Philosophy Courses

PHL 105. PERSONAL AND COMMUNITY ETHICS (3)
An introduction to ethical thought with particular attention given to the conflict between individual interest and communal good. The course includes a survey of classical writings on ethics, as well as a selection of more recent texts that focus on issues such as gender and sexuality, racism, economic injustice, and environmental ethics. In each case, we will examine how various conceptions of individual rights coincide with the obligations individuals owe to their neighbors, their nation, and the global community.
Fall semester. DeCaroli.

PHL 115. RACE, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY (3)
An introduction to the theories of oppression and privilege, with particular attention paid to racism, sexism, and heterosexism. The readings analyze the nature of social identity and difference, including the intersections of sexuality, gender, and race on the individual and social levels. We will examine oppression and privilege as systems and structures, which are maintained and sustained by social practices, language, education, and cultural production. We will also examine these areas as possible sites of resistance.
Fall semester. Grebowicz.

PHL 120. INTRODUCTION TO ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY (3)
Introduction to the analytic method of philosophy as it addresses the central philosophical issues of reality and knowledge. Students apply the analytic method to the metaphysics (theories of reality) and epistemologies (theories of knowledge) of three major philosophers (Plato, Descartes, and Locke), who represent three major movements: realism, rationalism, and empiricism.
Spring semester, alternate years. Welch.

PHL 157. INDIVIDUAL, COMMUNITY, COSMOS (3)
Exploration of the historical philosophical views on the identity, self-understanding, and values of human beings and their relationship to larger totalities such as community, society, and the natural or divine order.  Reading and discussion of Plato's Dialogues, Descartes' Meditations, Hume's Enquiry, and Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols.
Spring semester. Rose.

PHL 176. LOGIC (3)
Study of the theory and history of logic, its uses and justification, its applicability and limitations. Focus on formal deductive logic.
Fall semester. Department.

PHL 205. ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS (3)
A philosophical examination of the relationship between human beings and the natural world. Readings address cultural and scientific construction of nature and the environment, various constructions of human versus animal being, the metaphysical underpinnings of various "animal rights" and "conservation" positions, and the relationship between environmental and social concerns. Students will consider and evaluate competing approaches to environmental justice. Prerequisite: either sophomore standing, one course in philosophy, or permission of the instructor.
Fall semester, alternate years. Department.

PHL 212. PHILOSOPHY AND ART (3) (ART 207)
An analysis of the philosophical implications and cultural significance of art during the modern period. In pursuing an answer to the question "What is art?," we will examine a selection of philosophical writings on the subject, each of which tries to determine what characteristics make art objects different from all others. In addition, we will examine the political, social, racial, and historical factors that helped produce the institutions, economies, and values that, in the West at least, sustain the notion of "fine art." Our investigation will include a critical consideration of such things as the modern museum, colonialism, the role of the art critic, and the art industry. (This course cannot be used as one of the two 200-level art history survey courses required for the art major.) Prerequisite: either sophomore standing, one course in philosophy, or permission of the instructor.
Fall semester, alternate years. DeCaroli.

PHL 215. PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE (3)
An analysis of how both philosophers and scientists understand the practice of scientific investigation, with particular attention to the social and political effects of science. Prerequisite: either sophomore standing, one course in philosophy, or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester, alternate years. Grebowicz.

PHL 216. MODERN PHILOSOPHY (3)
An advanced survey of 17th- and 18th-century philosophy as developed in the writings of Descartes, Leibniz, Spinoza, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. All readings are from primary sources, supplemented by lecture and discussion. We will consider not only the internal arguments of these texts, but also the broader cultural and political questions that frame their arguments. Prerequisite: one course in philosophy or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester, alternate years. DeCaroli.

PHL 217. CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY (3) An introduction to contemporary philosophy. The course includes a survey of the major philosophers of poststructuralism (post-1968), as well as a substantial examination of the traditions that have shaped contemporary philosophical debates. The course will begin with an overview of the writings of both Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud, emphasizing dialectical materialism and the formation of subjectivity. The course will then examine how the ideas of Marx and Freud have been embraced by late-20th-century theorists. Prerequisite: two courses in philosophy (one at the 200 level) or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester, alternate years. DeCaroli.

