Skip to Content

Course Search Results

  • 3.00 Credits

    The course content may vary and will deal either with general issues in the philosophy of science such as explanation, laws and theories, realism/anti-realism; or it will focus on philosophical issues in such fields as physics, biology, and social science. Recommended Prerequisite: PHIL 3012, 3300, 3310, 3350, 3400, 3440, 3600, 3370, 4380.
  • 3.00 Credits

    This is a variable content course which covers various topics in the history of science, such as early modern science, or the development of physics, or the history of biology or genetics. The course aims to show how developments in science inform philosophical questions and how philosophy influences science. Recommended Prerequisite: PHIL 3013, 3810, 4110, 4120, 4130, or 4140.
  • 3.00 Credits

    This course introduces students to philosophical questions pertaining to the foundations of the biological sciences. It will introduce students to thinking critically about explanation, confirmation and prediction in the biological sciences, and it will increase the insight, for biology majors, into foundational and conceptual issues in their own major. Students will read contemporary as well as historical materials pertaining to: the concept of fitness; the units and levels of selection; adaptationism; the nature of species; the character of explanation in biology; the historical controversy over the neutral theory of molecular evolution; Darwinism and neo-Darwinism; Evo-Devo: the new synthesis of evolution and developmental biology; optimization modeling and its limitations; the way history shapes the development of the biological sciences, and the way that the biological sciences shape the course of history. Additional readings and an appropriate research paper is required for graduate student credit. Recommended Prerequisite: PHIL 3012, 3300, 3310, 3350, 3400, 3440, 3600, 3370, 4380.
  • 3.00 Credits

    Advanced topics in explanation, prediction and methodology in the social and behavioral sciences; the role of values in the social and behavioral sciences; the social policy implications of the social and behavioral sciences. Prerequisites: PHIL 3012, PHIL 3300, PHIL 3310, PHIL 3350, PHIL 3370, PHIL 3400, PHIL 3440, PHIL 3600 OR PHIL 4380.
  • 3.00 Credits

    Focused study of some of the traditional problems and contemporary treatments of issues in metaphysics. Topics may include questions of identity conditions, individuation, causation and determinism, and essence and necessity. For juniors and seniors. Recommended Prerequisite: PHIL 3012, 3300, 3310, 3350, 3400, 3440, 3600, 3370, 4380.
  • 3.00 Credits

    Survey of traditional and contemporary problems of the mind and its relation to the body. Topics may include the problem of other minds, personal identity, mental causation, dualism, physicalism, and some of the challenges consciousness and self-awareness raise for physicalism. For juniors and seniors. Recommended Prerequisite: PHIL 3012, 3300, 3310, 3350, 3400, 3440, 3600, 3370, 4380.
  • 3.00 Credits

    Survey of traditional and contemporary problems related to language. Topics may include how language refers to the world, how thoughts get mental content, the difference between what is said and what is communicated, demonstratives, indexicals, and self-reference. For juniors and seniors. Recommended Prerequisite: PHIL 3012, 3300, 3310, 3350, 3400, 3440, 3600, 3370, 4380.
  • 3.00 Credits

    Contemporary treatment of problems of ethics including the justification of moral beliefs, as well as a consideration of some particular moral theories or concepts. For juniors and seniors. Recommended Prerequisite: PHIL 3011, 3500, 3510, 3520, 3530, 3700, 3710, 3720, 3730, 3800, 3820, 4540.
  • 3.00 Credits

    Theoretical foundations of applied ethics. Ethical and meta-ethical theories and their application to professional and individual decision-making. The rational basis of moral judgments and policies in social and professional contexts. For juniors and seniors. Recommended Prerequisite: PHIL 3011, 3500, 3510, 3520, 3530, 3700, 3710, 3720, 3730, 3800, 3820, 4540.
  • 3.00 Credits

    Advanced topics in bioethics. For juniors and seniors. Recommended Prerequisite: PHIL 3011, 3500, 3510, 3520, 3530, 3700, 3710, 3720, 3730, 3800, 3820, 4540.