Courses at the 300-level
In this survey from the American colonial period to the present, some of the major works of significant American philosophers are read and discussed. Among the philosophers considered are Charles Peirce, William James, and John Dewey.
4 credit hours
- completion of at least 30 college credits or any 100- or 200-level philosophy course
The use of the logic of propositions, classes, and relations is studied. Alternate systems and notations of two-valued logics are analyzed. Some multivalued logics are validated.
3 credit hours
- completion of at least 30 college credits or any 100- or 200-level philosophy course
Theories about the nature and possibility of ethics are discussed. Topics may include relativism, egoism, intuitionism, moral realism, the nature of the moral person, moral development, feminist ethics, and the significance of evolution.
3 credit hours
- completion of at least 30 college credits or any 100- or 200-level philosophy course
The concept of knowledge and its relationship to the world of experience is investigated. Various theories of the nature of truth are presented and analyzed. Students are introduced to epistemology.
3 credit hours
- completion of at least 30 college credits or any 100- or 200-level philosophy course
The concept of evidence, types of reasoning, and standards of proof are examined. Topics include types of evidence, evaluating evidence, eyewitness claims, expert testimony and memory, appraising reasoning, and standards of proof.
3 credit hours
- completion of at least 30 college credits or any 100- or 200-level philosophy course
Induction and probability, causality and the laws of nature, as well as the nature of explanation and justification are covered.
4 credit hours
- completion of at least 30 college credits or any 100- or 200-level philosophy course
Students examine social and political theories and the philosophical issues they raise concerning the origin of society and man's nature as a "political being" and "social being."
3 credit hours
- completion of 30 college credits or any 100- or 200-level philosophy course
Conceptual problems regarding law and legal systems are examined. Topics may include the nature of law, law and morality, civil disobedience, positivism, naturalism, personhood under the law, rights, punishment, and criminal responsibility.
3 credit hours
- completion of completion of 30 college credits or any 100- or 200-level philosophy course
Theories and reality, ideology and action, and values and facts are examined. Focus is on rational policy decision making.
3 credit hours
- completion of 30 college credits or any 100- or 200-level philosophy course
This is a problem-oriented introduction to some of the central issues of contemporary metaphysics. Topics may include ontology (what exists), necessity, causation, free will/determinism, space and time, and identity-over-time.
3 credit hours
- completion of at least 30 college credits or any 100- or 200-level philosophy course
The status and role of mind in relation to body is studied. Diverse theories, such as mind/body dualism, identity theory, behaviorism, functionalism, and emergence, are discussed.
3 credit hours
- completion of at least 30 college credits or any 100- or 200-level philosophy course
The origins of philosophy in Greek thought are explored. Works of philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle are read. (Formerly Plato, Aristotle, and Greek Thought.)
4 credit hours
- completion of at least 30 college credits or any 100- or 200-level philosophy course
Greek and Roman philosophy after Aristotle and before the Medieval period is studied. (Formerly Epicurus, Plotinus, and Hellenistic Philosophy.)
4 credit hours
- Prerequisite: completion of at least 30 college credits or any 100- or 200-level philosophy course
The origins of medieval thought are traced. The institutionalization of philosophic thought is analyzed. The works of Aquinas and Augustine are studied. (Formerly Aquinas, Bonaventure, and Medieval Thought.)
4 credit hours
- completion of at least 30 college credits or any 100- or 200-level philosophy course
Works from European philosophers from Descartes to Kant are read. (Formerly Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Philosophers.)
4 credit hours
- completion of at least 30 college credits or any 100- or 200-level philosophy course
Selections from the works of Hegel and Nietzsche are analyzed and critiqued along with other nineteenth-century philosophers, such as Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Marx, and Freud.
4 credit hours
- completion of at least 30 college credits or any 100- or 200-level philosophy course
The main themes of existentialist philosophy and its successors are investigated through the study of such authors as Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Sartre, and Camus. (Formerly Existentialism and Contemporary Philosophy.)
4 credit hours
- completion of at least 30 college credits or any 100- or 200-level philosophy course
Late nineteenth- and twentieth-century philosophers of language, such as Frege, Russell, Moore, Wittgenstein, Austin, Quine, and Kripke, are studied. (Formerly Contemporary Analytic Philosophy.)
4 credit hours
- completion of at least 30 college credits or any 100- or 200-level philosophy course