PHL 218. PHILOSOPHY OF TIME (3)
Examination of speculations about time in the classical, Enlightenment, and contemporary periods and the specific ways these speculations have helped develop philosophy, physics, mathematics, religion, history, and psychology. Key themes include the role of time as a measure, changes in concepts of time, time and the cosmos, the ubiquitous presence of concepts of time in our understanding of the natural world, abstraction, classification, and self-understanding throughout Western thought. Prerequisite: either sophomore standing, one course in philosophy, or permission of the instructor.
Fall semester, alternate years. Rose.

PHL 219. 19TH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHY (3)
Study of Kant's epistemology, Hegel's phenomenology, and philosophy of history to show new confidence in reason; Nietzsche's and Kierkegaard's responses; and the subsequent crisis in confidence in reason and the loss of absolute values that give rise to the issues of modern life. Readings include Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, Hegel's preface to Phenomenology of Spirit, Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals, and Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling and Repetition. Influence of these works on psychology, social science, religion, and ethics. Prerequisite: one course in philosophy or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester, alternate years. Rose.

PHL 220. PHENOMENOLOGY (3)
Study of phenomenology as foundational science in Husserl's CrIisis and its development in the work of Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty's The Prose of the World, and Levinas' Time and the Other. This course explores the prospect of a holistic way of knowing in opposition to the detached, objective methodology of the natural and social sciences. Prerequisite: one course in philosophy or permission of the instructor.
Fall semester, alternate years. Rose.

PHL 222. JUDAISM AND PHILOSOPHY (3) (JS 222) (RLG 222) 
For centuries Jewish thinkers have attempted to reconcile philosophy - knowledge based on human reason - with the authority of the Bible and the Jewish tradition. This course will consider of the relationship between philosophy and Judaism and illuminate the broader question of the relationship or conflict between reason and revelation. How has the dialogue between (secular) philosophy and (religious) tradition yielded new understandings of the meaning of Judaism and Jewish life? The course will probe these problems by means of a survey of the major Jewish philosophical works, from late antiquity to modern times. We will read such authors as Philo, Saadia Gaon, Judah Halevi, Moses Maimonides, Spinoza, Moses Mendelssohn, Herman Cohen, Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Leo Strauss, and Emmanuel Levinas. Students will consider debates regarding the conflict or correspondence of reason and revelation, the creation or eternity of the world, the meaning of the law, and the problem of the particularity of the Jewish people. Prerequisite: either sophomore standing or permission of the instructor 
Variable semesters. Copulsky.

PHL 223. 20TH-CENTURY ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY (3) (COG 223)
This course will focus on philosophers' efforts to provide satisfactory accounts of the nature of the mind, its relationship to that of the body, and consciousness. Among the accounts we will study are materialism, logical behaviorism, the identity theory, functionalism, intentionality, and phenomenalism. Prerequisite: either sophomore standing, one course in philosophy, or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester, alternate years. Welch.

PHL 224. EXISTENTIALISM: PHILOSOPHY AND THEATER (3) (THE 202)
Through the study of existentialist philosophers and playwrights, this course explores the relation of philosophy and theater as the two human activities that enact the self-conscious reflection of the world. Using readings from philosophers Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Marcel, Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Duras, and dramatists Artaud, Pirandello, Brecht, and Beckett, students bring theater and philosophy together in their shared standpoint on the clearing/stage of a conscious place in which they can see the world and see themselves reflected in the world. By discovering how philosophy and theater both "enact reality," students will also discuss how both meaning in one's life and personal identity are created, how political identities are created, how political communities and social relations are constituted, and how humans "enact" being. Prerequisite: one course in philosophy or permission of the instructor.
Fall semester, alternate years. Rose.

PHL 226. MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE PHILOSOPHY (3) (RLG 226)
The major Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and neo-Platonic thinkers of the two periods. Religious thought, rational theology, the development of humanism, and the development of natural sciences. Readings from St. Anselm, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Peter Abelard, Maimonides, Averroes, Ficino, and Pico. Prerequisite: one course in philosophy or permission of the instructor.
Fall semester, alternate years. Copulsky.

