Philosophy (Grad)

A study of the structure and methods of critical thought (logic) and language (rhetoric) as they apply to academic life, professional life, and ordinary human discourse.

Examines in-depth a significant philosophical topic. This course may be taken more than once as long as the topic is not the same. [ 3 credits ]

Analyzes a range of ethical issues and dilemmas inherent to corporations and leadership in relation to both the external environment and the internal processes of the organizations. Learners explore these issues through a series of cases analyses. [3 credits]

Surveys the approaches medical ethics uses to respond to the challenges of changing health-care technology and an atmosphere of increased costconsciousness. Discussions center on the interplay between the professional obligation to do good, patients' right to autonomy, and society's interest in a fair distribution of resources. [ 3 credits ]

Examines the concept of race and the phenomenon of racism in the United States. Through an in-depth reading of several historical and contemporary works, this seminar addresses issues such as: the concept of race as both constructed and real, the politics of racialized identity, theorizing multiple oppressions, white privilege and epistemologies of ignorance. [3 credits]

Engenders habits of critical and systematic thinking. Explores the meaning of human nature through the study of historically influential answers to the question: What are the essential elements, characteristics, abilities, or experiences that make us human? [ 3 credits ]

Introduces students to the influential philoso-phical accounts of race, gender, technology, culture and language generated in the 20th and 21st centuries. Emphasizes the ethical implications of the ways meaning, identity, culture and power function in contemporary culture. [3 credits]

Develops a sound philosophical understanding of the concept of tragedy and discusses the reality of tragedy in our time. Readings include works by Plato, Aristotle, Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Shakespeare, Hegel, Hume, Schopenhauer, Brecht, Max Scheler and others. [ 3 credits ]

This course investigates the problem central to all philosophers: man's search for the meaning of life, as expressed in the life and thought of selected major philosophers: Seneca, Aristippus, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, St. Thomas, Tolstoy, Swenson, Kierkegaard, Camus, C.S. Lewis, Marcel, Nietzsche and Frankl. 3 credits.

Does God exist? Can God's existence be proved or disproved? This course considers contemporary evaluations of the traditional proofs of God's existence by Aquinas, Anselm and Paley and an evaluation of the philosophical foundations of modern atheism, including selections from Hegel, Marx and Sartre. 3 credits.

An investigation on philosophical questions concerning the creative process, the nature and elements of a work of art and the aesthetic response.

A study of the interface between society and its arts. Arts examined as significant form of communication in contemporary culture. 3 credits.