Spring 2025 Courses
No Prerequisites. Most courses fulfill essential studies requirements.
PHIL 101 Introduction to Philosophy
#30984 (3 credits)
T/R 2 – 3:1 5 p.m.
Prof. Beltz
This course is designed to provide students with a rich understanding of the ideas and issues that have guided human history. This course will provide a survey of the major themes and problems that generations of students (and philosophers) have struggled to find solutions to. How do I know what is right? How do I know that there is anything out in the world? How do I know what is beautiful? What does it mean to know something? This course will take a thematic approach to philosophy, focusing on a cross-section of philosophic topics and readings.
Essential Studies: Humanities
PHIL 120 Introduction to Ethics
#27294 (3 credits)
T/R 9:30 – 10:45 a.m.
Prof. Butler
This class approaches central topics in ethics by way of an examination of habit and embodiment. We will pay close attention to the way that our bodies are not just machines that move us around, but meaningful points of contact with the world. The body’s ability to acquire habits - unconscious ways of moving and interacting with the world - will be the central phenomenon that we investigate. Most of what we do, we do uncritically, without reflecting or thinking ahead. We will inquire into the way that our habits of action develop, the contexts out of which they emerge and which they reflect, and what is necessary for taking up and altering our habits in a way that reflects our own considered values and choices. The aim will be to practice philosophy together as a means to developing habits that make our lives good, happy, and ethical.
Essential Studies: Humanities
PHIL 130 Intro to Political Philosophy
#28216 (3 credits)
T 4 – 6:30 p.m.
Prof. Weinstein
Don’t you wish there were a way to talk about politics without fighting about Democrats or Republicans? Shouldn’t there be a way to settle issues by appealing to something more than just people’s opinions? Well, there is! Political philosophy is a way of talking politics while focusing on the big questions instead of the policies that make everyone so angry. We ask about the nature of justice, whether government is good or bad (and whether it should be big or small), whether we can morally take away people’s rights, and whether we need authorities to tell us what to do. Ultimately, we ask whether people in a democracy really can make decisions for themselves. Introduction to Political Philosophy is a fun, discussion-oriented class with minimal homework. It is technology heavy and focuses on peer-to-peer interaction while minimizing lecture time. It will make politics enjoyable even as everyone around us is going crazy.
This is a collaborative class with no major exams or papers, minimal homework, and lots of discussion. It requires no prerequisites!
Essential Studies: Humanities
PHIL 250 Ethics in Engineering and Science
#30985 (3 credits)
T/R 11 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Prof. Beltz
This course provides an investigation into the ethical concerns dominating contemporary STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Contemporary society places a significant amount of prestige in STEM experts. Professionals within these fields of expertise often lose sight of their role in protecting public safety, seeking justice, and the public good. This course focuses on understanding the ethical responsibilities of professionals, the nature of moral decision making, and applying ethical frameworks to concrete situations. Drawing on case studies and real-world scenarios, this course examines the significance of honesty, competence, teamwork, whistleblowing, confidentiality, and integrity our professional lives. This course seeks to understand and apply the professional codes relevant to contemporary scientific and engineering practices.
Essential Studies: Humanities
PHIL 251 Ethics in Health Care
#27298 (3 credits)
M/W/F 10:10 – 11 a.m.
Prof. Beltz
At some point in our lives, we become involved in the health care system. Whether we are patients, nurses, doctors, or family members of patients, we must understand how the decisions we make about health care are ethical decisions. This course focuses on understanding the ethical responsibilities of professionals, the rights of patients, the nature of moral decision making, and applying ethical frameworks to concrete situations. Drawing on case studies, ethical dilemmas, and real-world scenarios, this course examines the significance of informed consent, abortion, euthanasia, organ transplant policy, professional standards, assisted suicide, vaccine mandates, drug screening, national health care policy and reform. The rights and responsibilities of professionals and patients will be examined through contemporary ethical theories and through codes of professional ethics.
Essential Studies: Humanities
PHIL 252 Applied Business Ethics
#30986 (3 credits)
M/W/F 12:20 – 1:10 p.m.
Prof. Beltz
In a world where citizens seem to be at odds with corporations, how can we reconcile ethics and business? Is it possible to be good at business and still be a good person? This course will examine the relationship between business practices and applied ethics. Through case study analysis and real-world scenarios, this course will explore two related issues. We will explore the ways that ethics and business can be understood to work towards oppositional goals and the ways that the might augment each other. We will explore the relationships between these seemingly different public practices. We will, also, examine what it means to be ethical in a business setting. This will involve exploring topics such as: confidentiality, teamwork, honesty, record keeping, employee rights, globalization, advertising, and personal advancement.
PHIL 255 Media Ethics
#30989 (3 credits)
R 4 – 6:30 p.m.
Prof. Weinstein
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.
PHIL 331 Contemporary European Philosophy Madness, Power, and Mental Health
#30987 (3 credits)
T/R 2 – 3:15 p.m.
Prof. Butler
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.
PHIL 360 Feminist Philosophy
#30988 (3 credits)
M/W 2:30 – 3:45 p.m.
Prof. Rozelle-Stone
What does it mean to live a feminist life? Why are feminists often portrayed as “willful” or “killjoys”? What kinds of societal and political issues does feminist philosophy address and how? In this course, we will not only discuss these broad questions, but we also will explore individual, relational, sexual, and familial obstacles and revolutions through a feminist- philosophical lens. Themes will include: the meaning of oppression; gendered expectations; bodily norms; “outlaw emotions;” happiness scripts; relationship paradigms; intersectional feminism; feminist resistance, survival, and fatigue; and more. We will read and engage with works by notable feminist philosophers such as Simone de Beauvoir, Audre Lorde, Sara Ahmed, and Iris Marion Young.
Essential Studies: Humanities and Advanced Communication
PHIL 480 Public Philosophy
#27296 (3 credits)
T/R 12:30 – 1:45 p.m.
Prof. Weinstein
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.
PHIL 575 Data Science Ethics
#29653 (3 credits)
Asynchronous Online
Prof. Butler
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.