Philosophy Courses | 2024-2025 Academic Catalog | SIU

(University Core Curriculum) [IAI Course: H4 900] Introduction to fundamental philosophical issues across a broad spectrum. Problems in metaphysics, epistemology and ethics will be among the areas explored. Emphasis throughout is upon developing in the student an appreciation of the nature of philosophical questioning, analyzing and evaluating arguments and reflecting on the nature of human existence.

Credit Hours: 3

(University Core Curriculum) [IAI Course: HF 904N] This course will explore the rise, development and interaction of the major world civilizations as embodied in ideas and their expressions in religion, philosophy, literature and art. The great traditions of Near Eastern, European, Central Asian, Indian, Chinese and Japanese cultures will be examined. (A) The first semester will cover the early civilization of the Near East, the classical world of Greece and Rome, early China and India.

Credit Hours: 3

(University Core Curriculum) [IAI Course: H9 900] This course will explore the rise, development and interaction of the major world civilizations as embodied in ideas and their expressions in religion, philosophy, literature and art. The great traditions of Near Eastern, European, Central Asian, Indian, Chinese and Japanese cultures will be examined. (B) The second semester will look at the integrative civilizations of Buddhism, Medieval Christianity and Islam, and Modern Europe.

Credit Hours: 3

(University Core Curriculum) [IAI Course: H4 904] Introduction to contemporary and perennial problems of personal and social morality, and to methods proposed for their resolution by great thinkers past and present.

Credit Hours: 3

(University Core Curriculum) [IAI Course: H4 906] Study of the traditional and modern methods for evaluating arguments. Applications of logical analysis to practical, scientific and legal reasoning, and to the use of computers.

Credit Hours: 3

An introduction to the history of the relation between mind and body. It focuses on how the relation of mind and body can help bring about well being or the good life. The course incorporates a physical activity component: walking, jogging, table tennis, for example.

Credit Hours: 3

(University Core Curriculum) [IAI Course: HF 906D] This course will survey the diverse traditions, ideas and ideals that have shaped American culture in the past and today. Major works from Native American, African American, feminist, Puritan, Quaker and American Zen Buddhist writers may be used as well as those from such intellectual movements as the Enlightenment, Transcendentalism and Pragmatism.

Credit Hours: 3

(University Core Curriculum) This course is a philosophical introduction to diverse perspectives within modern American culture. It will address through reading and discussion important contemporary moral and social issues from the perspective of nontraditional orientations including African American, Native American and American feminism. The resources of philosophy and other related disciplines such as psychology, sociology and literature will be used to develop a culturally enriched perspective on important contemporary issues.

Credit Hours: 3

Metaphysics deals with the broadest and most fundamental concepts: What does it mean to exist? It encompasses questions about whether what fundamentally exists is one or many. Is reality essentially physical or does it include something nonphysical? What is "causality"? Is there an ultimate or highest reality, that which some call God? If God exists, can there be anything that is not God? Can we know what reality truly is or is the human mind fated to behold only the world as it appears to us? Can we at least know ourselves? Is human existence basically similar to the existence of any "thing" or does our sense of history and mortality make us experience Being in a different way? This course will engage these and other questions through readings selected from the Western tradition, from the ancient Greeks to the modern age. Readings from Asian traditions may also be included.

Credit Hours: 3

An analysis of problems in the psychology, metaphysics, and social effects of religion. Among topics discussed are the nature of mystical experience, the existence of God, and problems of suffering, prayer, and immortality.

Credit Hours: 3

(University Core Curriculum) [IAI Course: H9 900] An interdisciplinary examination of (1) literary and other artistic works which raise philosophic issues and (2) philosophic writings on the relationship between philosophy and literature. Possible topics include: source of and contemporary challenges to the traditional Western idea that literature cannot be or contribute to philosophy; the role of emotion, imagination and aesthetic value in philosophic reasoning; the role of literature in moral philosophy; and philosophic issues of interpretation.

Credit Hours: 3

(University Core Curriculum course) (Same as CLAS 304A) The birth of Western philosophy in the Greek world, examining such Pre-Socratics as Anaximander, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, and Parmenides; focusing upon the flowering of the Athenian period with Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The course will conclude with a discussion of the Hellenistic systems of Stoicism, Epicureanism, and the Neo-Platonic mysticism of Plotinus of the Roman period. Fulfills CoLA Writing-Across-the-Curriculum requirement. Satisfies University Core Curriculum Humanities requirement in lieu of PHIL 102.

Credit Hours: 3

(University Core Curriculum) (Same as CLAS 304B) This course examines how the development of ancient tools and technologies was intimately connected with early philosophers' efforts to explain the cosmos and our place in it. Students will learn about the development of a wide range of ancient technologies, from tool-making to the discovery of the Pythagorean theorem. These technologies will then be connected to the origin and development of Greek philosophy.

