• 2009-2010 Courses:
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Fall 2009

• PHIL 100: Utopias

  What would a perfect society look like? What ideals would it implement? What social evils would it eliminate? This course explores some famous philosophical and literary utopias, such as Plato’s Republic, Thomas More’s Utopia, Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis, Margaret Cavendish’s The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World, Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, and others. We will also consider some nightmarish counterparts of utopias, dystopias. One of the projects in this course is a public performance, such as a speech or a short play. 6; S/CR/NC; Humanities; offered Fall 2009 -- A. Moltchanova

• PHIL 110: Evolution and Mind

  An introduction to questions in the philosophy of mind and language by considering the importance of evolution and evolutionary theory for issues relating to the nature of cognition and language. Central questions to be discussed include: the nature of Darwinian evolution; the nature, structure and function of human language; the nature and role of consciousness; the possibility of innate structures of cognition and language; the university and diversity of human culture and categorization of experience. 6; Humanities; offered Fall 2009 -- R. Elveton

• PHIL 110: Mind, Matter, Consciousness

  According to a common view of the mind, mental states are nothing more than states of the brain. There are certain features of human intellection, subjective experience, and action which have prompted some philosophers to argue that human mental activity is not reducible to brain activity. Some have gone on to argue that the human mind is immaterial and capable of surviving the death of the body. We will examine variants of these views as well as objections to them, reading selections from such historical figures as Plato, Aristotle, and Descartes, and such contemporary philosophers as Churchland, Nagel, and Searle. 6; Humanities; offered Fall 2009 -- A. Moltchanova

• PHIL 110: Life and Death

  What is the meaning of life? Is a meaningful life necessarily a moral life? What happens to me when I die? And just who (or what) am I in the first place? This course will look at these life and death issues alongside more particular life and death issues (such as abortion and euthanasia) in an attempt to shed some light on the meaning, and nature, of life. Course materials will be drawn from classical and contemporary sources and will include at least one movie screening (Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors). 6; Humanities; offered Fall 2009, Winter 2010 -- D. Groll

• PHIL 212: Epistemology

  Do you know that you're not just a brain, floating in a vat, receiving stimulations through electrodes? Or perhaps an immaterial soul being conned by a malicious demon? In this course, we will use these skeptical worries as a launching point for thinking about epistemological issues: What exactly is knowledge? Do we ever have it? If so, when, and how? We will approach these questions through an examination of theories of epistemic justification, including foundationalism, coherentism, internalism, externalism, and virtue epistemology. We will then consider some critiques of traditional epistemology, including feminist epistemology and naturalized epistemology. 6; Humanities; offered Fall 2009 -- J. Decker

• PHIL 220: Philosophy of Language

  In this course we will look at how philosophers have tried to understand language and its connection with human thought and communication. The course will be split into two parts: Semantics and Pragmatics. In the first part, we'll look at general features of linguistic expressions like meaning and reference. In the second part, we'll look at the various ways in which speakers use language. Topics to be considered in the second part include speech acts, implicature, and presupposition. 6; Humanities; offered Fall 2009 -- J. Decker

• PHIL 270: Ancient Greek Philosophy: Knowledge and Skepticism

  Is it possible to know anything for certain? A skeptic denies that we are ever justified in claiming to know something. This class examines the debates in ancient Greek philosophy regarding the nature and justification of knowledge. Is knowledge relative to the perceiver? Is it possible that knowledge can be found in a transcendental realm of abstract Forms? Or should knowledge be acquired by induction based on sense perception? Should we withhold our assent from everything that is less than certain? Readings from Heraclitus, Plato, Aristotle, Pyrrho and Sextus Empiricus. No prerequisites. 6; Humanities; offered Fall 2009 -- A. Curran

• PHIL 400: Integrative Exercise

  A colloquium in which seniors defend their senior theses and discuss the senior theses of others. 3; S/NC; Does not fulfill a distribution requirement; offered Fall 2009, Spring 2010 -- Staff