PHL 227. NEOPLATONISM: THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY (3)
The "neo" in "Neoplatonism" describes the appropriation of key elements in Plato's thought in an application that Plato never intended and could not foresee.  These versions of Plato's thought are the ones that Western Culture received and that have dominated Christianity and many aspects of western culture to this day.  Focusing on the origins of Neoplatonism, we study Plotinus' Enneads in detail.  We will also read Porphyry the Phoenician's Isagogeand Boethius' , Consolation of Philosophy and trace the development of Neoplatonism into its ubiquitous modern appropriation in modern philosophy (especially Hegel's dialectical  logic), theology and literature. Prerequisite: one course in philosophy or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester, alternate years. Rose.

PHL 228. PHILOSOPHY AND THE ANIMAL (3)
Are humans animals?  Are animals persons?  This class goes beyond animal ethics to consider the ontological and epistemological assumptions underlying the ethical debates.  How is "the animal" constructed in science, philosophy and culture?  How should animal being be imagined in order to contribute to a more just and sustainable vision of society? Prerequisite: either sophomore standing, one course in philosophy, or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester, alternate years. Grebowicz.

PHL 231. POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY (3)
An introduction to political philosophy with particular attention paid to the modern period, during which time the fundamental concepts of Western politics were developed. The course includes a survey of classical writings on politics, as well as a selection of more recent texts that focus on issues such as citizenship; the "social contract;" sovereignty; the meaning of political, civil, and human rights; as well as a careful examination of cosmopolitanism and nationalism. Prerequisite: either sophomore standing, one course in philosophy, or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester, alternate years. DeCaroli.

PHL 237. QUEER THEORY (3)
Queer theory is one of the richest and most quickly growing fields of contemporary philosophical inquiry. This course will trace various arguments for overcoming the categories "heterosexual" and "homosexual," as defined in hetro-patriarchy, in favor of a more contemporary understanding of sexuality (and gender itself ) as fluid and irreducibly mediated by social forces. Readings will explore heterosexual normativity, sadomasochism, camp, queer identity, transgender, the relationship between queer and feminist resistances, and the queering of the philosophical tradition. Prerequisite: one course in philosophy or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester, alternate years. Grebowicz.

PHL 245. CRITICAL RACE THEORY (3) 
A detailed examination of our assumptions about race and the impact of those assumptions on issues concerning gender, class, and sexuality. Students examine racial issues from a critical philosophical perspective and consider the ways in which representations of race reinforce patterns of power and privilege. Prerequisite: one course in philosophy or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester, alternate years. Grebowicz.

PHL 254. BIOMEDICAL ETHICS (3)
A study of the ethical significance of embodiment, with focus on questions of life and death, euthanasia, the commodification of bodies and organs, genetic manipulation, disability, and trans-gender. Students will explore these questions with reference to traditional applied ethics as well as postmodern critiques. Prerequisite: either sophomore standing, one course in philosophy, or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester, alternate years. Department.

PHL 257. PHILOSOPHY AND THE MACHINE (3)
An analysis of the cultural impact and philosophical implications of modern technology, as well as a historical consideration of the relation between humans and machines. Perspectives on technology will be drawn from traditional philosophical sources as well as from more recent writings and will be examined in an effort to highlight a range of ontological and epistemological questions concerning our assumptions about what differentiates humans from machines. Prerequisite: either sophomore standing, one course in philosophy, or permission of the instructor.
Fall semester, alternate years. DeCaroli.

PHL 260. ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY (3) 
The birth of Western thinking about the cosmos, the community, and the practice of shared inquiry into the world around us and ourselves. The ancient Greeks have long been interpreted as the origin of rational, scientific, and abstract thinking. Indeed, we find the origins in of the scientific method, mathematics, logic, biology, political science, literary criticism — in fact, every science — in the thinking of the pre-Socratics, Plato, and Aristotle. But these philosophers also underwent a change in their relationship to the world with ways of thinking and questioning that were different from the views of the community around them. These thinkers are the first to pose questions about the meaning of being.Prerequisite: one course in philosophy or permission of the instructor.
Fall semester, alternate years. Rose.

