Philosophy

Philosophical responses to the questions of how we can know, what is real, and what is the nature of human existence that explore the dialogue between Catholic, Christian, secular and skeptical perspectives on these questions.

The issues of God, persons and nature, and knowledge. Readings include sources which give special consideration to the classical and Christian perspectives.

One-credit course on variable topics; course meets for a minimum of 14 hours.

The study of logic and critical thinking. Topics include: argument identification and analysis; formal and informal logic; fallacies; inductive argument; the role of argumentative structures in various philosophical traditions.

Propostional and first-order predicate logic; logical structure of arguments; symbolic languages; correct and incorrect inferences; fallacies; truth-tables; natural deduction.

Rights and duties of the patient/client and the members of the health care team, death and dying, genetic engineering and manipulation.

The art and science, learning and dispositional attitudes necessary for the moral practice of medicine by a good doctor. Themes for the course drawn from philosophical resources, sociological theory, data and first-person medical narratives.

The relation of the physical and biological environment to ethical values. Priorities among environmental, economic and political values as a basis for ethical decisions.

Social justice and charity as principles of order in economic life and relationships: topics include consumer rights, corporate social responsibility, and ecology.

Engineering ethics through case studies focusing on professional responsibility, the role of technology in society and a holistic evaluation of the purpose of science and engineering.

Just war theory, total war, nuclear deterrence and nuclear war, disarmament, genocide, war crimes and atrocities, terrorism, non-violent resistance, and pacifism.

The impact of the changing communications technologies on the human person and society; freedom of the press, violence; pornography and censorship, confidentiality of sources, advertising ethics and codes of ethics and standards of practice.

Codes of professional ethics, unauthorized access, ownership of software, and the social responsibility of computing professionals.

Human freedom analyzed from a metaphysical and political perspective; readings from classical and contemporary sources on such topics as determinism, slavery, rights, authority and dissent.

The nature and function of law, relation of law to ethics, the judicial process, the role of constitutions, the rights of citizens, law and international relations.

Social and political philosophers and the influence of their theories on the philosophical foundation of modern culture and society; emphasis on such conceptions as society, the state, justice and equality, and the social and political nature of persons.

Embodiment, the nature of sexuality, the types of love, sexual ethics, marriage, sexual differences, and sexual discrimination.

Nature and status of women from ancient times to the present, with consideration of the more general context of self-identity; contemporary feminist theories; feminism as a political movement.

Basic positions in eco-feminism as they relate to the philosophical and religious traditions of the West.

Religious and philosophical concepts of personhood community, and nature; contrast of European and Euro-American Indian philosophies.

Catholic Social Thought from Rerum Navarum to the present. Its Aristotelean-Thomistic grounding. The Church's challenge to analyses of contemporary social, political, and economic systems.

Philosophical issues of globalization including: international law and human rights, immigration and migration, human trafficking, cyber solidarity, fair trade, poverty tourism, protest in the global civic sphere, and religious dialogue across borders.

An examination of main thinkers in the Irish tradition; the relation of reason (science) and religion; the importance of poetry; themes to be explored include (e)migrant thought, exile and home, English as colonizers, langage and voice, laughter and comedy.

Survey of theoretical writings and discourses by authors from Africa and the African diaspora at large, especially African-American and West-Indian authors.

Colonialism and anti-colonial struggles, slavery and abolition, the Black and Latinx radical traditions, intersectionality and materialist critique, race/gender/sexuality/class relations, mass incarceration and detention, media and culture, liberation struggles.

Monetary exchange in philosophical perspective: money as a means and as an end; higher and lower forms of exchange; sacrificial economies; the politics of scarcity; sacred economics.

Case studies of specific technologies (such as television, automobiles, health technology) and critical examination of ethical Philosophical and policy issues that these technologies raise.

Nature of play, sport and game with special emphasis on the role of sport in modern society.

Philosophical implications of specific laws and theories; Newton's laws, energy, evolution, relativity, atomic theory. Methodological problems of observation, discovery, testing; scientific realism, revolutions in scientific thought.

The nature of human knowledge; sources of knowledge; justification of belief; conduct of inquiry; information; scientific reasoning; testimony; ecological rationality; and technologically extended knowledge.

Philosophical ideas in selected literary works; examination of the relation of literature to philosophy; fiction and truth, modes of communication.

The meaning of God, the experience of the Divine, nature of revelation, negative theology, the absence of God.

Sources of Eastern philosophies; aspects of Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and/or Sufism.

Introduction to basic traditions of Indian philosophy; exploration of debates between these traditions on fundamental issues of epistemology metaphysics, and philosophy of religion.

An exploration of fundamental problems, traditions, and themes in Buddhist philosophy as developed in India and Tibet.

Departmentally related and academically creditable field work experience. See department chair for more information. Permission of Department Chair required.

Departmentally related and academically creditable field work experience. See department chair for more information.

Research methods and information literacy in Philosophy leading to practiced philosophical writing based on instructor feedback and/or peer review.

Plato, Aristotle and selected pre-Socratic and Hellenistic philosophers in the context of ancient and classical Greek civilization.

