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EXPLORE PHILOSOPHY:

Courses
 
Philosophy:
PHL 103 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
  Introduction to philosophical reflection and study of some central philosophical questions in the Western intellectual tradition, including questions of ethics, human knowledge, and metaphysics. Readings from major figures in the history of philosophy such as Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Hume, and Kant.
PHL 240 RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES AND TECHNOLOGIES
  Development of research skills appropriate for the major. Students submit papers carefully selected from written work required for major classes. Required for all Philosophy majors.
PHL 301 PRACTICAL LOGIC
  Introduction to the principles of correct reasoning; techniques for the evaluation of arguments; common fallacies in argumentation; applications to current issues in ethics and other areas.
PHL 302 SYMBOLIC LOGIC
  Concentrated study of the valid forms of deductive argument and proof in propositional logic and in predicate logic; study of formal systems and of logic and language.
PHL 304 PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN NATURE
  The nature of human beings; the functions of consciousness, the possibility of freedom, the sources of values, and the goals of human life.
PHL 306 PHILOSOPHY OF KNOWLEDGE
  Various criteria, origins, and definitions of knowledge proposed by common sense, science, philosophy, and mysticism; questions of evidence, consistency, and validity pertaining to the problem of truth and belief.
PHL 307 PHILOSOPHY AND WOMEN
  Issues and problems related to feminist analysis of society and its ideals, such as equal opportunity, sex roles and gender, reverse discrimination, violence, and language.
PHL 308 METAPHYSICS
  Issues and problems under such topics as appearance and reality; universals; relations of mind and matter; the nature of persons and personal identity; causality; freedom and determination.
PHL 309 PHILOSOPHY OF MIND
  An analysis of the concept of mind and related issues such as Descartes' mind-body dualism and various responses; the nature of human agency, self-deception; and the rationality of emotions.
PHL 310 SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY
  The concepts of liberty, justice, and equality as they relate to social problems such as punishment and rehabilitation, insanity and responsibility, privacy, population regulation, economic injustice, environmental degradation, discrimination, and reverse discrimination.
PHL 311 PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
  The main issues involved in religious belief and practice, such as the relationship between reason and revelation; critical presentation of views of main writers in the field.
PHL 312 ETHICS
  Various types of moral and ethical theory in the Western tradition and major problems such as the extent of human responsibility and the conditions for making ethical judgments.
PHL 313 BUSINESS ETHICS
  Review of general ethical theory; ethical assessments of incidents that often occur in commerce affecting employees, employers, consumers, competitors, or the local community.
PHL 314 PHILOSOPHY OF LAW
  Major concepts of law to include the nature of law, legal reasoning, liberty, justice, responsibility, punishment.
PHL 315 MEDICAL ETHICS
  Introduction to morality in general and inquiry into the major moral problems of medical practice: human life and the preservation of its integrity.
PHL 315W PROBLEMS IN MEDICAL ETHICS
  An analysis of special ethical issues raised in a specific area of medical practice. Web-based course. May be repeated when topic changes.
PHL 316 ENGINEERING ETHICS
  Introduction to ethical issues in engineering by developing theories of moral justification and codes of ethics for engineers, and by applying these theories and codes to moral issues in engineering.
PHL 317 ETHICS AND MODERN WAR
  Study in applied ethics focusing on the implications of power politics and militarism; various ethical approaches used to evaluate wars, terrorism and violence; and an overview of some alternatives to war.
PHL 318 FAMILY ETHICS
  Introduction to the development of the concept of a family in the tradition of Western philosophy and the philosophic analysis of contemporary ethical problems in marriage and in parenthood.
PHL 319 INFORMATION ETHICS
  Examination of ethical principles, codes, cases, incidents, and issues in the design, implementation, and use of computerized information systems.
PHL 320 PHILOSOPHY OF ART
  Theories of art and criteria of evaluation developed by philosophers, artists, and critics; the relationship between art and society and between artistic and other human values.
PHL 321 ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
  Study of the principal ethical perspectives on the treatment of animals and nature including such issues as agriculture, energy, pollution, and economics; assessment of political responses to current environmental problems.
PHL 323 PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE
  Critical examination of philosophical concepts in selected literary masterpieces, ancient and modern.
PHL 324 PHILOSOPHY AND FILM
  Introduction to philosophical issues and aesthetic theory through a critical reading of texts and examination of selected narrative, documentary, animated, or abstract films.
