Undergraduate Course Descriptions Fall 2008

Click here to see Spring 2008 Course Descriptions

Fall 2008 Course Descriptions

Introduction to Philosophy
10100 01 (13504 )
Speaks
2:00-3:15 TR (F)
First Year Students Only
co-requirement 12100

Topic. This course will be an introduction to a few of the fundamental topics of Western philosophy:

God. Can we prove the existence of God, either from evidence about the world or from pure reason? Does the prospect of eternal reward make belief in God rational? Can we disprove the existence of God? Is the existence of God compatible with the amount and kind of evil which exists in the world? Does rationality require that we have reasons for believing in God?
The mind and the person. Is the mind identical to the brain? Are mental events identical to physical events? Is the mind the kind of thing that might survive death? Do people have free will?
Knowledge. Is our habit of reasoning by induction justified? Are our habits of ascribing moral properties to agents and holding them morally responsible undermined by the reliance of moral properties on luck?
Morality. Are there objective moral truths? Are people ever morally responsible for their actions? What are our moral obligations, for example to the poor? When is it morally permissible to go to war with another country?

A principal aim of the course will be to teach students to recognize and produce good arguments. We will spend a bit of time at the beginning of the course, and occasionally throughout, discussing what good arguments are, and why they might be worth pursuing.

Texts. Readings will be made available in PDF form via links from the syllabus.

Assignments. A midterm, a final, and three short papers. In all of their assignments, students are responsible for compliance with the University’s honor code, information about which is available at http://www.nd.edu/~hnrcode/. You should also review http://philosophy.nd.edu/undergraduate-program/documents/plagiarism.pdf the philosophy department guidelines regarding plagiarism.

More information will be made available on the course web site at http://www.nd.edu/~jspeaks/courses/10100/

Introduction to Philosophy
10101 01 (12186 )
Brown
9:30-10:45 TR
First Year Students Only

Introduction to Philosophy
10101 02 (12191)
Jensen
9:35-10:25 MWF
First Year Students Only

This course is designed to introduce you to some of the major questions and problems addressed in philosophy in the Western tradition. We will examine questions such as: Does God exist? What is knowledge? What is truth? What is a person? How are the human mind and the human body related? Will I survive my death? Am I free? Within the context of these questions, you will be introduced to both classical and contemporary philosophers through reading and discussion.

The main textbook for the course will be Reason and Responsibility edited by Joel Feinberg and Russ Shafer-Landau. Other supplementary readings will be distributed throughout the course of the semester. Tentatively, the course requirements will include 3 papers and 2 exams.

Introduction to Philosophy
10101 03 (11350)
Jech
12:30-1:40 TR
First Year Students Only

This course is devoted to exploring some interesting and influential answers that philosophers have given to certain persistent sources of human wonder and doubt: what knowledge is, what the good life is, the existence of God, the nature of human free will, and whether philosophy is even worthwhile for us to engage in. We will be especially concerned with the human condition, both as regards human knowledge and human life. We shall pay attention to a few authors who particularly manifest philosophical excellence and "apprentice" ourselves to them in the hope that by paying particularly close attention to these philosophers and their very different methods we might come to a better understanding of our world, ourselves, and how to come to terms with both of these.

Introduction to Philosophy
10101 04 (11333 )
Wicks
3:30-4:45 TR
First Year Students Only

Introduction to Philosophy
10101 05 (10594 )
Wicks
5:00-6:15 TR
First Year Students Only

Introduction to Philosophy
10101 06 (10595 )
Barham
12:30-1:45 TR
First Year Students Only

Philosophy is an effort to think as carefully as possible about some of the deepest and most difficult questions that human beings are capable of asking about the world and their place in it. As such, philosophy has similarities with both natural science and religion, but is different from either.

Philosophy is defined partly by a group of canonical texts and topics. This course is organized around some of these topics: the nature of knowledge; the nature of the human mind and its relationship to the body; whether human beings have free will; what determines whether human acts are right or wrong; whether the existence of God can be reconciled with the existence of catastrophic suffering; and whether, in spite of our inevitable death, human life has any ultimate value, purpose, or meaning. In the course of exploring these topics, we will read some of the canonical texts comprising the Western philosophical tradition.

Philosophy is also defined partly by its methodology. The methodology of philosophy is a combination of careful reflection on the way things seem to us, careful attention to nuances in the meaning of words, and conscientiousness about providing reasons to back up the things we say÷that is, using careful logic. Learning to understand the texts we will be reading in this course involves learning to use this methodology, especially the analysis and evaluation of logical arguments.

By the end of the semester, you should be able to:

- identify the premises and conclusions of logical arguments in philosophical and other texts, and evaluate arguments for validity and soundness
- define and accurately use some key philosophical terms
- recall important facts pertaining to some of the canonical texts of the Western philosophical tradition and the people who wrote them
- explain important details about the various positions advanced regarding the canonicaltopics we will be exploring
- articulate your own views on these topics, both orally and in writing

Introduction to Philosophy
10101 07 (10618 )
Hain
3:30-4:45 TR
First Year Students Only

This course will introduce you to the Western philosophical tradition. Through reading classic texts in Western philosophy, we will work to develop careful and clear reasoning, the ability to read texts well and with profit, and an appreciation of some of the most difficult questions (and some possible answers) we face as human beings. The approach will be historical and will be supplemented with some related works of literature.

Assignments: midterm and final, two short papers (3-4 pages each) and two longer papers (6-7 pages each).

