Philosophy (PHIL)

PHIL 501  - British Empiricism  (3 Credits)  
A historical and critical survey of the British philosophers of experience. Principal concentration is on Locke, Berkeley, and Hume.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 304.
PHIL 502  - Continental Rationalism  (3 Credits)  
A critical and historical study of the 17th-century European philosophers. The works of Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz are emphasized.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 304.
PHIL 503  - Analytic Philosophy  (3 Credits)  
A critical study of recent and contemporary works in philosophical analysis, and an evaluation of the purposes, methods, and results of this movement.
Prerequisites: C or better on 3 hours in philosophy beyond the 100 level.
PHIL 504  - Phenomenology and Existentialism  (3 Credits)  
A critical study of some fundamental themes in phenomenology and the philosophy of existence. Emphasis is placed on an intensive study of selected works of such writers as Kierkegaard, Jaspers, Husserl, and Heidegger.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 304 or PHIL 305.
PHIL 505  - Plato  (3 Credits)  
An intensive study of selected Dialogues by Plato.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 301.
PHIL 506  - Aristotle  (3 Credits)  
An intensive study of some of the more important of Aristotle's works.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 301.
PHIL 507  - Medieval Philosophy  (3 Credits)  
A historical and critical study of the works of the leading medieval philosophers.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 303.
PHIL 508  - Hume  (3 Credits)  
An intensive study of the philosophical writings of Hume, especially A Treatise of Human Nature.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 304.
PHIL 509  - Kant  (3 Credits)  
An intensive study of the work of Kant, especially the Critique of Pure Reason.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 304.
PHIL 510  - Theory of Knowledge  (3 Credits)  
An examination of some representative theories of truth, meaning, probability, and perception.
Prerequisites: C or better in 3 hours in philosophy beyond the 100 level.
PHIL 511  - Symbolic Logic  (3 Credits)  
A presentation and philosophical examination of the fundamentals of modern symbolic logic.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 115.
PHIL 512  - Philosophy of Science  (3 Credits)  
A critical examination of methods and concepts of the sciences. Topics include scientific revolutions, the unity of science, experimentation, explanation, and evidence.
Prerequisites: C or better in 3 hours in philosophy beyond the 100 level.
PHIL 513  - Philosophy of History  (3 Credits)  
A philosophical examination of historical inquiry. Theories of historical development. The logical problems of historical explanation.
Prerequisites: C or better in 3 hours in philosophy beyond the 100 level.
PHIL 514  - Ethical Theory  (3 Credits)  
Survey of recent and historical developments in ethical theory with special emphasis on the meaning of ethical language and the forms of reasoning employed in discussing moral values.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 320.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
PHIL 515  - Philosophy of Religion  (3 Credits)  
A critical study of selected problems in the philosophy of religion. Emphasis is placed on problems relating to the existence of God, religious knowledge, and the language of religion.
Prerequisites: C or better in 3 hours in philosophy beyond the 100 level.
PHIL 516  - Advanced Aesthetics  (3 Credits)  
Detailed examination of the literature on aesthetics.
Prerequisites: C or better in 3 hours in philosophy beyond the 100 level.
PHIL 517  - Philosophy of Language  (3 Credits)  
An examination of concepts and problems such as meaning, reference, analyticity, definition, and the relation between logic and philosophy.
Prerequisites: C or higher in PHIL 114 or PHIL 511.
Cross-listed course: LING 565
PHIL 518  - Philosophy of the Social Sciences  (3 Credits)  
The goals of inquiry and problems such as objectivity, reduction, value freedom, and ideology.
Prerequisites: C or better in 3 hours in philosophy beyond the 100 level.
PHIL 519  - Metaphysics  (3 Credits)  
Major issues in classical and modern metaphysics. Topics include the idea of first philosophy, being, substance, the problem of universals, essentialism, causation, time and space, and metaphysical method.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 350 or PHIL 351 or PHIL 360.
PHIL 520  - Philosophy of Mind  (3 Credits)  
The concept of mind, the mind-body problem, emotions and cognition, the possibility of artificial minds, theories of embodied cognition.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 350 or PHIL 351 or PHIL 360.
PHIL 521  - Mathematical Logic  (3 Credits)  
Axiomatic development of logic and the set-theoretic foundations of mathematics.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 511.
