Course Offerings
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Fall 2023▲
See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.
Introduction to Moral and Political Philosophy
PHIL 104 - Lamb, Matthew
The course provides a broad historical survey of moral and political philosophy. Students read selections from the work of a number of great women and men from the ancient to the contemporary period, dealing with questions of ethics and moral and political philosophy. We consider how philosophy can be way of life and how we can pursue wisdom through careful argumentation and analysis of the foundations of our beliefs about the world, morality, human nature, good and evil, government and society, justice, and equality.
Introduction to Theories of Knowledge and Reality
PHIL 105 - Kang, Li
An introduction to philosophy, covering the following puzzles and questions: Do we really know anything? What is time like? Is time travel possible? What are selves? Does God exist? Do we have free will? Students see how these big questions are pursued in both Western and Eastern traditions and how they impact everyday life. The main goal of this course is to develop rigorous and disciplined methods of thinking and writing. Emphasis is especially placed on developing the abilities to extract, present, explain, and evaluate positions and arguments.
Ancient Greek Philosophy
PHIL 110 - Taylor, Erin P.
An examination of the metaphysics of the pre-Socratic philosophers, especially the Milesians, Pythagoras, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno of Elea, and the Atomists, and the ethics and political philosophy of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Topics include the origin and nature of the kosmos , the nature and existence of the god(s), the trial and execution of Socrates, theories of virtue, the nature of knowledge and truth, justice and the ideal state, the nature of eudaimonia (happiness, flourishing), and the possibility of akrasia (weakness of the will).
Ethics and the Environment
PHIL 150 -
This course is a philosophical exploration of one's responsibilities to the natural world. It has three main objectives: first, to provide an understanding of different dominant ethical theories and their application to animals, plants, and ecosystems; second, to provide an understanding of major environmental issues in current political debates, such as climate change, species preservation, and sustainable development; and third, to facilitate the development of a student's own ethic towards the environment.
Introduction to Logic
PHIL 170 - Gregory, Paul A.
The study of argumentation and modern formal logic. This course explores the basic principles of deductive and inductive reasoning. Students learn to symbolize and evaluate natural language arguments. Topics covered include sentential and quantificational logic.
Philosophy of Law
PHIL 252 - Bell, Melina C.
An examination of topics in the philosophy of law, such as the concepts of a law and of a legal system; Natural Law theory; legal positivist and legal realist theories of law; the nature of the relationship between law, morality, and religion; civil disobedience; rights in the U.S. Constitution; freedom of speech and pornography; abortion and the right to privacy; punishment and the death penalty; and different forms of legal liability. Readings include United States Supreme Court opinions.
Philosophy of Race
PHIL 253 - Sun, Angela M.
In this course, students will explore philosophical questions about race and ethnicity. Possible topics include the experiences of racism targeting members of different racial groups, colonialism, the concept of "whiteness," the value of diversity, epistemic issues surrounding stereotypes and profiling, metaphysical questions about the nature of race, hate speech, and resistance to racial oppression.
Political Philosophy: The Social Contract
PHIL 260 - Taylor, Erin P.
Is the government's power over its citizens morally legitimate? Do citizens have any political obligations to their government? What is individual liberty and how should it be respected? How should a commitment to liberty be balanced against a concern for equality and the common good? Social Contract doctrine--to which the Declaration of Independence adverts--provides answers to these questions. This course surveys the Social Contract theories of three of the most influential political philosophers of the modern age, whose writings shaped our conception of the republic and its principles: Thomas Hobbes. John Locke, and Jean Jacques Rousseau.
Metaphysics: Existence and Reality
PHIL 274 - Kang, Li
Metaphysics concerns the most general questions about existence and reality. Discussions include spacetime, material objects, persons, abstract objects, and fictional objects. The course covers the general debate between realism and idealism, and also examines how metaphysics is developed in different traditions, especially contemporary analytic philosophy and Buddhist philosophy.
Seminar in Ethics and Value Theory: Love and Commitment
PHIL 396B - Sun, Angela M.
In this seminar, we will consider a series of questions about love and commitment. What does being committed to someone or something involve? What is the source of the normativity of our commitments? Is our partiality toward our loved ones morally permissible? Is the expectation of sexual fidelity in romantic relationships morally defensible? Why is heartbreak one of the worst pains a person can feel? Is our capacity to move on after loss and heartbreak a strength? Or does it reveal that our capacity for commitment is more fickle than we’d like? To answer these questions, we will draw from various philosophical traditions as well as literature, memoir, and film.
