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PHL 100.001 & 002 Introduction to Philosophy
Dr. Christopher Nicholson
This course is an introduction to philosophy. In addition to covering basic logic and argumentation, we will survey some of the major questions in the field, such as whether God exists, whether a state can be justified, what the correct ethical theory is, whether free will is possible, what consciousness is, whether artificial intelligence could exist, and whether we can know anything.
Prerequisites: None
Tentative Course Requirements: Four exams
Core Curriculum: This course carries an HU designation.
PHL 100.003 Introduction to Philosophy
Dr. H. Scott Hestevold
The course offers an introduction to philosophical methodology by way of studying several classic philosophical problems. The problems to be studied will likely include the following: (1) Should we be anarchists? Or is there justification for government rule? If so, what type of government is justified? (2) Are there objective facts about right and wrong, or is the moral status of homosexuality or abortion merely a matter of opinion? If there are objective moral facts, then what makes right actions right and wrong actions wrong? (3) Do you have free will, or are your actions all causally determined by your genetic predisposition, biochemistry, and various environmental stimuli? (4) What sort of conscious being are you? Are you a non-physical substance that inhabits your body? Are you instead identical with your brain? (5) Is there compelling evidence that God exists? Or, does the existence of evil imply that God does not exist?
Prerequisites: None Tentative Course Requirements: (a) Four multiple-choice/short-answer examinations. Involvement in the course – attendance, optional homework assignments, participation – will likely count toward extra credit.
Core Curriculum: This course carries an HU designation.
PHL 100.004, 005, 006 Introduction to Philosophy
Dr. Trig Johnson
Dr. Johnson builds upon an elucidation and examination of world-renowned ancient-Greek philosophers’ thought to provide an extended exposition and examination of perennial philosophical problems pertaining to metaphysics, ontology, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, philosophy of religion, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind.
Prerequisites: None
Tentative Course Requirements: Three exams and a paper.
Core Curriculum: This course carries an HU designation.
PHL 100.007 & 008 Introduction to Philosophy
Dr. Timothy Butzer
This course is an introduction to philosophy. In order to introduce you to this discipline and its methodology, we will focus on four questions: Does God exist? What are minds and how do they relate to bodies? Can we know anything about the world outside of my mind? What does it take for a person to survive over time? The purpose of the course is, in part, to get acquainted with different positions on these issues and some of the central arguments used to support these positions, but even more importantly it is to introduce students into what taking a philosophical approach to a question amounts to and the point and value of doing so.
Prerequisites: None
Tentative Course Requirements: Four exams
Core Curriculum: This course carries an HU designation.
PHL 100.600 & 900 Introduction to Philosophy – Online
Dr. Torin Alter
This course introduces students to the basic concepts, methods, and problems of philosophy. Students will learn about philosophical approaches to issues such as the existence or nonexistence of God, the relationship between the mind and body, the freedom of the will, and the nature of right and wrong.
Prerequisites: None
Course Requirements: Seven module exams, comprehensive final. All work done on-line.
Core Curriculum: This course carries an HU designation.
PHL 104.001 Critical Thinking
Dr. Adam Arico
Deciding what to believe is never as easy as it first seems. The number of relevant factors may make choosing well seem almost impossible. This course helps to develop the skills needed to examine critically and systematically everything from the claims of science to claims in the political arena. This course aims to make students aware of their own psychological hurdles to proper reasoning, as well as to hone critical thinking skills generally, paying special attention to identifying and avoiding common psychological biases and logical fallacies. Along the way, we will be considering scientific reasoning, thinking about moral issues, and arguments as they occur in everyday life.
Prerequisites: None
Course Requirements: (a) three in-class exams (plus an optional Final Exam); (b) regular (roughly weekly) quizzes; and (c) homework and in-class writing assignments.
Core Curriculum: This course carries an HU designation.
PHL 106.001 Honors Introduction To Deductive Logic
Dr. Torin Alter
What is the difference between a good argument and a bad one? This course focuses on tools developed by philosophers and mathematicians for answering that question. In it, you will learn to use analytical methods such as the construction of proofs and counter models to evaluate arguments. Along the way, you will explore and analyze influential arguments from the history of philosophy, including some concerning questions of value, ethics, and aesthetics. Philosophical arguments examined in this course may include Aquinas’s arguments for the existence of God, Parmenidean arguments that change is impossible, Berkeley’s argument for idealism, Descartes’ Cogito argument, John Stuart Mill’s “proof” of Utilitarianism, Kant’s argument for the Categorical Imperative, Singer’s argument for animal rights, the Stoics’ argument that death is not to be feared, and more. The formal tools used in this class include the notation of sentential and predicate logic (with identity), truth tables, a natural deduction proof system, and the use of semantic counter models
Prerequisites: C- or better in MATH 100, or equivalent. Admission to UA Honors or a 28 ACT.
