Philosophy 101, Introduction to Philosophy: Human Nature, Morality, and Meaning (HU)
LEC 402, MW 9:00 – 9:50, ENG 105
LEC 403, MW 11:00 – 11:50, LUB N146
Instructor: Michelle Mahlik, mmahlik@uwm.edu
Enrollment in one of the large lectures (402/403) requires enrollment in a discussion section.
This course is a topic-based introduction to three areas of philosophical study into the nature of the human experience: theories of human nature, the foundations of morality, and the problem of finding meaning in life.
We will discuss the work of both classical and contemporary thinkers as they grapple with the great questions of human existence: What does it mean to be a human being? Are we selfish or altruistic by nature? Are there reliable methods to determine our moral actions? Can there be meaning in human life, or is “meaning” simply a comforting illusion that we’ve created?
The main objectives of this course:
- To familiarize the student with major philosophical problems and the methods of dealing with them.
- To foster intellectual curiosity about the human experience.
- To learn to read philosophical texts and ENJOY IT!
This is an introductory course and no prior experience in philosophy is required.
Philosophy 101, Introduction to Philosophy: Selected Topics and Issues (HU)
LEC 001, W 6:00 – 8:40, CRT 109
Instructor: Henry Argetsinger, argetsi2@uwm.edu
We will look at a representative selection of topics from the history of philosophy and current philosophical debates: ethics, social and political philosophy, the scope and nature of our knowledge of the world, the nature of the self and mind.
Philosophy 111, Informal Logic: Critical Reasoning (HU)
LEC 001, MW 11:00 – 12:15, CRT 309
LEC 002, MW 8:00 – 9:15am, BOL 281
LEC 203, Online Web
Instructor: Matthew Knachel, knachel@uwm.edu
There’s an ancient view, still widely held, that what makes human beings special—what distinguishes us from the “beasts of the field”—is that we are rational. What does rationality consist in? That’s a vexed question, but one possible response goes roughly like this: we manifest our rationality by engaging in certain activities, chief among them the activity of making claims and backing them up with reasons—that is, constructing arguments.
This reasoning activity can be done well and it can be done badly—it can be done correctly or incorrectly. Logic is the discipline that aims to distinguish good reasoning from bad.
Since reasoning is central to all fields of study—indeed, since it’s arguably central to being human—the tools developed in logic are universally applicable. Anyone can benefit from studying logic by becoming a more self-aware, skillful reasoner.
It is possible to approach the study of logic more or less formally. A more formal approach abstracts from natural language and develops sophisticated artificial symbol-languages within which it’s possible precisely to identify the logically relevant features of arguments. This approach has many virtues, but it is only one among many, and it focuses on only one kind of argument (deductive). In this class, we explore a diverse collection of methods and principles for evaluating many different kinds of arguments. We take a very brief look at the formal techniques mentioned above, but spend most of our time studying arguments presented in natural language, as they occur in everyday reasoning.
Philosophy 204, Introduction to Asian Religions (HU)
LEC 201, ONLINE
Instructor: Michelle Mahlik, mmahlik@uwm.edu
Have you ever wondered how people from another part of the world respond to the most basic questions of human life? What is the nature of reality? Are all things interconnected? What is the nature of the human “self”? Does anything transcend the material world? What does it mean to be “enlightened”? What is the purpose of meditation? Join us to explore the religious and philosophical traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism as they are expressed in both South Asia and China!
This is an introductory course and no previous experience in philosophy is required.
Philosophy 207, Religion and Science (HU)
LEC 001, TR 12:30 – 1:45, EMS E237
Instructor: Margaret Atherton, atherton@uwm.edu
Is it “Science AND Religion” or “Science OR Religion?” The juxtaposition of the two terms, ‘science’, ‘religion’ has often assumed an implacable conflict. But why should these two central areas of human endeavor be taken to be incompatible or to be enemies of one another? What does a closer scrutiny reveal about the relations between the two? Are there further issues that cloud and confuse these debates? What do the terms, ‘science’ and ‘religion’ describe, anyway? Do discussions of the relations between them do justice to the diversity of practices and institutions included under the rubrics of science and religion? In order to examine such questions, we will undertake a series of case studies into some notorious episodes in the history of science and religion, the trial of Galileo, the role of religion in the Scientific Revolution, the appearance of Darwin’s The Origin of Species, the Scopes trial, and the recent debates about Intelligent Design. We will also explore the emotive underpinnings of such episodes in works of fiction, as Brecht’s Galileo and the movie, Inherit the Wind.
