Faculty
Minerva San Juan, Associate Professor of Philosophy (Program Chair)
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Description
Philosophy explores the ideas, values, principles, and arguments
through which we shape our lives and our learning. The study of
philosophy engages students in living the examined life and in
developing intellectual abilities important for life as a whole beyond
the knowledge and skills required for any particular profession. It
supports graduate studies in philosophy as well as certain professions,
like law, the ministry, and government service; and it complements other
interests, such as literature, political science, sociology, and
education. It develops analytical, critical, and interpretive capacities
needed to pursue other disciplines and to engage with life in general.
It develops discipline and motivation to confront problems for which
there are no easy answers. A strong education in philosophy thus
enhances the human capacity to respond wisely and prudently to the
challenges of personal, professional, and public life.
Trinity's mission as a Catholic college committed to the empowerment
of women and to the advancement of social justice calls for an in-depth
analysis of the ways in which philosophical ideas both contribute to and
militate against the human flourishing of people of all genders, races,
classes, and ethnic groups. The Program offers the opportunity for such
analysis.
The Program in Philosophy supports Trinity's Foundations for
Leadership Curriculum by its emphasis on the interdisciplinary nature of
human knowledge. The courses offered all emphasize the foundational
assumptions of the traditional disciplines and examine the ways in which
these assumptions are interrelated. The program also offers internships
and practica that range from experiential learning opportunities with
migrant workers in Apopka, advocacy for patient autonomy at St.
Elizabeth's, implementation of subject-protection guidelines at the
National Institute of Health, and work with various area hospitals'
ethics committee.
The Philosophy Program offers a minor in both the College of Arts and
Sciences and the School of Professional Studies; students interested in
pursuing an individualized minor in bioethics or environmental ethics
should consult the Program Chair. The Program also supports all the
College's majors and allows for students to construct an individualized or
interdisciplinary major. Courses that meet FLC requirements may also
count toward the minor.
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Minor Requirements
The minor requirement in philosophy requires the completion of 21
credits selected from program offerings in consultation with the
Philosophy Program Chair and the student's faculty advisor. In addition
to a minor in philosophy, students may select program offerings to
construct minors in areas of individual interest; possible minors
include bioethics and environmental ethics.
Required Courses (21 credits)
ONE course chosen from between:
PHI 102 Introduction to Symbolic Logic
PHI 103 Reasoning and Argumentation
TWO courses chosen from:
PHI 201 History of Philosophy: Ancient
PHI 202 History of Philosophy: Medieval
PHI 203 History of Philosophy: Modern
ONE course chosen from between:
PHI 210 Introduction to Theoretical Ethics
PHI 212 The Moral Dimension: Persons and Community
ONE course chosen from between:
PHI 310 Internship in Applied Ethics
PHI 315 Moral Psychology
ONE course chosen from:
PHI 301 Readings in the Theory of Knowledge
PHI 302 Readings in Metaphysics
PHI 303 Readings in the Philosophy of Science
ONE seminar chosen from:
HUM 360 Philosophy and Literature
HUM 365 Seminar on Dissent
HUM 450 Seminar in Ethics
HUM 455 Seminar in Existentialism
Recommended Courses
PSC 362 Political Thought: Plato to Rousseau
PSC 363 Modern Political Thought
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Program Policies
Advanced Placement: Three
credits granted for a score of 4 or 5 on the AP examination in logic in
fulfillment of the 100-level minor requirement.
CLEP Policy: Credits earned
through CLEP examinations do not fulfill requirements of the philosophy
minor.
Grades in Minor Courses:
Students are required to earn a grade of "C" (2.0) or better
in all courses counted to fulfill requirements for the minor.
Pass/No Pass: With the
exception of practica and internships, courses fulfilling minor
requirements may not be taken pass/no pass.
Senior Assessment: All
students in any of the minors offered in the Philosophy Program are
required to take a capstone seminar that will include a comprehensive
assessment.
Study Abroad: Students may
meet minor requirements with courses taken during their study
abroad.