Course Requirements: This course is self-paced, but regular class attendance is required until you have completed all the course work. The course is divided into seven modules, and students grades are determined primarily by how many modules they master by the end of the term.
Core Curriculum: This course carries an HU designation.
PHL 195.001 Intro Deductive Logic
Dr. Torin Alter
What is the difference between a good argument and a bad one? This course focuses on tools developed by philosophers and mathematicians for answering that question. In it, you will learn to use analytical methods such as the construction of proofs and counter models to evaluate arguments. Along the way, you will explore and analyze influential arguments from the history of philosophy, including some concerning questions of value, ethics, and aesthetics. Philosophical arguments examined in this course may include Aquinas’s arguments for the existence of God, Parmenidean arguments that change is impossible, Berkeley’s argument for idealism, Descartes’ Cogito argument, John Stuart Mill’s “proof” of Utilitarianism, Kant’s argument for the Categorical Imperative, Singer’s argument for animal rights, the Stoics’ argument that death is not to be feared, and more. The formal tools used in this class include the notation of sentential and predicate logic, truth tables, a natural deduction proof system, and the use of semantic counter models.
Prerequisites: C- or better in MATH 100, or equivalent. Course
Requirements: This course is self-paced, but regular class attendance is required until you have completed all the course work. The course is divided into six modules, and students grades are determined primarily by how many modules they master by the end of the term.
Core Curriculum: This course carries an HU designation.
PHL 212.001 Early Modern Philosophy
Dr. Seth Bordner
This course will look at the main figures and intellectual developments of the early Modern period of philosophy. We will proceed chronologically, starting with Descartes’s seminal Meditations on First Philosophy and tracing two very different branches of influence from there to what are often called the Rationalist and Empiricist schools. Other figures of note will be Locke, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant.
Course Requirements: three exams, in-class quizzes
Prerequisites: None, but one philosophy course at the 100-level is recommended.
Core Curriculum: This course carries an HU designation.
PHL 223.001 & 002 Medical Ethics
Dr. Stuart Rachels
This course is an introduction to some of the ethical issues involved in medicine. Topics include physician-assisted dying; the allocation of organs and other scarce resources; abortion; stem cell research; and patient autonomy. Our main text will be Lewis Vaughn, Bioethics: Principles, Issues, and Cases, 3rd ed. (Oxford University Press, 2016).
Schedule: This is a large lecture course that meets three days per week.
Prerequisites: None
Course Requirements: There will be three exams. Students will be required to attend every class meeting.
Core Curriculum: This course carries an HU designation.
PHL 230.001 Political Philosophy
Dr. Rekha Nath
What does justice require in our society today? With a focus on contemporary social and political issues, we seek to answer this question by looking at different dimensions of justice. We start out by examining the problem of political authority: What, if anything, can give the government legitimate authority over citizens? We then consider how the ideals of democracy, freedom, rights, and equality inform our understanding of a just society.
Prerequisites: None
Tentative course requirements: Exams and class participation Core
Curriculum: This course carries an HU designation.
PHL 256.001 Philosophy of Sport
Dr. Seth Bordner
Sports command more of our attention (and money) than almost any other part of our culture, except for maybe religion. Sports are important to our culture, and interesting to watch. They’re also interesting to think about. This course provides an introduction to the burgeoning field of Philosophy of Sport. We will look at the nature of sports (and games more generally), sportsmanship and fairness, the role of officials, gender equity, racism, and issues surrounding the use of performance-enhancing drugs. This course is reading intensive. Prior exposure to philosophy is welcome but not required.
Prerequisites: None
Course Requirements: three exams, 3-5 short writing assignments
Core Curriculum: This course carries an HU designation.
PHL 260.001 Mind and Nature
Dr. Chase Wrenn
This course examines a range of questions about the nature of mind, perception and knowledge including but not limited to the following. What is a mind made of? Are minds physical or immaterial? Are all mental states conscious? What do minds do? Presumably, one thing minds do is process information, such that their subjects might “know” things about the world. How is knowledge possible? How might perceptual experience provide knowledge of mind-independent objects? What is knowledge in the first place?