Credit Hours: 3

(University Core Curriculum course) A survey course covering the major figures and themes in the development of modern philosophy up to Kant. Concentration on the Rationalist and Empiricist traditions and the simultaneous development of modern science. Either 305A or 305B fulfills the CoLA Writing-Across-the-Curriculum requirement. 305A or B satisfies the University Core Curriculum Humanities requirement in lieu of 102.

Credit Hours: 3

(University Core Curriculum course) A survey course covering the major figures and themes in the development of modern philosophy up to Kant. Concentration on the Rationalist and Empiricist traditions and the simultaneous development of modern science. Either 305A or 305B fulfills the CoLA Writing-Across-the-Curriculum requirement. 305A or B satisfies the University Core Curriculum Humanities requirement in lieu of 102.

Credit Hours: 3

Survey of 19th century European philosophy, focusing on the development of idealism and romanticism. Readings include selections from Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, and others.

Credit Hours: 3

(University Core Curriculum) Interdisciplinary study of major humanistic critiques of technology, science and nature; analysis of topics such as ecology, the information revolution, aesthetics and ethics in various branches of science and technology, relation of science to technology.

Credit Hours: 3

(University Core Curriculum) [IAI Course: H4 903N] This course examines three major areas of Asian religious traditions from a philosophical perspective: South Asia, East Asia, and Buddhist traditions. Since it is not possible to be all inclusive, concentration will be on those with continuing significant spiritual, philosophical, social, political, aesthetic and literary influence. More specifically, it is an introduction to some of the major Asian religious traditions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and Zen Buddhism, approached through philosophical reflection. Emphasis is on classical traditions, since this provides a solid foundation upon which students are than able to pursue further independent readings in more recent developments. Furthermore, this emphasis permits an extended exploration of the interaction among contemporary economic, sociological and religious developments and classical traditions.

Credit Hours: 3

(University Core Curriculum) An interdisciplinary exploration of classical and modern theories of peace, law, and justice with special attention to their implications for important contemporary political issues.

Credit Hours: 3

A course designed to improve students' critical reading, thinking and writing skills and to help students planning to attend law school prepare for the LSAT exam. Uses LSAT guides on Logical Reasoning and Logic games as texts.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as WGSS 314) A survey of philosophical approaches to love, sex, and gender. A philosophical inquiry into the representation of love, sex, and gender, including materials that combine text, words, and images. The course studies an ancient philosophy text on love, a classical text of twentieth-century feminist philosophy, and critiques of feminism that draw on the life of gender, sexuality, and race. It questions the nature and possibilities of love.

Credit Hours: 3

An introduction to first order logic, including the Boolean connectives, conditionals, and identity. The emphasis is on the concept of logical consequence and the related concepts of tautological and analytic (semantic) consequence. Other topics include truth functional and non-truth functional connectives, truth-tables, informal proofs, proofs of non-consequence, derivations using a Fitch natural deduction system, and translations to and from English.

Credit Hours: 3

(University Core Curriculum) (Same as JRNL 334) The purpose of this course is to discuss what it means to act ethically. Does it mean anything more than doing what is right? Are ethics for a lawyer different from a journalist or priest or doctor? How does society decide what is ethical behavior and what is not?

Credit Hours: 3

(University Core Curriculum course) [IAI Course: H4 904] Nature of ethics and morality, ethical skepticism, emotivism, ethical relativism, and representative universalistic ethics. Bentham, Mill, Aristotle, Kant, Blanshard, and Brightman. Satisfies University Core Curriculum Humanities requirement in lieu of 104.

Credit Hours: 3

Changes in biology and medicine have brought into sharp focus such problems as allocation of scarce medical resources, use of human subjects in experiments, abortion, euthanasia, genetic screening, truth-telling in medical practice, moral rights of patients and other matters. This course brings ethical principles to bear on these issues.

Credit Hours: 3

The course deals with philosophy in Latin America from the 19th century to the present. Central themes of the course include: identity theory, philosophy and culture, and political philosophy.

Credit Hours: 3

Introductory survey of individual thinkers and questions in the contemporary phenomenological tradition: Husserl, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Levinas, and Ricoeur.

Credit Hours: 3

This course will introduce and explore the profound tradition of literature that has nourished religious, ethical, as well as philosophical and literary, developments in Western and Eastern cultures, but has often been overlooked, not only by the sciences, but also by the humanities: the tradition of mystical literature. In addition to reading primary sources representative of Western and Eastern mystical traditions, this course will include a weekly lab during which the student will be exposed to meditative techniques and actual meditative practices. Finally, this course will integrate guest speakers/practitioners, audio and visual supports pertaining to the course, and work on the Web, allowing students to broaden their connections to others who also share an interest in this field of study and practice. Prerequisite: at least one course (three hours) in the humanities on the 100 or 200 level.

