Requirements & Courses
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Major Requirements
Thirty-six credits which must include:
- Core (20 credits): PHL-102, 103, 111 or 112, 126 and 500
- PHL Electives (16 credits), which must include:
- At least 4 credits from the following: PHL-202, 215, 216, 217, 224, 240/340, 303, 305, or 347.
- At least 8 upper-level credits including PHL-232, 234, 236, and all 300-level philosophy courses.
- Successful completion of the 4-credit thesis (PHL-500) and oral examination administered by the department.
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Minor Requirements
Twenty-four credits which must include: PHL-102, 103, 111 or 112, and 126 and an additional 4-credits of PHL elective credits selected in consultation with the Department.
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Four credits from PHL, with the exception of practicum or independent study courses, count towards the Distributive Requirements in the Humanities.
Courses
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PHL102.Issues in Philosophy4 creditsExploration of issues in and development of individual positions in respect to basic philosophical questions.
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PHL103.Critical Thinking4 creditsIntroduction to Logic. Elementary semantics, common fallacies in inference, the analysis of arguments, and the logic of induction and deduction. Emphasis primarily on reasoning as it occurs in everyday contexts.
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PHL111.Western Philosophy I4 creditsSurvey of major ideas which have helped shape the Western tradition and the thinking of contemporary persons. The timeframe covered includes the beginnings in Greece to Renaissance, including meeting of Greek and Christian worldviews.
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PHL112.Western Philosophy II4 creditsSurvey of major ideas which have helped shape the Western tradition and the thinking of contemporary persons. The timeframe includes the Renaissance to 20th century.
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PHL126.Introduction to Values4 creditsExploration of moral values, nature of moral judgments, and bases for moral decisions. Practice in decision making. Study of such controversial contemporary issues as capital punishment, abortion, privacy, death with dignity, racism and sexism. Focus on person as individual and member of society.
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PHL131.Introduction to Political Theory4 creditsIntroduction to normative political theory, both historical and contemporary. Includes analysis of central concepts of politics such as power, freedom, justice, democracy and equality. Explore key modern ideologies, such as liberalism, conservatism, socialism, fascism and political Islam. (Cross-listed as POL-131)
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PHL180.Topics in Philosophy2-6 creditsSelected topics in philosophy. Subject, credits and applicability to distributive requirements and to Major or Minor to be announced in advance.
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PHL202.Feminist Philosophy4 creditsExamination of recent feminist studies in philosophy and religion. Focus on method, style, approach and arguments of the feminist critique.
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PHL215.Philosophy of Religion4 creditsExamination of classical and contemporary issues in the philosophy of religion such as arguments for and against the existence of God, religious language, the relation between faith and reason, the evidential value of religious claims, and the relationship between morality and religion. (Cross-listed as REL-215.)
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PHL216.Themes in Existentialist Literature4 creditsExamination, evaluation and discussion of selected subjects - the individual, freedom, responsibility, anxiety, hope, death, meaning of life - as treated in various essays, short stories and dramas. Focus on analysis and interpretation of texts. (Cross-listed as REL-216.)
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PHL217.Asian Philosophy and Religion4 creditsExploration of the history, thought and contemporary roles of the major religious and philosophical traditions of Asia, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. (Cross-listed as REL-217.)
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PHL224.Aesthetics4 creditsExploration of values pertaining to the arts. Study of principal aesthetic views, major issues in the philosophy of art, application to various art works and nature of aesthetic judgments, creative activity and aesthetic qualities of experience.
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PHL225.Environmental Ethics4 creditsExamination of conceptual and moral issues about nature and humans’ relationship to it. Focus is on both theoretical frameworks about humans’ responsibility for the environment and on contemporary environmental controversies, such as global warming, population issues, pollution, global justice and sustainability.
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PHL227.Ethics and Business4 creditsExploration of the nature of moral values, moral judgments and ethical decisions. Analysis of selected issues in modern business. Test cases used for practice in decision making. Especially pertinent for those planning business careers but designed for all interested students.
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PHL228.Ethics and Law4 creditsExploration of conceptual and ethical issues in the making and administration of law. Introduction to ethical theory. Study of such topics as criminals’ rights, justification of punishment, death penalty, nature of legal responsibility, extent of justifiable government interference with freedom and relation between law and morality. Especially pertinent for Pre-Law students, but designed for all interested students.
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PHL229.Ethics and Medicine4 creditsExploration of nature of moral values, moral judgments and ethical decisions. Analysis of selected issues in medicine and other health fields. Test cases used for practice in decision-making. Especially pertinent for those planning careers in health professions, but designed for all interested students.
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PHL230.Religion and Science4 creditsExamination of the relationship between religion and science through both historical and contemporary issues. (Cross-listed as REL-230.)