PHL 325 PHILOSOPHY OF MUSIC
  Examination of theories on the meaning of music; experiencing music as composer, performer, and listener; aesthetic criteria; moral effect of music.
PHL 327 PHILOSOPHY OF PEACE
  Examination of human violence and ethical justifications for war and exploration of resolutions for human conflict in processes such as pacifism, peacemaking, democratic world governance, nonviolent caring, and a sustainable economy.
PHL 328 PHILOSOPHY OF PUNISHMENT
  Critical examination of punishment, through an analysis of various forms of punishment and what they imply about human nature, power, social norms, and moral principles.
PHL 330 PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
  Critical examination of the underpinnings of scientific knowledge, and how it differs from other systems of belief and knowledge, through an analysis and evaluation of various scientific concepts such as scientific laws, explanation, observation, and theory, with an exploration of the methods, presuppositions, and biases of scientific knowledge claims.
PHL 331 SCIENCE, OBJECTIVITY, AND VALUES
  Study of three interrelated issues: the limits of scientific methodology; science as a social institution; and science and human values.
PHL 332 TECHNOLOGY AND VALUES
  Study of the social impact of technology-scientists' responsibility; technological change and social change; the "technological fix"; democracy and the new technological elite; counter-culture critiques of technology.
PHL 333 PHILOSOPHY AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE
  A philosophical introduction to recent research in cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, and neuroscience regarding human, animal, and machine intelligence; the relation between mind, brain, and personhood; and the biology of conscious states.
PHL 340 SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN PHILOSOPHY
  Examination of perennial and contemporary problems of philosophy. May be repeated when topic changes.
PHL 345 PHILOSOPHY SCHOLARS' SEMINAR
  Study and seminar discussion of selected major philosophical works and the analysis, interpretation, and criticism of these works. Open by permission only to students in the Berry Scholars Program.
PHL 350 CLASSICAL GREEK PHILOSOPHY
  The Greek origins of Western scientific, philosophical, and political thought; relationships to current thoughts; ideas of the pre-Socratics, Plato, and Aristotle in their cultural contexts.
PHL 351 MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY
  Major philosophical problems from the fourth through the sixteenth centuries and their importance in shaping current beliefs and traditions in the Augustinian, Jewish, Islamic, Persian, Thomist, and Oxford cultural settings; human action, conscience, freedom, and law.
PHL 352 MODERN PHILOSOPHY
  Development of philosophy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries up to Kant with a focus on several major philosophical figures such as Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume.
PHL 353 KANT AND NINETEENTH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHY
  Development of philosophy beginning with Kant through the nineteenth century including Kant and philosophers such as Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, James, Peirce, and Frege.
PHL 354 TWENTIETH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHY
  A study of some of the major philosophical movements in the twentieth century including phenomenology, existentialism, critical theory (Frankfurt School), hermeneutics, and analytic philosophy.
PHL 355 ASIAN PHILOSOPHY
  Introduction to Asian philosophy through the study of philosophers, texts, philosophical schools and concepts that have their origins in Asia. Comparisons of various Asian philosophies with each other as well as with western traditions.
PHL 356 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY
  Major issues such as the relation of faith to reason, the relation of science to faith, and the problem of natural law. Christian considerations of practical philosophy and social theory.
PHL 357 RADICAL PHILOSOPHY
  Study of major attempts to develop a critical understanding of society; analysis of theories such as socialism, anarchism, feminism, critical theory, and critical race theory.
PHL 358 MARXIST PHILOSOPHY
  Introduction to the thought of Karl Marx through a study of the historical setting of the man and his writings, along with recent interpretations of his thought.
PHL 360 EXISTENTIALISM
  Major themes in representatives of the existentialist movement, such as human freedom, the absurdity of human existence, the primacy of action, and the roles of speculation and the emotions.
PHL 361 AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
  Study of the development of American philosophies in the context of historical interactions among Indigenous, European, African, and Asian worldviews in the Americas. Representatives of classical American pragmatism, such as Peirce, James, Dewey, and Addams will be studied in this context.
PHL 362 PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE
  Theories of meaning and reference and their philosophical significance.
PHL 363 AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY
  Introduction to African world views, ethical notions, and social ideas using analytical and comparative approaches; examination of concepts of human diversity and universality; analysis of the transition of traditional African culture to modernity.
