Philosophy Courses [167-210]

[051-144] [145-166] [167-210]

PHIL 167. Hermeneutics or Philosophy of Interpretation. 3 crs. A study of selected texts in the history of interpretation and hermeneutics, with an eye to answering questions such as “Is there such a thing as an “objective” interpretation of a text?” 

PHIL 168. Seminar on Heidegger. 3 crs. A study of the thought of Martin Heidegger. Normally several of Heidegger’s books are examined and Heidegger’s place in Existentialism, as well as the history of philosophy, are discussed. 

PHIL 169. Seminar on Nietzsche. 3 crs. A study of the thought of F. Nietzsche. Normally several of Nietzsche’s books are studied with an eye to Nietzsche’s relationship to classical philosophy and his influence on modern philosophy (especially on Existentialism and on Deconstruction). 

PHIL 165. German Idealism. 3 crs. Explores the texts of the chief exponents of German idealism, especially Kant, Fichte, and Hegel.

PHIL 170. Ancient Greek Philosophy. 3 crs. Reviews philosophers from ancient Greece through the Middle Ages, including the pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle.

PHIL 171. Ancient Egyptian Philosophy. 3 crs. An investigation of the contributions of ancient Egypt to philosophical scholarship; including the mutual borrowings that occurred between ancient Egypt and ancient Greece.

PHIL 172. African Philosophy. 3 crs. Critical examination of such traditional and modern concepts in African thought as life or existence, time, the universe, man and his place in the universe, and God.

PHIL 173. The Ethics of Medical Care. 3 crs. Examination of such primary topics as the morality of abortion, euthanasia, and human experimentation.

PHIL 174. Philosophy of Natural Science. 3 crs. Analysis of discovery, explanation, and revolution in the natural sciences, with emphasis on the role of models.

PHIL 175. Symbolic Logic. 3 crs. Presents the principles and techniques of analyzing and evaluating deductive arguments through symbolic representation of logical structure.

PHIL 176. Contemporary Ethics. 3 crs. Examination of recent ethical systems.

PHIL 177. Philosophy of Social Science. 3 crs. Investigation of the philosophical problems raised by method and theory in the social sciences.

PHIL 178. Philosophy of Mind. 3 crs. Exploration of the concept of a person, the unconscious, and the alleged privacy of mental phenomena.

PHIL 179. History of Africana Philosophy. 3 crs. an historical account of African and African/American philosophy from 1800 to the present. The focus of the course is on thinkers who have contributed to the shaping of African thought in the 19th and 20th centuries.

PHIL 180. Value Theory. 3 crs. Investigation of the general theory of value, with reference to the value problems of ethics, political theory, aesthetics, and religion.

PHIL 181. Philosophy of Logic. 3 crs. Discussion of views on the nature of logic and the status of its principles, with readings from Frege, Lewis, Strawson, and Quine.

PHIL 182. Seminar on Plato. 3 crs. Reading of selected middle and late dialogues, including Parmenides, Theaetetus, Sophist, and Philebus.

PHIL 183. Seminar on Aristotle. 3 crs. Reading of the Physics, De Anima, and Metaphysics.

PHIL 184. Modern Philosophy: 17th & 18th Century. 3 crs. Study of representative philosophers since the Renaissance, with special attention given to Descartes, Sponoza, Leibniz, Hume, Kant, and Hegel.

PHIL 185. Rationalism and Empiricism. 3 crs. Analysis of theories of knowledge of representative modern and contemporary writers.

PHIL 186. Philosophy of Kant. 3 crs. Examination of the Critique of Pure Reason.

PHIL 187. Philosophy of Hegel. 3 crs. Study of selected philosophical works, with attention to the Phenomenology of Spirit.

PHIL 188. Philosophy of Kierkegaard. 3 crs. Consideration of the major works of Kierkegaard and their influence on contemporary thought.

PHIL 189. Nineteenth-Century Philosophy. 3 crs. Study of idealism and naturalism, with attention to Schopenhauer, Hegel, Nietzsche, Marx, Comte, and J. S. Mill.

PHIL 190. Contemporary Philosophy. 3 crs. An examination of present philosophical tendencies.

PHIL 191. Meaning and Truth. 3 crs. Analysis of problems around the related notions of meaning and truth, including issues in the study of mind and language.

PHIL 192. American Philosophy. 3 crs. Review of the dominant traditions in American thought, including Calvinism, transcendentalism, idealism, pragmatism, and realism.

PHIL 193. Comparative Philosophy. A comparative analysis of the contemporary philosophical orientations of Western, African and Latin-American thought, focusing on ethics, metaphysics, social and political philosophy and on representative schools and individuals.

PHIL 194. Philosophy of History 3 crs. Consideration of critical and speculative theories of history, with attention to methodology, causation, and values.

PHIL 195. Philosophy of Education. 3 crs. Analysis of modern theories of education, with attention to the philosophical implications of contemporary experimental techniques.

PHIL 196. Senior Colloquium. 3 crs. Introduces students to topical philosophical issues through the format of colloquium in which students meet with invited philosophers who have worked on the issues.

PHIL 197. Philosophy of William James. 3 crs. Systematic study of James’ thought, with attention to such crucial themes as moralism, pragmatism, and pure experience. 

PHIL 198. Seminar in Kant’s Ethics. 3 crs. Reading of the Critique of Practical Reason and the Metaphysics of Morals (Part II). 

PHIL 199. Asian Philosophy. 3 crs. Investigation of four fundamental problems of Oriental philosophical traditions: man, the nature of the universe, norms of the moral life, and the validity of knowledge claims, with attention given to methodologies of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism.

PHIL 200. Senior Seminar. 3 crs. Investigation of a specific philosophical problem in a seminar format. Topics vary from time to time.

PHIL 210. Senior Honors Thesis. 3 crs. Provides students the opportunity to work on a philosophical project with a faculty member. The outcome must be a thesis that is defended before a faculty committee. The oral defense shall be open to students.