Search Results
Your search for courses · during 25FA, 26WI, 26SP · tagged with PHIL Traditions 1 · returned 8 results
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PHIL 100 Utopias 6 credits
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, 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.
Held for new first year students
- Fall 2025
- AI/WR1, Argument & Inquiry/WR1
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Student is a member of the First Year First Term class level cohort. Students are only allowed to register for one A&I course at a time. If a student wishes to change the A&I course they are enrolled in they must DROP the enrolled course and then ADD the new course. Please see our Workday guides Drop or 'Late' Drop a Course and Register or Waitlist for a Course Directly from the Course Listing for more information.
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PHIL 100.01 Fall 2025
- Faculty:Anna Moltchanova 🏫 👤
- Size:15
- M, WWeitz Center 132 9:50am-11:00am
- FWeitz Center 132 9:40am-10:40am
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PHIL 213 Ethics 6 credits
How should we live? This is the fundamental question for the study of ethics. This course looks at classic and contemporary answers to the fundamental question from Socrates to Kant to modern day thinkers. Along the way, we consider slightly (but only slightly) more tractable questions such as: What reason is there to be moral? Is there such a thing as moral knowledge (and if so, how do we get it)? What are the fundamental principles of right and wrong (if there are any at all)? Is morality objective?
- Winter 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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PHIL 213.01 Winter 2026
- Faculty:Daniel Groll 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- T, THLeighton 426 8:15am-10:00am
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PHIL 215 Objectivity in Science 6 credits
It is often thought that science is aimed at ‘objective’ knowledge. Philosophers of science have tried to pin down exactly what ‘objectivity’ means– is it a feature of scientific methods, or theories? Is it one property or many different properties? Supposing we can pin down a satisfactory account of objectivity, do our theories, current or past practices obtain that property? Is it even possible in principle to have objective knowledge? We will explore these and related questions from both a historical and contemporary philosophical lens, from the logical positivism of the Vienna Circle to contemporary feminist epistemology of science. Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.
- Winter 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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PHIL 215.01 Winter 2026
- Faculty:Jessie Hall 🏫 👤
- Size:15
- T, THWeitz Center 136 1:15pm-3:00pm
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PHIL 218 Virtue Ethics 6 credits
What is a good human life? Who is a good person? From the time of Plato and Aristotle onwards, many philosophers have thought about these questions in terms of two central ideas. Virtues, such as justice or courage, make us a certain type of person (they give us a certain character). Wisdom enables us to make good judgments about how to act. How do virtue and wisdom work together to produce a good human life? Is a good life the same as a happy life? We will reflect on these and related questions as we read texts from Alasdair MacIntyre, Philippa Foot, and other significant thinkers in the contemporary virtue ethics tradition. We will also consider the application of virtue ethics to specific areas, such as environmental ethics, as well as the parallels between Western virtue ethics and the tradition of Confucianism in ancient China.
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PHIL 218.01 Fall 2025
- Faculty:Allison Murphy 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WLibrary 305 12:30pm-1:40pm
- FLibrary 305 1:10pm-2:10pm
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PHIL 225 Philosophy of Mind 6 credits
What is the relationship between the mind and the brain? Are they identical? Or is there mental “stuff” in addition to physical stuff? Or perhaps some physical stuff has irreducibly mental properties? These, and related questions, are explored by philosophers under the heading of “the mind-body problem.” In this course, we will start with these questions, looking at classical and contemporary defenses of both materialism and dualism. This investigation will lead us to other important questions such as: What is the nature of mental representation, what is consciousness, and could a robot have conscious states and mental representations?
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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PHIL 225.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Jason Decker 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WLeighton 305 1:50pm-3:00pm
- FLeighton 305 2:20pm-3:20pm
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PHIL 261 The Individual and the Political Community 6 credits
Are human beings by nature atomic units or oriented towards community? What does the difference amount to, and why does it matter for our understanding of the ways in which political communities come into existence and are maintained? In this course we will explore these and related questions while reading two foundational works in political theory, Plato’s Republic and Hobbes’s Leviathan, as well as several related contemporary pieces.
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PHIL 261.01 Winter 2026
- Faculty:Allison Murphy 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WLeighton 426 9:50am-11:00am
- FLeighton 426 9:40am-10:40am
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PHIL 317 Objectivity in Science 6 credits
It is often thought that science is aimed at ‘objective’ knowledge. Philosophers of science have tried to pin down exactly what ‘objectivity’ means– is it a feature of scientific methods, or theories? Is it one property or many different properties? Supposing we can pin down a satisfactory account of objectivity, do our theories, current or past practices obtain that property? Is it even possible in principle to have objective knowledge? We will explore these and related questions from both a historical and contemporary philosophical lens, from the logical positivism of the Vienna Circle to contemporary feminist epistemology of science.
- Winter 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One Philosophy course excluding Independent Studies or Directed Research courses with a grade of C- or better.
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PHIL 317.01 Winter 2026
- Faculty:Jessie Hall 🏫 👤
- Size:15
- T, THWeitz Center 136 1:15pm-3:00pm
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POSC 250 Kings, Tyrants, Philosophers: Plato’s Republic 6 credits
In this course we will read Plato’s Republic, perhaps the greatest and surely the most important work of political philosophy ever written. What are the deepest needs and the most powerful longings of human nature? Can they be fulfilled, and, if so, how? What are the deepest needs of society, and can they be fulfilled? What is the relation between individual happiness and societal well-being? Are they compatible or in conflict with one another? And where they are in conflict, what does justice require that we do? The Republic explores these questions in an imaginative and unforgettable way.
Crosslisted with POSC 350
- Fall 2025
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry