Lower-Division

Students cultivate their ability to distill and critically assess the barrage of argument and rhetoric with which they are confronted every day--on the Internet, in the media, on campus--and learn to subject their own thoughts to more rigorous, logical standards. (Formerly Logic, Numbers, and Emotion: Thinking Clearly in Everyday Life.)

A first course in symbolic deductive logic. Major topics include (but are not limited to) the study of systems of sentential logic and predicate logic, including formal deduction, semantics, and translation from natural to symbolic languages.

An introduction to the main areas of philosophy through critical reflection on and analysis of both classical and contemporary texts. Focuses on central and enduring problems in philosophy such as skepticism about the external world, the mind-body problem, and the nature of morality.

Explores the philosophy of film through the viewing and discussionof several philosophically interesting films. Examines both the aesthetics of film and a variety of philosophical issues that particular films raise.

Covers perspectives of Eastern philosophy; specifically, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. Includes views concerning the nature of ultimate reality, personal identity, morality, the afterlife, god(s), and the problem of evil.

Explores the concept of nihilism in the contemporary Western world and its relation to what might be considered a technological mindset in terms of a Nietzschean and Heideggerian interpretation. Students work through readings as well as relevant films because it may well be argued that contemporary cinema is a metaphorical mirror for our conception both of how the Western world is and how we imagine it should or might be.

Provides a clearer understanding of what technology is how it relates to knowledge and human life. Students read and discuss texts by Plato, Aristotle, Husserl, and Heidegger.

Examines the work of various high hop artists and philosophers. Topics may include authenticity, rebellion, identity, politics, and aesthetics, among others. Students develop understanding of relative philosophical themes and critically engage concerns through everyday experiences and art forms (such as hip hop).

Introduces students to controversial topics in analytic metaphysics. Possible topics include: universals, particulars, time, causality, persistence, modality, and realism.

A consideration of ethical issues and theories focusing on the foundation of moral value and the principles governing character and behavior. Designed to extend and develop the student's abilities in philosophical reasoning about ethics.

Explores the philosophical issues that arise in cognitive science, particularly issues concerning the nature of minds. Students consider the idea that the mind is a digital computer, then analyze alternatives, such as connectionism and dynamics.

An examination of the conceptual and moral issues that arise in connection with a variety of specific ethical issues. Topics vary according to the interests of the instructor, but among those commonly discussed are: abortion, war and violence, euthanasia, world hunger, human rights, and animal rights. The readings are typically drawn from recent philosophical articles on these topics, but earlier sources (important in the history of philosophy) can be considered as well.

A survey of recent movements in European thought, such as phenomenology, existentialism, hermeneutics, critical theory, continental feminism, and poststructuralism, with some attention to their 19th-century precursors. Selections from major philosophical treatises are supplemented with literary works.

Examination of the ethical issues that arise in connection with a variety of specific business contexts. Common topics include: advertising, environmental harm, employee-employer relationships, finance, capitalism, market failure, government regulation, work-life balance, and consumer rights.

This course is an introduction to the moral issues raised by our interactions with nonhuman animals and with the rest of the natural environment. The course will relate traditional moral theories to contemporary literature on the ethics of nature conservation and environmental protection. The course is intended as a first course in philosophy as well as a first course in ethics; therefore, questions concerning the nature of philosophical inquiry and the ways in which philosophical inquiry is different from inquiries conducted within other disciplines will also be addressed.

Non-Western philosophy (primarily Eastern but also indigenous and other non-Western sources) as a lens for understanding human behavior. Emphasis on relevance to contemporary life (including personal, social, and ecological problems and potentials), connections to empirical research, and application in (and illumination through) the arts. Methodologies based in contemplative science. (Formerly Buddhism and Daoism.)

What is the nature of love? Is marriage a means of social control? Does pornography empower or oppress women? How is gender constructed? This course provides a systematic investigation of the development of Western philosophical perspectives on gender and sexuality from Ancient Greece to the 21st century. Topics include love, marriage, sexual perversion, promiscuity and monogamy, pornography, feminism, and sexual morality. Aims to promote critical reflection with regard to the ethical, political,and social implications for contemporary society. (Formerly Philosophical Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality.)

Is there a general school of philosophy endemic to Latin America? Would it have to appeal to quintessential Western philosophical questions regarding knowledge, values, and reality? If not, why not, and would it then still count as philosophy? What difference do ethnic and national diversity, as well as strong political and social inequality, make to the development of philosophical questions and frameworks? Course explores a variety of historically situated Latin American thinkers who investigate ethnic identity, gender, and socio-political inequality and liberation, and historical memory, and who have also made important contributions to mainstream analytical and continental philosophy.

Inquiry into the science and philosophical background of approaches that fit under the rubric of Complementary, Alternative, and Integrative Medicine.

Provides a philosophical perspective concerning the revolution in the understanding of science that generated the so-called science wars. Introduces the changed philosophical understanding of science shared and presupposed in the fields of science, technology, and society. (Formerly Science and Society.)

A survey of what philosophers have said about the nature of science and scientific change. Emphasis is placed on whether science is best characterized as the gradual accumulation of truth or whether truth is irrelevant to scientific change.