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Department of Philosophy Course DescriptionsFall 2020

Sp2020 PHIL Course Descriptions | 2

PHIL Fall 2020 Courses Meeting UCC Requirements

Below is a list of PHIL courses that are being taught in the Spring 2020 semester, and which meet

University Core Curriculum requirements. The abbreviation for the UCC Foundational Outcomes

these courses satisfy are:

HUM = Human Cultures: Humanities

IL = Information Literacy

QR = Quantitative Reasoning

STS = Science, Technology & Society

WC = Written Communication

*NOTE: PHIL 260 (Philosophy and Law) satisfies both the Information Literacy and the Written

Communication UCC requirement.

Course Number Course Title Cr Hrs UCC Requirement

PHIL 11000 The Big Questions: Introduction to Philosophy 3 HUM

PHIL 11100 Introduction to Ethics 3 HUM

PHIL 11400 Global Moral Issues 3 HUM

PHIL 12000 Critical Thinking 3 IL

PHIL 15000 Principles of Logic 3 QR

PHIL 20600 Philosophy of Religion 3 HUM

PHIL 21900 Philosophy and the Meaning of Life 3 HUM

PHIL 22300 Fate and Free Will 3 HUM

PHIL 22500 Philosophy and Gender 3 HUM

PHIL 23000 Religions of the East 3 HUM

PHIL 23100 Religions of the West 3 HUM

PHIL 24200 Philosophy, Culture, and the African American Experience 3 HUM

PHIL 26000 Philosophy and Law 3 IL, WC

PHIL 27500 Philosophy of Art 3 HUM

PHIL 28000 Ethics and Animals 3 HUM

PHIL 30100 History of Ancient Philosophy 3 HUM

PHIL 30200 History of Medieval Philosophy 3 HUM

PHIL 30300 History of Modern Philosophy 3 HUM

Fall 2020 PHIL Course Descriptions | 3

FALL 2020 Department of Philosophy Course Descriptions

Listed below are the PHIL courses being offered at Purdue University in Fall 2020. The courses are listed

by their five-digit course number and course title, followed by a brief description. The tables below each

description also include information on the course type (mainly lectures, marked ‘LEC’), the enrolment

limit of the course, the day(s)/time of the course or each section of it, the classroom in which the course

will be taught, and the instructor(s) for the course. Courses that include a recitation section are marked in

the tables below as type ‘LEC/REC’. Details of the recitation sections are not listed. Type ‘DIS’ indicates

a distance learning section. ‘Grad’ indicates that a graduate student will be the instructor of record. PHIL

courses that are cross-listed with other courses are marked as such (e.g., ‘c/l DEPT 10000’).

100 LEVEL COURSES

11000 The Big Questions: Introduction to Philosophy The basic problems and types of philosophy, with special emphasis on the problems of knowledge and the

nature of reality.

Course Type Enrolment Time Bldg/Rm Instructor

PHIL 11000 LEC/REC 150 TR 9:30-10:20 WTHR 172 SMITH

PHIL 11000 LEC 35 TR 10:30-11:45 BRNG 1268 DAVIS

PHIL 11000 LEC 35 TR 12:00-1:15 BRNG 1268 DAVIS

PHIL 11000 DIS 100 Grad

w/ DAVIS: TR 10:30 – 11:45am, or 12:00 – 1:15pm

This course has two primary aims:

(1) Provide exposure to a sample of philosophical issues and debates

(2) Develop skills in formulating arguments and writing essays

The topics discussed include such questions as: Does God exist? What are the limits of scientific

explanation? What is knowledge, and do we have any? Do human beings ever act freely, or does

determinism show that free will is just an illusion? Is the mind just the brain, or is there more to it? The

course will help you to formulate your own answers to such questions, by critically examining the answers

previous philosophers have given. No prior experience with philosophy is necessary.

Regarding the other aim: Logical reasoning and argumentation make up the basic methodology of

philosophy, so learning to do philosophy means learning to develop clear and convincing arguments—even

about difficult and abstract topics. Since defending a thesis is just providing an argument, these skills will

also prove useful for writing essays in other university courses. More generally, the ability to persuade

others of the truth of one’s views (at least, when they are true) is extremely useful outside the classroom.

Thus, the benefits of developing skills in argumentation, critical thinking and writing extend far beyond the

scope of the philosophical issues we’ll discuss.


