQUISITES: None (this is an undergraduate course satisfying general education requirements)
FORMAT: In-class presentation by instructor, class discussion, assigned readings, and playing some video games on your own.
REQUIREMENTS: Regular attendance and about three or four (3-5 page) written assignments.
PHIL 2100
CRN 3193 Philosophy of Mind
M/W 10-11:50 | Marco Nathan
This course provides an introduction to the philosophy of mind and philosophical issues in psychology. Throughout the quarter, we shall present, an- alyze, and discuss a number of questions regarding the scientific and philosophical foundations of the mind. We begin by investigating the relation between mental prop- erties and physical properties, focusing on problems such as: What is the mind, and how does it relate to the brain? Can mental states affect neural states? In the sec- ond part of the course, we shall turn to questions regarding consciousness: What is a 'conscious' being? What is it to perceive an image, experience an emotion, or suffer a pain? Finally, we turn our attention to psychological explanations: what is the relation between psychology and so-called 'lower' sciences, such as neuroscience, biology, and physics. Can mental states be fully explained by looking at neural processes?
PHIL 2126
CRN 4475 Suicide, Philosophy, Community
T/Th 8-9:50 | Frank Seeburger
Since its beginnings among the ancient Greeks, philosophy has been complexly intertwined with reflection on suicide, as well as on the nature and nurture of community. In the first half of this course, we will first examine a classic ancient Greek philosophical text addressing suicide, then we will consider some 20th century philosophical reflections on that same topic, culminating in an impassioned defense--written and first published shortly before his own suicide by a philosophically trained writer who survived Auschwitz--of the individual's right to choose "voluntary death." Then, in the second half of the quarter we will turn to the issue of community, especially philosophical reflections on the possibility of establishing a genuinely universal community inclusive of all humans without exception. We will consider surprising ways in which thinking about universal community is affected by serious reflection on the issues of suicide we will have examined in the first part of the course. To aid and direct us, we will examine some challenging contemporary philosophical writings concerning just such a possibility of truly inclusive human community.
PHIL 2180
CRN 4311 Ethics
M/W 2-3:50 | Candace Upton
Human beliefs about morality are some of our most pervasive and firmly-held beliefs. Politicians, religious figures, lawyers, and other professional and private individuals hold tightly to their beliefs about which acts are right and wrong. For example, some people believe that interfering in others' lives by helping them is morally obligatory, but that interfering by telling of a spouse's infidelities is morally wrong. In this course, we still study what, if anything, justifies our moral beliefs. Is it even possible for my moral beliefs to be true or false? If there are any true moral beliefs, what makes them true? Given the complexity of moral issues, is there a way best to approach moral reasoning? Is the study of ethics all theoretical and, thus, pragmatically useless, or is there any knowledge that could actually make us better moral agents? Do we even possess the free will necessary for manifesting moral action?
PHIL 2700
CRN 4312 Biomedical Ethics
M/W 12-1:50 | Jeff Brown
A critical examination, in the light of contemporary moral disagreements and traditional normative ethical theories, of some of the moral issues arising out of medical practice and medical experimentation in our society. Issues that might be discussed include abortion, euthanasia, genetic engineering and human enhancement, organ transplants, disability, the allocation of medical resources, the rights of the patient, and whether there is a right to health care.
PHIL 3050
CRN 4313 Great Thinkers: Hume
T/Th 4-5:50 | Bill Anderson
David Hume (1711-1776) is regarded by many, if not most, philosophers since his time as the ultimate empiricist. His views on the nature and limits of human knowledge have had a profound impact on the direction epistemology has taken, beginning with Kant and continuing into the contemporary era – especially in the Anglo/American tradition. Logical Positivism is essentially Hume reworked to accommodate the advances made in formal logic and the philosophy of science. This course is a critical study of Hume's epistemology with a focus on the way his empiricist principles shape the character of his famous "refutations" of the ontological, cosmological, and teleological arguments for the existence of God. Emphasis will be placed on understanding and evaluating both the formal and informal aspects of his "refutations" and on the viability of the epistemological principles underlying them. Also, we will examine the enormous influence Hume had on Kant and, more recently, on the Logical Positivists of this century.
PREREQUISITE: 10 credit hours of philosophy or permission of the instructor.