Credit Hours: 3

Surveys the two main sources of existentialism, the philosophies of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, with occasional reference to thinkers such as Sartre, Heidegger, Buber, Marcel, and others.

Credit Hours: 3

Varying topics and thinkers across the entire spectrum of philosophy, outside of regularly titled courses, and in response to students' interests. Students are invited to propose topics. Prerequisite: at least one previous Philosophy course. Variable 1-3 credits.

Credit Hours: 1-3

(University Core Curriculum) (Same as JRNL 399) The First Amendment protects citizens from the government and sets boundaries of democratic self-government. The course encompasses free expression in all media-social, broadcast and cinema. It explores tensions between law and ethics, press freedom and privacy, intellectual freedom and equality and liberty and security.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as LING 400) Introduction to the formal mechanisms used to encode meaning in natural language. Potential topics include: predication, definiteness, quantification, and semantic modeling.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as POLS 405) An examination of various aspects of democratic thought, including the liberal tradition and its impact upon the United States. Fulfills the CoLA Writing-Across-the-Curriculum (WAC) requirement. Prerequisite: POLS 114 or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as LING 410) A survey and introduction to theories on the nature of "truth" and "meaning" and their relationship to natural language. Potential topics include: reference, definite descriptions, externalism, modality and possible worlds.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as SOC 415) An examination of the theoretical structure and nature of the social sciences and their epistemological foundations. The relationship of social theory to social criticism; theory and praxis. Historical experience and social objectivity. Social theory as practical knowledge.

Credit Hours: 3

An exploration of historical and philosophical perspectives on the theories, methods, practices, and institutions of the sciences, including the natural and social sciences, mathematics, medicine, and engineering. Topics may include the nature of the scientific process and scientific method, the origins and historical development of the sciences, theory change, experiments, models, objectivity, scientific realism, and the role of values in science.

Credit Hours: 3

This course focuses on African, Caribbean, and Latin American philosophers who have and continue to contribute to the development of post-colonial philosophy. In this class we will examine how post-colonial thinkers challenge and rework some of the main areas of philosophy, such as epistemology, political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of language, etc., by decentering the colonial assumptions that underpin these areas and their development. This class explores what this decentering means, not only for postcolonial theory, but also for how we think of race, class, gender and other forms of oppression and liberation, globally. Restricted to junior standing.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as JRNL 434) Explores the moral environment of the mass media and the ethical problems that confront media practitioners. Models of ethical decision-making and moral philosophy are introduced to encourage students to think critically about the mass media and their roles in modern society.

Credit Hours: 3

This class explores the relationship between human beings, globalization, and the natural world. It will use both classical and contemporary literature on nature and address such topics as climate change, deep ecology, colonialism, third world ecofeminism, indigenous environmentalism, environmental racism, and eco-genocide.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as POLS 403) The theory of political and social foundations; the theory of the state, justice, and revolution. Classical and contemporary readings such as: Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, Dewey, Adorno and others. Prerequisite: PHIL 340 or PHIL 102 or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Study of contemporary philosophical essays on topics at the intersection of law and philosophy, such as abortion on demand, capital punishment, plea bargaining, campus speech codes, legalization of addictive drugs, and animal rights, and what systematic philosophers, such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, and H.L.A. Hart, have written about the nature of a legal system and the appropriate realm of legal regulation.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as WGSS 456A) A general survey of feminist theory and philosophical perspectives.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as WGSS 456B) A special area in feminist philosophy explored in depth, such as Feminist Ethics, French Feminism, Feminist Philosophy of Science, etc.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as WGSS 456C) Explores the work of one or more specific women philosophers, for example Hannah Arendt, Simone DeBeauvoir, etc.

Credit Hours: 3

This course will study the rise of Transcendentalism as a philosophical movement in early Nineteenth Century New England. Focus will be on Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau with possible attention to Margaret Fuller and other figures like Hedge, Parker and Brownson.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as AFR 499A) A survey of major thinkers and themes in the history of African American Philosophy from colonial times to the 20th century. Prerequisite: at least one previous course in either Philosophy or Africana Studies with a grade of C or better.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as AFR 499B) A survey and critical examination of a range of theories on the nature and meaning of "race," the intersection of race with class and gender, and the promotion of racial progress. Such theories include racial realism and idealism, racial biologism, cultural race theory, social constructivist theory, integrationism, separatism, racial eliminativism, cosmopolitanism, and especially critical race theory. Prerequisite: at least one previous course in Philosophy or Africana Studies with a minimum grade of C.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as AFR 499C) A seminar on varying topics, themes, and figures in African, African American, and/or Caribbean Philosophy, e.g., "W.E.B. Du Bois and His Contemporaries," "Pan-Africanism," "Philosophies of Liberation," "Black Feminism," "Contemporary African Philosophy," "Philosophies of the Caribbean." Prerequisite: At least one previous course in Philosophy or Africana Studies with a minimum grade of C.

