COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES

Course Descriptions PDF Print E-mail

PHI 150 - Introduction to Philosophy (3,0,3)

Application of philosophical thinking to perennial human concerns; human nature and the human condition, the good life, the good society. A general education course (humanities). 

PHI 150H - Honors Introduction to Philosophy (3,0,3)

Application of philosophical thinking to perennial human concerns; human nature and the human condition, the good life, the good society. A general education course (humanities).

PHI 155 - Introduction to Ethics (3,0,3)


Moral dimension of human experience; development of a rational approach to ethical inquiry; major value questions and ethical issues. A general education course (humanities).

PHI 160 - World Religions (3,0,3)


A philosophical and comparative analysis of the major world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. A general education course (humanities or non-western perspective).

PHI 165 - Introduction to Logic (3,0,3)


Methods and principles used to distinguish valid from invalid forms of argumentation in deductive and inductive reasoning; syllogisms, dilemmas, truth tables, and the scientific method. A general education
course (humanities).

PHI 170 - Philosophy and Sexuality (3,0,3)


Differing analyses of sexuality, love, and friendship, including historical perspectives such as Greek, Christian, Marxist, Freudian, Feminist, Existentialist, and Contemporary Analytic; contemporary discussions concerning sexism, male chauvinism, marriage, polygamy, homosexuality, lesbianism, androgyny, pornography, and prostitution. A general education course (humanities).

PHI 180 - History of Classical and Medieval Philosophy (3,0,3)


Western philosophical tradition from the Greeks to the 15th century; birth of scientific explanations; the role of reason; impact of Christianity; influence of seminal thinkers such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Atomists, Augustine, and Aquinas on political, ethical, religious, and other ideas. A general education course (history or humanities).

PHI 185 - History of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy (3,0,3)


Western philosophical tradition from the 15th to the 20th century; rise of rationalism, dualism, empiricism, idealism, skepticism, and utilitarianism, and the modern reactions to them, such as positivism, dialectical materialism, existentialism, and feminism; figures such as Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Leibniz, Spinoza, Hume, Mill, Kant, Hegel, and others. A general education course (history or humanities).

PHI 201 - Ideas in Philosophy (3,0,3)


Issues and/or works in philosophy revolving around a selected theme or concern. May be repeated as topics vary. A general education course (humanities).

PHI 210 - Ethics of Information Technology (3,0,3)


Ethical issues faced by computing professionals including those related to computing in the workplace, security, crime, privacy, property rights, risk, liability, and the Internet. A general education course (humanities) PREREQ: None.

PHI 220 - Health Care Ethics (3,0,3)


Ethical decision making and problems of contemporary health care; abortion, euthanasia, population and behavior control; informed consent and counseling; professional codes and personal freedom; mental health and personal autonomy; justice and equality in health care; ethical conflicts in health service work; death and dying. A general education course (humanities).

PHI 230 - Environment, Technology, and Human Values (3,0,3)


Technology and human nature; ethical implications of present and future technological developments; application of ethical frameworks to the problems of human beings in the future; ecological and environmental values; western and non-western approaches.

PHI 240 - Philosophy and the Arts (3,0,3)

Differing theories of the nature and importance of art in the history of aesthetics in regard to the artist, to the audience, to society; form and content within various media; the art world; artistic creativity and truth; imagination, emotion, unconscious, intellect and the artistic process; craft and art; feminist and Marxist critiques of art. A general education course (humanities)

PHI 250 - Eastern Philosophy (3,0,3)


Philosophical foundations of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Hinduism, including perspectives on self, reality, community, language, truth, enlightenment, embodiment, reason, emotion, and art; contrast with western perspectives; meditation and applied meditative practices. A general education course (humanities or non-western perspective).

PHI 301 - Philosophy in Literature (3,0,3)


Philosophical issues in literature considered historically and/or thematically; reality, nature, self, creativity, language, knowledge, community, good and evil, freedom, and God.

PHI 302 - Ethics and Science (3,0,3)


Ethical, legal, and public policy issues stemming from scientific research, including medical, psychological, and sociological; topics may include animal and human experimentation, informed consent, privacy, confidentiality, government regulations, freedom of inquiry and censorship, the moral responsibility of scientists, the implications of scientific research for ethics. PREREQ: 3 semester hours in philosophy.

