Summer 2021 Courses
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.
| CRN | Professor | Format | Additional Information |
| 31242 | James Schwartz | Online | |
| 31767 | James Schwartz | Online |
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.
| CRN | Professor | Format | Additional Information |
| 31243 | Anastasia Pine | ONLINE | |
| 31614 | Anastasia Pine | ONLINE |
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.
| CRN | Professor | Format | Additional Information |
| 31244 | Jeremy Gallegos | ONLINE |
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.
| CRN | Professor | Format | Additional Information |
| 31617 | Brian Hepburn | ONLINE | |
| 31706 | Jason Matteson | ONLINE |
Fall 2021 Introductory Courses
PHIL 100. Meaning of Philosophy (3).
General education humanities course. Exploration of the meaning of philosophic activity through an examination of several basic interpretations of the distinguishing intentions, characteristic procedures and essential functions of the philosophic endeavor. Introduces some of the fundamental problems and possible values of philosophy. Develops a broad understanding of the meaning of philosophy as a diverse and self-critical historical enterprise.
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.
PHIL 125. Introductory Logic (3).
General education humanities course. Deals with the uses of logical concepts and techniques to evaluate and criticize reasoning. Studies some elementary systems of formal logic. Arguments evaluated are drawn from such diverse fields as law, science, politics, religion and advertising.
| CRN | Professor | Format | Additional Information |
| 14226 | Robert Feleppa | HYBRID | |
| 14241 | Robert Feleppa | HYBRID |
PHIL 144. Moral Issues (3).
General education humanities course. Introduction to philosophical thought about ethics. Discusses a number of contemporary moral issues and considers various philosophical approaches to their solutions. Course includes diversity content.
Fall 2021 First Year Seminars
WSUA 102S. On Humor (3).
General education humanities course. Seminar on humor which takes a broad interdisciplinary approach to humor. Along the way, participants philosophize all the funny out of humor, muck into the politics of the absurd and get down to some funny business. Is humor quintessentially human? Is someone's bank balance a joke? Does laughing at fart jokes demonstrate poor character? The course asks all these questions and more, but answers none! Warning: the professor is not funny. Side effects are typically mild to moderate. Course includes diversity content.
| CRN | Professor | Format | Additional Information |
| 16790 | Susan Castro | HYBRID: 50-75% in person (Main Campus) | |
| 16968 | Susan Castro | HYBRID: 50-75% in person (Main Campus) |
Fall 2021 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.
| CRN | Professor | Format | Additional Information |
| 16844 | Robert Feleppa | HYBRID |
|
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.
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.
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.
PHIL 345. Philosophy of Sex and Love (3).
Examines the ethical, metaphysical and conceptual dimensions of sex and love. Includes the nature of sex, sexual perversion, homosexuality, pornography, sadomasochism, the nature and varieties of love, the features of love, and the relationship between love and sex. Uses selections from writings of both historical and recent authors.
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.
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.
PHIL 421. Philosophy of Mind (3).
Critically examines recent developments in the philosophy of the mind. Possible topics include the nature of consciousness, mental representation, the mind-body problem, mental causation, psychological explanation, and the computational theory of mind.
PHIL 530. Ethics of Space Exploration (3).
General education humanities course. Surveys various philosophical and ethical questions raised by the exploration of the space environment and in space policy discussions. Topics may include rationales for space exploration, space resource exploitation, and space settlement; planetary protection and preservation of the space environment; duties to extraterrestrial microbial life; and regulation and policy for space exploration. Prerequisite(s): at least one course in philosophy.
Next steps