Fall 2023

PHIL 115-01T
Becoming a Person
Mon/Wed/Fri 9:10-10:05am with Charles Wright
CRN # 16692
(CI, GE, IC)

Who am I? What makes me, me? Who gets to say who I am? How do personal qualities, relations with others, and social categories like race, gender, gender identity, ethnicity and class come together to form my personal and social identity? How does who I am inform what I know and don’t know? Does who I am give me specific responsibilities? If so, what are they? This course introduces you to philosophical ideas that help you discover multiple dimensions of who you are.   

PHIL 115-02T
Becoming a Person
Mon/Wed/Fri 11:30am-12:25pm with Charles Wright
CRN # 16693
(CI, GE, IC)

Who am I? What makes me, me? Who gets to say who I am? How do personal qualities, relations with others, and social categories like race, gender, gender identity, ethnicity and class come together to form my personal and social identity? How does who I am inform what I know and don’t know? Does who I am give me specific responsibilities? If so, what are they? This course introduces you to philosophical ideas that help you discover multiple dimensions of who you are.   

PHIL 123-01T
The Human Animal
Mon/Wed/Fri 10:20-11:15am with Erica Stonestreet
CRN # 17482
(HE, T1)

What are humans like?  What is the purpose of human life?  These basic questions can be answered from different points of view and focused on different aspects of being human.  What does it mean to be a human animal?  Are we fundamentally selfish?  How should we live? 

​What is the role of reason in defining humanity?

What is a soul?  How can human life be meaningful?  This course is a survey designed to introduce philosophical ideas and modes of thought, with a central focus on problems arising from human nature. 

​Using a textbook that contains sources from "classic" European philosophy as well as ​from outside that tradition, we will analyze and criticize topics that fall under three major aspects of the human condition: body, mind, and spirit.  We’ll raise questions and discuss the implications of each topic for the meanings of our own lives, for how we ought to behave as individuals, and for how we should treat one another in order to build the best lives possible for ourselves.

PHIL 155-01
Reinventing Identity
Tues/Thurs 11:10am-12:30pm with Emily Esch
CRN # 16837
(CI, GE, IC)

This course explores philosophical questions on the nature of identity, with a special focus on gender, race, and ethnicity. The course considers how the historical evolution of racial, ethnic, and gender concepts influence our contemporary debates around topics like disparities in wealth/health/education/home ownership, immigration policies, issues of physical safety, and barriers to political participation. In addition to studying identity, we also work on developing critical thinking skills that help us compassionately discuss divisive social issues. We read Kwame Anthony Appiah’s The Lies That Bind and Maureen Linker’s Intellectual Empathy.

PHIL 321-01J
My Goodness!
Wednesdays 6:15-9:15pm with Tony Cunningham
CRN # 17281
(HE, T3, WR)

Whenever people think seriously about “ethics” or “morality,” they effectively put their minds to two basic questions: “How should I live?” and “What sort of person should I be?”  We’ll think about a handful of thoughtful philosophical attempts to answer these questions.  Though we’ll consider how classic philosophers like Hobbes, Hume, Mill, Kant, and Aristotle have answered these questions, our primary interest in consulting these sources will be to stir the pot of our own best thoughts.  We use film and literature to help tease out our thoughts about how to live and what sort of people to be. 

PHIL 339-01T
Confucius & Tao
Mon/Wed/Fri 1:50-2:45pm with Charles Wright
CRN #17278
(HE, T3)

Students will engage in close reading and discussion of foundational texts in the Chinese tradition of philosophy.   By exploring another civilization’s perspective on knowledge, reality, ethics, and political order, students will gain a fresh perspective on their own beliefs and habits of mind, learning an entirely new way of thinking about themselves and the world.  The class starts with the ethical and political teachings of the Analects of Confucius and the Mencius.  We then turn to the Daoist teachings on knowledge and reality as found in Laozi’s Daodejing and the Zhuangzi. 

PHIL 363-01A
Scientific Revolution
Tues/Thurs 2:20-3:40pm with Emily Esch
CRN # 17279
(ES, CS, WR)

The course is designed to explore the effects of scientific revolutions on our sense of self and human nature. We examine three time periods, the Scientific Revolution of 17^th century, the Darwinian Revolution of the 19^th century, and the rise of neuroscience in our own time. Throughout the semester, we will be paying close attention to both epistemological issues (how people understand the nature of truth and knowledge – What can we know? How do we know?) and metaphysical ones (the ultimate nature of reality – What kinds of beings are humans? How should we understand the relationship between minds and bodies?). We’ll be reading both scientists and philosophers and seeing how philosophical conceptions of human nature shaped the methodologies and practices of science as well as how the scientific discoveries forced philosophers to rethink key ideas about human nature.

This is a Cultural and Social Differences course. The first unit has a special focus on gender. We’ll explore the ways that gender conceptions shaped ideals of the Scientific Revolution. The second unit has a special focus on race and ethnicity. We’ll examine the rise of scientific racism during the 19^th and 20^th centuries and the eugenics movement. The final unit will look at efforts by cognitive scientists to critically examine their methods and practices in light of science and medicine’s history as exclusionary disciplines.