Philosophy (PHI)

The role of morals as motivations and goals in our lives. General knowledge of what values are and how they influence us on individual and societal levels. Students will construct solutions to moral problems, for example, problems of justice.

Offered Fall, Spring, All terms

Critical examination of perennial philosophical issues such as the nature of philosophy, the existence of God, free will, truth. Both Western and non-Western perspectives are discussed. Gives student general understanding of his/her societal context. Essays as well as exams.

Offered Fall, Spring

Introduction to methods of critical thinking including the nature of arguments, formal and informal fallacies, deductive and inductive arguments. Provides student with critical skills in both academic and non-academic context. A-C-/NC grading.

Offered Fall, Spring, Summer, All terms

Prerequisite: ENG 110 is recommended. Explores philosophical approaches to the art of living. Readings will focus on ancient Greek and Roman philosophy as a way of life, along with a selection of religious and non-Western philosophies of the good life.

Offered Spring

Prerequisite: ENG 110 is recommended. The development of the idea of the Devil and related ideas such as sin, evil, temptation, and the nature of the human. Investigates the Devil in scripture, philosophy, literature, and film. Includes Jewish, Christian and Muslim sources.

Offered Fall, Spring

Offered Infrequent

Introduction to symbolic logic and its relation to everyday language. Students study deductive and inductive reasoning, the logical content and consistency of statements, truth-functional operations, analysis of arguments for validity and invalidity, logical fallacies, and elementary quantification theory.

Offered Spring

Prerequisite: 6 units in LD Philosophy or department consent. An introduction to philosophical methods, research and dialogue in order to improve students' skills at writing and analysis. Topics to be covered will address some central area or areas of philosophy and will vary from year to year.

Offered Fall, Spring

A critical study of the foundations of Western civilization as found in ancient Greek and Roman thought.

Offered Fall

Offered Spring even

Western thought as manifest through the evolution of the philosophical systems of Rationalism, Empiricism and Critical Philosophy.

Offered Spring

A study of nineteenth century European philosophy focusing on thinkers such as Hegel, Kierkegaard, Marx and Nietzsche.

Offered Fall

Study of contemporary American and European philosophical concepts, movements, or key figures. Specific topic indicated in class schedule. Repeatable for credit.

Offered Spring odd

Prerequisites: PHI 101 or PHI 102 is recommended. Examines key existential philosophers, such as Kierkengaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Marcel, Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Camus. Also explored are existentialist themes in the history of philosophy, literature, poetry, and film such as Dostoyevsky, Rilke, Bergman, Kurosawa, and Woody Allen.

Offered Fall odd

A critical inquiry into the groundwork of ethics by exploring such basic questions in ethics as the nature of good, the criteria for right action, the language of moral discourse, ontology and morality, and religion and ethics.

Offered Fall

A critical examination of our beliefs about the nature of beauty in the context of art, music, literature and film. Topics include artistic creativity, aesthetic experience, criticism and evaluation. Specific topic indicated in class schedule. Repeatable course.

Offered Spring even

Prerequisite: PHI 300 is highly recommended. Historical and contemporary theories on the scope and legitimacy of political authority: discussion of various contract theories of the state and of the relationships between rights of individuals and rights of states. Repeatable course.

Offered Fall odd

Inquiry into philosophical theories and methods that assess how humanity should relate to Earth, how we view ourselves ecologically, whether consumption practices are logical and moral. Topics include deep ecology, Eco-feminism, anthropocentric v. non-anthropocentric Ethics, animal rights and sustainability.

Offered Spring

Prerequisite: PHI 120 or equivalent. PHI 300 is highly recommended. This course will approach the question of mind from disciplines in humanities, sciences, and social sciences. Several standpoints such as: classical philosophy, cognitive science, neurology, computer science and artificial intelligence, cognitive ethology, and evolutional linguistics will be discussed.

Offered Infrequent

Introduction to psychological, medical, cultural, and ethical aspects of death and dying. A cross-cultural approach to perceptions of death and dying, how and why they have changed over time, how various authors, poets, and artists represent death and dying.