PHL 364 RACE, GENDER, AND PHILOSOPHY
  A philosophical investigation into the systematic nature of racism and sexism, including inquiry into the epistemological, metaphysical, linguistic, and representational structures that sustain and perpetuate the power dynamics of western post-colonial patriarchial society.
PHL 365 ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY AND CULTURE
  Examination of selected Islamic thinkers and philosophical traditions, from the period of the Ummayyad Caliphate to the postcolonial era, and their influence on Christian and Jewish thought. Islamic conceptions of law, political society, ethics, hermeneutics, science, revelation, and reality. Special emphasis upon the role of the arts in shaping Islamic philosophy.
PHL 370 POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
  Philosophical theories regarding the nature of the state and the legitimization of political authority will be analyzed and evaluated in the context of philosophical conceptions of human nature, liberty, equality, justice, welfare, and power.
PHL 371 PHILOSOPHY AND HUMAN RIGHTS
  Examination of the nature and philosophical foundations of universal moral (human) rights; and application of human rights theory to issues and cases involving civil and political rights, and rights to equality, security, subsistence, education, welfare, employment, and health care.
PHL 372 VALUES AND ECONOMICS
  An inquiry into the impact of values and beliefs on the generation of modern economic forces. Analyzing capitalism as a system of validation of beliefs and values, the course relates underdevelopment with the conflict between tradition and modernity. It then reflects on the conditions of change liable to promote global expansion.
PHL 373 PHILOSOPHY AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY
  Philosophical investigation into historical, social, and political dimensions of human diversity in its various manifestations. Topics include colonialism, racism, multiculturalism, nationalism, and democracy.
PHL 375 ETHICAL THEORY
  An examination of the significant ethical theories offered by historically significant philosophers along with some contemporary critiques of these theories. The theories examined will include virtue, deontological, and utilitarian approaches.
PHL 440 SEMINAR - ADVANCED PROBLEMS IN PHILOSOPHY
  Detailed examination of some of the more technical problems of philosophy as well as those problems that arise in interdisciplinary settings upon which philosophers have brought their technical skills to bear. May be repeated when topic varies.
PHL 451 SEMINAR - INDIVIDUAL PHILOSOPHERS
  Detailed examination of the thought of an individual philosopher (e.g., Aquinas, Kant, Rawls, Quine) who is of sufficient importance to warrant special study. May be repeated when topic varies.
PHL 461 SEMINAR - CONTEMPORARY EPISTEMOLOGY
  Study of recent philosophical work in the theory of knowledge inclusive of scepticism, knowledge and belief, evidence and justification, theories of perception and knowledge, human interests and valuation.
PHL 462 SEMINAR - CONTEMPORARY ETHICS
  Study of recent philosophical work in ethics inclusive of an analysis of ethical concepts, theories of normative ethics, theories of human action, and moral justification.
PHL 463 SEMINAR - CONTEMPORARY METAPHYSICS
  Study of recent work in metaphysics inclusive of the nature of metaphysics, causality, free will and determinism, personal identity and the theory of mind and body.
PHL 477 HONORS THESIS PROJECT
  First of two courses leading to the selection, design, investigation, and completion of an independent, original Honors Thesis project under the guidance of a faculty research advisor. Restricted to students in the University Honors Program with permission of the program director and departmental chairperson. Students pursuing an interdisciplinary thesis topic may register for three semester hours each in two separate disciplines in consultation with the department chairpersons.
PHL 478 HONORS THESIS PROJECT
  Second of two courses leading to the selection, design, investigation, and completion of an independent, original Honors Thesis project under the guidance of a faculty research advisor. Restricted to students in the University Honors Program with permission of the program director and departmental chairperson. Students pursuing an interdisciplinary thesis topic may register for three semester hours each in two separate disciplines in consultation with the department chairpersons.
PHL 490 DIRECTED READINGS
  Guided independent study primarily for philosophy majors but open to students who have completed twelve semester hours in philosophy. Normally three semester hours but in certain cases the chairperson may approve one, two, or four semester hours. May be repeated when topic changes.
PHL 492 DIRECTED RESEARCH
  Faculty-directed research for philosophy majors who have completed all 300-level requirements and at least one 400-level seminar. Students will write a substantial paper in relation to this research.
PHL 495 INTERNSHIP
  Supervised practical and professional experience related to philosophy for philosophy majors who have completed prescribed course work. May be repeated to a maximum of three semester hours. Grading Option Two only.

*All material derived from the current issue of the University of Dayton Bulletin.
*Subject to Change




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