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Fall 2006 Courses
Listed by number for Fall of 2006
Lower Division Courses [go]
Note: Both 100- and 200-level courses are appropriate as a first course in Philosophy. You do not have to take a 100-level before taking a 200-level course.
- PHIL 123.01A &02A - Philosophy of Human Nature (HML) B Armstrong
- PHIL 130-02A Social Philosophy (HML) R McGraw
- PHIL 153.01A & 02A - Philosophy & Gender (HML) J Keller
- PHIL 180.01A - Great Issues (HML) D Beach
- PHIL 180.02A & 03A - Great Issues (HML) E Esch
- PHIL 243.01A - Environmental Ethics (HML) C Wright
- Honors 250C.01A Great Issues S Wagner
- PHIL 272.01A - Asian Philosophy (HML) C Wright
Upper Division Courses [go]
- PHIL 334.01A - Modern Philosophy (HMU) S Wagner
- PHIL 345.01A - Literature of Conflict (PCST or HMU) R McGraw
- PHIL 357.01A - Topics in Philosophy of Science (HMU) E Esch
- PHIL 359.01A - Moral Philosophy (HMU) A Cunningham
- PHIL 360.01A - Political Philosophy (HMU) E Garver
- PHIL 362.01A - Business Ethics (HMU) Staff
CORE Curriculum, Honors, etc. [go]
- HONR 310.01A - Great Books/Ideas (HMU) - D Beach
- HONR 350B-01A - Morality and Human Nature (HMU) - C Wright
- CORE 390.05A - Senior Seminar: Visions of the Good Life - S Wagner
- CORE 390.09A - Senior Seminar: Race and Justice in American Legal History - E Garver
Lower Division Courses
PHIL 123-01A & 02A - Philosophy of Human Nature
Instructor: Brian Armstrong
| Section 01A Days: 1-3-5 Time: 11:20 - 12:30 Place: HAB107 - CSB CORE: HML Banner CRN: 10785 |
Section 02A Days: 2-4-6 Time: 2:40 - 3:50 Place: HAB107 - CSB CORE: HML Banner CRN: 11223 |
This course will provide an introduction to philosophy by tracing several questions about human nature through a brief survey of the history of philosophy. We ask the same questions that philosophers have asked for millennia: What is it to be a human being? Is there some one human or essence? If so, what is it? What is the role of reason, the mind, the body, in human existence? How do individuals relate to their social group? What is the proper relationship between individual and community? What is the “good life” for human? We will begin our quest by looking at some of the classical texts of Western philosophy. The content of this course will focus primarily on the philosophy of Socrates, Plato, Descartes, Hobbes, and Hume.
PHIL 130-02A Social Philosophy
Instructor: Rene McGraw, OSB
Days: 2/4/6
Time: 9:40-10:50 a.m.
Place: Quad 361
CORE: HML
Banner CRN:
This course will introduce students to a philosophical way of thinking through the study of power and its relationship to social groupings, through the study of use of violence and nonviolence, through the study of authority, strength, power and civil disobedience within communities. The course raises issues of concern both for peace studies majors as well as students interested in either philosophy or peace studies. Texts: Aristotle, Arendt, Gandhi and Camus. Three test and several short papers.
PHIL 153-01A& 02A - Philosophy and Gender
Instructor: Jean Keller
| Section 01A Days: 2-4-6 Time: 1:00 - 2:10 Place: HAB120 - CSB CORE: HML, Gender Banner CRN: 10788 |
Section 02A Days: 2-4-6 Time: 2:40 - 3:50 Place: HAB120 - CSB CORE: HML, Gender Banner CRN: 10789 |
This course will bring a philosophical perspective to the examination of gender, race and ethnicity, sexual identity, and the interconnections among them. Questions to be considered include: What does a specifically philosophical perspective bring to consideration of the above? Are gender, sexual identity, and race socially constructed or biological givens? How centrally do these aspects of identity inform individuals’ experience of the self? What would it look like to truly treat people as individuals and give all persons equal consideration and equal rights in full acknowledgement of the differences among us?
