This course examines some answers philosophers have given to important questions in metaphysics, including: Why is there something rather than nothing? Do we have free will? Could we survive tele-transportation?

Intensive study of recent work in Anglo-American philosophy. Topics may include problems in metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language, and other areas. Satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Phil majors.

An introduction to ethics through issues of medicine and health care. Topics include abortion, treatment of impaired infants, euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, truth-telling, medical experimentation on human beings and on animals, and the allocation of scarce medical resources. (Gen.Ed. AT)

Content varies somewhat depending on instructor; students are encouraged to read the detailed descriptions published each semester on the Department's website. The following are typical. (1) Introduction to philosophical thinking, stressing the formulation and evaluation of logical arguments, with readings from Plato and Descartes, and recent works on good and evil, immortality, and personal identity.

Content varies somewhat depending on instructor; students are encouraged to read the detailed descriptions published each semester on the Department's website. The following are typical. (1) Introduction to philosophical thinking, stressing the formulation and evaluation of logical arguments, with readings from Plato and Descartes, and recent works on good and evil, immortality, and personal identity.

Description not available at this time

Not available at this time

An introduction to the main themes of Existentialism through seminal writing by Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Sartre. (Gen.Ed. AL)

Exploration of questions about the nature of art, such as: what makes something a work of art, why the aesthetic merit of an artwork depends upon who produced it, what authenticity is and why it matters, and related questions concerning the identity conditions for artworks. (Gen.Ed. AT)

Consideration of issues that arise when one thinks philosophically about religion. These include arguments for the existence of God, the need (or lack of need) for such arguments, the divine attributes, the problem of evil, the nature of religious experience, and the relation of religion to science.