Philosophical movements from the early Middle Ages to the rise of modern philosophy; the influence of later Medieval speculation upon thinkers of the modern period; readings from Augustine, Aquinas, Bonaventure, and others.

The systems of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, and the empiricists - Locke, berkeley, and Hume; Kant; selections read and evaluated.

Life and thought of Saint Augustine; the problem of certitude, the problem of evil, the nature of history, human knowledge and God, the soul-body relations, and political philosophy.

Islamic thought, concentrating particularly on Islamic medieval theology and philosophy.

Marx on the theories of human nature, freedom and history; related developments in Marxist thought.

Major themes and trends in analytic philosophy: Russell, logical positivisim, Wittgenstein and present day linguistic philosophy.

Historical and contemporary approaches to philosophical problems of theological relevance; philosophical methods for use in ministry; influence of Augustine on Western thought. Restricted to students in the Augustinian Novitiate Program.

The relationships that exist between modern and contemporary philosophy and Christian theology; philosophical methods for use in ministry. Restricted to students in the Augustinian Novitiate Program.

Advanced issues in clinical and research ethics: neuro-enhancement, radical life-extension, phase 1 trials on the non-consenting, ethics of life and death, and ethics of pandemics.

Critical listening to rock pop, jazz, rap, funk, punk, dance, and ambient music; relation of music to noise; theories of Hanslick, Nietzsche, Adorno, Barthes, Foucault, Deleuze, and Cage.

Analysis of selected classics and current films from the perspective of basic philosophical concepts and questions.

Major classical and contemporary philosophical theories concerning language, including the relationship of language to thought, experience and reality; theories of meaning, communication, linguistics, translation, poetic and religious language.

An account of the most influential philosophical interpretations of death, and an exploration of the fact of dying as a political and social phenomenon grounded on historical examples.

Philosophical implications of Freudian theory as it relates to the individual and culture; the role of the unconscious; interpretation, structure of the ego, human sexuality and the foundations of civilization.

The nature of mind, soul, consciousness; the mind-brain relationship; classical and contemporary philosophical approaches; the nature of person identity and moral responsibility.

The active, feeling and living human being as the starting point for thinking about existence as more than brute facts and rational truths. Alienation, absurdity, emptiness and dread but also the freedom, authenticity, commitment and creativity as human responses to the apparent meaninglessness of life.

Problem of interpretation; the possibility of a presuppositionless interpretation, interpretation, pre- understanding and the hermeneutic circle, historical, literary, scriptural and artistic interpretation.

Topic chosen by the student and approved by the professor and the chair.

Special topic in philosophy or current interest to faculty and students. Course is open to Philosophy majors and minors and graduate students with the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies in Philosophy.

Inquiry in depth into one major philosophical problem or into the thought of one major philosopher; practice in the use of research and bibliographical techniques. techniques.

A historical and critical inquiry into the philosophic synthesis of Plotinus with particular reference to the contributions of Middle Platonists. A detailed study of the Enneads and their influence upon early Christian speculation.

The search for God; varying views on the nature of God; the phenomenon of atheism.

The hylomorphic theory; the soul as substantial form; the soul-body relationship; the cognitive and appetitive powers of the human soul; abstraction; the immateriality and immortality of the human mind; free will.

An examination of the philosophers of the rationalist tradition; selected texts from Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz.

An examination of the philosophers of the empiricist tradition with concentration on their theories of knowledge and metaphysics; selected texts from Locke, Berkeley, and Hume.

The attack on Hegel; the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious stages; truth and subjectivity; the significance of the pseudonyms; the attack on Christendom; Kierkegaard's relationship to existentialism and phenomenology.

A study of the "thought of being" in Heidegger's work after Being and Time, taking up such issues as the question of humanism, releasement, truth, language, poetry, the principle of reason, the essence of technology, the Fourfold, the history of being, overcoming metaphysics, the end of philosophy, the Event of Appropriation.

The confrontation between atheistic and theistic humanism in the major works of Camus and Marcel.

The development of Ricoeur's thought from phenomenology to hermeneutics. Emphasis will be on the methodology, his dialogue with contemporary thinkers, and his unique contributions, such as his work on metaphor and narrative.

A close examination of the principal works of the major philosophical theorist of society in late industrial capitalism. Included in this study are the critical differences between Habermas and French poststructuralist theory.

Foundationalist and anti-foundationalist versions of moral enquiry will be contrasted and compared, and other problems of metaethics will be discussed.

Readings from Havermas, Lyotard, Derrida, Heidegger, Gadamer, Nietzsche, and Weber.

A close reading of selected texts by Plato, Aristotle, Holderlin, Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Derrida, and and Benjamin dealing with the interpretation of tragedy. Special attention is given to Antigone.

A course taught by a visiting professor on a subject in that professor's area of expertise.

A course taught by a visiting professor on a subject in that professor's area of expertise.

A review of basic grammar in the context of the translation of passages of Greek philosophy. This course is designed for students who are interested in developing an adequate level of competency. However, the course would be of interest to beginners who would initially learn from listening to the translations of more advanced students. It would also be beneficial for advanced students who wish to have the opportunity to keep up their skills.

This is a non-credit semester course which enables qualified doctoral students to prepare extensively for their Doctoral Comprehensive Examinations.