2019-2020 Undergraduate Catalog [Archived Catalog]
Philosophy
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Jean Chambers, Chair
212A Marano Campus Center
315-312-2249
www.oswego.edu/philosophy
Directory of Professors
Philosophy is an excellent subject as a major for students with many different sorts of career plans.
The study of philosophy develops our ability to make sense of our lives, our surroundings and ourselves by immersing us in the most basic and exciting questions that human beings confront: What things are really important? What sort of society should we have? What is the difference between right and wrong? What is the difference between sound judgments and foolish opinions? What is the purpose of human life? What things are most real?
A major in philosophy is an excellent selection for students interested in many sorts of careers including law, religion, politics and counseling. Some of our recent graduates in philosophy are now successful lawyers. Others are enrolled in Law schools and Divinity schools. Many kinds of graduate degree programs are highly receptive to applicants with undergraduate degrees in philosophy. Examples of such graduate programs are: business, economics psychology, social work, counseling, journalism, and public administration.
Specific courses in philosophy will also strengthen the education of those majoring in natural sciences, social sciences, mathematics, history, literature, art and computer science. If a student takes a number of philosophy courses to satisfy General Education requirements, taking only a few more philosophy courses will result in one’s having achieved a major in philosophy. This means that philosophy makes an ideal second major, and a readily achievable minor.
A major in philosophy, or a strong background in philosophy, can help develop character and personal skills that are extremely important in most job situations. To be able to speak and write clearly, present logical arguments, spot confusion and nonsense, imagine diverse possibilities, defend your views, and appreciate alternative points of view – all of these are capacities of direct importance to a person’s employability, job security, advancement and to a satisfying life.
The Department of Philosophy cosponsors these programs:
Major
Minor
Philosophy
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PHL 100 - Introduction to Problems of Philosophy
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
A beginning study of a selected number of problems in philosophy such as the nature of reality, freedom versus determinism, the nature of matter, the nature of mind, the mind-body problem, the nature of space and time, the question of how we can know and by what means, the question of the existence of God, the problem of death and the possibility of immortality.
Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
Credit: 3 -
PHL 111 - Valid Reasoning I
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
An introduction to formal techniques for determining the validity of deductive arguments. Students will learn to complete proofs in symbolic propositional logic, and to complete proofs in symbolic quantified logic with sentences having at least one quantifier.
Offered: Fall, Spring
Credit: 3 -
PHL 205 - Ethics I: Introduction to Classical Ethics
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
How should human beings lead their lives? How does Right differ from Wrong? Good from Bad? What is Virtue? In this course we introduce and critically evaluate the attempts of several major Western philosophers to answer these and related questions. The goal is to uncover the strengths and weaknesses of their views in order to help the student to understand better the nature of morality, and to develop the skills and background necessary for independent thought on these matters.
Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
Credit: 3 -
PHL 220 - Theory of Knowledge
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
This course consists of an introductory critical study of the nature and the possibility of knowledge. During the course we will examine differing philosophical views about issues such as: the relationship between opinion, belief and knowledge; the difference between objectivity and subjectivity; and alternative answers to questions such as “Can we know any- thing and, if so, how can we know it?”
Offered: Fall, Spring
Credit: 3 -
PHL 235 - History of Ancient Philosophy
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
This course is designed to provide a student with broad familiarity with the most important figures in Ancient Western philosophy. Some themes which are found throughout the course are: What is the nature of Reality? What is the nature of Human Beings and how do they fit unto the larger scheme of Things? What Things are of genuine value? How should one live? Concentration is greatest on Plato and Aristotle. Some attention is also given to the philosophers before Socrates, to the Neoplatonists, the Roman Stoics and some early Medieval thinkers.
Offered: Fall, Spring
Credit: 3 -
PHL 236 - History of Modern Philosophy
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
This course covers major developments in European philosophy from the end of the Middle Ages through the Enlightenment. Attention is given to problems concerning the nature of Knowledge and Reality which had emerged near the end of the Middle Ages, were sharpened by the birth of modern science and the Protestant Reformation, and which posed major challenges to long-standing traditional views. Responses to these challenges were made by such major thinkers as Descartes, Locke, and Kant. These responses are studied in this course.
Offered: Fall, Spring
Credit: 3 -
PHL 295 - His Western Sci & Tech
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
A study of the central developments in Western science from the earliest written traditions to Copernicus’ theoretical innovations together with an examination of the mutual influence of theory and technology.
Offered: Not on a regular basis
Credit: 3 -
PHL 300 - Ethics and Policy in the Digital Age
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
In this course, we will explore key ethical theories of Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, and John Stuart Mill, among others, and apply these theories to decisions about individual and social problems confronting electrical engineers, computer engineers, software engineers, and information scientists, thereby satisfying the Humanities and Writing general education requirements.
Prerequisite: ISC 150 or CSC 212; or instructor permission.