Philosophy 211, Elementary Logic (HU, QLB)
LEC 403, MW 10:00 – 10:50, CRT 175
LEC 404, MW 1:00 – 1:50, SAB G90
Instructor: Richard Tierney, rtierney@uwm.edu
Enrollment in one of the large lectures (LEC 403/404) requires enrollment in a discussion section.
- LEC 001, T 6:00-8:40, CRT 209
Instructor: Paul Adamski, padamski@uwm.eduLEC 202, ONLINE
Instructor: Matthew Knachel, knachel@uwm.edu
Humans are reasoning animals, and logic is the study of the rules and principles of correct reasoning. It’s a skill. It is probably the most important skill you will ever develop, both for your college career, and for your everyday life. It teaches you how to analyze concepts, ideas, arguments, and break them down into their simplest components. You are then in a position to recognize the relationships between those components, to see how they are connected together (or not), and thereby to understand how and why one thing follows from another. At the same time, it teaches you how to construct ‘paths of reasoning’, how to get from one idea to another, how, for example, to determine what is the best course of action in a particular situation.
Apart from its application in virtually every field of study, the study of logic will help you develop your analytical skills, your writing skills, your communication skills, and your day to day reasoning. You’ll become a better thinker, and a better reasoner (a better human?). You may not be aware that you are doing so, but you’ll use it every day, for the rest of your life. You’re using it now.
Philosophy 211 satisfies General Education Humanities and QLB requirements. The course also satisfies the L&S Formal Reasoning Requirement for the B.A. degree.
Philosophy 212, Modern Deductive Logic (HU)
LEC 001, TR 2:00 – 3:15, CRT 209
Instructor: Stephen Leeds, sleeds@uwm.edu
Prereq: grade C or better in Philos 211 (P)
Taught with Philos 712-001.
Formal logic, at the level taught in this class, is a central tool in present day philosophy. This is in part because writing out arguments in symbolic logic notation helps to make them clearer; even more, however, it is because the language of symbolic logic is both simple enough that we understand how it works, and complex enough to shed light on the symbolic systems that really interest us – particularly, English, and the language of mathematics. The goal of the class is to bring you up to the point where, given a valid argument (one where the conclusion follows from the premisses), you will be able to translate the argument into logic, and show that it is valid. You will also be learning a few deep theorems about logic, first proved about 80 years ago: that if an argument is valid, we can use logic to show it is, and that there is no general method by which we can pick out the valid from the invalid arguments. (You will also be learning why, despite first appearances, these two theorems don’t contradict one another).
Philosophy 232, Topics in Philosophy: Happiness (HU)
LEC 201, ONLINE
Instructor: Miren Boehm, boehmm@uwm.edu
Retakable w/chg in topic to 6 cr max.
We study this fascinating issue primarily from the point of view of western philosophy and psychology. But we will also explore the question from the perspective of eastern philosophy, literature, and film. What is happiness and why is it so difficult to attain? Is happiness just a feeling? Does meditation promote happiness? What, if anything, is the role of religion in achieving happiness? Is there an essential relation between happiness and morality? Can bad guys be happy? What is the relation between happiness and meaning? Can someone enjoy a meaningful life without begin happy? Is happiness the highest good?
Philosophy 237, Technology, Values, and Society (HU)
LEC 001, TR 11:00 – 12:15, CRT 109
Instructor: Elizabeth Silverstein, silvers2@uwm.edu
Technology has an impact on nearly every aspect of our lives. We live with laptops, cell phones, and tablets that connect us instantly and constantly to people all around the world and masses of information. At the same time this unprecedented access to people and information can alienate us from our immediate surroundings as we walk through the world with our eyes and fingers glued to our favorite devices. In this course we will start by thinking about how technology changes the way we experience our world. We will focus on the ways technology enhances the human experience, in what ways it alienates us from our selves and our environment, and how it is changing what it means to be a person. The ethical implications of our evolving dependence on technology will be debated and discussed. We will then look at specific moral problems related to technology and its impact on our lives including its effects on privacy and human freedom, the environment, and human health including the potential impact of genetic enhancement and cloning.
