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Course Criteria
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3.00 Credits
An examination of central Issues in metaphysics. Topics include existence, the relationship between an object and its properties, time, space, persistence, and cause and effect. Topics may also include the nature of possibility, actuality, and necessary, and discussions about why anything exists at all. Goldberg.
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3.00 Credits
A close examination of the writings of some of the philosophers who have shaped modern ethical thought, including St. Thomas Aquinas, Niccolo Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, and John Stuart Mill. Topics include theories of Natural Law; the social contract; the origin and nature of justice; morality and reason; morality and Christianity; and individual autonomy and state paternalism. Mahon.
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3.00 Credits
A close study of Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations. Emphasis on the analysis of language, meaning, and states of consciousness. Staff.
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3.00 Credits
An examination of the basic problems in epistemology with an emphasis on contemporary discussions. Topics include skepticism, knowledge, justification (foundationalism, coherentism, reliabilism), relativism, and rationality. Goldberg, Gregory.
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3.00 Credits
A consideration and assessment of dualism and materialism and of various theories of the relation between the mental and the physical, such as the identity theory, functionalism, and supervenience. Gregory.
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3.00 Credits
We use the expression ‘being’ all the time in our everyday language, but do we really understand what Being is? Heidegger argues that the extraordinary question of Being is the most important question of philosophy. This course explores this question through a careful reading of Heidegger’s magnum opus Being and Time and some later essays. In addition to the meaning of Being, we discuss the following themes in Heidegger’s writing: temporality, being-in-the-world, being-towards-death, authenticity, and care. Verhage.
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3.00 Credits
An exploration of the full sweep of Kant’s Critical Philosophy, with special attention to the Critique of Pure Reason. Sessions.
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3.00 Credits
Prerequisite: Junior standing or permission of the instructor. How should the product of social cooperation be distributed in a just society? Is wealth redistribution through taxes fair? Is it a fair distribution of wealth that a just society depends on, or is distributive justice more complicated than that? Should we have welfare programs, and, if so, what should they be like? Our studies may include John Rawls’ political liberalism, Robert Nozick’s libertarianism, Ronald Dworkin’s equality of resources, Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach, Stuart White’s justice as fair reciprocity, and criticisms of the distributive paradigm. Bell.
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4.00 Credits
Prerequisite: One course in philosophy (other than PHIL 106), computer science, neuroscience, or psychology, or permission of instructor. What does it mean to be human? Must we stay that way? We address these questions by looking critically at the technological enhancement of human capabilities. We have the means—prosthetic, pharmaceutical, electronic, informational, and genetic—to alter and enhance our biological endowments. We can increase our lifespan, improve our physical, cognitive, and emotional abilities like never before. What is currently possible? What will be possible in the short, medium, and long term? Could we change ourselves to such an extent that we are no longer human (becoming posthuman or transhuman)? If we can, should we? What are the dangers and moral/ethical considerations, and how are we to adjudicate them? We read authors ranging from essentialist bioconservatives to radical transhumanists. We also consider enhancements as mundane as caffeine and as far out as life extension and extreme body modification. Gregory.
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3.00 Credits
An examination of the issues arising out of the human impact of modern biomedical research and practice. Specific issues are selected from among the following: abortion, contraception, death and dying, experimentation/research, genetics, in vitro fertilization, mental retardation, public health/community medicine, science/technology, transplantation and patients’ rights. Cooper.
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