Equivalent Course: ISC 300
Offered: Fall and Spring
Credit: 3 -
PHL 305 - Ethics II: Contemporary Ethics
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
This course investigates selected topics in ethics of special interest to contemporary philosophers. For example: How are we to evaluate the morality of abortion, war, reverse discrimination, technological advancement, and our treatment of the environment and future generations? Is moral responsibility possible in a deterministic world? Is universal truth about right and wrong consistent with the observed personal and social relativity of moral belief? How can we improve on the classical accounts of right, wrong and Justice? What, precisely, do “right”, “wrong”, “good”, “bad” and other moral terms mean?
Note: Topics will vary.
Prerequisite: PHL 205 or instructor permission.
Offered: Not on a regular basis
Credit: 3 -
PHL 306 - Business Ethics
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
This course investigates moral dilemmas which arise for business persons, and critically evaluates attempts to resolve these dilemmas. The responsibilities of business and persons in business vis a vis such things as: employee health and welfare, profitability, company loyalty, product safety and reliability, marketing techniques, the environment, and self-regulation will be illustrated and investigated through the examination of real cases which have arisen in business contexts. More general ethical issues relevant to the resolution of these dilemmas will also be investigated, for example, the nature of right, wrong and justice, and the moral foundations of capitalism.
Prerequisite: PHL 205 or instructor permission.
Offered: Fall, Spring
Credit: 3 -
PHL 307 - Philosophy, Public Policy and Public Affairs
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
This course is devoted to a critical examination of issues and assumptions that are pertinent to the understanding of decision making in the case of public policy and affairs. Among the questions that form the foci of the course are questions such as: How should decisions about public policy or affairs be made? Could public policy be rational but unethical? Could ruthlessness be ethical if it is displayed by a public official? Must one blow the whistle on wrong doing? What is a public interest or public good? To what degree are citizens responsible for the decisions of public officials?
Prerequisite: Three hours of philosophy or instructor permission.
Offered: Not on a regular basis
Credit: 3 -
PHL 308 - Medical Ethics
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
In this course, we will discuss some of the philosophical questions encountered with respect to medicine and medical technology. We will examine arguments concerning the ethical dimensions of some of the following issues: (e.g.) reproductive technology, abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide, genetic engineering and the use of genetic information, HIV, AIDS, and the physician-patient relationship, research on human subjects, allocation of medical resources, and medical errors.
Prerequisite: PHL 205 or instructor permission.
Offered: Not on a regular basis
Credit: 3 -
PHL 309 - Logic, Language, and Thought
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
This class explores the limits of reason, and what these limits mean for a range of human endeavors. The class brings together material from the philosophy of logic, the philosophy of language, and the philosophy of mind, focusing upon the historical quest to formally understand the nature of reason. To achieve this goal, the class explores: the dream of a logically perfect language, the nature of infinity, paradoxes, the limits of computation, and difference between determinism and predictability. Once some of the limits of reason have been identified and clarified, students explore a range of practical problems where such limits may have significant real-world implications. The course should be of interest to majors in philosophy, psychology, cognitive science, or to anyone curious about the nature and limits of knowledge.
Prerequisite: PHL 111 OR MAT 215 OR CSC 221 OR CSC 212 OR COG 166 and upper division standing, or instructor permission.
Offered: Spring
Credit: 3 -
PHL 310 - Valid Reasoning II
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
Explores quantified logic with sentences having more than one quantifier; additional and alternative applications of logic, such as set theory or modal logic; and metalogic. Students will be introduced to principles such as axioms systems, completeness, models, and mathematical induction.
Prerequisite: PHL 111 or instructor permission.
Offered: Not on a regular basis
Credit: 3 -
PHL 313 - Philosophy of Language
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
In this course we investigate the nature of natural language and some of its basic concepts. We shall consider questions such as; What is the relation between language and the world it describes? How did that relationship emerge? How is language related to the way we perceive the world? Are humans the only creatures on this planet with language? What criteria could be used to answer these questions?
Prerequisite: Three credits of philosophy or linguistics, or instructor permission.
Offered: Not on a regular basis
Credit: 3 -
PHL 314 - Existentialism
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
This course pursues the idea that the existential account of authentic existence may provide the clues needed for an entirely new, individually centered, existential way of rethinking traditional philosophical problems such as of personal knowledge, ethics and value, the body, feeling, the senses and human sexuality, as well as the theory of ultimate reality.
Prerequisite: PHL 220 OR 236, or instructor permission.
Offered: Not on a regular basis
Credit: 3 -
PHL 317 - Philosophy of Religion
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
An introductory, philosophical examination of the nature of religion and religious belief and such problems as those of religious knowledge, faith versus reason, God, immortality and evil.
Prerequisite: Three hours of philosophy or instructor permission.
Offered: Not on a regular basis
Credit: 3 -
PHL 321 - Philosophy of Science
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
In a scientifically and technologically based culture can one afford to be ignorant of the structure of science? Do the last three centuries of scientific work suggest that science has a unique grip on the way to gain knowledge? What is the rationality of science? This course addresses the need to understand the claims to knowledge that scientists make and examines the structure and function of scientific laws and theories and the way they are related to experiments.