Introduction to Philosophy
10101 08 (10619 )
Juliano
11:00-12:15 TR
First Year Students Only

Introduction to Philosophy
10101 09 (13347)
Rabbitt
9:35-10:25 MWF
First Year Students Only

Introduction to Philosophy
10101 10 (13348)
Branson
11:45 -12:35 MWF
First Year Students Only

Introduction to Philosophy
10101 11 (14452)
Toader
10:40-11:30 MWF
First Year Students Only

Introduction to Philosophy
10101 12 (14468)
Jech
9:30-10:45 TR
First Year Students Only

Introduction to Philosophy
10101 13 (16290)
TBA
5:00-6:15 TR
First Year Students Only

Introduction to Philosophy
10101 14 (18018)
Rabbitt
8:30-9:20 MWF
First Year Students Only

Introduction to Philosophy
10101 15 (18019)
Jensen
10:40-11:30 MWF
First Year Students Only

Introduction to Philosophy
10101 16 (18020)
Toader
12:50-1:40 MWF
First Year Students Only

Philosophy University Seminar:
What Is a Philosophical Problem?
13185 01 (12695 )
Joy
11:00-12:15 TR
First Year Students Only

What is a philosophical problem? How are philosophical problems related to what we study in the social sciences, the natural sciences, and religion? This introduction to Philosophy focuses on several classic strategies for conducting philosophical inquiry, including those of Aristotle, Descartes, Mill, and several 21st-century thinkers. Readings will cover the history of philosophy as well as recent writings on ethics and the neurosciences.

Requirements: This University Seminar satisfies the 100-level Philosophy requirement. Written work includes four papers and a midterm exam. Class participation and regular attendance are also very important.

Philosophy University Seminar
13185 02 (12698)
Stubenberg
12:30-1:45 TR
First Year Students Only

This course is an introduction to philosophy. We’ll start off by reading two brief but comprehensive introductory books. This will acquaint us with a large number of central philosophical questions. In the remainder of the course we’ll pursue a few select topics a little more thoroughly. In the philosophy of mind we’ll deal with the thesis that consciousness is a completely natural but humanly inexplicable phenomenon. In metaphysics we’ll confront the problem of freedom and determinism and read an author who holds that determinism is true, but that that is something we can come to terms with. In ethics we’ll ask “How should we live?” and consider the answer that self-love is the key to a fulfilled life.
Texts:
Thomas Nagel: What Does It All Mean?
Bertrand Russell: The Problems of Philosophy
Colin McGinn: The Mysterious Flame. Conscious Minds in a Material World
Ted Honderich: How Free Are You? The Determinism Problem
Harry G. Frankfurt: The Reasons of Love.

Requirements: There will be five short papers—one on each book.

Philosophy University Seminar
13185 03 (12699)
Watson
2:00-3:15 TR
First Year Students Only

An examination of fundamental questions about the nature of human existence, based on a critical examination of works in the existentialist tradition.

Philosophy University Seminar
13185 04 (12700)
Bays
3:30-4:45 TR
First Year Students Only

There's a old tradition in Western philosophy which says that people can't *really* be moral (or happy or virtuous or excellent) unless they spend a lot of time thinking, both about morality itself and about certain more purely intellectual subjects (for instance, mathematics and philosophy). The majority of this course will examine some classical---i.e., Greek---developments of this idea. At the end, we'll examine some more-modern responses to it.

Honors University Seminar
13195 01 (12701)
Bays
9:30-10:45 TR
First Year Students Only

Honors University Seminar
13195 02 (12702)
Weithman
12:30-1:45 TR
First Year Students Only

This course is an introduction to philosophy for students in the Honors Program who are seeking to fulfill the first of their university philosophy requirements. The course is intended to introduce you to philosophical questions, to make you aware of how some of history's greatest philosophers have approached those questions and what they have had to say about them, to help you articulate philosophical concerns of your own and, most importantly, to learn how to address them. Among the areas of philosophy will explore this semester are ethics, political philosophy, metaphysics and theory of knowledge. Readings will include selections from the works of Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Locke and Kant.

Honors University Seminar
13195 03 (12703)
Loux
2:00-3:15 TR
First Year Students Only

A first course in philosophy, focusing on problems about the rationality of religious belief, the natrure of the human person, the foundations of ethical values, and the justification of political authority.

Readings will include selections from classical philosophers as well as more recent writings on these topics. Weekly papers are required.

Honors University Seminar
13195 04 (12704)
Franks
3:30-4:45 TR
First Year Students Only

Honors University Seminar
13195 05 (12961)
Speaks
3:30-4:45 TR
First Year Students Only

Topic. This seminar will be organized around some of the most important arguments from the history of philosophy. For each argument, we will devote one seminar to discussing a proponent of the argument, and one or more subsequent seminars to discussing the work of a critic of the argument.
In the first half of the course, our way into these arguments will be through a reading of Descartes' Meditations. We will begin by discussing Descartes' claim that (almost) all of what we think we know can be called into doubt; we will spend a few weeks discussing skepticism about various sorts of beliefs. We will then turn to a discussion of Descartes' arguments for the existence of God, which will be followed by a discussion of the central arguments for and against God's existence. Finally, we will discuss Descartes' argument that the mind is distinct from the body, and will close the first half of the semester by discussing the nature of persons.
In the second half of the course, we will turn our attention to human action. We will begin by discussing free willl --- whether we have it, and whether it is compatible with either or both of determinism and divine foreknowledge of our actions. We will then turn to ethics. We will discuss the reality of moral facts and the connection between morality and the existence of God before closing the semester by discussing some issues in applied ethics, possibly including third world poverty and affirmative action.
A principal aim of the course will be to teach students to recognize and produce good arguments. We will spend a bit of time at the beginning of the course, and occasionally throughout, discussing what good arguments are, and why they might be worth pursuing.