Philosophy 241, Introductory Ethics (HU)
LEC 401, MW 11:00 – 11:50, BOL B52
Instructor: Nataliya Palatnik, palatnik@uwm.edu
Enrollment in LEC 401 also requires enrollment in a discussion section.
Most people agree that morality involves standards that should be taken seriously in guiding conduct and assessing our claims against others. Yet various moral philosophers have offered very different accounts of what morality is and why we should care about it. We will study four basic philosophical approaches to morality and consider how they have shaped the history of ethical thought as well as their influence on moral philosophy today. We will first consider ethical rationalism, which takes moral principles to describe an independent order of values fixed in the nature of things, and the ideal-spectator approach, which takes morally wrong actions to be those an impartial sympathetic observer would disapprove of. We will then turn to Immanuel Kant’s moral philosophy, which grounds morality in rational principles which all reasonable agents possess in common in virtue of their status as rational beings, and contractualism, according to which the correct moral principles are those which would be agreed to by all reasonable beings as a basis for their community. We shall see how these basic approaches get reflected in theories of social and economic justice.
Philosophy 243, Moral Problems (HU)
LEC 001: War and Torture, TR 12:30 – 1:45, CRT 109 (1/26-2/28)
LEC 002: Sex and Gender, TR 12:30 – 1:45, CRT 109 (3/02-4/04)
LEC 003: Pornography and Censorship, TR 12:30 – 1:45, CRT 109 (4/06-5/07)
Instructor: Elizabeth Silverstein, silvers2@uwm.edu
Retakable w/chg in topic to 6 cr max.
Note: LEC 001, 002, & 003 are worth one credit each. You do not have to enroll for all three sections.
- 243-001: War and Torture
This five-week course will address moral issues related to war, particularly the use of torture. Questions that will be addressed include: Is war always wrong? Is there such a thing as a “just” war? How should we define torture? Is torture ever justified? Do humans have an inalienable right not to be tortured?243-002: Sex and Gender
This five-week course will examine moral problems related to sexual activity, sexual orientation, gender, and gender identity. Questions that will be addressed include: What is sex? What is sexuality? Why are some sexual encounters and sexual orientations thought to be morally problematic and not others? What is gender? Is gender different than sex? How does gender relate to ethics?243-003: Pornography and Censorship
This five-week course will examine issues related to free speech and censorship primarily through a discussion of pornography. In this course we will discuss issues such as: What is pornography? How is it different from art? Who should make such distinctions? Is the production or consumption of pornography morally wrong? If so, what explains why they are wrong? Even if they are wrong, is this a case in which people may have a right to do wrong? Is it moral for a government to pass laws restricting the production and consumption of pornography?
Philosophy 244, Ethical Issues in Health Care: Contemporary Problems (HU)
LEC 001, R 6:00 – 8:40, CRT 109
LEC 202, Online Web
Instructor: Kristin Tym, tymk@uwm.edu
Retakable w/chg in topic to 6 cr max.
This course will provide a general overview of many of the challenging ethical issues faced in health care delivery today. We will begin the course with an introduction of ethical theories and other approaches to moral decision-making. These theories and approaches will then be applied to ethical problems currently confronting health care providers, patients and their families, and society at large. Issues we will consider include informed consent and confidentiality, futility and withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, euthanasia and assisted suicide, assisted reproduction, genetics, allocation of scarce resources and research ethics.
Philosophy 250, Philosophy of Religion (HU)
LEC 001, TR 9:30 – 10:45, CRT 209
Instructor: William Bristow, bristow@uwm.edu
In this course we bring philosophical reasoning to bear on central questions concerning religious doctrine and faith. Some major questions we will address in this course are: What do (or should) we mean by “God”? Can the proposition that God exists be proved on the basis of unaided reason? Or does reason in fact support atheism? What is religious faith? Is faith essentially blind, or can it be based on evidence? What is the relation between the practical demands of religious faith and ethical or moral demands? Is the existence of evil compatible with the existence of an all-powerful, benevolent creator God? Is the hypothesis of an after-life reasonable or intelligible? — We engage these and other related questions by studying and discussing texts from major philosophers and religious thinkers in various traditions.