Credit Hours: 1-6

We will examine several important theories that define art by focusing in on only one aspect, for example, imitation, expression, form, institutional setting, or even indefinability. What role does imagination play in each of these accounts, and does this tell us something important about how people experience their world?

Credit Hours: 3

Credit Hours: 3

Credit Hours: 3

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as CLAS 469) The career of philosophy during the Hellenistic, Roman and Early Medieval period, especially as a means of personal salvation, exploring such figures and movements as: Epicurus, Stoicism, the Middle Academy, Skepticism, Gnosticism, Plotinus, Early Christianity, Augustine, and Boethius.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as CLAS 470A) Survey of Plato's dialogues mostly selected from those of the middle period (Meno, Phaedo, Symposium, Republic, Phaedrus), perhaps along with some from the early period (especially Protagoras) and late period (Sophist, Timaeus). Prerequisites: PHIL 304A or CLAS 304A, and PHIL 304B or CLAS 304B with minimum grades of C, or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as CLAS 470B) A general survey of the Aristotelian philosophy including the theory of nature, metaphysics, ethics, and political philosophy. Readings will consist of selections from the corpus. Prerequisites: PHIL 304A or CLAS 304A, and PHIL 304B or CLAS 304B with minimum grades of C, or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

An examination of some of the most important figures and themes in medieval philosophical thought. Medieval debates in the area of metaphysics, natural philosophy, epistemology, ethics and politics will be explored in reading the works of such figures as Augustine, Boethius, Abelard Avicenna, Averroes, Maimonides, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Ockham and Nicholas of Cusa.

Credit Hours: 3

An examination of the thought of one of the central and most influential figures of the medieval world. Possible subjects of the course are Augustine of Hippo, Al-Ghazali, Moses Maimonides, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Dante Alighieri or William Ockham.

Credit Hours: 3

Study of the philosophy of one or more of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Malebranche, Wolff. Prerequisite: PHIL 305A or B or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Study of the principles of British empiricism as represented by Locke. May also include study of Berkeley. Prerequisite: PHIL 305 or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Study of the principles of British empiricism as represented by Hume. May also include study of Berkeley. Prerequisite: PHIL 305 or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

This course will focus on reading Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. Topics will include: the idea of a well-lived life (happiness), the relation of reason and desire, character formation, deliberative and moral reasoning, the types of human excellence, friendship and the role of philosophy in a well-lived life. Readings may include: Greek drama (e.g., Antigone, Medea), Aristotle's Politics, and contemporary writers in "virtue ethics."

Credit Hours: 3

An examination of several major philosophical traditions or figures in Buddhism, such as Madhyamika, Yogacara, Zen, Mind-Only, and the Kyoto School, emphasis on their social and historical contexts.

Credit Hours: 3

Philosophical trends in Europe from the end of the 19th Century to the present. Phenomenology, existentialism, the new Marxism, structuralism, and other developments. Language, history, culture and politics.

Credit Hours: 3

The course will survey the Presocratic movement from the Milesians, Heraclitus and the Pythagoreans to the Eleatics, Empedocles, Anaxagoras and Democritus. Topics will include: the idea of nature, origin/source/principle (arche), the mathematical and nature, Being, pluralism and monism, the atomic theory. Some attention may be paid to the Sophists and the Epicureans.

Credit Hours: 3

From the Colonial Era to the Eve of World War I. This course will trace the transplantation of European philosophy to the New World and watch its unique process of development. Movements such as Puritanism, the theory of the American Revolution, the philosophical basis of the Constitution, transcendentalism, idealism, Darwinism and pragmatism and such figures as: Jonathan Edwards, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Josiah Royce, Charles Sanders Peirce, and William James.

Credit Hours: 3

From World War I to the Present. The major American philosophers of the 20th Century, covering such issues as naturalism, emergentism, process philosophy, and neopragmatism. Figures include: John Dewey, George Herbert Mead, George Santayana, Alfred N. Whitehead, C. I. Lewis, W. V. Quine, and Richard Rorty.

Credit Hours: 3

Hours and credits to be arranged. Courses for qualified students who need to pursue certain topics further than regularly titled courses permit. Special topics announced from time to time. Students are invited to suggest topics. Special approval needed from the department.

Credit Hours: 1-12

Supervised readings for qualified students. Open to undergraduates only. Additional hours beyond three (3) must have approval of the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 1-6

A paper on a topic agreed to by the student and a faculty thesis director. The paper should be of sufficient length to manifest the student's mastery of a philosophical area and logical and critical skills. Not for graduate credit. Special approval needed from the instructor and department.

Credit Hours: 3