TELL Policy: The Philosophy
Program supports and encourages the College's TELL Policy. Students applying for
experiential learning credits should consult with the program
faculty.
Transfer Credits: Transfer credit from accredited institutions may be
counted for minor requirements, dependent on program review and
approval.
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Course Descriptions
PHI 102 Introduction to Symbolic Logic
Introduces students to the fundamental concepts of modern symbolic logic
as they apply to the assessment of arguments, particularly the concepts
of validity, inference, truth-functional schema, material implication,
and material equivalence. The construction of truth tables as a method
of assessment and the process of natural deduction as demonstration and
proof will be emphasized.
3 credits
PHI 103 Reasoning and Argumentation
Presents examples of analysis and argumentation in order to examine what
constitutes either a deductive and an inductive argument, the notions of
validity and truth, the justificatory power of evidence as well as
common informal fallacies. The course provides practice in various
techniques of argumentation and critical analysis.
3 credits
Core IV
PHI 201 History of Philosophy: Ancient
Introduces the students to the beginning of philosophical reflection
through the writings of Plato and Aristotle, paying particular attention
to the problems that have engaged philosophers from the start. The
primary objective of the course is to generate in the student an
appreciation of why the questions philosophers perennially raise are
problematic for the human being.
3 credits
FLC Area III
Core IV
PHI 202 History of Philosophy: Medieval
Invites the student to consider the major thinkers of the medieval
period: St. Augustine, Boethius, the Arabic background of 13th-century
thought, and Aquinas. The course focuses on themes in metaphysics and
theory of knowledge.
3 credits
PHI 203 History of Philosophy: Modern
Examines readings from Descartes to Kant in the context of the
Rationalist-Empiricist debate and of the early modern scientists to whom
the philosophers are responding with their proposals about a theory of
ideas as an account of knowledge and reality.
3 credits
FLC Area III
PHI 205 Current Questions in Social and Political Philosophy
Introduces students to theories of justice and theories of politics.
What is the connection between culture and politics? The course
will examine current cultural or political issues that express potential
conflicts between principles of justice and politics.
3 credits
FLC Area III
Core IV
PHI 209 Aquinas, Locke, and Marx
Examines the respective analyses of the notion of private property
presented by each of these three philosophers and assesses the
implications for economic theory. The students will also discuss the
various theories of human nature that are implicit within the arguments
presented as justifications and constraints on the concept of private
property. The primary readings will be supplemented by contemporary
essays on commerce and ownership as well as selected narratives.
3 credits
Core IV
PHI 210 Introduction to Theoretical Ethics
Examines Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and Kant's Grounding for the
Metaphysics of Morals in order to see how these texts expose the
influence and direction of our consciousness of obligation on our
actions. The focus is on what kind of agency human beings must have in
order to be in a moral domain and on what the influence of socialization
and biology might be on our understanding of this domain.
3 credits
FLC Area III
PHI 211 Applied Ethics: Bioethics
Examines the legal and moral issues in areas dealing with the biology of
human health and development, for example, experimentation on human
subjects, organ transplants, euthanasia, abortion, fetal tissue use,
contraception, and other aspects of human reproduction, and treatment of
patients with AIDS.
3 credits
Core IV
PHI 212 The Moral Dimension: Persons and Community
Introduces the student to social ethics and the concepts of person and
community by examining the moral traditions that have played out
historically in the United States. The course traces the focus of ethics
from a concern about what kind of person to be to the more modern and
narrow concern in how to act, acknowledging the ways in which our
cultural and historical environments help shape our vision.
3 credits
FLC Area III
Core IV
PHI 213 Applied Ethics II: Business and Professional Ethics
Engages the students in an analysis of cases in business and other
professions that appear to present a conflict between the demands of
institutional practices and the demands of morality. The course presents
a Kantian theory of ethics and investigates the cases within the
framework of this theory.
3 credits
Core IV
PHI 214 Philosophy of Law and Law Enforcement
Examines the relationship between case studies and recent Supreme Court
rulings will be used to illuminate principles of law and legal practice.