Philosophy 303, Theory of Knowledge
LEC 001, MW 2:00 – 3:15 CRT 181
Instructor: Edward Hinchman, hinchman@uwm.edu
Prereq: jr st; Philos 101(P), 201(P), or 215(P).
This course covers some interrelated issues in modern and contemporary epistemology. We’ll read some works, most of them written recently, that set or develop the framework for current work in the field. Our special focus will be on perceptual knowledge, conceptual knowledge, skepticism, self-knowledge, epistemic responsibility, epistemic constraints on belief, and the dialectic between epistemic autonomy and sociality.
Philosophy 317, Metaphysics
LEC 001, MW 12:30 – 1:45, BOL B60
Instructor: Joshua Spencer, spence48@uwm.edu
Prereq: jr st; & 3 cr in philos.
Metaphysics is the study of the fundamental nature of reality (or something like that). In this class, I propose that we learn what metaphysics is by doing metaphysics. We’ll seek answers to some of the following questions: What is it for something to exist? What is space? What is time? What is possibility? And what are they all like? What is causation and what are the laws of nature? How, exactly, do we fit into the world? Are we just another body governed by the laws of nature and if so do we ever act freely? We’ll explore answers to these questions by reading and discussing recent work in metaphysics.
Philosophy 341, Modern Ethical Theories
LEC 001 MW 11:00 – 12:15 CRT 607
Instructor: Stan Husi, husi@uwm.edu
Prereq: jr st, 3 cr philos.
In this survey course of contemporary ethical theory, we are going to investigate the nature of ethics, what exactly it demands and values and why, what objective status it enjoys (or does not enjoy), whether and how we could come to acquire ethical knowledge, whether and why we should care about being ethical, what relation ethics bears to religion, and its connection to moral responsibility. We are discussing the major ethical traditions such as consequentialism, the view that the one and only criterion for the moral assessment of actions is the quality of their consequences; deontology, the view that some actions, such as the keeping or breaking of promises, may be right or wrong irrespective of their consequences; contractarianism, the view that moral rules are based on actual or hypothetical agreements regulating basic social arrangements; and virtue ethics, the view that character is key for understanding ethics. In the second half of the course, we are going to look at some especially nasty characters, such as cheaters, persons lacking empathy (psychopaths), persons with an entrenched sense of entitlement (Aaron James recent Theory of “Assholes”), and unrepentant war criminals (reading Hannah Arendt’s ‘Eichmann in Jerusalem’). The guiding methodology is to gain insight into morality by coming to terms with its most persistent offenders. We are going to read Russ Shafer-Landau’s wonderfully clear introduction “The Fundamentals of Ethics” together with a sample from the recent literature in ethical theory.
Philosophy 432, History of Modern Philosophy
LEC 001, TR 9:30 – 10:45, CUN 107
Instructor: Margaret Atherton, atherton@uwm.edu
Prereq: jr st & 3cr in philos.
The philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries in Western Europe put a highly characteristic stamp on philosophical thought, one that is still influential today. The period, characterized as “Modern” because it ushered in a new approach to knowledge, particularly knowledge of the natural world, but also a knowledge of human nature. Philosophers of this period, starting with Descartes, struggled to find an understanding of the makeup of the natural world and of the way in which we can know this natural world while simultaneously struggling to find the place of religion within these new developments. The period is also called the Age of Enlightenment, reflecting widespread confidence in human ability to understand the natural order and human nature within that order. We will follow the leading philosophers of this period as they develop various and unique accounts of what there is, how we know it, and what we are like as knowers, tracing the implications of their respect for science, their increasing curiosity about the nature of the human mind and their struggles to understand the relationship between science and religion. We will hope to understand the work of these philosophers both as foundational to the development of the sciences of their time and as providing the framework within which we continue to address their issues. We will be reading selections from leading philosophers of this time, including Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley and Hume, but because this was also a period in which philosophy was carried out by many people in many different venues, we will also be reading brief excepts from some of the little known women philosophers of the period.