PHIL 180-01A - Great Issues
Instructor: Dennis Beach, OSB
Days: 1-3-5
Time: 1:00 - 2:10
Place: Quad 349 - SJU
CORE: HML
Banner CRN: 10790
Is the way things appear to us the way they really are? If not, do we have any access to the way things really are? How? And if we don’t, how could we ever know or even suspect that the way things appear to us isn't perhaps the way they really are? These questions have been with philosophers ever since humankind began to wonder about themselves and the world they live in. And when the questions change from “What is true about the physical nature of the world?” to “What is beauty?” “What is goodness or virtue?” or “What am I doing with my life?” the problem becomes yet more urgent.
We will explore the relation of our knowing to the world first through a contemporary introduction to the problem, and then by looking at the stands taken by representative philosophers on the question of human knowing: Plato and Socrates, Rene Descartes, Bertrand Russell, and José Ortega y Gasset.
PHIL 180-02A & 03A - Great Issues
Instructor: Emily Esch
| Section 02A Days: 2-4-6 Time: 9:40 - 10:50 Place: Quad 360A - SJU CORE: HML Banner CRN: 11199 |
section 03A Days: 2-4-6 Time: 1:00 - 2:10 Place: Quad 343 - SJU CORE: HML Banner CRN: 11200 |
An introduction to philosophical questioning through a study of perennial issues in philosophy. Questions that might be treated: the nature of mind, knowledge, morality, language, and reality.
Topics in this course may be treated in the context of the great philosophers of the past or through a study of more contemporary writers.
PHIL 243-01A: Environmental Ethics
Instructor: Chuck Wright
Days: 1-3-5
Time: 9:40 - 10:50
Place: HAB 101
CORE: HML
Banner CRN: 10792
Environmental ethics was until relatively recently an oxymoron. There could be no such thing as “environmental ethics,” according to conventional wisdom, because humans had no ethical obligations to beings that were not human. However, the dominance of modern technology and industry and the unwanted (and largely unexpected) consequences of this dominance have caused modern humans to reconsider this comfortable assumption and to reflect on the values and moral convictions that structure our interaction with the nonhuman world. This class is an introduction to this process of reconsideration and reflection – we shall explore challenges and alternatives to traditional human-centered conceptions of morality. By taking a class in environmental ethics you will choose to engage in an ongoing process of inquiry that is of concern, quite literally, to every living being.
This class also represents an opportunity for you to prepare yourselves better for the responsibilities of democratic citizenship. Membership in a democratic society gives you a unique opportunity (and responsibility) to participate in a process of collective will formation that promises—for better or for worse—to shape the future of earth’s living systems.
Honors 250C-01A: Great Issues
[Open only to First-year Honors students, by invitation]
Instructor: Steve Wagner
Days: 1/3/5
Time: 11:20 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Place: Quad 361
CRN #: 10422
Throughout the ages, several issues have been central to the quest for philosophical insight about human existence. This course examines a number of those issues—free will vs. determinism, the making of moral judgments, the grounds for religious belief and other topics as time allows. Through careful reading of texts and through class discussion, we will critically analyze the ideas that philosophers have offered and will strive to formulate our over philosophical views on these issues.
PHIL 272-01A - Asian Philosophy
Instructor: Chuck Wright
Days: 2-4-6
Time: 8:00-9:10
Place: HAB 118 - CSB
CORE: HML
Banner CRN: 10794
This course introduces students to philosophical thinking through traditions of East Asian thought – Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. These traditions of thought and belief are native to India and China, and continue to this day profoundly to influence the cultures and societies of these nations. Through the study of these traditions, students will be introduced to conceptions of morality, human nature, and natural law that present striking and sometimes baffling contrasts to those taken for granted in the Western world. These conceptions include:
- Codes for morality that emphasize detachment from society, family, and possessions;
- Conceptions of human welfare that emphasize stillness, emotional balance, and intellectual contemplation;
- The idea that the human ego is an obstacle to wisdom and morality;
- The conviction that meditation is the surest way to achieve insight into the nature of God and reality;
- The idea that genuine insight into the nature of reality cannot be expressed through logic or language;
- The belief that time and existence have no beginning or end, but instead move in eternal cycles.
