The Department of Philosophy and Ethics is committed to creating an environment of dialogical inquiry both in and outside the disciplinary context.
Philosophy & Ethics
Our Programs
Both philosophy and ethics are concerned with the fundamental human questions, as well as the traditions to which they are attached. Areas of investigation include but are not limited to questions regarding the meaning of life, the ability to live ethically, and the human quest for the sacred. These concerns form the core of liberal arts education.
Undergraduate Degree
Accelerated Undergraduate and Graduate Degree
Minors
Download our brochure of the major's, courses and electives
Download our brochure of the Pre-Law program's courses and electives
Featured Courses
Prof. Weinstein
#30989 (3 credits)
R, 4 – 6:30 p.m.
We are a society consumed by mass media. From TV, to newspapers, to the internet, we are under a constant barrage of information, persuasion, and digital manipulation. What are the ethical issues involved in broadcasting our perspectives and evaluating others? Do the traditional ideas of journalistic objectivity still apply? How much privacy should we have? How can we tell propaganda from the truth? In this class we will explore these and related questions, including taking a deep dive into the controversies surrounding free speech.
Prof. Butler
#30987 (3 credits)
T/R 2 – 3:15 p.m.
We are often encouraged to care for our mental health. This sounds good on the surface. But often those encouraging us to do so are not necessarily those we trust to have our best interests in mind – corporations, insurance companies, the human resources department, etc. Why do these powerful institutions have an interest in our mental health? How is their power connected to the way we think about what it means to be mentally healthy? Where did the concept of mental health come from and how is it related to older concepts like madness or psychopathology? This course will critically investigate these questions through 20th and 21st century European philosophy. Figures explored will include, Michel Foucault, R.D. Laing, and Mariana Alessandri.
Prof. Weinstein
#27296 (3 credits)
T/R 12:30 – 1:45 p.m.
Did you ever want to write philosophy for a blog, magazine, on Twitter or Reddit, or make a philosophical comment on a Twitch stream? Do you want to make philosophy content for social networks like Instagram and TikTok? If so, this course is what you are looking for. It provides you with the opportunity to take philosophy out of the classroom and into the world around you. It focuses on writing blog entries, social network posts, and evaluating existing public philosophy books and articles. First and foremost, Public Philosophy is a writing course that will help you refine your composition skills to better communicate ideas and “translate” them into more accessible media, including video for those who want to. Best of all, YOU get to choose what you write about, not the professor. No subject is off limits. This is the Philosophy department’s capstone course but is open to all students with at least 75 credit hours. It fulfills ES capstone requirements for many majors beside philosophy’s. Essential Studies: Capstone.
Prof. Butler
#29653 (3 credits)
Asynchronous Online
Jean-Paul Sartre once wrote, “The businessman calls himself an innovator when he buys a new machine.” These days, the innovators are buying machines related to data collection and analysis. Data science is an increasingly important tool made use of by top decision makers in fields as diverse as sports, business, education, and government. This course will investigate moral and ethical ambiguities that emerge in these contexts. We will investigate both the ethical questions surrounding the reduction of human activity to data as a method of measurement and the ethical questions that arise when advanced methods and tools for data analysis are used in making decisions that affect human life. Undergraduate students can enroll in this course with special permission of Prof. Butler.
What is Philosophy?
Department Mission
Both philosophy and ethics are concerned with fundamental human questions, as well as the traditions to which they are attached. The Department of Philosophy and Ethics is committed to creating an environment of dialogical inquiry both in and outside the disciplinary context. Areas of investigation include but are not limited to questions regarding the meaning of life, the ability to live ethically, and the human quest for the sacred. These concerns form the core of liberal arts education. The department maintains a major (with two concentrations in either Philosophy or Pre-Law) and two minors (Philosophy and Ethics), but also offers a wide range of courses in the disciplines of philosophy and ethics accessible to students of many interests.