11100 Introduction to Ethics A study of the nature of moral value and obligation. Topics such as the following will be considered:

different conceptions of the good life and standards of right conduct; the relation of nonmoral and moral

goodness; determinism, free will, and the problem of moral responsibility; the political and social

dimensions of ethics; the principles and methods of moral judgment. Readings will be drawn both from

contemporary sources and from the works of such philosophers as Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Butler, Hume,

Kant, and J. S. Mill.


PHIL 11100 LEC 35 MWF 8:30-9:20 BRNG 1268 Grad

PHIL 11100 LEC 35 MWF 12:30-1:20 BRNG B268 Grad

PHIL 11100 LEC 35 MWF 2:30-3:20 BRNG 1230 BERNSTEIN

PHIL 11100 LEC/REC 150 TR 10:30-11:20 WTHR 172 FRANK

w/ FRANK: TR 10:30 – 11:20am

Why be moral? Is it to your advantage to be moral? Are you moral if you help a poor person grudgingly,

from duty? What if that poor person requests a dollar and Bill Gates cruises by having lost his wallet and

needs a dollar to get to the bank to transfer millions for Africa relief work—to whom do you give the dollar,

assuming you have only one dollar to give? Asking and pondering such questions requires no prerequisites,

just a curious mind, like yours. We will read and discuss the thoughts of great moral philosophers like Plato,

Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Mill, and Nietzsche, as we struggle to answer the aforementioned questions. We’ll

also do some political philosophy in this course.

The course will proceed by lecture and discussion, and two (2) in-class essay examinations will determine

the grade.

11400 Global Moral Issues A systematic and representative examination of significant contemporary moral problems with a focus on

global issues such as international justice, poverty and foreign aid, nationalism and patriotism, just war,

population and the environment, human rights, gender equality, and national self-determination.



PHIL 11400 LEC 35 MWF 2:30-3:20 BRNG 1268 Grad PHIL 11400 LEC 35 MWF 3:30-4:20 BRNG 1268 Grad PHIL 11400 DIS 100 Grad

12000 Critical Thinking This course is designed to develop reasoning skills and analytic abilities, based on an understanding of the

rules or forms as well as the content of good reasoning. This course will cover moral and scientific

reasoning, in addition to ordinary problem solving. This course is intended primarily for students with

nontechnical backgrounds.




15000 Principles of Logic A first course in formal deductive logic; mechanical and other procedures for distinguishing good

arguments from bad. Truth-tables and proofs for sentential (Boolean) connectives, followed by

quantificational logic with relations. Although metatheoretic topics are treated, the emphasis is on methods.



200 LEVEL COURSES

20600 Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion The course will be divided into three parts. The first part of the course will deal with a question that has

loomed large in the philosophical history of western monotheism (Judaism, Christianity and Islam): is belief

in God rational? The focus here will be on arguments for God’s existence (such as the argument from the

fact that the universe seems to have been designed), on arguments against God’s existence (e.g., the

argument that a perfect God wouldn’t permit terrible things to happen and yet they happen), and on whether

belief in God can be rational if it isn’t supported by argument. The second part of the course will focus on

the fact that there are many different religions in the world, most of which claim to be the only religion that

is right about the most important truths. Our question here will be whether, in the face of this plurality of

religions, it can be rational to think that one’s own religion is right and that other religions incompatible

with it are mistaken. The third part of the course will focus on some questions in philosophical theology—

questions such as: Can we be free if God foreknows what we will do? Does it make sense to make requests

of God in prayer given that, whether we pray or not, a perfect being would know what we want and would

do what is best? The course requirements will include several short quizzes, a midterm exam, and a final

exam.


PHIL 20600 LEC/REC 75 TR 10:30-11:20 BRWN 1154 BERGMANN

20800 Ethics of Data Science As applications of data science permeate more aspects of our lives, new and important ethical issues are

arising. However, especially because we’re entering uncharted territory, reasoning clearly about the ethical

implications of data science isn’t easy. This course provides students with the tools for doing so, including

a conceptual framework for ethical reasoning in professional settings, as well as a procedure for case-study

analysis that allows students to practice employing this conceptual framework. Together, these components

help prepare students to be ethical professionals and responsible global citizens.

This course has 3 primary components:

1. Grounding students in philosophical ethics, broadly speaking, including systems of normative

ethics and traditional problems in the field.

2. Surveying contemporary literature in data ethics, specifically.

3. Examining contemporary cases/issues in big data for their ethical implications.

Assignments include a midterm case analysis, two in-class exams, and a final case analysis.


