Spring 2004: Philosophy or Religion or Honors

Philosophy
PHIL 105/105G Western Philosophy
.001 MTH 3:35-4:50PM Ford, R
Wonder and Wilderness
The Western philosophical tradition emerged out of reflections on the order of nature, and nature has continued to serve as a source of inspiration for thought. In this class we will investigate both the ways that nature has been understood and the ways that nature has shaped our power of understanding. We will consider the ancient Greek experience of nature, conceptions of nature in the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment understanding of nature, as well as contemporary ideas of nature as our living environment. The course will conclude with a study of the importance of the American wilderness for philosophers in the 19th and 20th centuries.

.002 W 11:20-2:00PM Ford, R
Memory and the Mind/Body Problem
This class will introduce students to the central ideas and problems of the Western philosophical tradition through a consideration of one of its central debates: the relation of the mind and the body. One of the more interesting aspects of this debate is that investigations into the relation of the mind and the body are forced to provide an account of memory: a faculty that seems both physical (my memories seem to be ‘stored’ somewhere) and non-physical (memory is not just available for recall but colors my day-to-day experience). Some of the questions that we will pursue include: Can the mind be reduced to physiological processes in the brain? Is the mind or soul independent of the body? If so, how do they communicate with each other and coordinate their actions? Why do I consider myself to be a single being?

.003 TF 9:55-11:10AM Feder, E
The history of philosophy, like that of humanity, may be read as a history of love and desire. From the famous “Platonic love” that seeks wisdom to the historical desires that make up human consciousness for Hegel, from the medieval passion for God to the postmodern desire for Otherness, love and desire have been central to the philosophical constructions of human identity, moral meaning, and the very project of understanding. In this course we undertake a survey of Western philosophy from the perspective of love and desire, exploring the ways in which these terms have been understood and have in turn formed our philosophical understanding.

This course is a foundation-level course in the General Education Program, Area 2, Cluster 2: "Traditions that Shape the Western World".

PHIL 200 Introduction to Logic
.001 TF 9:55-11:10AM Redding, E
This beginning course introduces students to the study of formal logic and its relation to critical thinking and ordinary language. Logic has been an important part of the Western philosophical tradition at least since the time of Aristotle, and developments in the Twentieth Century have given us more powerful logical tools than were ever available before. We will learn to recognize “arguments” in ordinary language, to distinguish between inductive and deductive reasoning, to identify informal fallacies, and to determine the validity of deductive arguments through the use of truth tables, Venn diagrams, and the construction of formal proofs using both truth-functional and quantificational notation. The study of logic improves reasoning and analytical abilities, and provides intellectual skills that are helpful both in the conduct of daily affairs and as preparation for further study.

PHIL 220/220G Moral Philosophy
.003 MTH 3:35-4:50PM Lovering, R
Over the course of the semester, we will critically analyze the major classical and contemporary approaches to moral philosophy and their application to a number of contemporary moral problems, including human rights, homosexual rights, war and peace, environmental protection, abortion and euthanasia, AIDS, racial and gender justice, and hunger and poverty.

.002H TF 3:35-4:50PM Harre, R
(Open only to students in the University Honors Program.)
Attitudes to the most pressing issues of our own times will be addressed through studies of the basic conceptions of the basis of morality, proposed by philosophers of both East and West. The course will cover moral systems based on personal virtues, on the idea of duty, on the principle that morality can be defined in terms of human happiness, and so on. Students will be encouraged to engage in discussion and debate on such matters as capital punishment, euthanasia, the concept of a just war, and moral issues around human reproduction such as cloning and surrogacy. An introduction to the moral principles of the great Eastern thinkers, such as Confucius, Lao Tzu, and Gautama (the Buddha), will be a feature of this course. There will be a midterm and a final.

This course is a second-level course in the General Education Program, Curricular Area 2, Cluster 2: Traditions that Shape the Western World.

Prerequisites for General Education credit: Individual Freedom vs. Authority, Work and Community, Western Legal Tradition, Western Philosophy, or Religious Heritage of the West.

PHIL 230/230G Meaning & Purpose in the Arts
.001 MTH 11:20-12:35PM Ford, R
Censorship and the Power of Art
The mere existence of censorship is a clear indication of the power of art to affect people. That a painting, film, or even a piece of music can be deemed “dangerous” is a remarkable fact that indicates the importance of art for culture and political life. In this class we will investigate the relation of freedom and censorship as well as the different roles that censorship plays – and the different ends it serves – in our own culture and others. Our investigation will include the censorship of literature, film, painting, and music, as well as other forms of art. Whenever possible, we will combine our theoretical considerations with experiences of works of art that have been censored.

This course is a second-level course in the General Education Program, Curricular Area 1, Cluster 2: The Creative Arts.

Prerequisites for General Education credit: Art: The Historical Experience, Visual Literacy, Interpreting Literature, or Critical Approach to the Cinema.

