Last updated April 22, 2024.
All course offerings can be confirmed on the Directory of Classes and are subject to change. Please check this page and the Directory of Classes for updates. Past course offerings can be found in the Courses dropdown menu.
*NOTE* MA and PhD students in the Department of Philosophy cannot count an undergraduate course towards their degree.
Undergraduate Courses
Undergraduate Lectures
PHIL S3350 Existentialism
J. Hamilton
Session B July 1-August 9, 2024
TR 1:00pm-4:10pm; 716 Philosophy Hall
A survey of major themes of Existentialist philosophy in Europe from the mid 19th century to the mid 20th century, this class will focus on Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Sartre and their influences on philosophical conceptions of the human being and the form of its freedom, and the consequences of anxiety, nihilism, and despair in the face of death.
PHIL S3411 Introduction to Symbolic Logic
S. Burns
Session A May 20-June 28, 2024
MW 9:00am-12:10pm; 716 Philosophy Hall
Advanced introduction to classical sentential and predicate logic. No previous acquaintance with logic is required; nonetheless a willingness to master technicalities and to work at a certain level of abstraction is desirable.
PHIL S3551 Philosophy of Science
L. Clark
Session B July 1-August 9, 2024
TR 9:00am-12:10pm; 716 Philosophy Hall
Philosophical problems within science and about the nature of scientific knowledge in the 17th-20th centuries. Sample problems: causation and scientific explanation; induction and real kinds; verification and falsification; models, analogies and simulations; the historical origins of the modern sciences; scientific revolutions; reductionism and supervenience; differences between physics, biology and the social sciences; the nature of life; cultural evolution; human nature; philosophical issues in cosmology.
PHIL S3601 Metaphysics
N. Betz-Richman
Session B July 1-August 9, 2024
MW 1:00pm-4:10pm; 716 Philosophy Hall
This course will survey topics in contemporary metaphysics. We will focus on material objects, time, modality, causation, properties, and natural kinds. We will begin by considering what objects there are in general (ontology) and what to say about certain puzzling entities (such as holes). Then we will turn to debates about material objects and puzzles about composite objects and the notion of parthood. Next is the issue of how material objects persist over time and survive change in their parts. We shall consider two important views on persistence. We then turn to two issues related to persistence: personal identity over time, and puzzles about time travel. This will lead us into the next part of the course on modality and causation, which concerns the notions of possibility, necessity, laws of nature, and causation. We will consider different views about 'possible worlds'. We will then consider the nature of laws and causation and then turn to the problem of free will. We will look at debates in the metaphysics of properties between realists and nominalists about properties. Then we'll consider causal powers, dispositions, and natural kinds. The section will conclude with problems about the metaphysics of socially constructed kinds such as race or gender.
PHIL S3701 Ethics
Q. Cao
Session A May 20-June 28, 2024
TR 9:00am-12:10pm; 716 Philosophy Hall
Sessions held on 6/25 and 6/27 have been cancelled. Make up sessions will be held on 5/31 and 6/14. Please plan accordingly.
Prerequisites: One philosophy course This course is mainly an introduction to three influential approaches to normative ethics: utilitarianism, deontological views, and virtue ethics. We also consider the ethics of care, and selected topics in meta-ethics.