Fall 2024 Introductory Courses
PHIL 100. Introduction to Philosophy (3).
General education humanities course. Provides an introduction to philosophy and an opportunity for students to dive into the deepest questions of life. What is the purpose of life? Can two people disagree and both be correct? Is beauty only in the eye of the beholder? What is science, anyway? Are people obligated to obey the law? What makes someone the same person over time? Students explore a variety of philosophical questions to develop their communication and argumentation skills through discussion, analytic reading, academic writing and other assignments. This is a Kansas Systemwide Transfer Course.
- IN PERSON. Monday/Wednesday, 11:00am-12:15pm. Brian Hepburn. CRN 16844.
- IN PERSON. Monday/Wednesday/Friday, 9:30am-10:20am. Xiufen Lu. CRN 17393. WEST CAMPUS
PHIL 105. Critical Reasoning (3).
General education humanities course. Helps students become better at reasoning. Focuses on different patterns of reasoning common in college-level studies and in everyday life. Some patterns are treated in concrete and content-specific ways, and others are treated in highly abstract ways. Students also learn to be critical by different kinds of standards. For example, students learn about how much precision to demand when reasoning about different kinds of topics, and how to evaluate considerations in terms of relevance. Ultimately, students learn how to strengthen their own capacities for reasoning and how to recognize and correct errors in their own thinking and in other people's reasoning. This is a Kansas Systemwide Transfer Course.
- IN PERSON. Tuesday/Thursday, 12:30pm-1:45pm. TBD. CRN 13176.
PHIL 125. Introductory Logic (3).
General education humanities course. Introduces students to the use of formal logic as a tool for understanding and evaluating patterns of reasoning. Focuses on deductive validity, logical equivalence and proving soundness. The formal systems introduced in this course are topic-neutral—i.e., they apply to patterns of reasoning on any topic. These formal systems are particularly useful for future studies in areas such as computer science, law, engineering and philosophy.
- IN PERSON. Tuesday/Thursday, 9:30am-10:45am. Angela Sager. CRN: 16348.
- IN PERSON. Tuesday/Thursday, 12:30pm-1:45pm. Brian Hepburn. CRN: 13187.
- IN PERSON. Tuesday/Thursday, 2:00pm-3:15pm. Brian Hepburn. CRN: 16347.
Fall 2024 First Year Seminars
FYPL 102A FYS: Law (3).
General education humanities course. A first-year seminar on law in which students take a broad interdisciplinary approach to U.S. law. Domains of law such as constitutional law, tort law and criminal law are introduced. Covers legal procedures, argumentation and reasoning. Cases and current events are used to illustrate basic concepts and raise philosophical issues. International law and comparison with other legal systems may be used to provide context and perspective. First-Year Seminars do not meet a divisional requirement in the pre-Fall 2024 WSU General Education program, and can only be used in Bucket 7 for General Education starting Fall 2024. Course includes diversity content.
- IN PERSON. Tuesday/Thursday, 11:00am-12:15pm. Jeffrey Hershfield. CRN: 14987.
FYPL 102B FYS: Critical Reasoning About Weird Things (3)
General education humanities course. A first year seminar on critical reasoning, in which students focus on learning and practicing the tools required to understand and critically evaluate weird and extraordinary claims. Students work on understanding how arguments work, how to reconstruct them, and how to critically reason about both everyday arguments and arguments about unusual or extraordinary topics, such as pseudoscientific claims about the paranormal, miracle drugs and conspiracy theories. First-Year Seminars do not meet a divisional requirement in the pre-Fall 2024 WSU General Education program, and can only be used in Bucket 7 for General Education starting Fall 2024.
- IN PERSON. Monday/Wednesday, 12:30pm-1:45pm. Patrick Bondy. CRN: 15436.
Fall 2024 Upper Division Courses
PHIL 302 Values and the Modern World (3).
General education humanities course. Examines the philosophical pressures on values wrought by rapid modern cultural and technological change. Explores the relations between social values and social institutions, provides a framework for critically and objectively thinking about moral values, and considers various standards proposed for resolving moral dilemmas. Course includes diversity content.
- IN PERSON. Monday/Wednesday. 12:30pm-1:45pm. TBD. CRN: 14570.
PHIL 306 Business Ethics (3).
General education humanities course. A critical examination of representative moral issues that arise in the context of business. Focuses on topics such as the nature of professionalism, the social responsibility of business, regulation, employee rights and obligations, sexual harassment, economic justice, environmental impact, the limits of property rights, and conflicting international mores and practices. Course includes diversity content. Prerequisite(s): PHIL 105 with a grade of C or better.
- ONLINE Asynchronous. Anastasia Pine. CRN: 13180.
PHIL 312. Contemporary Philosophy of Law (3).
General education humanities course. When should the Supreme Court decline to hear a publicly significant case? On what grounds could a judge decide a case isn’t clearly covered by any extant law, or is covered by too many conflicting laws? What do people mean when they say our laws are systemically racist? Through the course, engage in argument and analysis of endemic and emerging questions like these in jurisprudence and specific domains of law, with some guidance from current events.