PHI 303 - Philosophy and Psychotherapy (3,0,3)


Philosophical frameworks of underlying assumptions about reality, self, time, meaning, rationality, imagination, emotion, society, unconsciousness, embodiment, and therapeutic process in various psychotherapeutic modalities, such as Freudian, Jungian, Medical Model, Existential, Logotherapeutic, Gestalt, and Behaviorist; ethical issues of practice; social issues. PREREQ: 3 semester hours of philosophy.

PHI 304 - Zen (3,0,3)


The course offers foundational and developmental exposure to the fundamental and essential teachings of Zen from the stand point of both philosophy and religion as well as a non-sectarian practice in mindfulness training. PREREQ: 3 semester hours of philosophy.

PHI 305 - Existentialism (3,0,3)


Meaning, freedom, responsibility, communication, creativity, and value in the works of thinkers such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Camus, DeBeauvoir, and others; critique of traditional notions of mind versus body, reason, truth, self-identity, language, and time.

PHI 306 - Philosophy and Science (3,0,3)


Philosophical issues in science; the nature of scientific explanation; science and pseudoscience; growth of scientific knowledge; Kuhn, Popper, Feyerabend, and others. PREREQ: 3 semester hours in philosophy or science.

PHI 307 - Business Ethics (3,0,3)


Codes by which businesses and individuals in business act; problems that can develop concerning ethical issues; corporate personhood; corporate, employer, employee, and consumer rights and responsibilities. PREREQ: 3 semester hours in philosophy.

PHI 311 - Philosophy of Women (3,0,3)


Ideas of and about women in the history of philosophy; perennial issues that have emerged from classical times to the present. PREREQ: 3 semester hours in philosophy or women's studies.

PHI 315 - Knowledge and Reality (3,0,3)


Differing views on the nature of knowledge and reality, e.g., analytic, idealist, realist, materialist, existentialist, mystical, intuitionist, and emotivist; relevance of these theories to one's personal philosophy of life and actions; nature of language, perception, intellection, time, matter, mind, God, freedom, truth, reason, emotion. PREREQ: 3 semester hours in philosophy.

PHI 320 - Social and Political Philosophy (3,0,3)


Nature and purposes of the state, grounds of political obligation, freedom and its limitations, human rights, social justice, and selected contemporary issues.

PHI 322 - Philosophy of Race (3,0,3)


Examination of the concept of race and the way race informs identities. Topics include the reality of race, the origins of the concept; definition of racism and its reality in contemporary America; the intersection of race and gender; race and health care; politics of difference and recognition; racial justice. PREREQ: sophomore standing. A general education course (race/gender).

PHI 323 - Peace and War (3,0,3)


Philosophical study of main issues related to the ideas and realities of war and peace. Topics will include beliefs and theories about peace and war, the causes of violence and war, war and morality, alternatives to violence and war, peace ideas and proposals, applications to current world conditions. PREREQ: 3 semester hours in philosophy.

PHI 324 - Africana Philosophy (3,0,3)


Examination of cultural ideologies and traditions that unite and differentiate people of African descent. Issues discussed include slavery and colonization; mysticism, magic, witchcraft, African medicine and science; race, racism, ethnicity and identity; black power, racial justice, Afrocentricism, and Afro-feminism. A general education course (race/gender). PREREQ: sophomore standing.

PHI 325 - Philosophy of Nonviolence (3,0,3)


Reflective and evaluative study of the theory and practice of nonviolence. Topics will include the origins of nonviolence in both Western and Eastern thought; modern philosophers of nonviolence--Tolstoy, Gandhi, and King; civil disobedience; types of pacifism; women and nonviolence; recent examples of nonviolent action. PREREQ: 3 semester hours in philosophy.

PHI 330 - Philosophy and Law (3,0,3)


Major philosophical issues in law; theories of the nature and purposes of law, legal enforcement of community standards, strict liability, human rights, civil disobedience, theories of punishment, and legal ethics. PREREQ: sophomore standing. A general education course (humanities).

PHI 335 - Great Traditions in Ethics (3,0,3)


In-depth study of the major sources of western moral philosophy; representative selections from philosophers of classical times to the present (e.g., Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Kant, Bentham, Mill, Marx, Dewey, and Sartre). PREREQ: 3 semester hours in philosophy.