Winter 2010

• PHIL 100: Nihilism and the Novel

  The seminar will focus upon the dilemmas confronting the modern age as documented in three important modernist novels: Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain; Franz Kafka’s The Trial; and Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse. Discussions of these novels will incorporate selected readings from Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Bergson. The seminar will explore questions regarding the nature of human existence, culture and freedom raised in these classics of modernist literature. 6; S/CR/NC; Humanities; offered Winter 2010 -- R. Elveton

• PHIL 110: Personal Identity

  This course is an introduction to philosophy through the topic of personal identity. What is a person? What is it that makes possible our continued existence through time? Is it a soul? Our bodies? Or is it a stream of memories connecting us to past events? We also examine the place of race in determining personal identity. Readings will be drawn from historical as well as contemporary sources. 6; Humanities; offered Winter 2010, Spring 2010 -- A. Curran

  Extended departmental description for PHIL 110

  See the course web site.

• PHIL 110: Life and Death

  What is the meaning of life? Is a meaningful life necessarily a moral life? What happens to me when I die? And just who (or what) am I in the first place? This course will look at these life and death issues alongside more particular life and death issues (such as abortion and euthanasia) in an attempt to shed some light on the meaning, and nature, of life. Course materials will be drawn from classical and contemporary sources and will include at least one movie screening (Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors). 6; Humanities; offered Fall 2009, Winter 2010 -- D. Groll

• PHIL 210: Logic

  The study of formal logic has obvious and direct applicability to a wide variety of disciplines (including mathematics, computer science, linguistics, philosophy, cognitive science, and many others). Indeed, the study of formal logic helps us to develop the tools and know-how to think more clearly about arguments and logical relationships in general; and arguments and logical relationships form the backbone of any rational inquiry. In this course we will focus on propositional logic and predicate logic, and look at the relationship that these have to ordinary language and thought. 6; Does not fulfill a distribution requirement; offered Winter 2010 -- J. Decker

• PHIL 211: Metaphysics

  The aim of metaphysics has traditionally been to identify the nature and structure of reality. The topics of this course are the topology of time, identity of things and individuals, causality, free will, and the referents of general terms. We will read a variety of classic and contemporary texts, which are organized topically. Prerequisite: any section of Philosophy 110. 6; Humanities; offered Winter 2010 -- A. Moltchanova

• PHIL 220: Philosophy of Law

  This course provides students with an opportunity to engage actively in a discussion of theoretical questions about law. We will consider the nature of law as it is presented by natural law theory, legal positivism and legal realism. Then we will deal with responsibility and punishment, and challenges to the idea of the primacy of individual rights from legal paternalism and moralism. We will next inquire into the relations between individuals and legal systems, explanations of why individuals should obey the law, and conditions under which civil disobedience is justified. Finally, we will discuss issues raised by feminist legal theory and some theories of minority rights. 6; Humanities; offered Winter 2010 -- A. Moltchanova

• PHIL 234: Aesthetics

  Various issues in aesthetics: the definition of art, the nature of the aesthetic, the description, interpretation, and evaluation of aesthetic objects. Readings will be drawn primarily from the works of philosophers and from case materials. 6; Humanities; offered Winter 2010 -- A. Curran

  Extended departmental description for PHIL 234

  Philosophy 234, Winter 2010
  

  The central goal of the course is to introduce you to some of the puzzles and problems that philosophers have considered when they have thought about art. After going through the course you will have learned a new way to think about art. You will also learn about philosophical thinking and see how examining art can teach us more about the nature of philosophy.

  We investigate three central topics: (1) The Definition of art: Can art be defined? Could anything, including a pile of bricks, be art?  (2) The experience of art: What is the nature of aesthetic experience? Is beauty a central aspect of how we experience art? What is the difference between the experience and appreciation of nature and the appreciation of art? (3) The value of art: Why is art valuable? What is rewarding about the experience of art? What is the relationship between artistic and moral values? Readings will be drawn from the history of aesthetics, contemporary philosophy of art, and case materials. We will also have a trip to the Walker Art Center and to the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