PHIL 20800 LEC 100 TR 1:30-2:45 WALC B074 KROLL


21900 Philosophy and the Meaning of Life Should we agree with Shakespeare’s Macbeth that life is “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

signifying nothing?” Or can we give a coherent account of how and why what we do, and our lives as a

whole, should matter to ourselves and others? Do our lives have a purpose, and if so, what is it? In this class

we will study these questions, mainly through the writings of existentialist thinkers such as Nietzsche,

Kierkegaard, Heidegger and Sartre, but the writings of some contemporary analytic philosophers will be

explored as well.


PHIL 21900 LEC 35 MWF 11:30-12:20 BRNG 1268 MARIÑA

22300 Fate and Free Will This course encourages critical reflection on the nature and possibility of human freedom in a world like

ours that appears to be determined by unchanging causal and physical laws. Topics include the

compatibility of free will and determinism, the possibility of moral responsibility without free will, and the

incentives (if any) for future planning if our future fate is already sealed.


PHIL 22300 LEC 35 MWF 1:30-2:20 BRNG 1268 AUGUSTIN

22500 Philosophy and Gender An examination of the beliefs, assumptions, and values found in traditional and contemporary philosophical

analyses of women. A range of feminist approaches to knowledge, values, and social issues will be

introduced.


PHIL 22500 LEC 35 MWF 2:30-3:20 BRNG B268 Grad

23000 Religions of the East (c/l REL 230) A study of the history, teachings, and present institutions of the religions of India, Southeast Asia, China,

and Japan. This will include Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism,

and Zoroastrianism.


PHIL 23000 LEC 38 TR 12:00-1:15 WALC 1132 PURPURA

(REL 23000) 37

23100 Religions of the West (c/l REL 231) A comparative study of the origins, institutions, and theologies of the three major Western religions,

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.


PHIL 23100 LEC 18 MWF 12:30-1:20 BRNG 1268 RYBA

(REL 23100) 17


24200 Philosophy, Culture, and the African American Experience The purpose of this course is to consider African American based or inspired conceptions of Western

philosophy and new visions of what it is to do philosophy sensitive to culturally rooted diversity.


PHIL 24200 LEC 35 TR 10:30-11:45 BRNG 1230 HARRIS

26000 Philosophy and Law We’ll examine some of the central questions of philosophy of law. How ought judicial decisions be

decided? What are laws? What’s the relation between law and morality? Under what conditions do laws

have authority over us? To what extent is it proper for laws to limit freedom? What constitutes a just

system of punishment? There will be two short papers, one a legal brief and the other a philosophy paper.

There will be two research exercises leading up to the papers. Students will also be required to write a

question or comment on the reading for most classes.


PHIL 26000 LEC/REC 150 TR 3:30-4:20 LILY 1105 PARRISH

27500 Philosophy of Art An introductory philosophy course on the nature, function, and value of art, with special emphasis on visual

art (e.g., painting).


PHIL 27500 LEC 35 TR 1:30-2:45 BRNG 1230 COVER

28000 Ethics and Animals An exploration through the study of major historical and contemporary philosophical writings of basic

moral issues as they apply to our treatment of animals. Rational understanding of the general philosophical

problems raised by practices such as experimentation on animals or meat-eating will be emphasized.


PHIL 28000 LEC 90 MWF 12:30-1:20 SC 239 BERNSTEIN

300 LEVEL COURSES

30100 History of Ancient Philosophy This is a first course in the history of philosophy in antiquity, covering a period of almost a thousand years.

The course divides into three main parts. We begin at the beginning (where else?) when philosophy

emerged from non-philosophical modes of thought in the 6th century BCE. We will trace the intellectual

paths blazed by the first philosophers, Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, and

Parmenides. Thanks to them, we became skeptical about the nature, even the reality and value, of the world

around us, no longer confident that what we perceive maps on to what there really is, and that what seems

good to us really has value. With such skepticism in the air we turn to the giants of philosophy in antiquity,

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, who, each in his own way, attempts to respond to the fear that knowledge

about the sensible world is unattainable and that the reality of a realm of values is a vain imagining. Finally,


we will spend some time on philosophy after Aristotle, a very rich intellectual period that saw the rise of

Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Skepticism--competing schools of philosophy, indeed ways of life. The post-

Aristotelian philosophical movements developed through discussions and disagreements with each other,

but they will be presented here as a set of intelligent responses to Aristotle and his views about the nature

of human well-being.

