Course List

This course is a study of the logical principles of critical thinking and the typical forms of valid and invalid reasoning.

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This course is an introduction to philosophy based on a reading of representative texts from the philosophical tradition. The issues connecting the texts to be read center on the nature of human being and experience.

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Examines major developments in the history of Western political thought from the ancient Greeks and Romans through the Christian period up to the Renaissance, with particular attention given to key writings by Plato, Aristotle, Augustine and Aquinas. Examines themes such as the justice, the state, politics, plurality, constitutionalism, power, war and the individual.

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Examines the major social and political ideas developed in the modern era, focusing on select writings of major political philosophers such as Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx and Nietzsche.

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A historical and systematic study of the structure and normed character of the various relationships between human beings and their environment. The ethical, aesthetic, or metaphysical ramifications of certain major environmental problems such as pollution, overpopulation, or resource exhaustion will be considered.

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A study of some central themes and problems in metaphysics which arise out of contemporary work in these areas. The course attempts to show the relevance of these issues to other areas of life and study. Often opinions and attitudes are shaped by unspoken metaphysical prejudices. The course takes a critical look at such presuppositions.

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This course is an introduction to the theory of knowledge. Detailed examination is made of the concepts of justification, truth and belief. Particular attention is paid to the significance of philosophical skepticism for epistemology. Issues concerning the relativity and objectivity of knowledge, as well as debates about realism and anti-realism are also examined. Emphasis is placed on recent philosophical reflection on these issues, but students are also introduced to classical positions.

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A study of the major figures and philosophies in Pre-Socratic and classical Hellenic thought.

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An examination of some recent figures and movements in continental philosophy. Attention is given to philosophers such as Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Gadamer, Ricouer, Adorno, Habermas, Foucault and Derrida as well as to movements such as phenomenology, existentialism, philosophical hermeneutics, neo-Marxism, structuralism and post-structuralism. Attempts are made to discover historical connections not only among various philosophies but also between those philosophies and selected developments in the arts, the sciences and European society.

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The meaning and nature of science will be examined by means of a multidisciplinary dialogue. Students will be invited to understand the sciences in relation to each other, to the world, and to their faith commitments.

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A critical examination of the nature of morality by means of an analysis of classical and contemporary texts. Questions examined include: What is the nature of moral judgment? How are moral decisions justified? What is the relationship between virtue and moral behavior? What is the relationship between happiness and moral duty? Why be moral at all?

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The course introduces the student to the main figures and ideas in the history of philosophy from 350 A.D. to 1350 A.D. Beginning with Augustine and the Church Fathers, the course covers the development of philosophy in Western Europe through Aquinas and his immediate successors. Special attention is paid to such issues as the relation of faith and reason, the idea of Christian philosophy, and the concepts of divinity, creation, human freedom and sin.

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This course is a survey of the origins and development of philosophy from Descartes to Kant. Special attention is paid to the relationship between epistemological ideas and political, ethical and religious thought.

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This course is an attempt to lead students into an understanding and critical engagement of the central 19th Century debate among European philosophers between the idealists (represented most importantly by G.W.F. Hegel) who advocated an understanding of the world as a rational system, and their critics (of whom S. Kierkegaard is the most vivid example) who, in the name of an otherwise lost individuality, advocated an "irrational," personal basis for understanding and life. This course will engage this philosophical issue and period with an eye toward the ongoing implications of the debate for philosophy, but also for theology, and for the human sciences.

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This course will introduce students to the major themes of Nietzsche's philosophy. The course will focus on Nietzsche's account of morality and religion. The course will also examine his discussion of the causes and consequences of nihilism and the death of God, as well as the solution he proposes for overcoming nihilism (the overman and the eternal recurrence).

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An inquiry into selected philosophical issues concerning religion such as the presuppositions underlying various accounts of the origin of religion, the relationships among faith, reason and revelation, the possibility of giving a rational defense of religious belief, and such topics as the problem of evil, immortality and the supernatural.

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A course on a topic or figure of special interest to a member of the philosophy faculty and offered on a non-recurring basis.

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An in-depth examination and discussion of a specific topic in philosophy.

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All students with philosophy as a first subject of concentration in the B.A. program are required to take this course. Students develop skills in philosophical scholarship by preparing and presenting a written project involving interdisciplinary research on an appropriate topic.

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An opportunity to do intensive study on a special topic or figure of particular interest to the student. Students work closely with a member of the philosophy faculty in tutorial meetings. Students must apply in advance to a member of the philosophy faculty.

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