Philosophy 532, Philosophical Problems: Pragmatism
LEC 001, TR 5:00 – 6:15, CRT 607
Instructor: Robert Schwartz, schwartz@uwm.edu
Prereq: jr st & 3cr in philos. Retakable w/chg in topic to 9 cr max.
Recently there has been a resurgence of interest in Pragmatism, not only in philosophy, but also in political science, sociology, cultural studies, and many other areas of intellectual pursuit. This seminar will examine main themes, problems, and trends in Pragmatism. It will start focusing on the writings of Peirce, James, and Dewey. The implications of their ideas to current controversies concerning truth, knowledge, relativism, and inquiry will be explored. Throughout the seminar, questions will also be raised about the need to rethink the goals and methods of philosophy, ending with challenges to assumptions underlying some major issues in meta-ethics.
Philosophy 532, Philosophical Problems: Essence, Existence, and Modality
LEC 002, W 3:30 – 6:10, CRT 607
Instructor: Joshua Spencer, spence48@uwm.edu
Prereq: jr st & 3cr in philos. Retakable w/chg in topic to 9 cr max.
We exist. But we might not have. What is it that grounds whether or not we exist? More broadly, what is it that grounds the various possible conditions under which we would or would not exist? On one view, our essence grounds both whether or not we exist and the broader possible conditions under which we would or would not exist. But, during the last century or so, this view was overturned in favor of a new paradigm under which existence was taken as primary and essence understood as a less interesting by-product of our existence. On this new paradigm, there is nothing that grounds whether or not we exist. But facts about our existence, or the manner of our existence, ground facts about the conditions under which we would or would not exist. These facts, in turn, ground our essence. In this class, we will explore the recent shift that occurred in philosophical thinking about essence, existence, and modality. We will also explore the competing positions themselves to see which paradigm is stronger.
Philosophy 562, Special Topics in Ethics and Social and Political Philosophy: Social Norms, Social Practices, and Morality
LEC 001, MW 2:00 – 3:15, CRT 607
Instructor: Stan Husi, husi@uwm.edu
Prereq: jr st, 3 cr in philos. Retakable w/chg in topic to 9 cr max.
The last couple of years have witnessed a resurgence of ethical, and especially metaethical constructivism. Constructivism aspires to provide an account of normative truth without presupposing a realm of robustly stance-independent normative facts. In this regard, constructivism presents itself as a major rival to robust metaethical realism. According to constructivism, normative truths emerge from some practical procedure or evaluative perspective. They are thoroughly stance-dependent. Constructivism also promises to solve a host of traditional metaethical problems, epistemological, practical, semantic, and ontological in nature. After an overview, we are going to concentrate in this course on the social dimensions of constructivism, aiming at a systematic understanding of social norms and practices in particular. The methodological assumption of the course is that a proper reckoning of morality demands a thoroughgoing social account, raising the question of how exactly to make it work. The reading list includes titles such as ‘Explaining Norms’ and ‘The Grammar of Society: The Nature and Dynamics of Social Norms,’ as well as interdisciplinary work from the sociology of morality.
Philosophy 681, Seminar in Advanced Topics: Virtue and Epistemic Value
SEM 001, M 3:30—6:10, CRT 607
Instructor: Edward Hinchman, hinchman@uwm.edu
Prereq: sr st & 12 cr in philos at 300-level or above; or grad st. Retakable w/chg in topic to 9 cr max. Consent required to audit.
Why should we value knowledge over mere true belief? Why, in particular, should we value reliability in believing, over and above the belief’s truth? If ‘reliability’ means truth-conducive reliability then the question appears to have bite: why indeed should you care about the truth value of your belief in nearby but non-actual possible worlds? In this course we’ll investigate an alternative interpretation, cast in terms of an alternative species of reliability. Since one key difference between truth-conducive and this other species of reliability is that only the latter plays a constitutive role in belief formation, the course will focus at some length on what it is to form a belief. We’ll consider how this alternative reliability amounts to a species of self-concern — to concern for one’s own epistemic agency, not merely for truth — and how such self-concern manifests an aretaic capacity or, in the archaic term, a form of virtue.