The course will proceed by lecture and discussion, and two (2) in-class essay examinations will determine

the grade.


PHIL 30100 LEC 35 TR 1:30-2:45 BRNG 1268 FRANK

30200 History of Medieval Philosophy A survey of the main trends and figures of medieval philosophy, with an emphasis on metaphysics,

epistemology, and ethics. Readings (in English translation) may include Augustine, Boethius, Avicenna,

Anselm, Abelard, Maimonides, Aquinas, Scotus, Ockham and Suarez.


PHIL 30200 LEC 35 TR 3:00-4:15 BRNG 1268 Grad

30300 History of Modern Philosophy The history of philosophy, like logic and ethics and epistemology and metaphysics, is a traditional area of

academic philosophy with a history of its own. As practiced in the past, and as we’ll pursue it in this course,

it isn’t history (of a certain subject) but philosophy (with a certain focus). The focus is the content of

historically important philosophical texts. The contents of texts we examine will be approached not out of

special respect for the past, nor for the purpose of uncovering broad social currents influencing the central

figures of early modern philosophy, but simply out of a desire to discover fundamental truths about the

world. That is what philosophy is, according to those thinkers most influential in European philosophical

thought during the so-called early modern period (roughly 1600-1800). They made claims about how the

world is; these claims are either true or false – true if the world is the way they claimed it to be, false if the

world isn’t the way they claimed it to be. Of these influential thinkers we shall, time permitting, examine

selected writings of five: Descartes, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. Readings and lectures will focus

primarily on metaphysical and epistemological topics, since those are the philosophical topics of central

concern to these thinkers. It's all cool stuff: a bit of history and philosophy of science, a bit of reflection

about God, some issues about what it takes to know something, some stuff about the nature of minds (from

our arm-chairs without doing any neuro-physiology), a bit more about God, a surprising treatment of “What

is a physical object?” with two hard-nosed answers guaranteed to make you feel like you’ve lived your life

up ‘till now in utter blindness, some knotty thoughts about causation and knowledge (again) that is not

guaranteed to make you nervous about planning ahead for October-break, a few reflections on the un-

rewarding game of backgammon, and more.


PHIL 30300 LEC 35 TR 9:00-10:15 BRNG 1268 COVER


35000 Philosophy and Probability

The aim of this course is to use mathematical probability to explicate the concept of (supporting) evidence

or "confirmation" and then use that explication to address a variety of foundational problems in the

philosophy of science. Topics include:

1. the rules of mathematical probability;

2. the concept of epistemic probability and theories of intrinsic probability;

3. the "relevance theory" of confirmation;

4. the structure of scientific reasoning;

5. the raven paradox: why do positive instances confirm universal generalizations to such different

degrees?

6. the asymmetry question: why does strong or conclusive evidence against a scientific theory seem

so much easier to come by than strong or conclusive evidence for it?

7. what's wrong with statistical significance testing?

8. the problem of simplicity: what is simplicity and why are simpler theories not just easier to use, but

more likely to be true?

9. Goodman's paradox and the new riddle of induction: how can one theory be more likely to be true

than all competing theories even though that theory fits the data no better or even worse than some

of those competing theories?

10. Hume's problem of induction: is it possible to justify induction?


PHIL 35000 LEC 35 TR 9:00-10:15 BRNG 1230 DRAPER

400 LEVEL COURSES

40600 Intermediate Philosophy of Religion The course explores four closely related topics: the nature of mystical experience, the nature of numinous

experience, the cognitive or evidential value of religious experience, and the challenge of religious

diversity. Readings will include extended passages from the autobiography of the famous Christian mystic,

Saint Teresa of Avila; the first nine chapters of Rudolf Otto's classic book, The Idea of the Holy; and Robert

McKim's 2012 book, On Religious Diversity. Two exams and two papers are required.


PHIL 40600 LEC 35 TR 12:00-1:15 BRNG 1230 DRAPER

500 LEVEL COURSES

50200 Studies in Medieval Philosophy: Aquinas’s Ontology of Space This course is intended to provide a systematic introduction to Aquinas’s ontology of space and will be

divided into three parts:

Part I. Locomotion. This part will examine Aquinas’s views about locomotion, as well as the theory of

spatial location that underlies them. We will begin by focusing on what Aquinas says about bodily

locomotion, which appears to commit him to a standard Aristotelian theory of spatial location. We will then

examine Aquinas’s defense of the possibility of angelic locomotion, which requires some striking

modifications to the theory of spatial location that he develops in connection with bodies.