Reading will mostly include translations of ancient scriptures – the Bhagavad-Gita, selections from the Upanisads, selections from Theravad Buddhist scriptures, the Tao Te Ching, and Confucius’s Analects. We will finish the semester by reading Herman Hesse’s novel Siddhartha. Some secondary sources will be utilized to assist students’ understanding. While class discussion and interactive learning will be emphasized, the instructor will also lecture when it is appropriate.
Upper Division Courses
PHIL 334-01A - Modern Philosophy
Instructor: Steve Wagner
Days: 1-3-5
Time: 9:40 - 10:50
Place: Quad 361 - SJU
CORE: HMU
Banner CRN: 10795
We will look at the writings of some of the most important philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries. We will start with Descartes' investigation of the Rationalist foundations of human knowledge, and then look at the responses of the Empiricists--notably Hume--to the Cartesian project. We will then look at Kant's attempt to reconcile the two traditions. The course will involve careful critical examination of the central texts of these philosophers. The writing for the course will involve two major papers and a number of short analytical papers of the assigned readings
PHIL 345-01A - Philosophy and the Literature of Conflict
Instructor: Rene McGraw, OSB
Days: 2-4-6
Time: 11:20 - 12:30
Place: Quad 361 - SJU
CORE: HMU
Banner CRN: 10780
We all seem fixed in what seems real to us in our world. Is it possible for art—music, literature, sculpture, painting, photography, cinema—to shift our gaze, to see what we have not before seen? Even if art shifts our gaze, can it have a lasting effect on the way that we live in a world of conflict? Does art look to make people change their lives or only to let us see what we had not before seen? Or is it mainly concerned to prevent us from forgetting what we have once seen? Are the arts able to help us live more peacefully in a world of violence? The philosophical text for this course will be mainly Martin Heidegger’s Origin of the Work of Art. This text will be joined to poetry and novels and other forms of artistic expression.
PHIL 357-01A - Topics in Philosophy of Science
Instructor: Emily Esch
Days: 1-3-5
Time: 11:20-12:30
Place: Quad 347
CORE: HMU
Banner CRN: 11201
An examination of selected topics in the philosophy of the natural and social sciences. Possible topics include philosophical presuppositions of the sciences, models of explanation, induction and confirmation, causality, evolution, philosophy of psychology, and the nature of theoretical entities. Course can be repeated for credit with the approval of the department chair when content varies.
PHIL 359-01A - Moral Philosophy
Instructor: Tony Cunningham
Days: 2-4-6
Time: 9:40-10:50
Place: Quad 343
CORE: HMU
Banner CRN: 10797
Any moral philosophy worth its salt must address two most basic ethical questions: “How should I live?” and “What sort of person should I be?” This course takes a close look at four philosophical answers to these questions: Thomas Hobbes’ ethics of enlightened self-interest (Leviathan), John Stuart Mill’s greatest happiness principle (Utilitarianism), Immanuel Kant’s ethics of duty (Grounding for the Metaphysic of Morals), and Aristotle’s conception of human flourishing (Nicomachean Ethics). In addition to these classic texts, we shall also make use of contemporary philosophical readings, along with films and literature. Some of our literature may include Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, and Nick Hornby’s How to Be Good. Our films may include The Color Purple, Schindler’s List, Death and the Maiden, Dead Man Walking, and The Field.
PHIL 360-01A - Political Philosophy
Instructor: Eugene Garver
Days: 2-4-6
Time: 1:00-2:10
Place: Quad 361
CORE: HMU
Banner CRN #: 10798
Political Philosophy studies the relation between living well and living together. It asks for the connections between what it takes to live the best life and what it takes to live together with others. This course will combine the study of ancient and contemporary texts to formulate some ideas about what makes it so hard to live well and to live together. Students will practice articulating the philosophical principles and issues that emerge from reflection on practical problems such as slavery, war, coercion, and cooperation.
PHIL 362-01A - Business Ethics
Instructor: Brian Armstrong
Days: 1-3-5
Time: 9:40-10:50
Place: HAB 106
CORE: HMU
CRN #: 10799
This course is an upper-division seminar intended for students with some background in management, accounting, or economics. Examining the ethical legitimacy of market-based decisions provides the conceptual framework for this course. There is a widely accepted and influential perspective (often identified as the “classical model of corporate social responsibility”) which holds that business institutions (and the individuals within those institutions) fulfill their ethical responsibilities when they pursue profit within the law.
