A writing-intensive introduction to the major philosophical topics, themes, and thinkers. Students develop the ability to read texts critically and to write well-researched argumentative essays about perennial philosophical questions. This course may be repeated once if there is substantively different content with departmental approval required.

An introduction to the major philosophical topics, themes, and thinkers. Students develop the ability to read texts critically.

A study of the basic principles and methods for distinguishing good and bad reasoning across a broad range of contexts, with an emphasis on deductive reasoning. Students develop formal tools to identify, reconstruct, and evaluate arguments, and to compose argumentative essays of their own.

The development of critical, coherent, and creative thinking, including understanding, analyzing, and evaluating the claims of others, organizing ideas clearly, and constructing sound arguments. Development of sensitivity to argumentation technique and to the language in which arguments are expressed, with particular attention to the persuasive techniques of advertising and other controversial issues in the mass media.

An introduction to philosophical issues and theories associated with the normative assessment of human behavior through engagement with one or more contemporary social issues such as poverty, war, immigration, affirmative action, drug legalization, abortion, sexuality, animal rights, and the environment. This course may be repeated once if there is substantively different content with departmental approval required.

Introduction to philosophical reasoning regarding medical ethics, including confidentiality, intervention in the beginning and ending of human life, and just distribution of medical resources.

Analysis of ethical problems for information technologies. Topics include ethical implications of new possibilities in information technologies, privacy, ownership, professional codes of conduct as they relate to society, and role of information technologies in shaping morality of government, education, politics, business, and society.

Undergraduate research undertaken with the supervision of a faculty member. May be taken for a maximum of 6 hours.

An examination and evaluation of philosophical themes and methods in existentialist writings. Themes such as freedom, anxiety, despair, nothingness, alienation, death, God, the impotence of reason, the conflict between individuality and the dehumanizing tendencies of mass society, and the conflict between authentic self and inauthentic self are considered. Attention is focused upon the work of such thinkers as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Jaspers, Heidegger, Marcel, Sartre, and Camus.

A critical engagement of the philosophical ideas represented in selected literary texts, such as science fiction, dystopian fiction, the inklings, or existentialist literature, indicated by course subtitle. Examines a wide variety of philosophical topics with special attention to the role of imagination.

A writing-intensive introduction to philosophical issues arising from religious belief and practice. Students develop the ability to read texts critically, and to write clear argumentative essays about such topics as faith and reason, the problem of evil, and the coherence of doctrines like atonement and incarnation.

A study of central philosophical texts in their historical context and for their enduring philosophical contributions. Possible texts include Plato's Republic; Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Augustine's Confessions, St. Thomas's Summa, Descartes' Meditations, Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling, and Nietzche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra. May be taken a maximum of two times if different topics, not to exceed six semester hours.

An introductory study of a central philosophical tradition in its historical context and for its enduring philosophical contribution. Possible traditions include existentialism, feminism, political liberalism, pragmatism, post-modernism, naturalism, positivism, and scholasticism. May be taken a maximum of two times if different topics, not to exceed six semester hours.

A study of philosophical issues arising at the intersections of law, morality, science, and society. The course will consider such issues as the proper relation between morality and law, civil disobedience, racism, feminism, equal opportunity and justice, abortion, euthanasia, animal rights, punishment, pornography, creationism, and moral aspects of technological development.

An analysis of moral issues that arise within the economic sphere of society and specifically within profit and nonprofit organizations. The nature and justification of moral decision making will be examined. Topics may include moral issues involving the relationships between business and other social organizations, ecology, the social responsibility of entrepreneurs, and personnel and policy decisions.

Undergraduate research undertaken with the supervision of a faculty member. May be taken for a maximum of 6 hours.

A critical study of problems in moral judgment and evaluation, with analysis of presuppositions and justifications used in moral discourse. Problems such as freedom and determinism, relativism and absolutism, conflicts of duties and ends, grounds of moral obligation, and choices involving personal and social goals are also studied. This course will introduce students to a number of major primary sources in the history of moral philosophy.

This course is designed for Baylor University's study-abroad program. (Note: see section in this catalog regarding foreign study.) While the specific course content will vary with the instructor, attention will be given to the way issues have been addressed by philosophers in the British Isles such as Thomas More, Francis Bacon, Hobbes, Locke, Hume, John Stuart Mill, Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell, and Gilbert Ryle. The philosophical ideas of literary figures such as Jane Austen, Robert Browning, and William Wordsworth may also be considered. Discussions will be developed in the rich settings of cathedrals, theaters, universities, and museums.

Historical context in which philosophy developed and how the original issues of philosophy continue to inform historical and contemporary philosophical debate. Emphasizes the reading of primary sources: Homer, Hesiod, the pre-Socratics, the Sophists, Plato, and Aristotle, and the study of Stoicism, Epicureanism, and Skepticism.

A study of the major developments in philosophy from the Renaissance through the first half of the nineteenth century. The demise of late Scholasticism, the rise of modern science, the philosophies of the Continental Rationalists and the British Empiricists, the critical philosophy of Kant, and German Idealism are considered. Philosophers studied include Descartes, Leibniz, Spinoza, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche.

The examination of certain philosophical issues that are raised by the U.S. Constitution, and especially by the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment.

A critical study of philosophical issues in feminism including moral issues of equal rights and justice, sex role stereotypes, equal opportunity and reverse discrimination, equality between the sexes, abortion, and philosophers' theories of feminism. Topics may vary from semester to semester.

A survey of the major contemporary sources in aesthetics. Problems discussed are concerned with the aesthetic experience, the interpretation of art (including the definition of art, the nature of metaphor, the relation of art to knowledge, meaning in art), and criticism in literature and other art forms.