Texts. Students will be required to purchase Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy and Peter van Inwagen's Metaphysics. Other readings will be made available in PDF form via links from the syllabus.

Assignments. There will be four written assignments. The first will be a short 1-2 page assignment worth 10% of the grade; the next three will each be 5-7 pages in length, and worth 25% of the grade. Late papers will be penalized 3 points/day, including weekends. The remaining 15% of the grade will be given on the basis of class attendance and participation. In all of their assignments, students are responsible for compliance with the University’s honor code, information about which is available at http://www.nd.edu/~hnrcode/. You should also review http://philosophy.nd.edu/undergraduate-program/documents/plagiarism.pdf the philosophy department guidelines regarding plagiarism.

More information will be made available on the course web site at http://www.nd.edu/~jspeaks/courses/13195/

Honors University Seminar
13195 06 (14462)
Cross
5:00-6:15 TR
First Year Students Only

The course introduces some central philosophical concepts and methods by tracing the origins of Ancient Greek thought, beginning with the pre-Socratic philosophers and advancing through the most important philosophers up to the time of Augustine. In aaddition to this, the course allows some time to be devoted to close readings of extracts from Thomas Aquinas on topics related to those discussed in the earlier thinkers. The emphasis will be two-fold: while endeavoring to understand and appreciate the historical milieu within which the questions considered first arose, we will, at the same time, seek to determine for ourselves where we should agree, and where we should disagree, with the theses promulgated. Among the questions given sharp formulation in our period are: Is morality relative? Or are there moral facts? What does morality have to do, if anything, with religion? Are there defensible reasons for being a theist? Or is theism somehow essentially irrational and indefensible?

Introduction to Philosophy
20101 01 (12011 )
Thames
9:30-10:45 TR

Introduction to Philosophy
20101 02 (12012)
Mulherin
9:35-10:25 MWF

Introduction to Philosophy
20101 03 (12013)
Mulherin
10:40-11:30 MWF

Introduction to Philosophy
20101 04 (12014)
Potter
12:50-1:40 MWF

Introduction to Philosophy
20101 05 (12015)
Branson
12:50-1:40 MWF

Introduction to Philosophy
20101 06 (11429)
Thames
11;00-12:15 TR

Introduction to Philosophy
20101 07 (12016)
Halteman-Zwart
12:30-1:45 TR

Introduction to Philosophy
20101 08 (12017)
Halteman-Zwart
3:30-4:45 TR

Introduction to Philosophy
20101 09 (12922)
Keller
3:30-4:45 TR

This course is titled 'Introduction to Philosophy, but what is philosophy? Philosophy is, above all, an activity—the search for understanding and truth: specifically the search for understanding and truth about certain very important and fundamental questions about the nature of ourselves and the world we live in. This class will be directed at teaching you how to partake in that activity. (This activity, by the way, is a much more difficult activity than memorizing bits of information.) In this class, the overarching question we will be concerned with is: How should we live our lives? In our attempt to answer that question we will have to think about two other related questions: 1) What are truth and knowledge and how can we attain them? (logic and epistemology); and 2) What is our nature—what most fundamentally are we? (metaphysics) In order to have any hope of making progress in our inquiry, we must, in addition to desiring to know the answers to our questions, have certain skills: specifically, the ability to think and write both clearly and deeply and to appreciate such thinking and writing. Accordingly, an important subsidiary aim of this class will be to develop your ability to think and write clearly.

Introduction to Philosophy
20101 10 (10572)
Keller
5:00-6:15 TR

Philosophy of Human Nature
20201 01 (12645)
Reimers
8:30 -9:20 MWF

Classically, the question about human nature has been posed in terms of the relation of the soul to the body. However, when we speak in daily life of "human nature" we refer to what we love and hate, what we most want, and how we behave. In this course we will examine the the human constitution in relation to emotion, love, desire, and their effects on and implications for human action. In a word, by examining human nature, we explore the meaning of human life.

Texts will be drawn from the Vatican Council's constitution Gaudium et Spes, Plato's Republic, Thomas Aquinas's Treatise on Happiness, and Karol Wojtyla's Love and Responsibility.

Course requirements: one term paper, two tests, and a final exam.

Philosophy of Human Nature
20201 02 (12646)
Reimers
9:35 - 10:25 MWF

Classically, the question about human nature has been posed in terms of the relation of the soul to the body. However, when we speak in daily life of "human nature" we refer to what we love and hate, what we most want, and how we behave. In this course we will examine the the human constitution in relation to emotion, love, desire, and their effects on and implications for human action. In a word, by examining human nature, we explore the meaning of human life.

Existentialist Themes
20202 01 (13350 )
Ameriks
9:30-10:45 TR

This course focuses on writings from three main figures: Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Sartre. The contrast of aesthetic, ethical and religious views, as discussed from an existentialist perspective, is the main thematic focus of the course.

Requirements: The main requirements are two papers, two tests, and a final.

Ancient Wisdom & Modern Love
20214 01 (TBA)
O'Connor
1:55-2:45 MW(F)

Built around Plato's Symposium, Shakespeare (including A Midsummer Night's Dream), Catholic writings (including Humanae Vitae), and a few movies, this course explores the nature of romance, erotic love, and friendship. The course generally tries to integrate the analytic approach of philosophy with the imaginative approach of literature.