Part II. Place. This part will examine Aquinas’s views about the nature of place and its connection to what

we would nowadays call ‘regions of space’. The focus here will be on what Aquinas says about the different

types of place had by different types of being, including (a) God and the physical universe (which are both

said to have “ubiquitous location” or be omnipresent in different senses), (b) angels and immaterial souls

(which are both said to have “definitive location” or to be present as “a whole in the whole, and as a whole

in each part” of their places), and (c) bodies (which are said to have “circumscriptive location” or to be

present as “a whole in the whole, and a part in each part” of their places).

III. Spatial Location. This part will examine Aquinas’s views about spatial location, with special attention

to his understanding of (a) distance relations, (b) the nature of occupation, and (c) the possibility of co-

location, multi-location, and empty space. Although the focus here will be on what Aquinas himself says

about each of these topics, we will also examine some representative late-medieval debates to which

Aquinas’s views give rise shortly after his death, especially in the wake of the Condemnation of 1277,

which explicitly censure some of his most distinctive theses about spatial location.

Assigned readings for the course will include a variety of primary texts (all in English translation) and a

sampling of the relevant secondary literature, as well as some important contributions to related debates in

contemporary analytic metaphysics. In addition to assigned readings, the course requirements will include

two papers (3000 words each) and short weekly writing assignments.


PHIL 50200 LEC 20 W 2:30-5:20 BRNG 1248 BROWER

51000 Phenomenology This course offers a careful examination of central texts in phenomenology, with special attention to

hermeneutics. Our main concern in this course will be to examine the insights of phenomenology in relation

to questions of the constitution of consciousness, temporality, understanding, interpretation, their relation

to the life project, and how they define our Being with others. As such, a central aim of the course is the

examination of interpretation in relation to ethical concerns. Readings from Husserl will include chunks

from Ideas and other essays, as well as the entirety of the Cartesian Meditations. Heidegger’s Being and

Time, and Sartre’s Being and Nothingness will be examined in relation to both Husserl’s foundations and

the issues delineated above. Comparison of the development of these issues by these three thinkers will be

a fundamental goal.

The class requires a significant amount of reading of the primary texts. These are difficult, but as

we move along we will be doing close textual analysis of key passages that will help you to uncover the

fundamental ideas behind each text.


PHIL 51000 LEC 20 M 2:30-5:20 BRNG 1248 MARIÑA

52500 Studies in Metaphysics This course in analytic metaphysics will be divided into four parts:

First, we’ll consider several topics related to human freedom (such as fatalism, agent vs. event

causation, and freedom’s relation to causal determinism, moral responsibility, and

foreknowledge).

Second, we’ll examine some traditional debates associated with universals and particulars (such as

realism vs. nominalism, bundle vs. substratum theory, constituent vs. relational ontology).


Third, we’ll have a look at some hotly disputed questions concerning the metaphysics of material

objects (such as the nature of change, persistence, composition, and material constitution).

Fourth and finally, we’ll investigate some important topics connected with the metaphysics of

modality (such as the nature of possible worlds, essential vs. accidental properties, counterpart

theory, and possible but nonexistent objects).

The course requirements will include two papers and weekly short writing assignments. There will be no

final exam.


PHIL 52500 LEC 20 TR 1:30-2:45 BRNG 1248 BERGMANN and BROWER

58000 Philosophy of Race Designed primarily for majors in philosophy who have already successfully completed six hours in

philosophy. Other students may be admitted to the course with the special consent of the instructor in

charge. Topic to be selected by the department.


PHIL 58000 LEC 20 TR 9:00-10:15 BRNG 1248 HARRIS

600 LEVEL COURSES

68000 19th Century German Social and Political Philosophy

This seminar will go through the central texts of classical German social and political philosophy from Kant

through Hegel. Focusing on Kant, Fichte and Hegel, we will explore both foundational issues, such as the

validity of law, and specific issues regarding property rights and other social institutions. The course is

organized topically rather than chronologically. Course requirements include a presentation, regular

participation, one 3000 word paper, and one 1500 word response to another student's paper.


PHIL 68000 LEC 20 W 11:30-2:20 BRNG 1248 YEOMANS

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