Course	PHIL 102 Introduction to Philosophy: Philosophical Classics
Professor	Daniel Berthold
CRN	97156
Schedule	Mon Wed 9:00 - 10:20 am OLIN 203
Distribution	Humanities

An introduction to some of the perennial concerns of philosophy, through a survey of a variety of classic texts in the Western philosophical tradition. Themes include the nature of ethical life, the meaning and possibility of knowledge, the concept of the self, the justifiability of the state, the role of religious faith within philosophical inquiry, and the nature of philosophical method and style. Readings are from Plato, followed by three contrasting portraits of Socrates, by Aristophanes (The Clouds), Soren Kierkegaard (selections from The Concept of Irony), and Maurice Merleau-Ponty (“In Praise of Philosophy”) and from Descartes, Hobbes, Hume, Kant, and Nietzsche.

Course	PHIL 108 Introduction to Philosophy
Professor	Mary Coleman
CRN	97157
Schedule	Wed Fr 10:30 - 11:50 am OLIN 203
Distribution	Humanities

Western philosophers address questions that most of us naturally find puzzling, such as: do we have free will?; do we know what the world around us is really like?; does God exist?; how should we treat one another? We will critically examine historical and contemporary texts that address these and other central themes of the philosophical tradition.

Course	PHIL 111 Introduction to Philosophy
Professor	Franklin Bruno
CRN	97158
Schedule	Tu Th 10:30 - 11:50 am OLIN 204
Distribution	Humanities

Philosophers attempt to formulate general questions about ourselves, each other, and our place in the world – and to give reasoned answers to them. This course introduces major approaches to five such questions: How should we live? Is there a God? How do we know what we know? What sort of beings are we? And, how should we live together? Our emphasis will be on the (often conflicting) answers philosophers have given to these questions, but at least one other question about our endeavor will also be at issue: Is there a right and a wrong way to go about answering these questions – and who has the authority to decide? Readings are selected from classical texts of Western philosophy (Descartes, Locke, Hobbes) and contemporary work (John Searle, Judith Jarvis Thomson, Bernard Williams).

Course	PHIL 235 Philosophy and Film
Professor	Franklin Bruno
CRN	97164
Schedule	Tu Th 2:30 -3:50 pm OLIN 202
Distribution	Humanities

While much writing about film concerns the evaluation of particular works, the development of motion picture technology from its roots in photography and the (somewhat later) advent of cinema as a relatively independent art form also raise questions of a general or theoretical nature.  This course examines major approaches to such questions from within philosophy, film studies, and criticism.  The assumptions and conclusions of these disciplines often conflict, sometimes starkly; a focus of written assignments will be the critical assessment of disparate theoretical approaches.  Issues and authors include the following: What are the characteristic features of the film medium, and how do these bear on the range of aesthetic possibilities available to the art-form (André Bazin, Kendall Walton)?  Given the technological complexity and collaborative character of much film-making, can the content of such films be ascribed to an "author" (Andrew Sarris, Manny Farber, Stephen Heath)?  Given the evident capacity of films, particularly narrative ones, to evoke empathetic and emotional responses from spectators, what role should such responses play in the critical understanding and evaluation of films (Bertolt Brecht, Carl Plantinga, Noël Carroll)?  Can films be significant sources of social criticism and philosophical insight (Angela Curran, Stanley Cavell, Cynthia Freeland)?  Many of these questions are closely related to long-standing issues in philosophical aesthetics; in all cases, however, the special problems raised by film will be emphasized.   Primary text: The Philosophy of Film; Introductory Text and Readings, ed. Wartenberg and Curran (Blackwell, 2005).  Students will also be required to attend several screenings relevant to specific topics and readings.  Planned screenings (pending availability) include: Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (1975, Thom Anderson); Crack-Up (1946, Irving Reis); Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974, Jacques Rivette), Stella Dallas (1937, King Vidor).

Course	PHIL 251 Ethical Theory
Professor	William Griffith
CRN	97160
Schedule	Mon Wed 10:30 - 11:50 am ASP 302
Distribution	Humanities

Cross-listed: Human Rights

What is it to be a “moral” being, i.e., what is the “moral dimension” of our lives? What are its key elements? Is there such a thing as “happiness,” “the good life,” “virtue,” “wisdom?” Are there “rights,” “duties?” If so, how do we recognize them? We will critically examine the primary texts of four philosophers whose thoughts on these fundamental questions have had a permanent influence on western philosophical thought: Aristotle, Epictetus, Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill. (No Prerequisites. Open to First Year students upon consultation with the professor.)

Course	PHIL 330 Key Texts in Aesthetics
Professor	Franklin Bruno
CRN	97165
Schedule	Wed 1:30 -3:50 pm ASP 302
Distribution	Humanities

In attempting to explain important features of our experience of art and nature, philosophers from the 18th century forward have proposed the existence of a mental faculty or type of judgment not wholly reducible to either sense perception or conceptual thought.  "Aesthetic" is the most common term for this faculty, and the judgments for which it is responsible.  This course examines various accounts of the notion of the aesthetic - and closely related issues concerning art, taste, and beauty - though in-depth examination of historically important texts: Francis Hutcheson, Inquiry into the Origins of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue; David Hume, "Of the Standard of Taste"; Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Judgment.  The course ends with a sampling of significant 20th-century approaches to the same themes.  Open to moderated students in philosophy, arts or literature.

Course	PHIL 360 Free Will
Professor	Mary Coleman
CRN	97161
Schedule	Th 4:00 -6:20 pm OLIN 303
Distribution	Humanities

Cross-listed: Cognitive Science

Do you have free will? Do you ever freely choose what to do? It may seem obvious that you do. Couldn’t you have chosen to eat something other than what you actually had for dinner last night? Or it may seem obvious that you don’t. Aren’t all of your decisions and actions ultimately determined by a confluence of your genetic make-up and the social environment in which you find yourself? What is free will? Do we have it? What difference does it make whether we have it or not? The problem of free will is one of the most familiar, enduring, and difficult problems of western philosophy. We will begin by studying some classic texts that offer a wide range of answers to these central questions about free will, but we will spend the majority of the semester studying “state of the art” writings about free will from such philosophers and philosophically-minded thinkers as Daniel Dennett, Robert Kane, Benjamin Libet, Timothy O’Connor, and Daniel Wegner.

Course	PHIL 371 The Philosophy of Kant
Professor	William Griffith
CRN	97162
Schedule	Fr 12:30 -2:50 pm ASP 302
Distribution	Humanities

Cross-listed: German Studies

An introduction to one of the classic texts of western philosophy, Kant’s magnum opus, The Critique of Pure Reason. Prerequisite: a previous course in philosophy and permission of the instructor.

Course	PHIL 387 Freud and Philosophy
Professor	Daniel Berthold
CRN	97163
Schedule	Mon 1:30 -3:50 pm ASP 302
Distribution	Humanities

Cross-listed: Cognitive Science, German Studies

Freud’s writings will be studied both from the point of view of the questions, the challenges, and the opportunities they pose for philosophy, and from the point of view of the kinds of criticisms that philosophy has directed against psychoanalytic theory. Readings will include The Interpretation of Dreams; Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis; The Ego and the Id; Inhibition, Symptom and Anxiety; Beyond the Pleasure Principle; Civilization and Its Discontents, and critical secondary sources. Prerequisite: A previous course in philosophy and permission of the instructor.