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Philosophy Course Descriptions

PHIL 200 Knowledge and Reality (2)
Overview of the contours of a world and life view coupled with more detailed critical analysis of perennial and foundational issues in epistemology (the nature of truth and knowledge) and metaphysics (the nature of reality: persons, the world, and God), such as our capacity to know, perform free actions, or survive death. Liberal Arts Foundation - Philosophical Foundation.

PHIL 201 Ethics (2)
Critical analysis of alternative theoretical frameworks of historical significance in terms of which humans have struggled to understand the nature of goodness and the process of ethical decision making, with close attention to the nature and sources of character (personal excellence: virtue and vice) and the foundations of morality. Liberal Arts Foundation - Philosophical Foundation.

PHIL 202 Metaphysics, Morality, and Mind (4, F, S)
Critical analysis of the contours of a world and life view coupled with more detailed critical analysis of perennial and foundational issues in epistemology (the nature of truth and knowledge)metaphysics (the nature of reality: persons, the world, and God), and ethics (the nature of goodness and the process of ethical decision making, with close attention to character—virtue and vice—and the foundations of morality). Liberal Arts Foundation - Philosophical Foundation.

PHIL 210 Community, Ideology, and the Environment (3)
(See description under Off-Campus Programs-Adirondack section.) Liberal Arts Foundation - Philosophical

PHIL 223 Critical Thinking (2, F)
Introduction to basic argument analysis and informal fallacies, with special emphasis on how to recognize, analyze, and evaluate arguments expressed in everyday, ordinary language.

PHIL 224 Formal Logic (2, F)
Introduction to deductive inference via the formal languages of modern philosophical logic. Will include truth functional propositional logic and quantified predicate calculus, with perhaps some modal logic.

PHIL 241 History of Philosophy I: Ancient and Medieval (4, F)
Survey of intellectual history from early Greek through late Medieval thought. Includes Pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle, Epicureans, Stoics, Augustine, Aquinas, Scotus, and Ockham. Readings include both primary and secondary sources. If combined with PHIL 242, meets both Liberal Arts Foundation - Philosophical Foundations and Liberal Arts Exploration - Humanities.

PHIL 242 History of Philosophy II: Modern and Contemporary (4, S)
Survey of intellectual history from early modern through twentieth century and postmodern thought. Includes Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant, as well as major figures and movements from the 19th and 20th centuries. Readings include both primary and secondary sources. If combined with PHIL 241, meets both Liberal Arts Foundation - Philosophical Foundations and Liberal Arts Exploration - Humanities.

PHIL 250 Aesthetics (2, OD)
A philosophical study of art and aesthetic experience. The nature of beauty, the nature of art, the interpretation and aesthetic evaluation of art, and art in its ethical dimension are topics covered via readings drawn from historical and contemporary sources. Though the visual arts of painting and sculpture will be the focus, other art forms, such as music, dance and drama, are examined as well.

PHIL 260 Introduction to Political Thought (3, F)
Introduces students to Western political thought from the ancient to the modern world through a close reading of important thinkers. By considering problems of community, obligation, order, justice, liberty, and freedom, the course equips students for careful normative reflection on public life.

PHIL 300 Christianity and Postmodernism (3, F)
(See course description in Off-Campus Programs-Australia section.)

PHIL 306 Varieties of Postmodernism (3, M)
Interdisciplinary analysis of the many faceted cultural phenomenon known as “postmodernism.” Moves from an initial starting point considering postmodernism as a reaction to various philosophical claims associated with modernity to the meaning and significance of postmodern ideas as they have been transposed into a variety of other contexts in the analytic humanities, literature, arts and sciences.

PHIL 315 Theory of Knowledge (4, S07)
Examination of contemporary perspectives on the nature and limits of human knowledge, as well as the concept of truth.

PHIL 326 Ethical Theory (4, S06)
Analysis of traditional normative theories (formalism, consequentialism, and virtue ethics) through the reading of primary sources. Also explores developments in contemporary moral theory.

PHIL 350 Reason and Religious Belief (2, F)
Analytic approach to philosophic thought regarding some of the concepts and beliefs of Christian theism. Attention given to arguments for the existence of God, the problem of evil, and the roles of faith and reason in religious belief.

PHIL 360 History and Philosophy of Science (4, F06)
Survey of the rise of western science from its origins in antiquity to the present, addressing both the content and methods of science in each major period. Major figures considered include Aristotle, Galen, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, Boyle, Newton, Lavoisier, Darwin, and Einstein. A wide range of science fields will be surveyed and specific attention is given throughout to the interrelationships between science and other disciplines, the relationship between science and culture, and the interaction of science and religion.

PHIL 290, 390, 490 Special Topics (2, 3, or 4, OD)
Examination of specific movements or particular problems in philosophy, or themes in the history of ideas.

PHIL 414 Major Figures (2, 3, or 4, OD)
In-depth study of the thought of one or more figures with an emphases on critical analysis and evaluation of primary source material.

PHIL 191, -2; 291, -2; 391, -2; 491, -2 Independent Study (1, 2 or 3)

PHIL 495 Senior Capstone: Philosophy Colloquium (1, F, S)
A required capstone course for philosophy majors normally completed in one of the final two semesters of the student’s college experience. Prerequisite: A minimum of 18 hours in philosophy.

PHIL 496 Honors in Philosophy (3, S)