PHIL 522  - Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics  (3 Credits)  
Introduction to the study of linguistic meaning, including the following topics: meaning, reference, and truth; the connections among language, thought, and reality; word meaning and sentence meaning; possible worlds and modality; thematic roles; meaning and context; presupposition and implicature; speech acts; formal semantics; and cognitive semantics.
Prerequisites: C or better in any of LING 300, LING 301, LING 600, PHIL 114, PHIL 511.
Cross-listed course: LING 627
PHIL 523  - Advanced Topics in Logic  (3 Credits)  
Philosophical problems about logic, the development of philosophical logics, and the problems surrounding them.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 511.
PHIL 524  - Philosophy of Biology  (3 Credits)  
Examination of major conceptual, theoretical, and methodological issues in biological science. Topics include reductionism, units of selection, adaptationism, relations between evolutionary and developmental biology and between biology and society.
Prerequisites: C or better in 3 hours of Philosophy beyond the 100 level.
PHIL 526  - Hellenistic Philosophy  (3 Credits)  
Survey of the major schools and trends in Hellenistic philosophy: Epicureans, Stoics, Academic Skeptics. Topics include eudaimonism, hedonism, monism, teleology, and the criterion of truth.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 301 or PHIL 302.
PHIL 527  - Virtues, Acts, and Consequences  (3 Credits)  
Recent contributions to three central strands of ethical theory: virtue theory, deontology, and utilitarianism; historical roots and recent developments.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 320.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
PHIL 528  - Concepts of Evidence  (3 Credits)  
Systematic approaches to data analysis--Bayesian, Fisherian and decision theoretic--will be critically appraised. Applications of these theories to some problems of inductive logic: the paradoxes of confirmation, the role of simplicity, and the probability of inductive generalizations.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 350 or PHIL 351 or PHIL 360.
PHIL 531  - Jurisprudence  (3 Credits)  
An examination of a number of philosophical problems about the law: the nature and function of rules, the difference between legal rules and other rules, the nature of reasoning from legal rules, the concept of a legal system, and the relation of law and morals.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 320 or PHIL 330.
PHIL 532  - Social Justice  (3 Credits)  
Recent theories of distributive justice and their application to such issues as redistribution of wealth, reverse discrimination, and the conflict between liberty and equality. Authors include Rawls, Nozick, Hayek, and Popper.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 320 or PHIL 321 or PHIL 322 or PHIL 330 or PHIL 331.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Community Service, GLD: Diversity and Social Advocacy, GLD: Global Learning
PHIL 534  - Contemporary European Social Philosophy  (3 Credits)  
An examination of European social philosophy associated with either the Frankfurt School of Social Research or contemporary French Poststructuralism.
Prerequisites: C or better in 3 hours in philosophy beyond the 100 level.
PHIL 535  - Ecofeminism  (3 Credits)  
An exploration of the connections between oppression of women and oppression of nature.
Prerequisites: 3 hours in philosophy beyond the 100 level.
Cross-listed course: WGST 535
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Diversity and Social Advocacy, GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
PHIL 536  - Language and Interpretation in Contemporary European Philosophy  (3 Credits)  
Selected contemporary European philosophical movements, their views on language, and their approach to interpretation: hermeneutics, structuralism, poststructuralism.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 114.
PHIL 540  - Renaissance Philosophy  (3 Credits)  
Humanism (e.g., Petrarca), Platonism (e.g., Pico and Ficino), Aristotelianism (e.g., Pomponazzi), philosophies of nature (e.g., Telesio, Campanella, and Bruno), and Nicholas of Cusa, Erasmus, Montaigne, and Suarez.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 301 or PHIL 302 or PHIL 303.
PHIL 550  - Health Care Ethics  (3 Credits)  
An exploration of the ethical dimensions of patient care in the clinical setting.
Prerequisites: C or better in PHIL 320 or PHIL 321 or PHIL 322 or PHIL 330 or PHIL 331.
PHIL 560  - Advanced Special Topics in Philosophy  (3 Credits)  
Advanced special topics in Philosophy. May be repeated as content varies by title.
PHIL 598  - Readings in Philosophy  (3 Credits)  
Prerequisite: 6 hours in philosophy beyond the 100 level.
