Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• CAS PH 416: Hegel
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPH310) and two courses in philosophy above the 100 level or consent of the in structor. - A study of Hegel's systematic philosophy, focusing on one or more of his works.
• CAS PH 418: Marx and Marxism
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous PH courses, or consent of instructor. - Marxism is treated as a conceptual framework for understanding history and society, as a critique of capitalism and a program of transforming it, with an analysis of both its philosophical and ethical presuppositions. The evolution of its theoretical bases is critically examined. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Historical Consciousness
  • Social Inquiry I
• CAS PH 419: Nietzsche
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CASPH 310 and two other philosophy courses, or consent of instructor. - This course responds to the current moment in American political culture by exploring why we're so polarized and how knowledge and ignorance are shaped by social organization and psychology. The course begins by studying theories of misinformation, echo chambers, tribalism, and populism (including Trumpism) before entering into debates about politically contentious topics such as trans rights, immigration, and policing.
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  • Historical Consciousness
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
• CAS PH 422: Analytic Philosophy
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: successful completion of CAS PH 360, or equivalent knowledge of quanti fication theory. - An examination of some aspects of the development of twentieth-century analytic philosophy, with an emphasis on works by Frege, Russell, the Logical Empiricists (also known as Logical Positivists), and Quine.
• CAS PH 424: Wittgenstein
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CASPH 310 and two other philosophy courses, or consent of instructor. - An intensive (line by line) study of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations.
• CAS PH 426: Phenomenology
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous PH courses, or consent of instructor. First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120). - Rigorous examination of foundations of philosophical phenomenology in Husserl and others. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Writing-Intensive Course, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings.
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  • Oral and/or Signed Communication
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS PH 427: Heidegger and Existential Philosophy
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two philosophy courses. - This course critically examines what, in the case of human beings, it means to be, based upon Heidegger's "existential" posing of this question in his early, but unfinished work, Being and Time. Effective Spring 2026, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Research and Information Literacy, The Individual in Community.
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  • The Individual in Community
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
  • Research and Information Literacy
• CAS PH 436: Gender, Race, and Science
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous PH courses, or consent of instructor. - The goal of this course is to come to a deeper understanding of the concepts of race and gender, the problematic roles they played in the history of philosophy and history of science, and what roles they still play today. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Social Inquiry I
• CAS PH 442: Philosophy and Feminism
  Undergraduate prerequisites: two courses in philosophy or consent of instructor. An advanced survey course of historical and contemporary philosophical approaches to feminism. Topics include: methodology, ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, black feminist thought, decolonial feminism, global feminism, philosophy of gender, and queer and trans philosophy.
• CAS PH 443: Philosophy of Mind
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two courses in philosophy or consent of instructor. - 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 445: The Philosophy of Love
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two philosophy courses, or consent of instructor. - What is love? What different forms does it take (e.g., parental love, romantic love)? Is love non-rational or are there reasons of love? We aim to answer these and other philosophical questions by focusing on contemporary philosophical writings on love. Effective Summer 2026, this course fulfills a single requirement in the following BU HUB area: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings.
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  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
• CAS PH 446: Philosophy of Religion
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPH300 & CASPH310) - Critical investigation of the limits of human knowledge and the theoretical and practical demands for meaning attached to notions of God, providence, immortality, and other metaphysical conditions of human thriving, from Plato to modern philosophies of religion. Effective Spring 2022 this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
  • Social Inquiry I
• CAS PH 452: Ethics of Health Care
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPH350) and two other philosophy courses, or consent of instructor (PH 150 and PH 251 are recommended). - 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 453: Classical to Early Modern Political Theory
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPH350) - Focuses on philosophical subjects relevant to ethics and politics, such as virtue and happiness; human nature and reason; qualifications of leadership; aims and means of civic education; and conceptions of law (man-made, natural, divine). Texts by Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Machiavelli. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Ethical Reasoning, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
• CAS PH 456: Topics in Philosophy and Religion
  Topic for Fall 2026: Heidegger’s Lectures on the Phenomenology of Religion. We slow-read Heidegger's Winter 1920-21 lectures and related philosophical and theological literature. Among the authors Heidegger engages is the Apostle Paul, who remains a major figure in late 20th- and early 21st-century political theology. We read Heidegger to understand why Paul has remained vital. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
• CAS PH 458: Crime and Punishment: Philosophical Perspectives
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous PH courses, or consent of instructor. First Year WritingS eminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) - This course will explore philosophical questions about the criminal justice system, both in its ideal form and as it exists today. We will examine historical and contemporary writings on punishment, focusing on concepts of punishment, justifications for punishment, preventative detention, the death penalty, and alternatives to punishment. We will also ask how deep historical and contemporary injustices, including institutionalized racism, affect how we should theorize about institutions of punishment, their possible reform, or perhaps even their abolition. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, The Individual in Community, Social Inquiry II.
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  • The Individual in Community
  • Social Inquiry II
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS PH 459: Political and Legal Philosophy
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. - Examination of the individual's responsibilities under law, specifically of the idea that there is a general moral obligation to obey the law, including unjust law, and the contrasting idea of civil disobedience-- the possibility of morally justified resistance to law. Also offered as CAS PO 499.
• CAS PH 460: Epistemology
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPH310 & CASPH360) - An examination of some of the central questions concerning the nature, scope, sources, and structure of knowledge.
• CAS PH 461: Mathematical Logic
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASMA293) or consent of instructor. - The investigation of logical reasoning with mathematical methods. The syntax and semantics of sentential logic and quantificational logic. The unifying Godel Completeness Theorem, and models of theories. A look at the Godel Incompleteness Theorem and its ramifications. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings.
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  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
• CAS PH 462: Foundations of Mathematics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPH461) or consent of instructor. - Axiomatic set theory as a foundation for, and field of, mathematics: Axiom of Choice, the Continuum Hypothesis, and consistency results. Also offered as CAS MA 532.