Locke, Berkeley and Hume manifested an approach to philosophy that emphasized sense experience and the development of all knowledge from it. This course explores this tradition and its impact on our current world view.Course credit exclusions: AP/PHIL 2025 3.00 (prior to Fall 2010), GL/PHIL 2620 6.00.PRIOR TO FALL 2009: Course credit exclusions: AK/AS/PHIL 2025 3.00.
The works of Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz are crucial building blocks of our contemporary understanding of the world. This course examines their work.Course credit exclusions: AP/PHIL 2020 3.00 (prior to Fall 2010), GL/PHIL 2620 6.00.PRIOR TO FALL 2009: Course credit exclusion: AS/PHIL 2020 3.00.
An examination of some of the most influential and enduringly relevant works of Plato and Aristotle, the two great pillars of western philosophy, demonstrating how all modern philosophy has its roots in their corpus.Course credit exclusion: GL/PHIL 2630 6.00.PRIOR TO FALL 2009: Course credit exclusion: AS/PHIL 2015 3.00.
An examination of the origin and early development of western philosophy. The works of the first philosophers, the Presocratic, will be introduced and contextualized, providing an indispensable background to Plato and Aristotle, and the continuing development of philosophy.Course credit exclusions: GL/PHIL 2630 6.00.PRIOR TO FALL 2009: Course credit exclusions: AK/AS/PHIL 2010 3.00.
An exploration of a number of fundamental practical philosophical questions, including: What is the meaning of (my) life? What is happiness, and how can I achieve it? What is wisdom? What is death, and what does it mean to me?Course credit exclusions: None. PRIOR TO FALL 2009: Course credit exclusions: AK/AS/PHIL 1100 3.00.
An introduction to the development of philosophical thinking about law, justice and punishment, from its origins in classical Greek, Hebrew and Roman thought, up to common law and civil law, and such modern theories as Mill's, Rousseau's, Burke's, Hegel's and Marx's.Course credit exclusions: None. PRIOR TO FALL 2009: Course credit exclusion: AK/PHIL 1002 6.00.
This course is an introduction to philosophy focusing on issues in metaphysics and epistemology. The approach can be either historical or contemporary (or both), but will emphasize diverse philosophical perspectives and have a comparative focus. Basic concepts to be introduced include knowledge and belief, skepticism and dogmatism, relativism and absolutism, and subjectivity and objectivity. The […]
A full year introduction to the basic issues and classic writers in the Western philosophical tradition. Areas such as ethics, metaphysics, theory of knowledge and logic will be surveyed by examining the writings of philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Descartes and Hume, as well as more modern writers.Course credit exclusion: GL/PHIL 1410 3.00, GL/PHIL 1420 […]