PHI 340 - Contemporary Anglo-American Philosophy (3,0,3)


Central issues and themes in 20th century Anglo-American philosophy, Russell, Wittgenstein, Quine, and others; language, truth and meaning, free will and determinism, and relation of mind and body. PREREQ: 3 semester hours in philosophy.

PHI 345 - Philosophy of Mind (3,0,3)


This course is designed to examine issues and themes in contemporary philosophy of mind; the relationships among the mind, brain and world; problems concerning intentionality, subjectivity, consciousness, qualia, mental representation, mental causation; and the intersection of psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence with philosophy. PREREQ: 3 semester hours in philosophy.

PHI 348 - Darwin and Philosophy (3,0,3)


In this course we examine neo-Darwinian views on evolution and natural selection. We consider several attempts to use evolutionary principles to provide naturalistic explanations for important features of human existence, like the nature of thought, morality, freewill, creativity and the effects of culture. PREREQ: 3 hours of philosophy.

PHI 350 - Philosophy of Religion (3,0,3)


Issues in religious philosophy, including the relation between faith and reason, the nature of religious experience, arguments for the existence of God, the problem of evil, and immortality. PREREQ: sophomore standing or consent of instructor. A general education course (humanities).

PHI 355 - Socrates & Plato (3,0,3)


Study of two major formative persons in the development of Western thought and culture. Socrates’ life, trial, death, thought, and significance. Plato on the good, justice, education, knowledge, and reality; the Platonic tradition. PREREQ: 3 semester hours in philosophy.

PHI 360 - Topics in Environmental Philosophy (3,0,3)


In-depth examination of a selected topic in environmental philosophy, such as environmental feminism, animal rights, technology and human nature, environmental justice, or religion and ecology. Topic will be announced in the Schedule of Classes. May be repeated as topics vary. PREREQ: 3 semester hours in philosophy or consent of instructor.

PHI 370 - Ethics and the Nursing Profession (3,0,3)


Ethical, legal, and social ramifications regarding the nurse's role and nursing's professional codes; moral and legal dilemmas of the nurse in relation to the patient, to the institution, to other health care providers, and to personal moral and religious concerns. PREREQ: PHI 220.

PHI 394 - Topics: Philosophy (3,0,3)


In-depth examination of a major figure, issue, or school in philosophy. Topic will be announced in Schedule of Classes. May be repeated as topics vary. PREREQ: 3 semester hours in philosophy.

PHI 396 - Applied Philosophy Internship (2,5,3)


Supervised readings and research carried out in conjunction with practicum, internship, or job in student's primary area of interest; focus upon philosophical and ethical issues of the work experience. PREREQ: 6 semester hours in philosophy and consent of instructor.

PHI 494 - Seminar: Philosophy (3,0,3)


Examination of a selected problem or tradition in philosophy. Offered according to demand and interest of students at discretion of philosophy faculty. May be repeated when topics vary. PREREQ: 6 semester hours in philosophy.

PHI 499 - Independent Study (1-3 sem. hrs.)


Individually supervised readings and study of some philosophical work, problem, or tradition. May be repeated as topics vary, but no more than twice. PREREQ: 6 semester hours in philosophy and consent of instructor.

PHI 510 - Ethics of Information Technology (3,0,3)


Ethical issues faced by computing professionals including those related to computing in the workplace, security, crime, privacy, property rights, risk, liability, and the Internet.

PHI 511 - Philosophy of Woman (3,0,3)


In-depth examination of historical and contemporary conceptions of woman's nature and the impact of those views on woman’s current status in society.

PHI 560 - Topics in Environmental Philosophy ((3,0,3)


In-depth examination of a selected topic in environmental philosophy, such as environmental feminism, animal rights, technology and human nature, environmental justice, or religion and ecology. Topic will be announced in the Schedule of Classes. May be repeated as topics vary. PREREQ: Graduate standing.

PHI 594 - Topics: Philosophy (3,0,3)


In-depth examination of a selected topic in philosophy. May be repeated as topics vary. PREREQ: 6 semester hours in philosophy or consent of instructor.

PHI 599 - Independent Study (3,0,3)


Individually supervised readings and study of a selected study in philosophy. May be repeated as topics vary. PREREQ: 6 semester hours of philosophy or consent of instructor.