This course will begin with a description of the motion of particles and introduce Newton’s dynamical laws and a number of important force laws. We will apply these laws to a wide range of problems to gain a better understanding of the laws and to demonstrate the generality of the framework. The important concepts of work, mechanical energy, and linear and angular momentum will be introduced and the unifying idea of conservation laws will be discussed. Additional topics may include, the study of mechanical waves, fluid mechanics and rotational dynamics.

This course will begin with a description of the motion of particles and introduce Newton’s dynamical laws and a number of important force laws. We will apply these laws to a wide range of problems to gain a better understanding of the laws and to demonstrate the generality of the framework. The important concepts of work, mechanical energy, and linear and angular momentum will be introduced and the unifying idea of conservation laws will be discussed. Additional topics may include, the study of mechanical waves, fluid mechanics and rotational dynamics.

This course will begin with a description of the motion of particles and introduce Newton’s dynamical laws and a number of important force laws. We will apply these laws to a wide range of problems to gain a better understanding of the laws and to demonstrate the generality of the framework. The important concepts of work, mechanical energy, and linear and angular momentum will be introduced and the unifying idea of conservation laws will be discussed. Additional topics may include, the study of mechanical waves, fluid mechanics and rotational dynamics.

Required of candidates for Honors in Philosophy. The continuation of PHIL 498. In special cases, subject to approval of the Department, a double course (499D).

Admission with consent of the instructor. Spring semester. The Department.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: emphasis on written work, readings, independent research, oral presentations.

Independent reading course. Reading in an area selected by the student and approved in advance by a member of the Department.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: emphasis on written work, readings, independent research, oral presentations.

 Philosophers have often found it natural to hear our ordinary talk of “minds” as naming a singularly mysterious type of object, with special properties such as thought, sensation, consciousness, perception, emotion, imagination and will. And so, they set out to investigate the nature of this object in order to unravel its mysteries.

According to many contemporary political philosophers, the state should remain neutral between competing conceptions of the good life.  If Mary wants to be an ascetic devoting her life to the worship of Minerva and Bob wants to commit his life to drinking beer and collecting beer bottle caps, it is, in Billie Holiday’s words, “nobody’s business if [they] do.”  It is certainly not the state’s business.  In contrast, Aristotle announces at the beginning of his Nicomachean Ethics that the human good is the primary object of the science of politics.  The&nbs

(Offered as PHIL 335 and EDST 335) This is a course on epistemology, the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Consider two parallel scenarios. In both cases you ask a passer-by for directions to the store. In the Good Case, the passer-by happens to be an employee of the store. In the Bad Case, they simply take a confident guess. In either case the passer-by gives you identical directions. From your perspective, the testimonies are indistinguishable, and in both cases you form a true belief.

In this course we will investigate the central issues of aesthetics. These include: the value of art, the nature of artworks, expression, creativity, artistic meaning, aesthetic experience, interpretation, criticism, beauty, sublimity. In the first part of the course, we will explore historical texts—from Hume to Heidegger—that have been influential in both the study and practice of art. In the later stages, we will discuss contemporary treatments of selected topics in aesthetics. Requires one previous course in Philosophy or consent of the instructor. 

We will be concerned to see whether there is anything to be said in a principled way about right and wrong. The core of the course will be an examination of three central traditions in ethical philosophy in the West, typified by Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, and John Stuart Mill. We will also look at contemporary discussions of the relation between the demands of morality and those personal obligations that spring from friendships, as well as recent views about the nature of personal welfare.