Prerequisite: Upper division standing and one of the following PHL 111 OR 220 OR 236 OR 296, or instructor permission.
Offered: Not on a regular basis
Credit: 3 -
PHL 322 - Philosophy of Social Sciences
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
This course offers a specialized critical study of the concepts, theories, and methodologies of the social sciences. Among the issues to be addressed in the course are the very possibility of a scientific study of human action and the existence of a model of science to which the social sciences have to conform.
Prerequisite: PHL 111 OR 220 OR 236, or instructor permission.
Offered: Not on a regular basis
Credit: 3 -
PHL 323 - Philosophy of Biology
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
Investigates philosophical questions that arise concerning findings and assumptions of modern biology. Topics may include: the nature of life; explaining teleological discourse; implications of different choices for the unit of selection; organism and species identity; and whether evolution has a direction.
Prerequisite: Either PHL 111 and an upper division philosophy course, or PHL 321, or six hours in the biological sciences.
Offered: Not on a regular basis
Credit: 3 -
PHL 337 - History of Recent Philosophy
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
A critical study of Western philosophical thinkers from the mid-nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth. Including movements such as Post-Kantian Idealism, Positivism, Pragmatism, Marxism, Existentialism, Phenomenology, Neorealism, Process Philosophy, and Analytic Philosophy.
Prerequisite: PHL 236 or instructor permission.
Offered: Spring
Credit: 3 -
PHL 348 - Philosophy and Feminism
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
In this course the philosophical underpinnings of feminist theorizing, specifically as they are revealed in feminist critiques of philosophical positions, issues, concepts and theories or their absence, will be critically examined.
Prerequisite: PHL 100 OR PHL 205 OR WST 200, or instructor permission.
Offered: Not on a regular basis
Credit: 3 -
PHL 370 - Metaphysics
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
This course investigates the nature and being of the Self, the Universe and Ultimate Reality. The course will focus on such questions as: What constitutes personal identity? What is the nature of space and time? Is there anything permanent?
Prerequisite: PHL 111 and one of the following: PHL 220 OR 235 OR PHL 236 or instructor permission.
Offered: Not on a regular basis
Credit: 3 -
PHL 442 - Social and Political Philosophy
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
Some conception of society is presupposed by every political philosophy and ethical theory. In this course, basic theories of political philosophy will be examined and alternative conceptions of society and their relations to political philosophy and ethical theory will be critically examined. Special attention will be given to the ideas and theoretical placement of individuality, community, work and family.
Prerequisite: Six hours in philosophy or instructor permission.
Offered: Not on a regular basis
Credit: 3 -
PHL 443 - Philosophy of Law
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
This course is a critical philosophical examination of the nature and function of law, legal practices and institutions, and legal reasoning. Some of the following questions will be addressed in the course: What is law? What is its proper function? How are our own legal practices and institutions related to this function? Are there better alternatives? How is legality related to morality? Special attention will be given to the conceptual and moral foundations of alternative accounts of the nature, justification, interpretation, and limits of law.
Prerequisite: Three hours in philosophy or instructor permission.
Offered: Spring
Credit: 3 -
PHL 450 - Current Topics in Philosophy Seminar
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
An advanced study of a selected topic in contemporary philosophy. Topics will vary from year to year.
Prerequisite: Six hours in philosophy or instructors permission.
Offered: Not on a regular basis
Credit: 3 -
PHL 471 - Philosophy of Mind
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
Without thinking much about it, we rely on some sort of contrast between physical things and mental things. What is the basis of this contrast? Are mental things like believing, hoping, perceiving, and feeling just various sorts of physical things? Or is the contrast so strong that mental things are entirely different in nature from any kinds of physical things or physical events? Or is our habit of relying on a contrast between them simply based on confusion or on worn-out, indefensible assumptions? We address these questions and others in this course.
Prerequisite: PHL 220 Or PHL 236 Or COG 166, or instructor permission.
Offered: Spring
Credit: 3 -
PHL 496 - Joint Seminar in Philosophy-Psychology
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
Conceptual and epistemological problems associated with the nature of psychology, such as the following: the scientific status of certain psychological theories, e.g., the Freudian theory of personality; the issue of mind versus brain; the reduction of psychological concepts to those of physics; parapsychology.
Prerequisite: Twelve hours of philosophy or instructor permission.
Offered: Not on a regular basis
Credit: 3 -
PHL 497 - Capstone Seminar in Philosophy
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
The capstone is a culminating experience for philosophy majors. One of the seminar’s main components is the completion of a student learning portfolio. The examples of written work in the portfolio will be used as one source of evidence for assessing learning outcomes in the philosophy major. It will provide important indicators of students’ progress toward mastering the main concepts and skills of philosophy.
Prerequisite: Eighteen hours of philosophy or instructor permission.
Offered: Fall.
Credit: 3 -
PHL 499 - Independent Study
2019-2020 Catalog Year:
Advanced study of selected topics.
Prerequisite: Three hours of philosophy and instructor permission.
Offered: Not on a regular basis
Credit: 3
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