Fall 2021
Fall 2021 Philosophy Courses:
PHIL 1300 Critical Thinking
This class will investigate what it is to think critically. Strong emphasis will be placed on the following: reading critically, analyzing texts, identifying and systematically representing arguments, recognizing formal and informal fallacies, and rationally evaluating what is heard and read.
This Course Satisfies the Language Philosophy and Culture Section of the Undergraduate Core
PHIL 1301 Introduction to Philosophy
An introduction to some of the major philosophical questions that have intrigued humankind over the centuries. This will be done through an examination of the thought of some of the most important figures in the history of philosophy from the early Greeks to modern times. Credit may be received in only one of PHIL 1301 or PHIL 1302.
This Course Satisfies the Language Philosophy and Culture Section of the Undergraduate Core
PHIL 1305 Introduction to Latin American Philosophy
An examination of some of the most important and influential contributions to Latin American thought. Material to be studied will be drawn from both past and contemporary sources. Topics may include Mayan and Aztec Philosophy, Iberian Scholasticism, Social and Political Philosophy, Latin American Positivism, Liberation Theology and/or Philosophy, Latin American Feminism, and Hispanic/Latino/a Identity.
This Course Satisfies the Language Philosophy and Culture Section of the Undergraduate Core
PHIL 1310 Ethics, Happiness, and the Good Life
This course will be concerned with human values: our own and those of other people. It will ask where these values come from, how we can know them, and how they relate to human happiness. It will also examine several related questions such as personal freedom and the meaningfulness of human life.
This Course Satisfies the Language Philosophy and Culture Section of the Undergraduate Core
PHIL 1312 Introduction to Social and Political Philosophy
A critical introduction to the current and historical relationships that define contemporary society and politics. Topics may include democracy, capitalism, communism, anarchism, political authority, norms, justices, pluralism, and rights.
This Course Satisfies the Language Philosophy and Culture Section of the Undergraduate Core
PHIL 1330 - Philosophy, Art, & Film
This course addresses philosophical issues in film and in art. Possible topics include questions of the meaning and the value of film, the nature and importance of beauty in art, the role of the artist’s intention in evaluating a work of art, and the roles of the director and viewer in film. As part of the course, some films will be screened and students may be expected to attend artistic performances or visit local museums and galleries.
This Course Satisfies the Creative Arts Section of the Undergraduate Core
PHIL 1340 - Introduction to Logic
This class is an introduction to the formal techniques available for evaluating the correctness or incorrectness of arguments. Techniques likely to be discussed include: symbolization in propositional logic, parsing trees, truth tables or truth trees, natural deduction in propositional logic, Venn diagrams, and the probability calculus.
PHIL 1362 - Race, Sexuality, & Class
This course will analyze the role that race, sexuality, and economic class play in constructing people’s self-identity, interpersonal relationships, social roles, and political power. Emphasis will be given to traditionally marginalized perspectives. Topics may include whiteness, Hispanic/Latino identity, ethnicity, biological sex, gender identity, queerness, labor, capital, inequality, and their intersections.
This Course Satisfies the Social and Behavior Sciences Section of the Undergraduate Core
PHIL 2306 - Introduction to Ethics
This course systematically presents, analyzes, and evaluates classical and contemporary ethical theories that provide normative frameworks for thinking critically about both personal conduct and our broader social responsibilities in a world of diverse values and cultures. To develop a fuller understanding of the implications of the variety of normative frameworks presented, this course also introduces students to applied ethics, which uses philosophical methods to reach conclusions about what ethical sections and social policies are called for across the various practical domains and professional fields of human life. The ethical theories presented will vary based on the expertise of the instructor and student interested but may include: virtue ethics, Kantian ethics, utilitarianism, egoism, altruism, pragmatic ethics, contractarianism, and care ethics. In a similar way, the practical fields of application will vary but may include issues in: social morality, public policy, biomedical ethics, business ethics, environmental ethics, engineering ethics, global justice, and personal responsibility.
This Course Satisfies the Language Philosophy and Culture Section of the Undergraduate Core
PHIL 2322 - Ethics, Health, and Culture
This course will address the application of moral theories, ethical principles, and professional codes to ethical dilemmas faced by professionals in healthcare or research. Topics covered may include, but are not limited to, euthanasia, conflicts of interest, physicians as researchers, distribution of scarce resources, and the impact of theories like moral relativism and psychological egoism on the application of ethical theory.
This course Satisfies the Language Philosophy and Culture Section of the Undergraduate Core
PHIL 2326 - Ethics, Technology, & Society
This course investigates the ways in which technology influences culture and our individual lives, and the ways in which advances in technology create new ethical challenges that require creative solutions. These challenges face all of us; not only experts working at the cutting edge of technological progress, but also members of the public who must interact with new technologies as part of their daily lives. The course emphasizes the need for responsibility at both the personal and societal levels to better understand technology in order to create and implement ethical responses to technological change. We will also discuss the ways in which technological advances may help us meet these challenges, and the ways in which experts and the public do and should interact around technological advances. We look to thinkers from various cultures for help in developing strategies that students can apply in their personal and professional lives to recognize and respond to the challenges posed by technologies in a responsible manner, both as individuals and as members of communities.
This Course Satisfies the Language Philosophy and Culture Section of the Undergraduate Core and is required by all Engineering and Computer Science Majors
PHIL 2351 Religious Diversity in the Global Community
The contemporary global community contains a wide array of religious beliefs, traditions, practices, and understanding these diverse religious dynamics is essential in building mutually supportive and peaceful relationships among such social groups. This course will examine the ways that religion shapes the self-understanding of different cultural traditions that students will encounter in their life work, and will focus on strategies for appreciating the worldviews, customs, and intellectual convictions embodied by these religions.