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PHL232.Ancient Political Thought4 creditsExploration of key ideas in ancient and medieval political thought. The works of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Epicurus, Augustine and Aquinas are considered. Key questions addressed include: Is democracy superior to rule by the enlightened few? Are humans by nature political creatures? What is the proper relation between the individual and the state? Is the state a natural entity? (Cross-listed as POL-232.)
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PHL234.Modern Political Thought4 creditsAnalysis of selected original works of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, the American founders, Bentham, Mill, Marx and Nietzsche. Emphasis on relevance to contemporary political thought and issues. (Cross-listed as POL-234.)
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PHL235.Ethics and Education4 creditsExamination of ethical issues and education. Emphasis on the ethics of education, such as the very idea of compulsory education; and ethics in education, such as the tension between moral education and indoctrination, and issues pertaining to multiculturalism, gender and disability. Of special interest to students planning to become elementary or secondary teachers, but accessible to all interested students.
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PHL236.Contemporary Political Thought4 creditsPrerequisite: POL-131This course explores contemporary debates in political theory regarding justice, democracy, freedom, equality, and rights. Do contemporary democracies distribute resources and opportunities fairly? Do they treat all citizens equally? Are they sufficiently democratic? Is capitalism a just economic system? Does it support or undermine democracy, freedom, and equality?
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PHL240.Philosophy of Love and Sex4 creditsExamination of conceptual and moral issues related to love and sex. Conceptual issues include the nature of love and of sexual desire. Moral issues include marital fidelity, exclusivity in romantic relationships, sex without love, homosexuality, romantic relationships that involve power differentials, sexual harassment, date rape, prostitution and pornography.
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PHL242.Philosophy of Sport4 creditsExamination of conceptual and moral issues that arise in sport. Conceptual issues include the relationship between play, games and sport, and the nature of competition. Moral issues include the role of sport in education, sportspersonship, performance-enhancing drugs, violence in sport, hunting and gender equity in sport.
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PHL280.Topics in Philosophy2-4 creditsSelected topics in philosophy in such areas as historical studies, epistemology, metaphysics and values. May be taken more than once if different topic.
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PHL280M.Topics in Philosophy2-4 creditsSelected topics in philosophy in such areas as historical studies, epistemology, metaphysics and values. May be taken more than once if different topic.
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PHL299.Philosophy Independent Study4 creditsPrerequisite: PermissionPlanned program of individual study of a particular subject in philosophy, developed with the supervising professor.
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PHL303.Symbolic Logic4 creditsIn-depth examination of symbolic logic, extending the propositional logic developed in PHL 103 to include predicate logic and logic of identity. Study of translation into notation, test validity by such methods as deduction, truth tables and truth trees. Examination of logical concepts: logical truth, consistency, equivalence, interpretations and the properties of relations.
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PHL305.Philosophy of Science4 creditsAnalysis of the nature of science. What justifies the view that science is the most objective source of human knowledge? What makes a scientific theory true? Examination of rival accounts of science and their relation to actual practice of scientists. Especially pertinent to science majors, but designed for all interested students. Extensive background not required.
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PHL326.Virtue Ethics4 creditsPrerequisite: One philosophy course or PermissionIn-depth examination of “virtue ethics.” Is virtue based on reason alone, or does it also involve feeling and sentiment? What kind of character traits should I try to cultivate? What kind of person should I try to become? Consideration of such virtues and vices as honesty, friendship, loyalty, selfishness, gossip and greed, ending on the ultimate ethical question: What makes my life worthwhile or meaningful?
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PHL340.Philosophy of Love and Sex4 creditsExamination of conceptual and moral issues related to love and sex. Conceptual issues include the nature of love and of sexual desire. Moral issues include marital fidelity, exclusivity in romantic relationships, sex without love, homosexuality, romantic relationships that involve power differentials, sexual harassment, date rape, prostitution and pornography.
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PHL347.Philosophy of Mind4 creditsPrerequisite: Any Philosophy course or COG-120 or PermissionExploration of rival views on relation between mind and body, beginning with dualism, the view which is most hospitable to belief in life after death. Emphasis on various materialist theories which explain human actions without any reference to non-physical entities. Exploration of implications of theories of mind for issues such as immortality and human freedom.
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PHL380.Seminar2-4 creditsPrerequisite: PermissionSelected topics in philosophy which arise in various fields. Generally interdisciplinary, team-taught. Reading, discussion, papers and critiques. Subjects and credits to be announced.
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PHL399.Philosophy Independent Study1 creditPrerequisite: PermissionPlanned program of individual study of a particular subject in philosophy, developed with the supervising professor. Major can include more than one enrollment in independent study.
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PHL499.Philosophy Independent Study4 creditsPrerequisite: PermissionPlanned program of individual study of a particular subject in philosophy, developed with the supervising professor.
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PHL500.Senior Thesis1 creditPrerequisite: PermissionIndividual research culminating in preparation of a major paper and departmental oral examination.
