In order to answer these and other questions, our philosophy program examines and explores the ways in which we know (or claim to know) things. The study of philosophy takes curiosity, imagination and the ability both to “see the big picture” and to think about the big questions. In our philosophy courses, therefore, students practice their analytical skills and hone their ability to abstract clear meaning from a text.
This program serves students well for careers in law, government service and graduate school in any of the social sciences or humanities.
PHIL 105 Introduction to Propositional LogicIntroduces students to the fundamental concepts of propositional 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. Formerly PHI 102 Introduction to Symbolic Logic.
3 creditsPHIL 215 Modern PhilosophyExamines 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. Formerly PHI 203 History of Philosophy: Modern.
3 credits
FLC Area III - Philosophy ClusterPHIL 235 Philosophy of ReligionExamines 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. Formerly PHI 330 Philosophy of Religion.
3 creditsPHIL 237 Women and PhilosophyPresents a theoretical framework for examining the significance of gendered perspectives on history, culture, and contemporary society and examines the philosophical voice of woman in the classical, medieval, and modern accounts of human nature. Formerly PHI 250 Women and Philosophy: A Critique.
3 credits
FLC Area III - Philosophy ClusterPHIL 241 Introduction to Theoretical EthicsExamines 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. Formerly PHI 210 Introduction to Theoretical Ethics.
3 credits
General Education Curriculum: Values and Beliefs Area
FLC Area III - Philosophy ClusterPHIL 253 Business and Professional EthicsThis course 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 e thics and investigates the cases within the framework of this theory. Formerly PHI 213 Applied Ethics II: Business and Professional Ethics.
3 credits
Core Area III: Ethics and Moral Reasoning
Gen Ed Values and BeliefsPHIL 341 Moral PsychologyAddresses 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? Formerly PHI 315 Moral Psychology.
3 credits
What can we know?