PHIL 235/235G Theories of Democracy & Human Rights
.001 MTH 9:55-11:10AM Reiman, J
This course analyzes traditional western theories of democracy and of rights (both separately and in relationship to one another) as well as contemporary approaches, such as Habermasian, post-modern, feminist and critical race theory. It also considers the East-West debate on Human Rights.

This course is a second-level course in the General Education Program, Curricular Area 2, Cluster 2: Traditions that Shape the Western World.

Prerequisites for General Education credit: Individual Freedom vs. Authority, Work and Community, Western Legal Tradition, Western Philosophy, or Religious Heritage of the West.

PHIL 312/612 Recent Contemporary Philosophy: 20th Century Students of the Human Mind
.001 TF 12:45-2:00PM Harré, R
The Twentieth Century was rich in diverse attempts to characterize and to understand the human mind. In this course we cover the work of some of the most important thinkers: Pavlov, Freud, Foucault, Wittgenstein, Ryle, Vygotsky, Piaget, Levi-Strauss, Dewey, and Turing. Each contributed a distinctive perspective on the nature of persons and their cognitive and emotional capacities. The trends they initiated and the controversies sparked by their views will be highlighted.

PHIL 313/613 Studies in Asian Philosophy: Philosophy of Zen Buddhism
.001 M 5:30-8:00PM Park, J
This course is an in-depth examination of Zen Buddhist philosophy in four sections: Zen Mind, Zen Language, Zen action (ethics), and Zen ideology. The course has two objectives: to understand Zen Buddhist philosophy within its own tradition and to consider the meaning of Zen Buddhism in our time.

PHIL 316/616 Feminist Philosophy
.001 T 5:30-8:00PM Feder, E
Posing questions about what we can know, how we perceive, and how we experience our very bodies and interactions with the world is arguably the central preoccupation of philosophy. Canonical works such as the Confessions of Augustine and Rousseau, Descartes’ vivid first-person account of his quest for certainty, Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological investigation of embodied experience, and Sartre’s existentialist study of “the gaze” have historically placed narrative investigation of the nature of human experience at the center of the philosophical project. One way to understand the distinctive contribution of feminist philosophers and theorists of the late twentieth century is to see that body of work as telling “an(other)side of the story” that radically recasts conceptions of embodiment, identify, ethics, and the body politic. In this course, we will study feminist narrative approaches to these questions, underlining “the difference gender makes,” and furthermore examining how differences in race, class, and sexual orientation defy efforts to assert a single story of women, thereby revealing the dilemma at the heart of Beauvoir’s question, “What is a woman?”

Prerequisites: previous course in philosophy, previous course in WGS desirable.

PHIL 386/686 Selected Topics in Philosophy: The Enlightenment & Its Critics
.001 W 5:30-8:00PM Reiman, J and Levine, A
What was the Enlightenment? Was it a time of progress and illumination when society rose up against its repressive chains, or was it a naive and
misguided movement under whose curse we still suffer? What, if anything,
can be learned from it for today? This team-taught course attempts to arrive at a reasoned assessment of the contributions and the shortcomings of the European Enlightenment by examining the moral and political thought of several of the main Enlightenment thinkers. We will look at such texts as Montaigne's Essays, Spinoza's Ethics, Locke's Second Treatise of Government, Montesquieu's Persian Letters, as well as works by Diderot and Kant among others. The course aims to explore and analyze these thinkers' critiques of religion, their attitude toward skepticism, as well as their views of human nature, diversity and toleration, and their recommended political institutions. The works of critics of the Enlightenment, both from its time and our own, will also be considered.

PHIL 390/690 Independent Reading in Philosophy

Prerequisite: permission of instructor

PHIL 391/691 Internship in Philosophy
Park, J

Prerequisite: permission of instructor

PHIL 392/692 Cooperative Education Field Experience
Park, J

Prerequisite: permission of department chair and Cooperative Education office.

PHIL 486 Colloquium of Philosophy:
Reading Derrida: Who’s Afraid of Philosophy?
.001 T 8:10-10:40PM Park, J
(Meets 02/02-03/01/04 in Battelle 130.)
“Who has the right to philosophy today in our society? To which philosophy? Under what conditions?" Jacques Derrida writes. We will try to answer these questions through a close reading of Derrida's Who's Afraid of Philosophy? and explore Derridean concept of philosophy and its socio-historico-philosophical implications.

PHIL 490/690 Independent Study Project in Philosophy
Oliver, A

Prerequisite: permission of instructor and department chair.

PHIL 498 Honors Project in Philosophy
Oliver, A

Prerequisite: permission of department and University Honors Director.