Offered Fall, Spring

Explores the nature of myth, its relationship to ritual, dream, and folktale, and its manifestations in literature and the individual. Although the course will have a primary literary focus, it will draw on the disciplines of philosophy, religious studies, anthropology, and psychology.

Offered Fall, Spring

Investigation of the spirit of revolt in the historical period of the Spanish Conquest; the American, French, Haitian, Russian and Algerian revolutions; Black Power and Zapatista: through history, philosophy and the arts.

Offered Fall, Spring

A critical examination of the relation between knowledge and reality, with a particular interest in the role of language. Readings include a variety of historical and contemporary perspectives, such ans analytic philosophy, pragmatism, and phenomenology.

Offered Spring even

Prerequisite: PHI 300 is highly recommended. A critical study of African and afrocentric philosophies, including Bantu, Akan, and Yoruba traditions. African American philosophers such as Alain Locke and other third world African peoples are also covered in depth. Topics include personhood, time, causality, value theory, black aesthetics, and black feminist epistemologies.

Offered Spring

Prerequisite: PHI 300 is recommended A critical study of traditional religious experience and expression among peoples of the African continent including the Akan, Yoruba and Ibo as well as manifestations of Christianity and Islam as expressed both in Africa and in the Americas .

Offered Fall

Prerequisite: PHI 300. A critical, comprehensive study of the nature and value of religion. Includes such issues as the relationship between Religion, Philosophy, Theology, and Science; the existence of a deity, revelation(s), faith, the problem of evil, scriptural myths, and religious experience and language.

Offered Spring

Prerequisite: PHI 300 is highly recommended. Philosophical inquiry into basic moral problems relevant today such as morality versus non-morality, human responsibility, individual versus societal values, morality versus legality, ethnic identity versus social conformity, abortion versus right to life, and the euthanasia decision. Repeatable for Credit.

Offered Fall

Prerequisite: PHI 300 is highly recommended. A study of the relationship of the various religious perspectives of the world, their rituals, their influence on society and their philosophical implications.

Offered Fall

The evolution and meaning of various non- Western traditions will be discussed. Selected topics will include Hinduism, Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, Shintoism, Confucianism. Emphasis on significance in India, China and Japan . Repeatable course.

Offered Spring

Prerequisite: PHI 300 is highly recommended. The Bible in light of modern scholarship; principles and methods of its interpretation. Emphasis is given to the Pentateuch, the Gospels, and other key portions for their philosophical and theological views.

Offered Fall odd

Prerequisite: PHI 383 is recommended. A critical examination of fundamentalist movements in various religious traditions. Explores the intrinsic relationship among four key variables: religion, secularization, fundamentalism, and the consequences of religious fundamentalization. Finally, we will ask whether fundamentalist principles legitimate new forms of religious violence.

Offered Fall odd

Prerequisite: PHI 300. A critical analysis and interpretation of a major philosophical or religious system or issue in respect to its presuppositions, task, method, problems and solutions. Repeatable course. Course is writing intensive. Three hours of seminar per week.

Offered Spring

Prerequisite: PHI 300 is highly recommended. Study of a particular philosophical or religious problem, individually or as a team or group, under the direction of a faculty member. Only three units may be used for Philosophy major and minor requirements.

Offered Fall, Spring

Prerequisite: PHI 300 is highly recommended. An intensive study of a concept, movement or individual in Philosophy. Intended for students with senior standing and having fulfilled major requirements. Specific topic listed in class schedule. Repeatable course. Three hours of seminar per week.

Offered Infrequent

Prerequisite: PHI 383 is recommended. A critical examination of fundamentalist movements in various religious traditions. Explores the intrinsic relationship among four key variables: religion, secularization, fundamentalism, and the consequences of religious fundamentalization. Finally, we will ask whether fundamentalist principles legitimate new forms of religious violence.

Offered Fall odd

Prerequisite: PHI 300 is highly recommended. An intensive study of a concept, movement or individual in Philosophy. Intended for students with senior or graduate standing. Specific topic listed in class schedule. Repeatable course. Three hours of seminar per week.

Offered Infrequent