Philosophy

• 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 458: Crime and Punishment: Philosophical Perspective
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous PH courses, or consent of instructor; CASPH 350, First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) - This course explores philosophical questions about the criminal justice system, both in its ideal form and as it exists today. We 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 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: The Individual in Community, Social Inquiry 2, Writing-Intensive Course.
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  • The Individual in Community
  • Social Inquiry II
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• 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.
• CAS PH 465: Philosophy of Cognitive Science
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: Two previous PH courses, or consent of instructor. - This course focuses on the blurry boundaries between philosophical and scientific study of the mind. Philosophers sometimes appeal to findings from empirical psychology to support views in philosophy of mind and epistemology. To what sorts of philosophical debates are empirical findings about the mind relevant? To what extent should we allow these findings to constrain our philosophical theorizing? Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Critical Thinking, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Scientific Inquiry 2.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
  • Scientific Inquiry II
• CAS PH 468: Philosophical Problems of Logic and Mathematics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CASPH 360. - Amathematics” are used alongside the original material. Students learn to carry out techniques of working through of Godel’s famous 1931 paper on the incompleteness of arithmetic, alongside the proof of Turing’s 1936 proof of the undecidability of logic and Tarski’s analysis of the concept of truth for formalized languages. Warren Goldfarb’s “Notes on Metaarithmetization of syntax and understand the workings in the context of Godel’s proof, including the formalization of proof, consistency, and other metamathematical notions, and the concept of primitive recursivity. Effective Spring 2026, this course fulfills a single requirement in each of the following BU HUB areas: Critical Thinking, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Quantitative Reasoning 2.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
  • Quantitative Reasoning II
• CAS PH 470: Philosophy of Physics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous PH courses, or consent of instructor. - An introductory survey of fascinating problems in contemporary philosophy of physics. The basic ideas and main features of physical theories, which touch upon nature at its most fundamental level and interact most crucially with philosophy in general, are outlined, so that students will have a road map of the central problems in the field. Throughout, the driving theme is the entanglement of a radical revision in our conceptualization of the world (which is forced upon us by the changes in the physical picture of the world due to major developments in modern physics) with central philosophical. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Scientific Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
  • Scientific Inquiry I
• CAS PH 472: Philosophy of Biology
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous PH courses, or consent of instructor. - Conceptual problems in biology; unity or pluralism of science; hierarchy theory; biological explanation; evolutionary theory, teleology and casuality, statistical explanation; the species problem; mind and the brain; and language in animals and humans.
• CAS PH 476: Philosophy of the Earth Sciences: From Deep Time to the Anthropocene
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous PH courses, or consent of instructor. - Examines philosophical and methodological issues arising in the geosciences, from reconstructing events in deep time, proxy data, and the catastrophism-uniformitarianism debate, to analog and computer simulation modeling, and the Anthropocene debate, drawing examples from geology, archaeology, paleontology, and climate science. Effective Summer 2026, this course fulfills a single requirement in each of the following BU Hub areas: Critical Thinking, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Social Inquiry 1.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
  • Scientific Inquiry I
• CAS PH 485: Topics in Philosophy of Value
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPH 450 OR CASPH 451 OR CASPH 452 OR CASPH 453 OR CASPH 454 OR CASPH 455 OR CASPH 457) any one philosophy course from CASPH 450-457, or consent of instructor. - Topics vary from year to year. Topic for Spring 2021: What is happiness? How can we achieve a balanced, healthy, fulfilling life? Classical thinkers such as Aristotle, Plato, Chuang Tzu; Stoic, Confucian, Buddhist, Taoist paths; comparison with contemporary studies of happiness and mindfulness.
• CAS PH 487: Topics in the Philosophy of Science
  A discussion-based introduction to core issues in the philosophy of science, focusing on the topics of scientific realism, theory change, reductionism, explanation, models, and natural kinds.
• CAS PH 491: Directed Study
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing, consent of instructor and department, and a pproval of CAS Academic Advising. - Individual or small group tutorial instruction and directed research on selected topics.
• CAS PH 495: Philosophy and Mysticism: Jewish and Islamic Perspectives
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., CASEN 120 or WR 100 or WR 120). - A thematic introduction to mysticism and philosophy, with a focus on the dynamics of religious experience. Readings will be drawn from medieval Jewish and Islamic philosophy; Sufi mysticism and philosophy; Kabbalah, Sufi poetry, Hebrew poetry from the Golden Age of Muslim Spain. Effective Fall 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings.
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  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS PH 496: Topics in Religious Thought
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CASWR 120 or equivalent and one course from among the following: Religion, Philosophy, Core Curriculum (CASCC 101 and/or CC 102). - Topic for Spring 2025: Happiness, East and West. What is happiness? How can we achieve a balanced, healthy, fulfilling life? Classical thinkers such as Aristotle, Plato, Chuang Tzu; Stoic, Confucian, Buddhist paths; comparison with contemporary studies on happiness and mindfulness. Effective Spring 2023 this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings.
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  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS PH 525: Judith Butler
  Undergraduate prerequisites: two previous XL, WS, or PH courses; or consent of instructor. Graduate prerequisites: graduate standing. - An intensive study of Judith Butler's philosophical thought and social theory from the 1990s to the present, with an emphasis on the continuities and discontinuities between Butler's early work on gender performativity and more recent writings on racial justice, war, and violence.