This Course Satisfies the Language Philosophy and Culture Section of the Undergraduate Core
PHIL 3301 Ancient Philosophy
This course will discuss the development of Western philosophy (primarily in Ancient Greece) from the pre-Socratics through to Aristotle. Emphasis is likely to be placed on Plato and Aristotle.
PHIL 3303 Modern Philosophy (1600-1800)
A study of the history of philosophy from the Renaissance through the 18th century, with particular emphasis on Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant.
PHIL 3317 Perspectives on Science and Mathematics
This course examines a selection of notable episodes in the history of science and mathematics. Episodes examined may include mathematics and science in Antiquity, Medieval medicine, alchemy, Galileo's conflict with the Catholic Church, Isaac Newton's formulation of the laws of motion, Charles Darwin's proposal of the theory of evolution by natural selection, the development of the atomic bomb, the development of modern logic, the development of non- Euclidian geometry, and the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. This is a required UTeach content course. Enrollment cap: 25 students. Prerequisites: UTCH 1101, UTCH 1102.
PHIL 3340 Intermediate Logic
A continuation of Philosophy 1340, Introduction to Logic, this course will cover the language of predicate logic, with excursions into metalogic. Prerequisites: PHIL 1340.
PHIL 3352 Religion, Spirituality, and Ecology
This course investigates the way religious traditions have conditioned our relationship to the environment, through a survey of both Western (Judeo-Christian-Islamic) and Eastern (Chinese, Japanese, and Indian) traditions. Goals are to identify and evaluate ecological attitudes, values, and practices of diverse traditions, to identify common grounds for understanding environmental issues from a religious perspective, and to highlight the specific resources that comprise such ground within scripture, ritual, myth, symbol, sacrament, and the like.
PHIL 3370 Philosophy of Law
Examination of the institution of law, legal concepts, legal reasoning, and the legal process. Topics may include the nature of law; the moral limits of the criminal law; legal rights; liberty, justice, and equality; punishment; responsibility; the private law (property, contract, and tort); constitutional law; and feminist jurisprudence.
PHIL 4300 Special Topics: The Racial Contract
A study of selected issues or figures in philosophy; content will vary. May be repeated for up to 9 hours credit as content changes.
PHIL 4302 Special Topics in Applied Ethics
This course will address the application of ethical theory to contemporary moral problems and the types of issues that arise in such applications. The particular field of applied ethics studied may vary between areas such as business ethics, biomedical ethics, environmental ethics, research ethics, etc. Topics covered may include end-of-life issues, conflicts of interest, physicians as researchers, globalization, duties to future generations, and the impact of theories like moral relativism and psychological egoism on the application of ethical theory. May be repeated once for credit as content changes.
PHIL 4318 - Philosophy of Food
An examination of the philosophical issues raised around food. This course will engage a variety of philosophical areas and how they pertain to food, including aesthetics, ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics.
PHIL 4323 - Radical Political Philosophy
In political theory, a radical philosophy is one that argues that significant change-down to the roots-needs to take place in order for a just political regime to exist. This is in comparison with philosophies that hold that reform or less extensive changes would be enough to produce a just political regime. This course focuses on philosophies that argue that such a radical change is necessary and can take a variety of foci to address that topic such as contemporary, historical, or comparative philosophies. Possible topics for a course that focuses on modern thinkers might include anarchism, socialism, Marxism, feminism, environmentalism, critical race theory, queer theory, critical theory, and/or others. This course may also address the history of radical philosophy from antiquity to the present starting with Plato's Republic or Aristotle's Politics, and moving forward through time. A comparative version of this course might begin with Gandhi and then move to his impact on the civil rights movement in the United States.
PHIL 4345 - Mexican/Mexican-American Philosophy
Study of Mexican and/or Mexican-American philosophies in terms of their historical and political contexts, external influences, major issues, important figures, and contemporary relevance. The course will vary based on student interest and faculty expertise but may cover: indigenous Aztec and/or Mayan philosophies; philosophical perspectives on Mexican Independence and/or the Mexican Revolution; post-Revolutionary efforts to define lo mexicano; philosophical attempts to understand the Mexican-American/Chicano/a experience; perspectives on immigration, language, oppression, and/or assimilation; and contemporary debates on Mexican and/or Mexican American identity.
PHIL 4350 - Religion & Science
This course seeks to survey the main issues in the interaction between science and religion, beginning with a comparison of the tasks of scientific and theological investigation and discourse, and looking at models of the interaction between the two, with concrete historical examples of each. In addition, the course will explore in further detail some of the major points of intersection between religion and science, including: physics, metaphysics, and cosmology; biological evolution and the assessment of its religious significance by different traditions; models of God popular among scientists and those living in a scientific age (theism, pantheism, panentheism); and ethical issues raised by developments in science and technology.
PHIL 4399 – Internship
This course is designed for students seeking credit through internship. The internship must take place in a professional or research area in which the student will be directly applying the reflective and transferable skills specific to philosophy; the student must be under direct academic supervision and must complete written assignments to be evaluated by the supervising teacher. The course may be counted as an elective toward fulfillment of the requirements for a major in Philosophy.
PHIL 6345 - Mexican-American Philosophy
Study of Mexican and/or Mexican American philosophies in terms of their historical and political contexts, external influences, major issues, important figures, and contemporary relevance. The course will vary based on student interest and faculty expertise but may cover: indigenous Aztec and/or Mayan philosophies; philosophical perspectives on Mexican Independence and/or the Mexican Revolution; post-Revolutionary efforts to define lo mexicano; philosophical attempts to understand the Mexican-American/Chicano/a experience; perspectives on immigration, language, oppression, and/or assimilation; and contemporary debates on Mexican and/or Mexican American identity.