Area Goal: This Core Area of Inquiry will invite students to explore key philosophical questions and traditions. 

Area Objectives: Through these courses, students will explore influential philosophical questions, positions, and methods of inquiry. Students will develop intellectual attitudes that enable them to identify and assess implicit presuppositions and formulate and defend responses to philosophical issues, including ethical issues. 

Area Learning Outcomes: After completing the two courses in this Area, students will be able to:

• describe the historical or conceptual development of major philosophical questions.
• explain the contributions major philosophical questions make to the understanding of ourselves as humans.
• articulate some of the major problems and range of responses central to philosophical inquiry, including questions concerning truth and knowledge, reality, moral values, or social justice.
• construct philosophical arguments, which means students will support their ideas with reasons, assess critically the underlying assumptions of their positions, and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of alternative positions.

Courses

Foundational Course: Tier I (1 course required)

PHIL 130: Philosophy and Persons

This course examines the way philosophy looks for fundamental characteristics that identify life as a properly human life, asks about its ultimate meaning or purpose, and raises questions about what counts as a good life. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the various approaches of the philosophical question of what it means to be human.

TIER II Courses: (1 course required)

Requirement for all Tier II Courses:   PHIL 130  Please check requirements for declared majors/minors for exceptions.

PHIL 267: Aesthetics - Civic Engagement

This course explores philosophical issues in aesthetics like the nature of art and beauty through, in part, service-learning in retirement communities and theaters, as examples. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of aesthetics and the value of leadership development and civic engagement.

PHIL 271: Philosophy of Religion

This course explores the development, not only of some classic positions within the philosophy of religion, but also of how these views have affected the formulation of more contemporary discussions Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the enterprise of using reason, broadly construed, to articulate issues arising out of religious belief and practice and to formulate and defend positions with respect to those issues.

PHIL 272: Metaphysics

This course examines the fundamental principles by which the nature of reality can be explained. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the central issues surrounding the field of metaphysics.

PHIL 273: Philosophy of Science

This course examines the nature of scientific knowledge and its claim to possess a distinctive method of inquiry. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the mode of inquiry which is the scientific method.

PHIL 274: Logic

This course is a detailed study of the deductive methods and principles of correct reasoning, from both the traditional and modern point of view.  Outcome: Students will be able to formally analyze, evaluate, and demonstrate the various aspects of argumentation.

PHIL 275:  Theory of Knowledge

This course examines both the nature and the reliability of human knowledge. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the various approaches to the study of knowledge.

PHIL 277: Aesthetics

This course will explore one or more of the following philosophical questions in aesthetics: What is art? What is good art (art evaluation or critical theory)? What is beauty? What is it about human nature that allows us to experience beauty? Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the various approaches to the philosophical study of beauty and the arts.

PHIL 277R: Aesthetics: The Aesthetic Experience in Rome (Rome Campus only)

This course will explore one or more of the following philosophical questions in aesthetics, with reference particularly to aesthetic experience in Rome: What is art? What is good art (art evaluation or critical theory)? What is beauty? What is it about human nature that allows us to experience beauty? Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the various approaches to the philosophical study of beauty and the arts.

PHIL 279: Judgment and Decision-Making

This course examines the philosophical and psychological foundations of decision-making.  Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the principles of reasoning and decision-making.

PHIL 284: Health Care Ethics

This course studies philosophical ethics as practiced in the health care setting. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of traditional moral theories in a health care framework, as well as the varieties of ethical challenges facing contemporary health care.

PHIL 286: Ethics and Education

This course examines philosophical ethics as it informs and guides the activity of teaching. Outcome: Students will be able to examine and assess various ethical theories, and apply those theories to ethical issues in teaching.

PHIL 287: Environmental Ethics

This course will look at various philosophical and ethical views on the relationship between humans and the natural world. Topics may include: pollution, animal rights, and natural resources. Outcome: Students will develop critical thinking skills and gain knowledge in the areas of philosophy and ethics. Students will have opportunities to analyze, evaluate, work as team members, and engage with the community on environmental topics and so will be able to engage in civic and leadership activities.

PHIL 288: Culture and Civilization

This course examines the nature, causes, and possible future development of human culture and civilization. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the various approaches to the philosophical study of human culture and civilization.

PHIL 288R: Culture and Civilization in Rome (Rome Campus only)

This course examines the nature, causes, and possible future development of human culture and civilization with an emphasis on Italian philosophers during the Renaissance. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the various approaches to the philosophical study of human culture and civilization.

PLSC 100: Political Theory

This course introduces students to the study of the perennial questions, traditions and concepts in the history of political thought. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the major concepts that organize and inform theoretical reflection on politics: human nature and the human good, theory and practice, natural law and natural rights, power and authority, consent and obligation, and so on.

PSYC 280: Psychology of Judgment and Decision-Making

This course examines the psychological and philosophical foundations of decision-making.  Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the principles of reasoning and decision-making.