PHIL 3101
CRN 4314 Great Thinkers: Kierkegaard
T/Th 12-1:50 | Frank Seeburger
A seminar in the thought of the great 19th century Danish thinker who is known as "the father of existentialism" and whose work continues to have deep impacts within philosophy, theology, and literature. An examination both of Kierkegaard's famous pseudonymous works, as well as the works he published under his own name in parallel with those he published under pseudonyms.
PHIL 3180
CRN 4315 Socratic Ethics
M/W 12-1:50 | Naomi Reshotko
In this class we are going to study the moral psychology that is found in Plato's early dialogues and that is often attributed to the historical Socrates. We will see how Socrates thinks that people are motivated and the consequences that this has for their relationship to things like good, virtue and happiness. Of particular interest are Socrates' views on what our desires are for and how we should evaluate the things we take ourselves to desire. We will also look carefully at Socrates' claim (much discussed by Plato and Aristotle) that no one errs willingly and that virtue is simply knowledge. There will be at least two tutorials (which are writing assignments) during the term and a final project.
PHIL 3466
CRN 4316 Contemporary Continental Philosophy
T/Th 2-3:50 | Jere Surber
In the wake of a generation or two (roughly, 'Poststructuralism') that largely regarded philosophy as either fatally suspect on ideological grounds, merely one group of literary texts among others, or as having reached an historical terminus, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, in 1991, published a work entitled What is Philosophy? that both represented a vigorous defense of philosophy, proposed a 'new image of thought,' and initiated a spirited discussion that continues today. This course will trace the path of this discussion through Alain Badiou's Manifesto for Philosophy, Quentin Meillassoux's After Finitude (which spawned the contemporary 'movement' sometimes referred to as 'Speculative Realism'), and François Laruelle's attempts to establish a new 'science of Non-Philosophy.' On the basis of this discussion, we will attempt to critically assess the current status of philosophy (at least within the 'Continental' tradition), its potential points of connection with contemporary 'analytic philosophy,' and its prospects for the 21st century.
PREREQUISITES: Graduate or advanced undergraduate standing (although exceptions may be made upon permission of the instructor)
FORMAT: This course will be conducted as a seminar, involving assigned readings, in-class presentations, and discussion.
REQUIREMENTS: Regular attendance and participation, together with written assignments tailored to the level and interests of individual students. (Normally, graduate students will be expected to submit the equivalent of about 20 pages of written work and an in-class presentation; undergraduate students about 12 pages of written work and presentations as appropriate.)
PHIL 3618
CRN 4317 Philosophy of Biology
M/W 4-5:50 | Marco Nathan
This course provides a survey of conceptual issues that lie at the intersection of biology and philosophy. The first part of the course is concerned with evolution: we shall examine some of the central concepts of evolutionary theory, such as natural selection (what it is and what it acts upon), fitness, adaptation, and function. The second part of the course focuses on the relation between biology and 'lower' sciences. We will discuss whether biology is 'reducible' to physics and chemistry, touching upon issues such as how explanation works in the biological sciences and whether there are genuine scientific laws in biology. The final section focuses on the relation between biology, the cognitive sciences, and ethics. Questions include the extent to which evolution can explain human behavior and other features of the human mind, and whether are there such things as 'human nature' and 'human races.'
PHIL 5400
CRN 4318 Joint Doctoral Colloquium: Cultural Theory
F 2-5:50 | Jere Surber
This colloquium is one of the requirements for Joint Doctoral Program students in the area of 'Religion, Philosophy, and Cultural Theory' (formerly 'TPCT'). It will survey and critically assess some of the major modern discourses of cultural critique including Hermeneutics, Materialist Critique, Psychoanalysis, Structuralism, the Frankfurt School, Poststructuralism, and Cultural Studies. Most of the major texts considered will be drawn from the JDP reading list for the comprehensive examination in Cultural Theory.
PREREQUISITES: Current enrollment as a doctoral student in the Joint Doctoral Program. (Rare exceptions may be made by arrangement with the instructor, though graduate standing will generally be required. This course is not appropriate for undergraduate students.)
FORMAT: Small group, seminar-type readings and discussion.
REQUIREMENTS: Every student will be expected to attend regularly, participate in weekly discussions, and take responsibility for leading the discussion of a particular critical discourse and set of associated texts.
The main secondary text will be Jere Paul Surber, Culture and Critique.
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