Philosophy

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  • CAS PH 411: British Empiricism
    A critical study of major texts of British Empiricists, with emphasis on Locke and Hume.
  • CAS PH 412: Philosophy of the Enlightenment
    A critical examination of that family of philosophical and political movements that called itself "the Enlightenment." Students analyze key texts by Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Smith, Rousseau, Voltaire, Diderot, Jefferson, Madison, Kant, and Hegel. Also offered as CAS PO 592 and CAS HI 514.
  • CAS PH 413: Kant
    A study of Kant's critical philosophy, focusing on one or more of his works.
  • CAS PH 415: Nineteenth-Century Philosophy
    Study of the important themes in the philosophy of Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche.
  • CAS PH 418: Marx and Marxism
    Philosophical foundation of Marxism and its development. Critical study of Marx's writings stressing questions of philosophy, political economy, science, and history. Emphasis on Marx's theory of relation of praxis to consciousness. Later (including contemporary) Marxists and critics. Also offered as CAS PO 498.
  • CAS PH 419: Nietzsche
    A study of Nietzsche's philosophy, focusing on one or more of his works.
  • CAS PH 422: Analytic Philosophy
    A survey of the basic works of twentieth-century analytical philosophy.
  • CAS PH 424: Wittgenstein
    An intensive (line by line) study of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations.
  • CAS PH 426: Phenomenology
    Rigorous examination of foundations of philosophical phenomenology in Husserl and Heidegger.
  • CAS PH 427: Heidegger and Existential Philosophy
    A study of the main topics of Heidegger's philosophy against the background of his interpretation of Husserl's phenomenology, Kant's transcendental philosophy, and ancient Greek philosophy, with an emphasis on the concepts of being, time, and truth.
  • CAS PH 436: Gender, Race, and Science
    Examines issues in feminist philosophy, philosophy of race, and philosophy of science. Is "race" a genuine scientific category or a social construct? How have views about gender and race changed? Why are there still so few women and minority scientists?
  • CAS PH 440: Metaphysics
    A survey of basic questions in contemporary metaphysics that may include reality, time, change, free will, personal identity, and causation.
  • CAS PH 441: Philosophical Idealism
    Introduction to the post-Kantian development of German idealism through analysis and critical discussion of texts by Fichte and Schelling.
  • CAS PH 443: Philosophy of Mind
    The topic is sentience, embodiment, and the brain. The aim is to develop a "neurophenomenological" approach to consciousness and embodied experience in cognitive science and the philosophy of mind.
  • CAS PH 446: Philosophy of Religion
    An examination of principal issues and topics in the philosophy of religion in the following two stages: first, a historical overview of the philosophy of religion as a discipline or subdiscipline of philosophy and theology; second, attention to the problems and challenges facing this discipline in the context of the comparative study of religions.
  • CAS PH 450: Types of Ethical Theory
    A survey of basic ethical theories including those in the Kantian, utilitarian, and virtue-ethics traditions.
  • CAS PH 451: Contemporary Ethical Theory
    An examination of twentieth-century English and American moral theories including those of Moore, Foot, Williams, MacIntyre, and Rawls.
  • CAS PH 452: Ethics of Health Care
    Medicine and health care offer a unique opportunity to explore the nature of humanity and the world and to ask fundamental questions concerning the nature of birth, life, and death, and what it is to be a person. Readings from both classical and contemporary writings in ethics, medicine, law, and public health policy.
  • CAS PH 454: Community, Liberty, and Morality
    Traces the contemporary movement known as Virtue Ethics, which has revived a characteristic approach to ethics of ancient Greek philoosphers such as Plato and Arsitotle. Focus on understanding VE's critique of modern approaches and on evaluating its advocates' positive claims.
  • CAS PH 455: Legal Philosophy
    A critical examination of ideas about the nature of law, duties of obedience and resistance, and legal interpretation, with an emphasis on modern theories. Because this course meets with a Law School course, its schedule follows the Law School's standard academic calendar. Also meets with CAS PO 496.

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