Prerequisites: None
Tentative Course Requirements: Careful reading, attendance, discussion questions and participation, four T/F, multiple choice, short extended-answer exams.
Core Curriculum: This course carries an HU designation
PHL 290.001 Existentialism – Special Topics
Dr. Trig Johnson
Death, despair, dread, anxiety, loneliness, absurdity, doubt, meaninglessness, purposelessness, the god, eroticism, crisis, insanity, irony, choice, authenticity—Dr. Johnson provides penetrating and titillating analyses of these, and other, existential delights, vis-à-vis an extended exposition and critical examination of the chief tenets of world-renowned, post-nineteenth-century existentialist thinkers.
Prerequisites: None.
Course Requirements: Three exams and a paper.
Core Curriculum: None.
PHL 290.002 Environmental Ethics – Special Topics
Dr. Rekha Nath
This is a survey course in environmental ethics. Students will be introduced to philosophical debates on a range of contemporary environmental issues. Centrally, we will consider how traditional ethical reasoning, which focuses on humans, can be extended to the analysis of the natural world. We will examine conceptual and normative issues concerning biodiversity, sustainability, animal welfare, climate change, and population growth. We will also take up questions such as the following: What is owed to future generations and to distant others? How should we balance the goals of environmental protection and economic development? What does it mean to be an ethical consumer?
Prerequisites: None.
Tentative Course Requirements: Three exams.
Core Curriculum: None.
PHL 292.001 Introduction of Ethics
Dr. Stuart Rachels
This course will focus on a dozen or so matters of personal and social importance. Topics include abortion, pornography, starvation, affirmative action, gay rights, and the death penalty. We’ll concentrate on the reasons that bear on these issues. Our approach to these issues will serve as a model for critical thinking in general.
Tentative Course Requirements: Grades will be based on four exams. Attendance will be taken each class, and an attendance policy will be enforced.
Prerequisites: None
Core Curriculum: This course carries an HU designation.
PHL 292.002Introduction of Ethics
Dr. Timothy Butzer
We care not only about how the world actually is, but how it ought to be. We think it is wrong when someone kills, assaults or otherwise harms another without sufficient cause. We think highly of selfless acts that benefit others. In other words, we care about the moral status of our actions. Ethics, or moral philosophy, is the study of morality. Of primary importance in ethics is the question of what makes an act right or wrong. It is this question that will be the focus of this introductory course. We will survey some of the most influential theories of what makes an action morally right or wrong: utilitarianism, deontological ethics, and virtue ethics. In addition, we will also explore whether there are objective moral facts, whether actions are only moral/immoral relative to a culture, the role of religion in morality, and difficult moral issues surrounding world hunger and abortion.
Prerequisites: None
Course Requirements: TBA
Core Curriculum: This course carries an HU designation.
PHL 292.003 & 004 Introduction of Ethics
Dr. Adam Arico
Course Description: What is the nature of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, ‘good’ and ‘bad’? What are the principles or guidelines for behaving morally? What sort of life should I live, and what sort of person should I be? How do I figure out what to do and which action is morally correct? Introduction to Ethics engages with all of these questions and surveys the various ways that influential philosophers have attempted to answer those questions. The course will introduce students to the fundamental concepts of ethics, as well as the major ethical theories. The course begins by discussing basic metaethical questions about moral realism, moral relativism, and moral skepticism, as well as the relationship (or lack thereof) between religion and morality. In the second portion of the course, students are introduced to the historically-significant ethical theories: Virtue Ethics, Deontology, and Consequentialism. The third portion of the course expounds on the implications of those ethical theories for various contemporary ethical issues—including abortion, animal rights, capital punishment, etc.
Prerequisites: None
Course Requirements: Attendance and participation are not required but are strongly encouraged. There will usually be a group work/discussion period during each class. There will be three in-class exams; one (optional) final exam; quizzes; and writing assignments.
Core Curriculum: This course carries an HU designation.
PHL 292.006 Introduction of Ethics
Dr. Seth Bordner
This course is designed to give the students a broad introduction to the field of philosophical ethics. The primary aim is to acquaint students with the basic subject matter of ethics as it is studied within philosophy, a few central authorities and positions, and a feel for how philosophers engage with contemporary ethical issues in light of some of the historical influences on the discipline. We will read a variety of texts ranging from historical works on ethics generally to contemporary works focusing on specific moral issues. The hope is that students will develop an understanding and appreciation of how different ethical theories apply to particular cases, and how they might begin to engage in genuine ethical debates.