PHL 268. CHINESE PHILOSOPHY (3) (RLG 268)
An analysis of Asian philosophical and religious texts with particular emphasis on the Chinese tradition. We will read selected works from the vast scholarly literature of the daoist, Buddhist, and Confucian traditions and will situate these texts, their authors, and the schools they represent within their historical context. Prerequisite: either sophomore standing, one course in philosophy, or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester, alternate years. DeCaroli.

PHL 275. EPISTEMOLOGY (3) (COG 275)
This course will examine the theories of truth, such as the correspondence and coherence theories, and the related theories of belief that support these claims to knowledge. We will also examine the criteria for what constitutes appropriate evidence for a knowledge claim. The course will conclude with the more recent problems proposed for the traditional definition of knowledge and some attempts to overcome these problems. And the course will conclude with an examination and evaluation of some recent findings in neuroscience and cognitive science and the implications for the philosophical theories we have studied. Prerequisite: either sophomore standing, one course in philosophy, or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester, alternate years. Welch.

PHL 276. FEMINIST PHILOSOPHY (3) (WS 276)
A philosophical study of questions of gender and gender inequality. The class will explore the sex/gender distinction, social constructions of femininity and masculinity, theories of male normativity and masculine privilege, and various competing strategies for resistance. Students will reflect on gender in relation to other social inequalities, with particular attention to sexuality and heterosexism. Prerequisite: either sophomore standing, one course in philosophy, or permission of the instructor.
Fall semester, alternate years. Grebowicz.

PHL 280. ARCHAEOLOGY OF LANGUAGE (3) 
A discussion of the nature of language in various roles, from creating meaning to hiding it. By looking at four philosophical approaches to language — the literal, the metaphorical, the evocative, the structural, and the deconstructive — this course explores why language works and why sometimes it does not, why it is possible to be understood and to be misunderstood. Topics include the relationship of language and culture, language and gender, language and cognition, and language and madness. Readings in Aristotle's Categories and On Interpretation, Heidegger's On the Way to Language, Derrida's Dissemination, and Foucault's This is not a Pipe. Prerequisite: one course in philosophy or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester, alternate years. Rose.

PHL 322. THEORIES OF RELIGION (3) (RLG 322)
This course examines philosophical theories of religion in an advanced seminar setting. Through the reading of a variety of theoretical studies of religion, students will examine the following questions: Why does religion exist? What comprises a religious experience? What function does religion play in human society? Prerequisite: either sophomore standing and at least one course in philosophy or religion, or permission of the instructor.
Variable semesters. Duncan.

PHL 330. NIETZSCHE (3)
A reading of four of Nietzsche's works: Beyond Good and Evil, The Gay Science, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and Twilight of the Idols; a biography of Nietzsche; and three crucial commentators: Heidegger, Derrida, and Irigaray. This course offers an opportunity to see the history of philosophy and culture through the major concepts of the Will to Power, the Eternal Return, the Transvaluation of Values, and recent interpretations of a thinker who called for an end to religion and metaphysics and started the modern age. Prerequisite: two courses in philosophy (one at the 200 level) or permission of the instructor.
Fall semester, alternate years. Rose.

PHL 332. FOUCAULT (3)
A examination of the works of Michel Foucault, as well as an introduction to the ideas and issues that characterized post-1968 Europe, the time period during which he wrote. The course will be devoted to a careful reading of Foucault's most important works. Prerequisite: two courses in philosophy (one at the 200 level) or permission of the instructor. 
Fall semester, alternate years. DeCaroli.

PHL 333. KANT (3)
An advanced examination of the works of Immanuel Kant, as well as an introduction to the ideas and themes characteristic of the critical tradition he inaugurated. The course will devote considerable time to a careful reading of the standard translations of Kant's most important works, paying particular attention to the key concepts of Kant's critical philosophy. Prerequisite: two courses in philosophy (one at the 200 level) or permission of the instructor.
Fall semester, alternate years. DeCaroli.

PHL 336. HEIDEGGER (3)
Seminar discussion of the key texts in Heidegger's "path of thinking" about being. We will follow Heidegger's ways of asking the question of "the meaning of being" as it develops and changes from phenomenology as fundamental ontology in Being and Time to thought that gives itself over to the appropriation of thinking by being in Contributions to Philosophy. Other texts under consideration include Identity and Difference and the Wegmarken texts. Prerequisite: two courses in philosophy (one at the 200 level) or permission of the instructor.
Fall semester, alternate years. Rose.

