Course studies principles of correct reasoning. Topics include analyzing structure of arguments, evaluating both inductive and deductive arguments, and recognizing common errors in reasoning. Focus is on providing tools to critically evaluate persuasive language encountered in everyday life, in mass media, and in academic texts.
Course studies meaning, value, and moral responsibility in human life. Topics include examination of at least four conflicting theories about what constitutes moral conduct and social justice; application of these theories to individual moral dilemmas and to contemporary social issues such as world hunger or the environmental crisis.
Course investigates moral issues, which arise in the conduct of business, marketing and advertising. Of value for business students and consumers. Topics include corporate responsibility and social justice, conflicts of interest, environmental issues, problems of discrimination, and the rights of employees and consumers.
Course introduces students to the academic study of religion and examines the impacts and relevance of religion in diverse global societies and settings today. Introduces current and formative theoretical approaches and analytical tools from the interdisciplinary field of Religious Studies. Topics include various prominent theories of religion, religious rituals and practices, religious myths and narratives, religion in relation to other social formations, and religious approaches to human problems.
Course introduces history and current patterns of religious diversity in the United States by surveying a broad range of religious traditions and communities. Focus is on analysis of intersections of religion, race, and ethnicity in the United States through case studies of broad ethnic groups, including: African Americans, Asian Americans, Latino/a Americans, and Native Americans. Topics include First Amendment rights and religious freedom, religion and politics in the U.S., American ‘civil religion’, new religious movements, immigrant and transnational religious movements.
Course studies questions at the core of social and political thought in ancient, modern, and contemporary philosophy. Content includes philosophical views of justice, freedom, and power through a study of the work of key figures such as Confucius, Xunzi, Plato, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Marx, Mill, Beauvoir, Gandhi, King, Fanon, Arendt, Nkrumah, Foucault, Davis, and Mills. Course may also focus on contemporary social and political issues involving topics such as economic inequality, civil rights, animal rights, immigration, and climate change.
Course provides a philosophical analysis of fundamental concepts in science. Focus is on the scientific method, the nature of scientific claims, inductive generalization, statistical probability and the history and development of science.
Course uses ethical theories to investigate moral problems in medicine and health care delivery. Of value to both health care professionals and humanities students. Topics include patients’ rights, professional obligations of physicians and nurses, euthanasia, genetics and reproduction, experimentation on human subjects, and the right to health care.
Course studies meaning, value, and moral responsibility in relationshio to the environment. Topics include examination of at least four conflicting theories about what constitutes an adequate environmental ethic, and the application of these theories to environmental issues such as climate change, environmental racism, and wilderness preservation.
Course uses global perspective to introduce philosophies, traditions, and histories of major world religions. Topics include at least six of the following religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Confucianism, Daoism, and Shinto, the indigenous religions of North America, Africa, or pre-Christian Europe.
Course introduces selected philosophical themes from historical and contemporary sources based in one or more of the following broad traditions: Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Islamic, Jewish, Southeast Asian.
Course gives historical overview of philosophical inquiry from pre-Socratic philosophers, through classic works of Plato and Aristotle, and on to works of medieval philosophers such as Avicenna, Averroes, Maimonides, and Aquinas.
Course examines last 350 years of Western philosophy. Topics include works of at least five major philosophers such as Hume, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, James, Sartre, Rawls, Foucault, De Beauvoir, and Habermas. Content includes philosophical ideas about the nature of reality, knowledge, morality, and social justice.
Course critically examines various aspects of religious experience and related theological concepts and theories. Topics include relationship between myth and religion; structure and meaning of worship; arguments for and against God’s existence, and relevance of modern science to religious belief.
Course studies one or more of foundational documents of world’s major religions, from humanistic viewpoint. Documents studies may include the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, Qur’an (Koran), or the Vedas. Course can be repeated once.
Course explores selected topics in philosophy. Topics included vary, with focus on a single philosopher, group of philosophers, or particular philosophical problem. Course may be repeated up to three times for up to nine credits. Fee Varies. Prerequisite may vary by topic.