The first section of this seminar will analyze the ethical validity of this perspective, contrasting this classical model with a “stakeholder” theory of corporate social responsibility. A second section of the seminar will focus on business’ ethical responsibilities to employees (and employee responsibilities to business and society).A third section will examine business’ responsibilities to consumers, with a special focus on marketing ethics. A final section will consider more general social responsibilities of business, particularly with regard to environmental and equal opportunity issues.
Honors CORE, and Other Courses
HONR 310-01A - Great Books / Great Ideas Seminar
Instructor: Dennis Beach, OSB
Days: 1-3-5
Time: 11:20 - 12:30
Place: Quad 341
CORE: HMU
CRN #: 10423
This is a year-long discussion based seminar that concentrates on some of the world’s greatest works of literature, philosophy, and intellectual history. Authors may include Augustine, Euripides, Austen, Thoreau, Biblical writers, Camus, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Eliot, Faulkner, Pynchon, Freud, Homer, Kafka, Flaubert, Melville, Dinesen, Flannery O’Connor, Plato, Nabokov, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Virginia Woolf, and others. Preference will be given to Junior and Senior honors students who will complete the entire year. Registration is by permission of the instructor only. All students in this course purchase a personal library consisting of roughly 100 books, and students are required to read a number of works during the summer.
HONORS 350B-01A: Morality and Human Nature
(This course can count as a 300-level elective for Philosophy majors and minors)
Instructor: Chuck Wright
Days: 1-3-5
Time: 8:00-9:10
Place: HAB 118 - CSB
CORE: HMU,
Banner CRN: 10427
Humans have wondered about the basis of human morality since the beginning of recorded history. Some have argued that human morality is innate, a kind of “moral instinct;” others that it is a product of society; yet others that it is based on human rationality. Typically these three perspectives have been thought to be mutually exclusive and in competition with one another. This class will consider whether they might actually be compatible. For this purpose, we will study writings from several sources. One will be the tradition of evolutionary ethics, whose advocates suggest that human morality is at least in part the product of natural selection. Humans with a certain propensity for fair play, the argument goes, are more likely to survive and reproduce than those lacking this propensity. But evolution is also a cultural process. So we will also be reading the works of philosophers and social theorists who examine how moral values have evolved over time. Finally, we’ll also consider basic philosophical investigations into the rational roots of morality. By integrating all three perspectives on morality, we’ll be able to develop a robust understanding not only of how humans are “naturally” moral animals, but also of how it is possible for humans to behave badly as often as we do.
CORE 390-05A Senior Seminar: Visions of the Good Life
Instructor: Steve Wagner
Days: 1-3-5
Time: 9:40 - 10:50
Place: Quad 347
CORE: SSem
CRN #: 10955
This course will look at some of the most prominent moral views in the tradition of western philosophical thought. Our goal will be to consider whether these views provide adequate guides for living a good life. We will look at aspects of the moral theories of Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Hobbes, John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant, and Albert Camus. We will also investigate a number of views which claim to offer variations or alternatives to these classical western models, such as feminist thought and virtue ethics.We will use a number of literary texts in our attempt to gain moral insight, reading The Stranger, The Remains of the Day, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and The Plague. As we consider whether we can find guidance for our own lives in these readings, our focus throughout will be to develop in ourselves the ability to make good moral judgments.
CORE 390-09A/11A Senior Seminar: Race and Justice in American Legal History
Instructor: Eugene Garver
| Section 09A Days 2-4-6 Time 2:40-3:50 Place: Quad 343 Banner CRN: 11224 |
Section 011A Days: Monday Time: 6:00 - 9:00 PM Place: Quad 353 Banner CRN: 11244 |
This course will look at the history of racial equality as treated by the U.S. Supreme Court. Primary focus will be the three crucial cases of Dred Scott v. Sanford, Plessy v. Ferguson, and Brown v. Board of Education, but we will also extend the history a bit on both ends, looking at arguments about slavery at the founding of the Constitution, and at cases from the 50 years since Brown. We will try to put the legal history in a wider social context, and look at the changing meanings of equality over the last 200 years.