Philosophy Courses

PHI 141 (3-0-3)

Survey of Major Western Philosophers

This course provides an introductory survey of the major trends and developments in Western philosophical thought- particularly in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, theology, aesthetics, and political philosophy-from the ancient Greeks to the 20th century. By adopting a historical perspective, the course traces that development through the contributions of major representative thinkers and movements. The course encourages students to examine their own philosophical positions or beliefs.

PHI 143 (3-0-3)

Introduction to Philosophical Problems

Focusing on issues in epistemology, ontology, philosophy of religion, philosophy of freedom, ethics, political and social philosophy, and philosophy of art, this course introduces students to important questions that have preoccupied Western philosophers and to representative attempts by those philosophers to answer those questions. The course will also consider significant contributions to the discussion of those questions by experts from other fields, such as physics and biology. The course encourages students to examine their own philosophical position or beliefs.

PHI 150 (3-0-3)

Basic Logic

This course introduces students to fundamental principles of logic. It introduces students to different kinds of statements: conjunctions, disjunctions, conditionals, bi-conditionals, and to their negations. It examines logical relations between statements and introduces symbolic notation and truth tables. It also focuses on argument and implication: identifying premises and conclusion, enthymemes, argument structures, natural deduction, invalid inference patterns and informal fallacies.