PHILOSOPHY
PHL 1024 credits
No audits
Ethics
Session B-4wk (June 16-July 11)
MTWRF 9:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.; Lattimore 210
CRN 17155; J. Matheson
This course will provide an introduction to ethics. It will be primarily concerned with a fundamental question, how should I live my life? We will begin by examining questions related to the nature of morality such as: do ethical judgments have truth values? Does the truth of ethical judgments differ between cultures or individuals? Following this, we will concentrate our attention on various philosophical theories of what makes an act morally right/wrong/permissible. We will evaluate consequentialist theories, deontological theories, and (time permitting) virtue theories.
PHL 103A4 credits
No audits
Contemporary Moral Problems
Session A-4wk (May 19-June 13)
MTWRF; 9:30-12:15; Dewey 2110E
CRN 19138; A. Wake
This course is designed to introduce students to contemporary problems in moral philosophy. We will discuss, amongst other topics, the moral status of abortion, the death penalty, drug legalization, and vegetarianism. Thinking about these issues will force us to think about the nature of moral obligation. We will try to determine, for instance, what makes it the case that we ought to act in a certain way. We will read both contemporary and historical work on such topics.
PHL 1104 credits
No audits
Introductory Logic
Session B-4wk (June 16-July 11)
MTWRF 12 noon2:45 p.m.; Lattimore 413
CRN 19140; G. Fowler
The foremost concern of logic is with reasoning well. In this course, students will learn to represent English sentences using the formal notation of symbolic logic and will be taught procedures for determining whether a set of sentences is consistent (that is, whether those sentences could all be true) and whether an argument is valid (that is, whether the conclusion of the argument follows). Using these skills, students will be able to better understand, construct, and evaluate arguments in academic and everyday life.
PHL 1114 credits
No audits
Philosophy of Religion
Session C-4wk (July 14-August 8)
MTWRF 1:00 p.m.3:45 p.m.; Hylan 306
CRN 19152; T. Dougherty
Is it possible to be a reasonable member of a western industrial democracy and an adherent to supernaturalism, the thesis that there exists a personal being with no body, which has created and/or designed the universe and occasionally acts within it/upon it to achieve some purpose? In this course we will approach the question of whether and how religious beliefs might be held rationally with special attention to understand these issues by learning to extract clear arguments from relevant texts and evaluating these arguments. Topics will include the Intelligent Design, the Problem of Evil, and Mysticism.