Requirements: This is a large lecture course, supplemented with discussion sections or tutorials. Regular participation and attendance are required. Students will write papers totaling 10-15 pages, and there will be a final exam.

Ethics
20401 01 (12614)
Holloway
12:50-1:40 MWF

The approach to ethics in this course will be theoretical rather than practical. Instead of focusing on particular moral problems, we will be considering whether or not we can rationally justify a supreme ethical principle or set of ethical principles to guide our actions. After looking at three challenges to this theoretical project, ethical relativism, psychological egoism, and ethical egoism, we will turn to a consideration of two classical types of ethical theory - utilitarianism and Kantianism. Finally, we will end with a look at virtue ethics, a theoretical approach to ethics that calls into question the emphasis on principles that tell us what to do, and instead focuses on the kinds of people we ought to be.

Requirements: Three exams and one paper on an assigned topic.

Ethics
20401 02 (14453)
O'Callaghan
8:00-9:15 MW

In this course we will pursue elusive quarry. What is it to be ethical or moral? What we are after can be initially approached by considering what sorts of answers we would give to a number of overlapping questions. What is it to be good? What is it to do good? What is goodness? What ought we to do? How should we determine what we ought to do? Must we know what is good, in order to do good acts, or be good? What is involved in failing to do what is good, or what we ought to do? What is the opposite of goodness in ourselves or our acts? What role do our desires and interests play in constituting and determining what is good or what we ought to do? All of us can probably give some sort of initial answers to these questions. Upon examination, however, we might want to revise some or all of the answers we give, or reject them. The end of this course should just be the beginning of our efforts to reflect upon these questions. Here we want to enhance our own knowledge of the background from which our reflection cannot help but begin. Fortunately, we need not begin the pursuit of our quarry ab ovo. There are a number of traditions in Western philosophy that have asked these questions, and proposed different answers to them, influencing how we think about them. We will selectively examine some of the major answers that have been proposed to these questions by Aristotle, Kant, Mill, Nietzsche, and Aquinas.

Ethics and Imagination
20413 01 (18022 )
McInerny
12:30-1:45 TR

Human beings are storytelling animals. Stories assume such a large and varied influence on our lives because the human quest for happiness itself takes the form of a story. The principal aim of our course is to discuss the power of narrative imagery, to quote Pope John Paul II in his Letter to Artists, "to shed light upon the human path and destiny." In particular, we will be interested in the following questions: What is the meaning of life? What is human happiness? What sort of a tale have we fallen into? How do works of the imagination, especially stories, help us discover what human happiness is? What is peculiar about living out the quest for happiness in the modern world? As guides in the pursuit of these questions we will be reading philosophical works by, among others, Plato, Aristotle, Jacques Maritain, and G.K. Chesterton, and literary and critical works by Dante, Jane Austen, Evelyn Waugh, Flannery O'Connor, and Walker Percy.

Medical Ethics
20602 01 (12591)
Solomon
10:40-11:30 MWF
Cross List: HESB 30237 (15564), STV 20245 (14169)

An exploration, from the point of view of ethical theory, of a number of ethical problems in contemporary biomedicine. Topics to be taken up will include: 1) euthanasia, 2) abortion, 3) the allocation of scarce medical resources, 4) truth telling in the doctor - patient relationship, 5) the right to medical care, and 6) informed consent and human experimentation. No previous work in philosophy will be presupposed.

Requirements: Two short (4-6 pp.) problem papers, a mid-term, and a final exam.
Texts: Munson, Intervention and Reflection: Basic Issues in Medical Ethics.

Science, Technology & Society
20606 01 (14190)
Hamlin
12:50-1:40 MW(F)
Cross List: STV 20556 (12587)

This course introduces the interdisciplinary field of science and technology studies. Our concern will be with science and technology (including medicine) as social and historical, i.e., as human, phenomena. We shall examine the divergent roots of contemporary science and technology, and the similarities and (sometimes surprising) differences in their methods and goals. The central theme of the course will be the ways in which science and technology interact with other aspects of society, including the effects of technical and theoretical innovation in bringing about social change, and the social shaping of science and technology themselves by cultural, economic and political forces. Because science/society interactions so frequently lead to public controversy and conflict, we shall also explore what resources are available to mediate such conflicts in an avowedly democratic society.
Please Note: Students in 20556 must also register for a section of STV 22556 – Science, Technology and Society Discussion

Environmental Philosophy
20609 01 (18027)
Sayre
11:00-12:15 TR
Cross List: IIPS 20907, STV 20110, HESB 30239

The threat of global warming is only one aspect of a deeper environmental crisis facing industrial society. This course explores the roots of that crisis, along with possible ways of coping with it. The exploration will take us through fields as diverse as thermodynamics, ecology, economics, and ethics. Most readings for the course will be available on the Internet. Although the course will follow a lecture format, time will be set aside for class discussion. A ten page term paper will be required on a topic of you own choosing. Several student papers will be selected for presentation in class. There will be a midterm and a final examination.