Relationships between government and religion, especially, United States Supreme Court decisions dealing with prayer and Bible reading in public schools, government aid to church-related schools, and religious liberty rights of individuals and churches. Philosophical debates about the nature of religious free exercise and establishment, their justification, and their relationship to different political theories. Note for undergraduate religion majors: This course will be accepted as three elective hours on a religion major, but will not be accepted for credit on a minor in religion or toward the six hour religion requirement by the University.

An introduction to ancient, medieval, and modern historiography and the development of the philosophy of history. Critical consideration will be given to traditional thought about concepts fundamental to history, including the ideas of historical explanation, purpose, cause, and interpretation. Emphasis will be given to methods of historical research and writing.

Undergraduate research undertaken with the supervision of a faculty member. May be taken for a maximum of 6 hours.

See MH 4300 for course information.

An analysis of the moral and philosophical issues arising from military operations around the world, whether formal or informal, historical and contemporary.

An analysis of philosophical problems about science. Such central concepts as law, causation, induction, hypothesis, theory, verification, and models are studied. Presuppositions and methodologies of different sciences may be examined. The relation of scientific views to moral, social, and metaphysical problems is considered.

A critical examination of classical and current problems in theories of knowledge. Attention is given to such problems as meaning, truth, the knowing situation, universals, knowledge of the external world and of other minds, and validation of knowledge claims. The contributions of recent movements such as logical empiricism, linguistic analysis, phenomenology may be studied.

The history and development of philosophy from 250 to 1400 A.D. Some of the major philosophers studied include Augustine, Boethius, John Scotus Erigena, Anselm, Abelard, Avicenna, Averroes, Maimonides, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham. Special emphasis will be placed on the significance of pre-Enlightenment thinkers to the development of the Enlightenment and Modernity.

Critical examination of current problems in philosophy of mind, focusing on the relationship between mind and physical world. Central issues include the nature of consciousness, and the nature of mental content; secondary topics may include, reductionism, functionalism, non-reductive materialism, epiphenomenalism, panpsychism, and dualisms of various forms.

A critical study of historical and contemporary approaches to primary issues in jurisprudence and the philosophy of law, including tort law, criminal law, and Constitutional law.

Enhancing philosophical writing skills, promoting proficiency with new computer research technologies, and refining oral communication skills.

A philosophical inquiry into such topics as the existence and nature of God, religious experience, immortality, the problem of evil, the relationship between reason and faith, the meaning of religious language and symbols, and the validity of religious knowledge claims. Methods of contemporary philosophical analysis are used in clarifying religious concepts.

A critical analysis of classical and contemporary metaphysical systems and problems. These include the world views found in the philosophies of naturalism, idealism, personalism, positivism, pragmatism, organicism, and existentialism. Problem areas considered are mind-body relations, cosmology, ontology, philosophical anthropology, universals, determinism, and freedom. Basic categories such substance, cause, time, space, matter, and form are critically examined. Attention also is focused upon methods and criteria employed in metaphysical study.

A critical study of philosophical material in literature, that is, a study of the philosophy to be found in essays, novels, poems, and plays. Among the authors usually studied are Plato, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Lucretius, Voltaire, Goethe, Ibsen, Nietzsche, Kafka, Camus, Sartre, Malraux, Hesse and selected contemporary novelists.

Examination of literature dealing with illness, disease, pain, and death in order to understand better how societal perceptions and values of the care-giver affect the patient.

Philosophical and intellectual movements in Latin America from the colonial times to the present. These movements include scholasticism, eclecticism, utilitarianism, romanticism, positivism, vitalism, phenomenology, and existentialism and philosophies of liberation. Works of major representatives of these movements (including such men as Bello, Mora, Sierra, Varona, Deustua, Caso, Korn, Vasconcelos, Farias Brito, Vaz Ferreira, and Romero) are studied.

An historical and critical survey of the major movements in Chinese, Indian, or Japanese philosophy. Course may be repeated once with different area of concentration.

A critical study of philosophical movements in Europe during the past one hundred and fifty years. Some of the major philosophers studied include Nietzsche, Husserl, Adorno, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Wittgenstein, Russell, Carnap, Gadamer, Habermas, Lyotard, Foucault, and Derrida. Movements studied include phenomenology, positivism, naturalism, critical theory, existentialism, structuralism, deconstructionism, and post modernism. Course may be repeated once with a different area of concentration.

A critical study of philosophical movements in the United States during the past one hundred years. Some of the philosophers whose works are studied include Pierce, James, Royce, Dewey, Mead, Lewis, Santayana, Whitehead, and Quine. Recent movements such as critical realism, naturalism, humanism, personalism, logical positivism, and linguistic analysis are also studied.

The language of first-order logic as a formal deductive system.

Critical examination of the basic problems in general semantics and philosophy of language, giving special attention to the major authors in these fields.

Major issues in contemporary ethical writings. Course may be repeated once for credit if topic varies.

A critical survey of the fundamental concepts and theories used in justifying social institutions. Problems such as authority, law, freedom, rights, equality, responsibility, power, justice, the state, and justification of open societies are considered.

Philosophical approaches to clinical medicine and contemporary health care, focusing on experience as a basis for knowledge.

Jewish philosophy in the twentieth century, with emphasis on the relation between mortality and morality, justice and totalitarianism, faith after the Holocaust, and individualism and revolution.

Examines the evolution of political philosophy and institutions in Muslim culture.

Addresses both historical and contemporary arguments about the relationship between religious morality and liberal democracy. Pays particular attention to the debate about the role of religious forms of ethics/morality in public debate, public choices, and the decisions of political actors.

Faculty-directed individual, group, or class research project. Course may be taken up to three times with a different topic for a maximum of 9 credit hours.

Undergraduate research undertaken with the supervision of a faculty member. May be taken for a maximum of 6 hours.