• PHIL 395: Moral/Immoral, Natural/Unnatural

  This course will examine the role that appeals to nature play in debates about morality and ask what role it should play in these debates. We will begin by looking at select normative issues before turning to questions about the relation between evolution and ethics. In the last part of the class, we will look at contemporary moral theories that attempt to ground human ends in various conceptions of human nature. 6; Humanities; offered Winter 2010 -- D. Groll

• PHIL 399: Senior Thesis

  The planning, preparation, and completion of a philosophical paper under the direction of a member of the department and as part of a seminar group. 6; Does not fulfill a distribution requirement; offered Winter 2010 -- J. Decker

Spring 2010

• PHIL 110: Arguing About Politics

  This course introduces students to several classic texts in the history of political thought and provides them with an opportunity to interpret these texts critically by concentrating on argument analysis. Students will also learn to construct and effectively communicate their own arguments about foundational issues in politics. We will discuss justifications of democracy, the challenge of diverse citizenship, the role of deliberation in politics and related questions. We will read works by Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Rousseau, Locke, de Tocqueville, Mill as well as some contemporary political theorists. 6; Humanities; offered Spring 2010 -- A. Moltchanova

• PHIL 110: Personal Identity

  This course is an introduction to philosophy through the topic of personal identity. What is a person? What is it that makes possible our continued existence through time? Is it a soul? Our bodies? Or is it a stream of memories connecting us to past events? We also examine the place of race in determining personal identity. Readings will be drawn from historical as well as contemporary sources. 6; Humanities; offered Winter 2010, Spring 2010 -- A. Curran

  Extended departmental description for PHIL 110

  See the course web site.

• PHIL 213: Ethics

  A topical and issue-centered introduction to ethics, considering both historical and contemporary developments. Topics may include utilitarianism, pragmatism, virtue theory, Kantianism, contractualism, subjectivism, intuitionism, emotivism, relativism, moral skepticism, moral justification, the objectivity of values, normative ethics, metaethics, and feminist approaches to moral theory. Prerequisite: any section of Philosophy 110. 6; Humanities; offered Spring 2010 -- D. Groll

• PHIL 220: Heidegger and Contemporary Philosophy

  An examination of Heidegger’s Being and Time and an exploration of Heidegger’s influence upon significant developments in contemporary philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and cognitive science. 6; Humanities; offered Spring 2010 -- R. Elveton

• PHIL 272: Modern Philosophy

  An examination of the development of Western philosophy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries through the writings of Descartes, Locke, Spinoza, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. We focus on the impact of modern scientific thought on the philosophical tradition's understanding of the place of the human being in the world. Topics include: Is it possible to have knowledge of the world? What is the nature of reality? What is the human mind? Are we free? 6; Humanities; offered Spring 2010 -- D. Groll

• PHIL 395: Modal and Deontic Logic

  This seminar will explore modal logic (the logic of possibility and necessity), and deontic logic (the logic of permissibility and obligation). We will begin by looking briefly at the history of modal logic, including such episodes as Quine's proclaiming that modal logic was 'conceived in sin' and a teenaged Saul Kripke supplying the missing semantics. We will then turn to the formal symbolic systems themselves, while also considering nearby metaphysical issues concerning possibilia, essences, obligations, and values. Finally, we will look at some applications (e.g., the application of deontic logic to ethical theories and Gödel's modal argument for God's existence). 6; Humanities; offered Spring 2010 -- J. Decker

• PHIL 395: The Emotions and Moral Psychology

  This seminar examines the nature of the emotions and the relation of the emotions to our moral psychology, or the aspects of our mind that are relevant to moral decision-making. The topics to be discussed include: what are emotions and how do they differ from beliefs and desires? Are our emotions at odds with reason and morality? Are there some emotions that it is better not to have? We study readings from the history of philosophy as well as consider the recent resurgence of interest in this topic by contemporary philosophers. 6; Humanities; offered Spring 2010 -- A. Curran

• PHIL 400: Integrative Exercise

  A colloquium in which seniors defend their senior theses and discuss the senior theses of others. 3; S/NC; Does not fulfill a distribution requirement; offered Fall 2009, Spring 2010 -- Staff