PHIL 701  - Studies in Ancient Philosophy  (3 Credits)  
PHIL 705  - Studies in 17th- and 18th-Century Philosophy  (3 Credits)  
PHIL 706  - Studies in Continental Philosophy  (3 Credits)  
Study of the works of one or more major contemporary continental philosophers.
PHIL 707  - Studies in 19th-Century Philosophy  (3 Credits)  
PHIL 709  - Studies in 20th-Century Philosophy  (3 Credits)  
PHIL 710  - Ethics and the Health Sciences  (1-4 Credits)  
Students are introduced to formal and informal codes of professional conduct of various health science disciplines and understand the implications of these distinctions for interdisciplinary research, clinical practice, and administration.
PHIL 711  - Studies in Ethics  (3 Credits)  
PHIL 712  - Studies in Theory of Knowledge  (3 Credits)  
PHIL 714  - Philosophy of Science  (3 Credits)  
PHIL 715  - Ethics in Criminal Justice  (3 Credits)  
Classic and contemporary theories of ethics and their applications to criminal justice decision-making.
Cross-listed course: CRJU 714
PHIL 716  - Philosophy of Mind  (3 Credits)  
Topics and problems arising in the philosophy of mind.
PHIL 717  - Pragmatic Theory  (3 Credits)  
Study of formal approaches to pragmatic phenomena such as focus, presupposition, and implicature; examination of deictic, contextual and perspectival expressions; survey of pragmatic frameworks such as Relevance Theory and Discourse Representation Theory; study of information structural properties of natural languages, including topic- comment structure, given-new contrasts, definiteness versus indefiniteness.
Prerequisites: LING 600 or LING 627.
Cross-listed course: LING 729
PHIL 718  - Studies in Philosophy of Language  (3 Credits)  
Examination of concepts such as meaning, reference, analyticity, and translational indeterminacy; evaluation of accounts of speech acts, the semantics of propositional attitudes, and metaphor and other pragmatic phenomena.
Cross-listed course: LING 765
PHIL 719  - Semantic Theory  (3 Credits)  
The formal study of linguistic meaning, including the following topics: Fregean truth-conditional semantics; lexical decomposition; predication and modification; lambda abstraction; generalized quantification; intentional and extensional contexts; tense, aspect, and modality; propositional attitudes; and indexicality.
Prerequisites: LING 600 or LING 627.
Cross-listed course: LING 728
PHIL 720  - Studies in Philosophy of Religion  (3 Credits)  
PHIL 721  - Pragmatism  (3 Credits)  
PHIL 723  - Hegel  (3 Credits)  
PHIL 724  - Speculative Metaphysics  (3 Credits)  
PHIL 735  - Contemporary Political Philosophy  (3 Credits)  
Recent work in philosophy regarding political and social values, principles of justice, political quthority, institutions, and related subjects.
PHIL 760  - Special Topics in Philosophy  (3 Credits)  
PHIL 763  - Epistemology  (3 Credits)  
Survey of historical and recent trends in epistemology.
PHIL 764  - Metaphysics  (3 Credits)  
Survey of historical and recent trends in metaphysics.
PHIL 767  - Case Study in the Philosophy of Science  (3 Credits)  
Introduction to the method of studying historical cases in the philosophy of science. This course revolves around the sustained treatment of one or two such cases.
PHIL 790  - Teaching Philosophy  (3 Credits)  
Materials, techniques, and problems of teaching philosophy. Repeatable for credit.
PHIL 797  - Independent Study  (3 Credits)  
Requires permission of instructor.
PHIL 798  - Research Seminar  (1 Credit)  
Student and faculty presentations of current research in specified subject areas. Content varies. May be repeated for credit.
PHIL 799  - Thesis Preparation  (1-9 Credits)  
CL: 2020.
PHIL 835  - Seminar in Environmental Ethics  (3 Credits)  
Examination of the intellectual, cultural, and ethical frameworks within which environmental problems arise and are solved.
Cross-listed course: ENVR 835
PHIL 847  - Modern Philosophies of Education  (3 Credits)  
Critical comparison of present-day schools of thought in the nature, objectives, and functions of American education.
Prerequisites: EDFI 744 or equivalent.
Cross-listed course: EDFI 847
PHIL 899  - Dissertation Preparation  (1-12 Credits)