3 credits
PHI 215 Environmental Ethics
Focuses on contemporary issues and controversies central to the relation
between humans and the nonhuman environment. It examines the impact of
increased and increasing human activity on the nonhuman environment and
explores the scope of human responsibility for and toward this
environment.
3 credits
PHI 219 Ethics and Politics
Examines how ethics ought to constrain public policy, based on the
assumption that the giving and asking of reasons for what we do is a
fundamental practice of the human being. The course studies theories of
social justice and uses case studies to see how issues from ethics apply
to the making of public policy. Traditional Catholic teaching on social
justice of the last 50 years will figure prominently in the course.
3 credits
PHI 220 Independent Studies in Ethics
Examines special topics in ethics that are of central interest to the
field and of interdisciplinary interest to the student. The course
permits the student to engage in directed readings and tutorials with
individual faculty.
3 credits
PHI 250 Women and Philosophy
Presents a theoretical framework for examining questions of gender
differences in history, culture, and contemporary society and examines
the philosophical voice of woman in the classical, medieval, and modern
accounts of human nature.
3 credits
FLC Area III
Core IV
PHI 270 Classical Buddhist and Hindu Philosophy
Examines the general context of early Buddhist thought. Traces the
development of the six major systems of classical Hindu thought through
their responses to questions of epistemology, ontology, cosmology,
psychology, soteriology, and their impact on theology.
3 credits
PHI 275 Introduction to Islamic Philosophy
Examines the implications for metaphysics of the fundamental beliefs of
Islamic thought.
3 credits
PHI 301 Readings in the Theory of Knowledge
Focuses on the discussion of the basic problems concerning the nature of
knowledge and studies the relation of knowledge to perception, belief,
and language. In particular the course will examine the traditional
representative phenomenalist and idealist theories of perception and
the nature of perceptual experience. It will also present the feminist
critique of traditional Western accounts of knowledge.
3 credits
Core IV
PHI 302 Readings in Metaphysics
Studies classical, modern, and contemporary philosophers on the subject
matter of metaphysics, the concept of being in general, and the
foundation of individual being, as well as the criticism of the
possibility of such knowledge.
3 credits
PHI 303 Readings in the Philosophy of Science
Addresses the structure of scientific knowledge, the nature of
explanation, the nature of the standards for acquiring knowledge of the
physical world, and especially the problems raised by biology.
3 credits
PHI 310 Internship in Applied Ethics
Offers the student an opportunity for service learning by special
permission of the program faculty and under the supervision of a faculty
member.
3 credits
PHI 315 Moral Psychology
Addresses the relation between obligation and motivation. The
traditional analysis raises two questions: What kind of answer is it
appropriate to give an agent when she asks why she should do what she is
obliged to do? And, how does this answer make the action psychologically
possible?
3 credits
PHI 320 Philosophical Logic
Studies Turing Machines, the concept of "artificial"
intelligence, computability, truth, incompleteness, and the limit of
logic, especially insofar as it represents reasoning about necessity and
possibility.
3 credits
Core IV
PHI 325 Persons, Community, and Respect
Explores the nature of personal identity, respect, and self-respect as
these concepts are related to our notions of community and to our social
institutions. In particular the course examines the social origins and
dimensions of self-respect and the effects of social and economic
inequalities, and of the policies that attempt to redress such
inequalities on self-respect and on the possibility of mutual respect
among members of a community. The course readings reflect the
perspectives of marginalized social groups.
3 credits
Core IV
PHI 330 Philosophy of Religion
Examines some of the principal questions in the philosophy of religion,
including arguments for the existence of God, the problem of evil, the
relation of faith and reason, and the attributes of God.
3 credits
Core IV
PHI 401 Social and Political Philosophy
Examines general questions about the purpose of politics, political
theories, and the method and significance of interpretation. The course
will focus on various social practices and institutions and critique
them vis-a-vis various conceptions of justice.
3 credits
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