PHL 337. DESCARTES (3)
Philosophers who study Descartes' Meditations have concerned themselves with what has become known as the "Cartesian Circle," namely that the principle of clarity and distinctness that Descartes employs to validate God's existence is itself in need of a guarantee that only God's existence can provide. This course will examine three strategies that contemporary philosophers have offered to avoid the "Circle": the autonomy of reason, partial autonomy of reason, and non-autonomy of reason with distinctions in the concepts of certainty and doubt. Prerequisite: two courses in philosophy (one at the 200 level) or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester, alternate years. Welch.

PHL 338. DERRIDA (3)
An in-depth study of Derrida's early work, which begins with his critique of logocentrism, tracing its trajectory from his work on language and semiotics to the deconstruction of the metaphysics of presence. The class concludes with the readings of his later work, exploring the relevance of deconstruction for contemporary democratic theory, globalization, and education. Prerequisite: two courses in philosophy (one at the 200 level) or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester, alternate years. Grebowicz.

PHL 339. LYOTARD (3)
This course will introduce students to the work of late-20th-century French philosopher Jean-Francois Lyotard, who is credited with introducing the term "postmodern" into critical discourse in the context of the events of May 1968, as well as in its present inception. We will explore his writings on the postmodern in areas such as knowledge production, art, memory and testimony, gender, international human rights, and education. Prerequisites: two courses in philosophy (one at the 200 level) or permission of the instructor.
Spring semester, alternate years. Grebowicz. 

ADDITIONAL COURSES

PHL 272Y. INTENSIVE COURSE ABROAD (1+3): POLAND: THE POLITICS OF MEMORY
This course explores the formation of community as a continuous revising, contesting, and institutionalizing of cultural memory. Poland is an especially interesting case today, as it undergoes the process of re-imagining itself as both a nation and, in the face of the rapid growth of the Polish diaspora, a culture. Polish identity formation has historically taken place in relation to the presence of Jews and Roma. Since the collapse of Communist rule there has been a blossoming of discourses around the Poland's  Jewish past, the history of anti-Semitism, the legacy of the Nazi occupation during World War II, and the right-wing xenophobia that has emerged in response to the borders opening since 1989. This course investigates the ways in which Poles today are engaged in the process of reforging Polish identity and cultural integrity through a complicated retrieval of the past.  Students will examine how identity is shaped by cultural artifacts like monuments, museums, literature, and film, in order to map relationships between discourses concerning memory and those concerning democracy, globalization, human rights, distributive justice, capitalism, tolerance, and genocide. The course consists of a seven week preparatory course on Goucher campus and a three week trip to Poland to visit the cities of Warsaw and Kraków, as well as day trips to Zakopane and Museum Auschwitz.  
Spring semester, alternate years. Grebowicz.

PHL 272Y. INTENSIVE COURSE ABROAD (1+3): CHINA: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE 
A seven-week pre-course will familiarize students with basic Mandarin Chinese and contemporary Chinese culture, as well as traveling in Asia (one credit). This is followed by a three-week intensive course in China in the summer (three credits total). Corequisite: PHL 268. 
Spring semester, alternate years. DeCaroli.

PHL 290. INTERNSHIP IN PHILOSOPHY (3-4) 
Placements in business, government, civic organizations, coalitions, and volunteer groups. Each student designs a plan with a member of the department to develop a clear goal and a rigorous method of pursuing it. 
Department. 

PHL 298/398. INDEPENDENT WORK IN PHILOSOPHY (3-4) 
Special topics of study based on previous course work in the department and selected in conference with the instructor.
Department. 

PHL 395. PHILOSOPHICAL TOPICS (3) 
Advanced study in a particular historical period, theme, issue, or thinker in the Western or Eastern philosophical tradition. The field of discussion is delimited differently each time the course is taught. Topics for a given semester are posted before registration. Prerequisite: either a 200-level philosophy course or permission of the instructor.
Variable semesters. Department.