This course partially replaces PHIL 311. Department permission is required for students who have taken PHIL 311 to enroll in PHIL 312. Course includes diversity content. *Counts towards Pre-Law Concentration in Philosophy.
- IN PERSON. Monday/Wednesday, 2:00pm-3:15pm. Susan Sterrett. CRN: 16845.
PHIL 320. Philosophy of Science (3).
General education humanities course. Studies the methods, goals and world views of the sciences with attention to such topics as the structure and evaluation of scientific theories, the nature of explanation, the dynamics of scientific revolutions, and the impact of science on human society and values.
- IN PERSON. Tuesday/Thursday, 2:00pm-3:15pm. Susan Sterrett. CRN: 14311.
PHIL 322. Early Modern Philosophy (3).
General education humanities course. Studies philosophical thought in the period from the Renaissance through the 17th century with selections from philosophers such as Pico, Vico, Galileo, Cusanus, Telesio, Erasmus, More, Hobbes, Bacon, Machiavelli, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Malebranche and Locke..
- IN PERSON. Tuesday/Thursday, 11:00am-12:15pm. Brian Hepburn. CRN: 14989.
PHIL 327. Bioethics (3).
General education humanities course. Examines ethical issues related to health care such as truth-telling to patients, confidentiality, euthanasia, abortion, prenatal obligations and distribution of health care. Course includes diversity content.
- ONLINE Asynchronous. Jeremy Gallegos. CRN: 13182.
- IN PERSON. Tuesday/Thursday, 11:00am-12:15pm. Angela Sager. CRN: 13181.
- IN PERSON. Monday/Wednesday, 11:00am-12:15pm. Angela Sager. CRN: 14585
- IN PERSON. Monday/Wednesday, 2:00pm-3:15pm. Angela Sager. CRN: 14913.
PHIL 336. Metaphysics (3).
An exploration of some basic topics in the theory of reality. Includes such notions as space, time, substance, causality, particulars, universals, appearance, essence, being, persons and free will.
- IN PERSON. Tuesday/Thursday, 9:30am-10:45am. Patrick Bondy. CRN: 17182.
PHIL 350. Ancient Chinese Philosophy (3).
A survey of Chinese philosophy during the pre-Han period, roughly 500-200 B.C.E. Includes major figures Confucius, Mencius, Mo-Tzu, Hsun-Tzu, Chuang-Tzu, Lao-Tzu and Han-Fei-Tzu. Includes the major positions of Confucianism, Mohism, Legalism, Taoism and Dialecticalism.
- IN PERSON. Tuesday/Thursday, 12:30pm-1:45pm. Xiufen Lu. CRN: 16846.
PHIL 354. Ethics and Computers (3).
General education humanities course. Ethics with application to the ethical issues which may arise from the use of computers, including the moral responsibility of computer professionals for the effect their work has on persons and society; the moral obligations of a computer professional to clients, employer and society; the conceptual and ethical issues surrounding the control and ownership of software; and the justifiability of regulation of the design, use and marketing of computer technology. Course includes diversity content. Prerequisite(s): junior standing or departmental consent..
- IN PERSON. Tuesday/Thursday. 12:30pm-1:45pm. TBD. CRN: 14573.
- IN PERSON. Monday/Wednesday. 9:30am-10:45am. Susan Castro. CRN: 15524.
PHIL 360. Ethical Theory (3).
General education humanities course. Studies selected topics in ethics. Investigates issues such as the meaning and justification of moral judgments, the nature of morality, the relations between normative categories and the concept of justice, and the problem of revolution in moral schemes. Prerequisite(s): one course in philosophy..
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- IN PERSON. Monday/Wednesday. 11:00am-12:15pm. Susan Castro. CRN: 22767.
PHIL 385. Engineering Ethics (3).
General education humanities course. Examines representative ethical issues that arise in engineering. Topics include: professional responsibility and integrity, whistle-blowing, conflict of interest, ethical issues in engineering consulting and research, engineering and environmental issues, and engineering in a global context. Course includes diversity content. Prerequisite(s): junior or senior standing.
- ONLINE Asynchronous. TBD. CRN: 16848.
- IN PERSON. Tuesday/Thursday, 2:00pm-3:15pm. TBD. CRN: 16346.
- IN PERSON. Monday/Wednesday, 11:00am-12:15pm. TBD. CRN: 13188.
- IN PERSON. Monday/Wednesday, 12:30pm-1:45pm. TBD. CRN: 13697.
PHIL 386. Biomedical Engineering Ethics (3).
Biomedical engineering is changing extremely rapidly, with the incorporation of new technologies from material science, computer software, nano engineering and robotics, among others. Each of these emerging areas presents new questions in ethics, raising new questions concerning human subjects protections, autonomy, acceptable risks and more. The regulatory framework for evaluation and approval of these technologies is largely grounded in our current understanding of these ethical issues, thus it too is evolving. This course examines these areas and the questions they pose, and develops an ethical framework for evaluation of these issues. Cases illustrating the ethical issues are integrated into the course material. Course includes diversity content.
- IN PERSON. Tuesday/Thursday, 12:30pm-1:45pm. Susan Castro. CRN: 16849.
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