Philosophy and Cosmology
20612 01 (18032)
Brading
1:30-2:45 MW
Cross List: STV 20431 (TBA)

In the seventeenth century there was a revolution in our view of the cosmos and of our own place in it. This course is about that revolution. Most vivid, perhaps, was the change from believing that the Earth is at the center of everything, with the Sun and the stars revolving around it, to believing that the Earth is just one planet among many, orbiting around the Sun. How and why did these changes take place? The main philosophical themes running through this course are: (1) the nature of matter and of all the material bodies in the cosmos, with the focus of attention on how and why these bodies move as they do (including Newton's laws of motion and of universal gravitation), and (2) what constitutes knowledge of, and how we justify our beliefs about, the cosmos (including the story of Galileo's condemnation by the Church). We will explore these and other questions, reading as we go along from the work of some of the main people involved, including Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes and Newton. The class will combine lectures with discussion, encouraging everyone to participate. Examination will be through a combination of assignments and exams.

Practicing Medical Ethics
20615 01 (14182)
Solomon
9:00am - 4:00pm on 11/15/2008

This is a one-day, one-credit course. The purpose of this course is to give students who may have a vocation in health care the opportunity to engage in conversation with physicians, philosophers and theologians familiar with medical ethics. Participants will be looking at real cases studies and real situations they might encounter in practicing medicine. The course is also an opportunity for students to form a mentoring relationship with a practicing physician. Students must read a small course packet of case studies and related readings ahead of time to prepare for the course. In order to receive credit, students must attend the one-day course in full and write a 4-6 page paper on their perspective on one of the cases, due approximately two weeks after the one-day course. Lunch will be provided. DOES NOT SATISFY UNIVERSITY REQUIREMENT.

Philosophy and Science Fiction
20620 01 (15065)
Rea
11:45-12:35 MW(F)
Cross List: STV 20125 (15605)

The science fiction genre is rich with stories that explore classic philosophical questions and exploit timeless philosophical puzzles and paradoxes. In this class, we will examine the way in which several core problems of philosophy are raised in contemporary works of science fiction, and then we will look carefully at more systematic discussions of those problems by well-known figures in the history of philosophy. We will discuss, among other things, different perspectives on the purpose and value of philosophical theorizing, the nature of time, paradoxes of time travel, the possibility of free human action, and some widely discussed puzzles about identity and persistence over time. The result will be an introductory survey of some core issues in the areas of philosophy known as metaphysics and epistemology.

Course Requirements: Three exams, six quizzes, and two papers (1600 - 2000 words).

Texts: All texts will be on e-reserve.

Science and Religion in Historical Perspective
20624 01 (TBA)
Pitts
3:30-4:45 TR
Cross List: STV 20164 01

The relationship between science and religion (especially Christianity) has attracted much attention recently. Historians have shown that this relationship has not been primarily a matter of conflict. It has been claimed that the relationship between science and religion can be characterized by conflict, independence, dialog, and/or integration, for example. This course aims to survey some important events and themes in the relationship between science and Christianity, starting with the 13th century conflict between Aristotle's doctrine of the eternity of the world and the Christian (and Jewish and Islamic) doctrine that the world had a beginning. Aquinas and Bonaventure did not fully agree on this issue. We will consider the reception of Copernicus's new astronomy by Protestants and Roman Catholics, including the conflict between Galileo and the Roman Catholic Church. The Copernican issue set precedents that influenced the 17th-18th century forerunners of geology in the Theories of the Earth of Descartes, Burnet, Leibniz and others, reflecting and encouraging the new Rationalist philosophies of knowledge and views on theology. These provided an important context in which new empirical discoveries led to the rise of modern uniformitarian geology, evolutionary biology, and astronomy. 20th century themes include the possible impact of modern physical cosmology, including the Big Bang, on theology. The course aims to bring together insights from the history of science, the philosophy of science, philosophical theories about knowledge in general, historical and contemporary theology, the new science & religion field, astronomy, and sociology.

Texts: The readings will be God, Humanity and the Cosmos (2nd edition) by Christopher Southgate, Science & Religion, 1450-1900: From Copernicus to Darwin by Richard G. Olson, and a variety of book chapters, handouts, online articles and the like.

Evaluation: Students are expected to do the readings in advance and to participate in discussion. There will be assignments and a few tests.

Scientific Images of Humananity
20623 01 (18035)
Ramsey
12:30-1:45 TR
Cross List: STV 20423 01

Attempts to "biologicize" everything from religion and morality to love and friendship appear continuously in the popular and scientific media. Genes for traits as various as homosexuality and chocolate consumption have been proposed. How should we revise our understanding of human nature in light of such claims as these? This course examines the tensions between our images of ourselves as human beings and the portraits that the sciences - especially biology - provide. We will examine these and other questions: What can evolutionary theory teach us about contemporary human behavior? Can we learn about human nature through a study of non-human primates? Is culture a part of human nature or a way of transcending it? Are we naturally altruistic or selfish or religious? Some of the readings will be drawn from modern philosophy, such as the Locke-Leibniz debates over innate ideas, but most of what we read will come from the philosophy, biology, and anthropology literature from the past quarter century.

Scientific Images of Humanity
20623 02 (18036)
Ramsey
2:00-3:15 TR
Cross List: STV 20423 02

Philosophy of Religion
20801 01 (12586 )
van Inwagen
3:30--4:45 TR

This course is an examination of some philosophical questions about belief in God (as God is understood in Judaism, Christianity and Islam). A considerable part of the course is devoted to a study of philosophical arguments for and against the existence of God. The final topic of discussion is: if all the arguments we shall examine are inconclusive (as they seem to be), what does this imply about what beliefs we should have about God?

Course requirements: One examination (early October), one paper on an assigned topic (mid-November; about 1500 words), and a take-home final examination.