Honors Thesis
PHIL 493 - Gregory, Paul A.
Honors Thesis. The department honors program is outlined at https://www.wlu.edu/philosophy-department/about-the -department/about-the-major-and-the-minor/honors-pr ogram .
Spring 2023▲
See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.
Aesthetics
PHIL 264 - Quinonez, Omar
This course offers a wide-ranging, reflective overview of contemporary debates in the philosophy of art. We discuss the following kinds of questions: How are artistic experience and value interrelated? In what does beauty consist? What is the nature of aesthetic experience? Should we value works of art for what we can learn from them? How do pictures represent? What constitutes artistic expression? In what ways is the imagination involved in engaging with artworks? Can emotional responses to fiction be genuine and rational? Is artistic intention relevant to the interpretation of artworks? Are there general principles of aesthetic evaluation? What are the relations between the moral and aesthetic values of art?
Philosophy and Science Fiction
PHIL 272 - Goldberg, Nathaniel J.
Discussion of one or more major works in science fiction and in philosophy that explore related themes.
Seminar in Ethics and Value Theory: Philosophy of Capitalism
PHIL 296D - Zapata, Fernando R.
In this seminar, we will consider the philosophical foundations of capitalism. Classical liberal philosophers such as Adam Smith believed that capitalism, as an economic and social system, reduces material poverty, promotes education, democracy, and labor relations without domination and exploitation, overcoming societies ruled by a wealthy political elite in which a person's class position and social status are hereditary. Ideally, economic freedoms of property and contract, and free markets, should support the common good. We will discuss political economy, moral questions of economic justice, and social problems of market society, including wage inequality, poverty, alienated labor, commodification, money in politics, and competitive consumption.
Seminar in Ethics and Value Theory: Philosophy of Immigration
PHIL 296E - Lamb, Matthew
Students will examine important philosophical questions about human rights and ethics relating to immigration and refuge. What is the moral significance of citizenship and how might it inform answers to questions about obligations of states towards immigrants and refugees? When, if ever, does another nation acquire a moral obligation to provide citizenship to those outside of its own nation? What obligation does the original nation that a refugee is fleeing have towards its endangered citizens? Should there be a distinction between persecuted individuals as refugees and those fleeing for economic reasons? And if so, why? How should we prioritize offers of citizenship as new crises arise? Moreover, how should the moral importance of human dignity shape our answers to these questions?
Winter 2023▲
See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.
Introduction to Moral and Political Philosophy
PHIL 104 - Lamb, Matthew
The course provides a broad historical survey of moral and political philosophy. Students read selections from the work of a number of great women and men from the ancient to the contemporary period, dealing with questions of ethics and moral and political philosophy. We consider how philosophy can be way of life and how we can pursue wisdom through careful argumentation and analysis of the foundations of our beliefs about the world, morality, human nature, good and evil, government and society, justice, and equality.
Modern European Philosophy: Descartes to Hume
PHIL 120 - Goldberg, Nathaniel J.
An examination of some of the metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of religion of the European Enlightenment, including views of the rationalists Rene Descartes, Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia, and Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz; and the empiricists Catharine Cockburn, John Locke, and David Hume. Topics include skepticism about the external world, mind-body dualism, the existence and nature of God, theories of substance, personal identity, and causation.
Ethics and the Environment
PHIL 150 - Cooper, Gregory J. (Greg)
This course is a philosophical exploration of one's responsibilities to the natural world. It has three main objectives: first, to provide an understanding of different dominant ethical theories and their application to animals, plants, and ecosystems; second, to provide an understanding of major environmental issues in current political debates, such as climate change, species preservation, and sustainable development; and third, to facilitate the development of a student's own ethic towards the environment.
Introduction to Logic
PHIL 170 - Gregory, Paul A.
The study of argumentation and modern formal logic. This course explores the basic principles of deductive and inductive reasoning. Students learn to symbolize and evaluate natural language arguments. Topics covered include sentential and quantificational logic.
Introduction to Logic
PHIL 170 - Goldberg, Nathaniel J.