Though we’ll spend two thirds of the semester on epistemic value and virtue, we’ll also ask how the approach might yield a parallel treatment of practical value and virtue. Why should we value practical wisdom over action that is merely correct (in whatever respect concerns us)? Why should we value reliability in acting, in a given case, over and above the correctness of that particular action? Here too — though the issues engage practical rather than epistemic norms — we’ll ask how we might view virtue as appropriate self-concern.
We’ll read works by, among other authors, Edward Craig, Linda Zagzebski, Ernest Sosa, Jennifer Lackey, Duncan Pritchard, Miranda Fricker, Karen Jones, Rosalind Hursthouse, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Aristotle.
Philosophy 685, Senior Capstone Research Seminar: Hume on Belief and Reason
SEM 001, MW 12:30—1:45, CRT 607
Instructor: Miren Boehm, boehmm@uwm.edu
Prereq: sr st; declared Philos major; or cons instr. Retakable w/chg in topic to 6 cr max. Consent required to audit. Satisfies L&S research requirement.
Undergraduates Only
David Hume’s philosophy has had an enormous impact on western thought. In this class, we look at some of Hume’s most influential discussions and arguments. We study his account of the mind and the nature of our ideas. We examine his arguments concerning the nature of causal reasoning or induction and its justification. We study his attitude toward philosophical skepticism. Finally, we examine his response to arguments concerning the existence of God and his position on the nature and prospects of religious belief. Our main texts will be: Hume’s Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding and his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.
Philosophy 712, Fundamentals of Formal Logic
LEC 001, TR 2:00 – 3:15, CRT 209
Instructor: Stephen Leeds, sleeds@uwm.edu
Prereq: grad st.
Taught with Philos 212-001.
Formal logic, at the level taught in this class, is a central tool in present day philosophy. This is in part because writing out arguments in symbolic logic notation helps to make them clearer; even more, however, it is because the language of symbolic logic is both simple enough that we understand how it works, and complex enough to shed light on the symbolic systems that really interest us – particularly, English, and the language of mathematics. The goal of the class is to bring you up to the point where, given a valid argument (one where the conclusion follows from the premisses), you will be able to translate the argument into logic, and show that it is valid. You will also be learning a few deep theorems about logic, first proved about 80 years ago: that if an argument is valid, we can use logic to show it is, and that there is no general method by which we can pick out the valid from the invalid arguments. (You will also be learning why, despite first appearances, these two theorems don’t contradict one another).
Philosophy 758, Seminar in Major Philosophers: GWF Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit
LEC 001, TR 3:30 – 4:45, CRT 607
Instructor: William Bristow, bristow@uwm.edu
Prereq: grad st; cons instr.
Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit (1807) is one of the great works in the tradition of German philosophy. The work is foundational for the European Continental tradition of philosophy, and, recently it has been taken up within the Anglo-American tradition of philosophy as well. In this seminar, we study this text as an introduction to Hegel’s distinctive system of philosophy. We will also read a variety of secondary materials on this text to help us to understand it and to appreciate its philosophical significance within modern thought.
Philosophy 920, Seminar in the Philosophy of Science: Scientific Realism, Antirealism, and Other Isms
SEM 001, T 11:00 – 1:40, CRT 607
Instructor: Michael Liston, mnliston@uwm.edu
Prereq: grad st & cons instr.
Several disputes in contemporary philosophy of science are described as disputes about scientific realism – disputes concerning the extent to which, if any, we are entitled to hope, believe, or accept that science will tell us what the world is like. Realists tend to be optimistic; antirealists do not; some think the disputes depend on problematic presuppositions about truth, inference, and the proper subject matter of science. These disputes raise important metaphysical and epistemological questions about the nature of science, scientific explanation, and scientific inference, and about what science can or cannot tell us about the world. In the seminar we will follow the twists and turns the debates took since the late 1880-s to the present. We will begin with objections to the reality of atoms and forces made by some philosopher-physicists (Duhem, Hertz, Poincaré) of the late 19th century and look at logical positivism/empiricism (primarily Carnap) as a comprehensive development of those objections. We will then move on to reactions to logical positivism, both realist-inspired (Putnam and Boyd) and historicist-inspired (Kuhn). The second half of the course will be devoted to some of various interpretations of science and the realism question that have been proposed since the 1980-s by philosophers like Cartwright, Fine, Kitcher, Ladyman, Laudan, Stanford, Van Fraassen, and Worrall.