Text: David Schatz (ed.), Philosophy and Faith

Philosophy of Religion
20801 02 (18868 )
Rhoda
9:30-10:45 TR

Course description unavailable at this time.

All 30000 and 40000 level courses are by permission only *

Ancient & Medieval Philosophy
30301 01 (12532)
Dumont
5:00-6:15 TR
Cross List: MI 30301 01 (14185)

A survey of Western philosophy from its beginnings in the early Greek physicists to the late middle ages. The emphasis in class will be on the reading and analysis of fundamental texts by main figures of the period: Parmenides, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Anselm, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas. Concurrent reading of a standard history will supply additional background and continuity.

Requirements: Two papers (one each for the ancient and medieval portions of the course), a mid-term, and final examination.

Ancient & Medieval Philosophy
30301 02 (12563)
Freddoso
1:30-2:45 MW
Cross List: MI 30301 02 (14186)

A survey of western philosophy from the 6th-century B.C. Presocratics to the 16th-century Scholastics. The lectures will focus primarily on Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas, using the twin themes of nature and human nature as an occasion for (a) formulating with some precision the main metaphysical and moral problematics that emerge from the works of Plato and Aristotle, (b) investigating the influence of Plato and Aristotle on the Catholic intellectual tradition, and (c) exploring in some depth the relation between faith and reason.

Texts: Because the lectures will not try to cover all the important figures (though there will be ample references to them, as well as to key early modern philosophers), the students will be expected to read all of the assigned secondary source, viz., James Jordan's Western Philosophy: From Antiquity to the Middle Ages, as well as the primary sources assigned for the lectures.

Requirements: In addition, the requirements include (a) two 6-7 page papers on assigned topics, and (b) two exams.

History of Modern Philosophy
30302 01 (11762)
Joy
11:45-1:00 MW

Modern philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries transformed the philosophical traditions they inherited from the Ancient and Medieval schools of thought. We will study the works of six modern philosophers who contributed to these transformations: Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Leibniz, Hume, and Kant. Our main focus will be on their epistemology, metaphysics, and natural philosophy, but attention will also be given to selected topics from their ethics

Requirements: Written work includes three papers, one or two quizzes, and a final exam. Class participation and regular attendance are also very important.

Formal Logic
30313 01 (12018)
Blanchette
11:45-12:35 MWF
DOES NOT SATISFY UNIVERSITY REQUIREMENT

Formal logic is a discipline which, in its modern version, dates to the late 19th century, when it was introduced by mathematicians as a way of presenting careful and precise proofs. It has since become a topic of mathematical and philosophical investigation in its own right: we ask questions e.g. about what kinds of things can be proven in various “systems” of formal logic, about what those proofs tell us, etc. This course is an introduction to formal logic. In it, students will learn how to give precise proofs in a particular, standard system of formal logic, and they will be in a position to begin to address some of the philosophical questions that arise regarding that formal system, and regarding formal logic in general. It's more fun than it sounds.

Requirements include homework and exams.

God, Philosophy and Universities
30326 01 (12623)
MacIntyre
11:45-12:55 MW

We human beings are: collections of particles governed by the laws of quantum mechanics, assemblages of chemical elements and compounds, members of an animal species with an evolutionary history, agents with desires, imagination, will and reason, members of families and political communities, and finite beings created by God in His image and accountable to Him.

In each of these respects we are objects of study by the practitioners of one or more academic disciplines. But how do these different aspects of the human condition relate to each other? In what does the unity of a human being consist? Traditionally the task of answering those questions has been assigned to philosophy. And it is by how it answers these questions that the Catholic philosophical tradition differentiates itself from other and rival philosophical traditions. For, like their Jewish and Islamic counterparts, Catholic philosophers are committed to believing that any attempt to understand what human beings are which omits reference to their relationship to God and to those properties of human nature without which such a relationship would not be possible is bound to fail. This puts the Catholic philosophical tradition at odds not only with philosophers who deny this, but also with those universities whose curriculum presupposes just such a denial.

There are, for example, universities where a number of disciplines are taught, but philosophy happens not to be among them and neither does theology. So that questions about how the findings of the different secular disciplines relate to each other and to theology and of how each contributes to a common task, that of understanding what a human being is, are never raised. There are universities where it is not just that theology is absent, but where it is excluded because belief in God is taken to have no rational justification. And there are universities where both philosophy and theology are taught, but where they are presented as just two more narrowly specialized disciplines, so that once again philosophical questions about the relationship of theology to the secular disciplines go unasked.

The Catholic philosophical tradition is therefore committed not only to asserting certain theses within philosophy and to advancing arguments in their support, but also to defending a particular conception of what the place of philosophy in a university curriculum should be. And it is only possible to justify that conception, if there are sound arguments that are sufficient to justify the central assertions of the Catholic philosophical tradition: that God exists, that finite and contingent beings are fully intelligible only as dependent on God, that human beings are rational agents whose exercise of their powers cannot be explained in purely naturalistic terms.

With philosophy the interest is always in the detail. Therefore in this course we will focus on one particular set of issues, those concerning the relationship of soul, mind and body. We will read texts by two philosophers from within the Catholic philosophical tradition, Thomas Aquinas (1225-74) and Antoine Arnauld (1612-94) who held different and incompatible positions on those matters. And we shall ask not only what can be said for and against each of their positions, but also how far each has the resources to respond successfully to modern materialist or physicalist accounts of the human being. But we will also ask why the study of physics is necessary for the flourishing of a university and why the study of theology is harmed, if physics is not studied. Here our guide will be John Henry Newman (1801-90).