PHIL 525 Modern Moral Problems
.001 TH 5:30-8:00PM Lovering, R
The central topic for this course is that of moral status, also referred to as moral standing. To have moral status is to be morally considerable; it is to be the kind of entity toward which moral agents have, or can have, moral obligations. We will begin the course by examining various theories of moral status. We will then apply these theories to three important issues in the debate on moral status: abortion, the treatment of non-human animals, and euthanasia. In all of this, we will be reading contemporary works by highly regarded philosophers. The questions to be considered in this course include: What are the necessary and sufficient conditions for having moral status? What kinds of entities have moral status? For those entities that possess moral status, to what degree do moral agents have moral obligations towards them? Do human fetuses have moral status? If so, to what degree do they have it? Do non-human animals have moral status? If so, to what degree do moral agents have moral obligations towards them? What about humans who are terminally ill and suffering greatly? What are our moral obligations toward such individuals?

PHIL 797 Master's Thesis Seminar

Prerequisite: permission of department chair.

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Spring 2004
Religion
RELG 105/105G Religious Heritage of the West
.001 MTh 11:20-12:35PM Lovering, R

This course is a foundation-level course in the General Education Program, Curricular Area 2, Cluster 2: Traditions that Shape the Western World.

RELG 185/185G Forms of the Sacred
.001 MTH 9:55 - 11:10AM Park, J
.002 MTH 2:10-3:25PM Park, J
Since we live in both the global village and in our own national, but multicultural, universe, some knowledge of Eastern religions can be a real asset. The course covers three major religious traditions: the traditions developed in South Asia which form Hinduism, Buddhism as it developed in India and is transformed in East Asia, and the indigenous religious traditions of China and Japan. Throughout the course, the manifestations of religion in both high and popular culture and religion’s influence on issues of gender, social structure, and personal behaviors will be addressed.

This course is a foundation-level course in the General Education Program, Curricular Area 3, Cluster 2: Global and Multicultural Perspectives.

RELG 210/210G Non-Western Religious Traditions
.001 MTH 2:10-3:25PM Rodier, D
.002H MTH 9:55-11:10AM Rodier, D (Open only to students in the University Honors Program.)
Hinduism has a very rich tradition of religious stories and symbols which is over three thousand years old. In this course we shall explore the complex cosmologies of the Puranas, the main narratives of two of the greatest epic poems ever written - the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, and we shall develop a visual vocabulary which will help in understanding the rich iconography of Hindu visual arts and Hindu dance traditions. In all of our work we shall attempt to fathom the profound religious vision being presented and understand its relationship to the social and political issues of the present day.

This course is a second-level course in the General Education Program, Curricular Area 3, Cluster 2: Global and Multicultural Perspectives.

Prerequisites for General Education credit: Culture: The Human Mirror, Third-World Literature, Forms of the Sacred, Cross-Cultural Communication, Views from the Third World.

RELG 220/220G Religious Thought
.001 TF 2:10-3:25PM Greenberg, G
The history of Christian thought, according to representative thinkers and essential issues. Thinkers include the Church Fathers (Tertullian, Origen), Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, John Wesley; and in the modern period, Schleiermacher and Bultmann. Issues include: The nature of man's relationship to God; reason and revelation, history and the kingdom of God, holy scripture and myth, and martyrdom.

This course is a second-level course in the General Education Program, Curricular Area 2, Cluster 2: Traditions that Shape the Western World.

Prerequisites for General Education credit: Individual Freedom vs. Authority, Work and Community, Western Legal Tradition, Western Philosophy, or Religious Heritage of the West.

RELG 372/672 Religion in America
.001 TH 8:10-10:40PM Greenberg, G
This course surveys America’s religions beginning with Christianity and Judaism and continuing through contemporary developments of Islam and Buddhism. The course also examines Native American religions, Puritanism, Mormonism, Catholicism, AME, Seventh Day Adventism, and Freemasonry.

RELG 390/590 Independent Reading Course in Religion

Prerequisite: permission of department chair.

RELG 490/690 Independent Study Project in Religion

Prerequisite: permission of department chair.

RELG 498 Honors Project in Religion
(pen only to students in the University Honors Program.)

Prerequisite: permission of department chair and university honors director.

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Spring 2004
HONORS
HNRS 302 Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence: Philosophical Introduction
.003H TF 9:55-11:10AM Harré, R
(Open only to students in the University Honors Program.)
Psychology is undergoing rapid changes, and in this course we look closely at the philosophical foundations of recent developments. The course consists of four modules:
1. Philosophy and Science. Philosophy of science is concerned with presuppositions of practices of particular sciences.
2.The Search for a Scientific Psychology. Three major schemes will be covered: psychology as the science of mental substance, as a science of material substance, and as a biological science; the mentalism of Descartes, the materialism of Le Mettrie, and the cognitivism of Bruner.
3. The Basic Principles of Artificial Intelligence. An elementary introduction to the computational model, including a survey of some practical and theoretical problems with this model, such as the status of Turing Machines and the Chinese Room argument.
4. Hybrid Psychology. A synthesis of discursive analysis and connectionist modelling leads to a study of the foundations of neuropsychology, including the working through of a detailed application of the hybrid method.

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