The study of argumentation and modern formal logic. This course explores the basic principles of deductive and inductive reasoning. Students learn to symbolize and evaluate natural language arguments. Topics covered include sentential and quantificational logic.
Heidegger and Being in the World
PHIL 218 - Kosky, Jeffrey L.
Same as REL 218. An exploration of the work of Martin Heidegger and the development of its themes in select philosophers, literary artists, and/or film makers. A close reading of the magisterial account of being in the world in Being and Time is followed by careful study of representative essays from his later work. After our reading of Heidegger, we consider the literary, cinematic, and/or philosophical work of major 20th- and 21st-century figures who let us reflect on the possibilities and/or problems that his account of being in the world poses for ethical, religious, and existential concern. Special attention this year is paid to the films of Terrence Malick.
Philosophy of Race
PHIL 253 - Sun, Angela M.
In this course, students will explore philosophical questions about race and ethnicity. Possible topics include the experiences of racism targeting members of different racial groups, colonialism, the concept of "whiteness," the value of diversity, epistemic issues surrounding stereotypes and profiling, metaphysical questions about the nature of race, hate speech, and resistance to racial oppression.
Poverty, Equity and Empathy
PHIL 262 - Pickett, Howard Y.
Same as POV 262. What role, if any, should the increasingly common, yet contested, concepts of "equity" and "empathy" play in understanding and addressing poverty and inequality in ways that respect the dignity of every person? This course asks students to define, examine, and evaluate both concepts as tools for working toward a more just world. Students will apply the concepts to an inequity or inequality important to them.
Epistemology: Knowledge and Doubt
PHIL 278 - Gregory, Paul A.
An examination of the basic problems in epistemology with an emphasis on contemporary discussions. Topics include skepticism, knowledge, justification (foundationalism, coherentism, reliabilism), relativism, and rationality.
Seminar in Ethics and Value Theory: Care and Concern in Philosophy
PHIL 296C - Quinonez, Omar
This class will pay close attention to the experience of care and concern. The German philosopher Martin Heidegger believed care to be the most fundamental of human moods in that it entirely colors how we see our lives and world. Throughout the term, we will look at key aspects of this mood, including its psychological basis and its intimate role in facilitating meaning at the individual, interpersonal, and social levels. What makes something matter to us? What does it mean to be concerned for our future plans? What is the best way to care for our loved ones or the planet? Do our societies reflect our caring character? In our discussions, we will pay particularly close attention to the meaning of “care of the self,” concern for our bodies, our public spaces, and the responsibilities to care for others, including strangers. By the term’s end, we will have a reasonable grasp of how and why care and concern lie at the very basis of all meaning and purpose.
Legal Ethics
PHIL 348 - Cooper, Gregory J. (Greg)
An examination of the issues associated with lawyers' roles in society and their impact upon and obligations to the client, the court, and the legal profession. The course also addresses questions of the role and function of law and the adversary system.
Decision Theory
PHIL 371 - Sun, Angela M.
In this course, students will explore ways that rational decision making both by individuals and groups has been modeled in philosophy, political science, economics, and other social sciences. Potential topics include the notion of credence or subjective probability, expected utility theory, game theory, voting systems, risk, time discounting of goods, representation theorems, the Dutch Book theorem, and debates between causal and evidential decision theorists. In addition to learning the formal methods of decision theory, students will explore debates in contemporary decision theory.
Seminar in History of Philosophy or Major Figures: John Dewey
PHIL 395E - Zapata, Fernando R.
In this seminar, we will study the later essays of John Dewey, America's leading public intellectual and social critic in the early twentieth century. Dewey, as a pragmatist, attempts to work out how social and political issues can best be engaged philosophically, addressing, for example, the nature and purpose of public education, the uses of scientific power, and democratic politics, all within modern capitalist societies. Philosophical thinking, for Dewey, begins in the struggles and hopes of people, not just the Western canon. We will consider Dewey's essays on public affairs in his day that prove relevant today.
Directed Individual Study: Advanced Logic
PHIL 403A - Gregory, Paul A.
Honors Thesis
PHIL 493 - Gregory, Paul A.
Honors Thesis. The department honors program is outlined at https://www.wlu.edu/philosophy-department/about-the -department/about-the-major-and-the-minor/honors-pr ogram .