Prerequisites: None
Course Requirements: There will be three exams throughout the course; two mid-term exams and one final exam. In addition, there will be periodic, unannounced quizzes given in class to test your comprehension of the readings. These quizzes will be graded on a High Pass/Low Pass/Fail scale.
Core Curriculum: This course carries an HU designation.
PHL 349.001: Legal Reasoning
Dr. Christopher Nicholson
This course will prepare you for law school by covering the various methods of reasoning and argumentation that are tested on the LSAT, developed in law school, and used by lawyers and judges. It will also cover philosophical issues relating to the appropriate use of precedent and evidence.
Prerequisites: a B in at least one other PHL class.
Tentative course requirement: Three exams and a paper.
Core Curriculum: None.
PHL 423.001: Medical Ethics – Seminar
Dr. Holly Kantin
This course provides an in-depth examination of some of the central ethical issues encountered by physicians and other medical professionals. Students will acquire breadth in the field of medical ethics as well as engage in an in-depth examination of specific issues. Possible topics include the physician-patient relationship, the role of physicians and other medical professionals, end-of-life decision-making (advance directives, do not resuscitate orders, palliative care, the definition of death), beginning of life decision-making (genetic counseling and prenatal screening), and the ethics of clinical research, and bias and unequal treatment in healthcare practice. The course is specifically aimed at students who are considering a career in healthcare but will be of interest to anyone who has a special interest in biomedical ethics. This course carries a W designation. Writing proficiency within philosophy is required for a passing grade in this course.
Prerequisites: None although courses in ethics may be beneficial.
Course Requirements: TBA
Core Curriculum: None
PHL 489.001: Philosophy of Medicine
Dr. Richard Richards
It is difficult to overstate the significance of medicine, in that it affects each of us from birth through death; or the complexity of medicine, in that it involves scientific, conceptual, economic, ethical and philosophical issues. We will here look at three of these issues from a philosophical standpoint: 1) the ways that we conceptualize health and disease; 2) the patterns of reasoning associated with medical thinking; 3) the challenge posed by evolution to how we think about medicine, health, and disease. Writing proficiency within this discipline is required for a passing grade in this course.
Prerequisites: None.
Course Requirements: None.
Core Curriculum: This course carries a W designation.
PHL 490.001: Space,Time & Objects – Special Topics
Dr. H. Scott Hestevold
This metaphysics seminar is for the advanced philosophy student. Questions to be addressed will likely include the following: (1) Persistence: Do objects persist? Do there exist objects that are identical with objects that did exist? (And what about persons? Are you something that will exist 55 years from now?) (2) Composition: When do two objects compose a whole? Is there an object composed of your nose and The White House? Can the parts of your phone exist when your phone does not? Are 3D objects composed of boundaries – non-3D parts that are the objects’ surfaces, edges, or tips? What are holes? Are doughnuts and wedding bands composed, in part, of holes? (3) Time: Does time “flow”? Do objects undergo “temporal passage” from future to past, or are objects “frozen” across “static” time? If there is a present moment, is it instantaneously “thin,” or does it have duration? Is time travel logically possible? And what is time? Does it exist? (4) Space: Is Isaac Newton right that space exists and is the thing where objects are located? Or is Leibniz right that space does not exist? Does Relativity provide evidence that space and time do not exist and that spacetime does exist? Can curved or wobbly spacetime exist? What might Leibniz conclude about the existence of spacetime?
Prerequisites: At least two philosophy courses.
Course Requirements: (a) One substantial philosophical essay of at least five substantial, double-spaced pages [30%], (b) four multiple-choice/short-answer examinations [60%], and (c) course involvement (attendance, participation, short homework assignments, etc.) [10%].
Core Curriculum: None.
PHL 492.001: Truth – Special Topics
Dr. Chase Wrenn
This course surveys recent philosophical work on the nature and value of truth. We survey the four main kinds of theories of the nature of truth—epistemic theories, correspondence theories, deflationary theories, and pluralist theories—and consider how each approach fares at explaining objectivity and the value of truth, as well as how adequately it captures the idea that a claim is true if and only if things are as it says they are. Writing proficiency within this discipline is required for a passing grade in this course.
Prerequisites: At least two previous philosophy classes. It is highly recommended that you have taken PHL 101,195, 103, or 106, and PHL 252/260 (Mind and Nature) or PHL 251/212 prior to this course (Early Modern Philosophy).
Course Requirements: Three papers, two exams, attendance, and participation.
Core Curriculum: This course carries a W designation.