The aim then is twofold: first to arrive at a view of what resources the Catholic philosophical tradition needs to possess, if it is to spell out and to justify the philosophical commitments of the Catholic faith; and secondly to identify the kind of university setting within which those philosophical commitments can illuminate the relationship of theology to the other disciplines.

Reading:
Thomas Aquinas Selected Philosophical Writings tr. T. McDermott (OUP)
Antoine Arnauld & Pierre Nicole Logic or The Art of Thinking (CUP)
J. H. Newman The Idea of a University (UND Press)
John Paul II Fides et Ratio

Writing: There will be three major papers

1. How would a Platonist criticize Aquinas’s account of the soul-body relationship? How would Aquinas reply?
2. What is the relationship between Newman’s view of the university and his view of the universe? What view of the universe, if any, do contemporary secular universities presuppose?
3. What is the strongest criticism that can be directed against Arnauld’s mind-body dualism? What is the best reply to it that Arnauld could make? Is that reply good enough?

Gender and Science
30354 01 (18047)
Kourany
2:00-3:15 TR
Cross List: GSC 30516, STV 30154

Thanks to former Harvard University President Lawrence Summers and his suggestion, back in 2005, that women are neither motivated enough nor smart enough to succeed in science (at least not as motivated and smart as men), widespread attention has again been directed to the “gender gap” in science. But the full story has yet to be told. In this course we shall try to uncover at least key elements of that story, especially the key factors, past and present, that have kept the female/male success gap in science in place. We shall concentrate, however, on the importance of closing that gap: the significant difference it has made to both scientific knowledge and the society shaped by that knowledge when the gap has been narrowed. In the process we shall find reason to challenge the prevailing house philosophy in both science and philosophy of science, the one that assumes that such differences as gender have no bearing on the production of scientific knowledge.

This will be a discussion class informed by readings drawn from a variety of sources, including natural and social scientists as well as historians and philosophers of science, and the requirements will include three papers.

Text: J. Kourany (ed.), The Gender of Science as well as articles placed on e-reserve.

Aristotle
43102 01 (18048 )
Loux
11:00-12:15 TR

A general introduction to Aristotle based on a reading of selected passages from the Categories, the Physics, the DeAnima, the Nicomachean Ethics, and the Metaphysics.

Requirements: Two exams and five or six mid-length (4-5 page) papers.

Text: McKeon, Basic Works of Aristotle.

Augustine & William James
43138 01 (18049)
Neiman
3:00-4:15 MW

We will examine the Socratic philosophical practice of dying and rebirth as it functions in Augustine's Confessions and William James' Varieties of Religious Experience. In the midst of this examination, an attempt will be made to access at least the most promises of recent material that to a significant extent build on either the Augustinian and Jamesian models of philosophical self transformation.
The course will be taught as a seminar, with attendance required and participation highly recommended. Students will be expected to write a number of short papers, and complete a final.

Aquinas Philosophical Theology
43149 01 (15326)
O'Callaghan
11:45-1:00 MW
Cross List: MI 43341 (15579)

A close examination of the philosophical arguments within the first thirteen questions of Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, including arguments about the distinction between philosophy and Sacred Theology, the existence of a god, divine simplicity, divine perfection, divine goodness, divine infinity, divine immutability, divine eternity, divine unity, how God is known by us, and how God is spoken about by us.

Aquinas on Human Nature
43151 01 (18050)
Freddoso
3:00-4:15 MW

An close examination of St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I, qq. 75-102, the so-called treatise on human nature, in (I hope) a spanking new translation. Among the questions to be discussed: the ontological status of the human soul; the cognitive and appetitive powers of the human soul; human origins; the creation of man and woman and their status as images of God; the original natural and supernatural condition of the first human beings; the metaphysics of human procreation; the interplay between St. Thomas's account of human nature and contemporary biological accounts of human origins and human reproduction.

Requirements: A series of "refresher" readings to be done before the course begins; an assigned reading for each class day; the submission of a question on the relevant assigned text before each class period; one short (5 pp.) midterm paper; and one long (10-12 pp.) term paper (along with a proposal for this paper to be submitted a month before the end of the course).

Prerequisite: Phil 30301 or some provable equivalent. (In other words, this course is not an introduction to St. Thomas.)

Nietzsche
43173 01 (18051)
Ameriks
12:30-1:45 TR

Nietzsche may be the most widely read philosopher of his era, with an influence that extends far beyond the discipline of philosophy. This seminar will involve reading through Nietzsche‚s main works, in chronological order, putting them in context, and evaluating them from a contemporary perspective. His aesthetic, ethical, epistemological, and metaphysical views will be studied in detail, with attention also to their implications for our understanding of history, modernity, literature, the history of philosophy, and the nature of religion.

Texts: A number of Nietzsche‚s main works (and recent introductions to his work by authors such as Williams, Geuss, Bittner, Pippin, Ridley, and Clark/Leiter), including not so well-known early essays, plus critical essays on reserve.

Requirements: A few short papers or in-class presentations or both, and a term paper.

Existentialism and Beyond
43208 01 (TBA)
Gutting
11:00-12:15 TR

We will begin by reading some selections from Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness to gain a basic understanding of his existentialism. (We may also look at Simone de Beauvoir's ethical development of existentialism.) Most subsequent French philosophers explicitly reject Sartre's existentialism. We will examine the grounds for this rejection and also look for ways in which their views may be closer to Sartre's than they claim. We will pay particular attention to the significance of Sartre for Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Emmanuel Levinas.

Ethical Theory
43301 01 (18053)
Solomon
1:30-2:45 MW

Contemporary ethical theory is dominated by the attempt to retrieve for contemporary thought insights from ethical theories developed in the classic texts that make up the history of moral philosophy. Rawls' relation to the classical Kantian texts, MacIntyre's relation to the Aristotelian ethical texts, and Parfit's relation to the texts of Bentham and Sidgwick are examples of this phenomenon of "philosophical retrieval." In this course we will do a close reading of three of the most significant classical texts in ethical theory with an eye toward contemporary issues in ethics. We will do close readings of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals in a seminar setting. The focus of the course will be on careful reading of these texts in the context of the larger philosophical contexts within which they were put forward. Students will be expected to come to class prepared to discuss these texts in detail. In addition to the requirement to participate in class discussion, students will be asked to write three short (6-8 page) papers and complete a take-home final.

Environmental Justice
43308 01 (13805)
Shrader-Frechette
4:30-7:00pm W
Cross List: BIOS 50544 (14266), HESB 43537 (15589), IIPS 50901 (14188), STV 43396 (14189)

Offered primarily for biology credit, this course is cross-listed for philosophy credit. Course will cover flaws in scientific method and flaws in ethics that cause environmental injustice – the fact that children, minorities, and poor people receive higher exposures to environmental toxins that damage their health and kill them. Course is hands-on, and students will learn to analyze the scientific and ethical flaws in some of the 3000 draft impact assessments done annually in the US; student work on these assessments will actually help influence policy and serve threatened communities. Majors in environmental sciences, pre-med, engineering, philosophy, or any of the natural or biological sciences, need no permission for the course. All other majors need instructor’s permission (kshrader@nd.edu) to enter the course.

Since this course is cross-listed with biology, and presupposes a good bit of science background, students who are neither pre-meds nor science/engineering majors must have the personal written permission of Dr. Shrader-Frechette to enroll in the course.

Requirements include weekly summary assignments; weekly quizzes; 3 short, analytic papers; participation in classroom analysis, and one major project. Students each choose a project that involves working on a self-chosen EJ project, so that they can use techniques (learned in course) to promote real-world social justice and improved scientific methods in specific poor or minority communities There are no exams.

Texts include Peter Singer, One World; Shrader-Frechette, Environmental Justice; and a variety of articles from scientific and medical journals.

The Ethics of Gender of Race
43321 01 (18052)
Sterba
1:30-2:45 MW

In this course, we will be concerned with two central ideas - equal opportunity and discrimination. We will focus on what constitutes equal opportunity with respect to gender and race and how best to achieve it, as well as what constitutes sexual and racial discrimination and how best to avoid it. We will begin by considering arguments of those who hold that feminist causes discriminate against men and that affirmative action programs discriminates against whites, and then look at opposing arguments. The goal of the course will be to help students make up their own minds about which views on these topics are most morally defensible.

Requirements: Two papers (10-15 pages in length) and participation in class discussions.

Justice Seminar
43404 01 (12632)
Weithman
1:30-2:45 MW
Cross List: POLS 43640 (12630), ECON 33250 (12631)

The Justice Seminar undertakes a critical examination of major theories of justice, using both contemporary works (e.g., John Rawls' A Theory of Justice and Kenneth Arrow's seminal papers on voting theory) and historical classics (e.g., Aristotle's Politics and the Lincoln & Douglas debates). The seminar requires substantial participation of students both in the form of seminar papers and in oral discussion. This is the core course for the concentration in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (P.P.E.).

Metaphysics
43501 01 (12852)
van Inwagen
5:00-6:15 TR

Metaphysics is the part of philosophy that attempts to get behind all appearances and to arrive at reasoned judgments about how things really are. Metaphysics asks what the most general features of the world are, why there is a world that has those features, and how we human beings fit into that world. Some metaphysical questions that will be investigated are: Is the apparent existence of a multitude of things a real feature of the world, or is reality somehow "one" and individuality an illusion? Is there a real physical world outside the mind? Is there a mind-independent truth? Why is there a world: Why does anything at all exist? Is the physical world the work of an intelligent designer? How are our thoughts and feelings related to our bodies? Have we free will?

Bio-Medical Ethics & Public Health Risk
43708 01 (13808)
Shrader-Frechette
4:45-7:00 T
Cross List: BIOS 50545 (14267), HESB 43538 (15590), STV 40216 (14191)

Designed for premedical students and those interested in the environment, science, and engineering, the course will survey ethical issues associated with current public-health problems such as pollution-induced cancers occupational injury and death, and inadequate emphasis on disease prevention, nutrition, and environmental health.

Courses requirements: Weekly quizzes but no tests, weekly one-page reading reports, 3 one-page papers, readings for every class, participation in classroom analysis.

Directed Readings
46498 01 (12019)
Holloway

Directed Readings
46498 02 (10116)
Holloway

Senior Thesis
48499 01 (11158)
O'Connor

* These courses are typically for majors only and are more difficult than 20000 level courses. For a permission only course, you must sign up for an appointment with Professor O'Connor, the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Sign up sheets will be posted in the hallway outside 100 Malloy Hall. Non-major sign up sheets are at the end of advising as majors get first preference.

Department of Philosophy

Undergraduate Course Descriptions Fall 2008

Click here to see Spring 2008 Course Descriptions

Fall 2008 Course Descriptions

All 30000 and 40000 level courses are by permission only *

College of Arts and Letters