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| Philosophy | |
| PHIL 1000 | Introduction to Philosophy (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | Introduces a broad spectrum of philosophical problems and approaches. Topics include basic questions concerning morality, skepticism and the foundations of knowledge, the mind and its relation to the body, and the existence of God. Readings are drawn from classics in the history of philosophy and/or contemporary sources. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/ Course was offered Spring 2013, Fall 2012, Spring 2012, Fall 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2009 |
| PHIL 1410 | Forms of Reasoning (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | Analyzes the structure of informal arguments and fallacies that are commonly committed in everyday reasoning. The course will not cover symbolic logic in any detail. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Spring 2013, Spring 2012, Fall 2011, Summer 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2009 |
| PHIL 1510 | Introductory Philosophy Seminars (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | Discussion groups devoted to some philosophical writing or topic. Information on the specific topic can be obtained from the philosophy department at course enrollment time. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Spring 2013, Summer 2012, Spring 2012, Fall 2011, Summer 2011, Fall 2010, Summer 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2009 |
| PHIL 1600 | Medieval Philosophy of the Mediterranean (3.00) |
| A study of four of the most important philosophers of the Middle Ages were Avicenna (980-1037), Averroes (1126-1198), Maimonides (1135-1204), and Aquinas (1225-1274). | |
| PHIL 1610 | Philosophy of Religion (3.00) |
| This course will read the work of present-day philosophers of religion. That means that in this course we will use contemporary philosophical methods to examine a number of different topics that have been of perennial interest to philosophers of religion and philosophical theologians. These topics include arguments for and against God's existence, the problem of evil, the relationship between human freedom and divine foreknowledge. Course was offered Summer 2012 | |
| PHIL 1710 | Human Nature (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | Examines a wide variety of theories of human nature, with the aim of understanding how we can fulfill our nature and thereby live good, satisfying and meaningful lives. Focuses on the questions of whether it is in our nature to be rational, moral and/or social beings. Readings are taken from contemporary and historical sources. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. |
| PHIL 1730 | Introduction to Moral and Political Philosophy (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | Examines some of the central problems of moral philosophy and their sources in human life and thought. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. |
| PHIL 1740 | Issues of Life and Death (3.00) |
| Studies the fundamental principles underlying contemporary and historical discussions of such issues as abortion, euthanasia, suicide, pacifism, and political terror. Examines Utilitarian and anti-Utilitarian modes of thought about human life and the significance of death. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 2000 | Internship in Philosophy: Teaching Philosophy in High Schools (2.00) |
| Students will intern in area high schools to work with teachers in support of their teaching of philosophy. In preparation for this, students will learn about the aims of the teachers with whom they intern, as well as the challenges they face. Students will support teachers with the construction of lesson plans, reading material, discussion points, and paper topics. | |
| PHIL 2020 | Know Thyself (3.00) |
| Investigation of the nature and significance of our knowledge of ourselves, employing perspectives from Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Experimental Psychology, Neurosciences, and Buddhism. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Spring 2013, Spring 2012 | |
| PHIL 2060 | Philosophical Problems in Law (3.00) |
| Examines and evaluates some basic practices and principles of Anglo-American law. Discusses the justification of punishment, the death penalty, legal liability, good samaritan laws, and the legal enforcement of morality. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 2070 | Knowledge and Reality (3.00) |
| Knowledge and Reality. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 2110 | History of Philosophy: Ancient and Medieval (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | Survey of the history of philosophy from the Pre-Socratic period through the Middle Ages. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. |
| PHIL 2120 | History of Philosophy: Modern (3.00) |
| Surveys the history of modern philosophy, beginning with Descartes and extending up to the nineteenth century. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 2330 | Computers, Minds and Brains (3.00) |
| Do computers think? Can a persuasive case be made for the claim that the human mind is essentially a sophisticated computing device? These and related questions will be examined through readings in computer science, the philosophy of mind, logic, and linguistics. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 2420 | Introduction to Symbolic Logic (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | Introduces the concepts and techniques of modern formal logic, including both sentential and quantifier logic, as well as proof, interpretation, translation, and validity. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. |
| PHIL 2450 | Philosophy of Science (3.00) |
| Introduces the philosophy of science. Topics include experiment, casual inference, models, scientific explanation, theory structure, hypothesis testing, realism and anti-realism, the relations between science and technology, science versus non-science, and the philosophical assumptions of various sciences. Illustrations are drawn from the natural, biological, and social sciences, but no background in any particular science is presupposed. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 2510 | Seminar in Philosophy (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | Seminars aimed at showing how philosophical problems arise in connection with subjects of general interest. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. |
| PHIL 2520 | Seminar in Bioethics (3.00) |
| Topics vary annually. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 2650 | Free Will and Responsibility (3.00) |
| Examines whether our actions and choices are free and whether or to what extent we can be held responsible for them. Includes the threat to freedom posed by the possibility of scientific explanations of our behavior and by psychoanalysis, the concept of compulsion, moral and legal responsibility, and the nature of human action. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 2660 | Philosophy of Religion (3.00) |
| Considers the problems raised by arguments for and against the existence of God; discussion of such related topics as evil, evidence for miracles, and the relation between philosophy and theology. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Spring 2013, Fall 2012, Spring 2012, Fall 2011, Spring 2011, Spring 2010, Fall 2009 | |
| PHIL 2670 | God (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | A detailed examination of the philosophical concept of God and also of diverse arguments for and against His existence, including various ontological arguments, causal arguments, the arguments from design, and the argument from evil. |
| PHIL 2690 | Justice, Law, and Morality (3.00) |
| Examines contemporary liberal theories of justice and of communitarian, Marxist, libertarian, utilitarian, and feminist criticisms of these theories. Uses landmark Supreme Court decisions to illuminate central theoretical disputes. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 2720 | Bioethics: A Philosophical Perspective (3.00) |
| Surveys biomedical ethics, emphasizing philosophical issues and methods. Includes moral foundations of the physician/patient relation, defining death, forgoing life-sustaining treatments, euthanasia, abortion, prenatal diagnosis, new reproductive technologies, human genetics, human experimentation, and the allocation and rationing of health care resources. Reflects on the various ethical theories and methods of reasoning that might be brought to bear on practical moral problems. Not open to those who have taken RELG 2650. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 2730 | Ethics and Film (3.00) |
| This course is designed both as an introduction to philosophy through moral issues, and as an exploration of film as a medium for ethical reflection. It focuses on the moving image and its potentila as a mode of philosophical thinking and examines the pertinence of ethical theories to particular issues, as these arise in contemporary films. | |
| PHIL 2740 | Ethics of Violence (3.00) |
| This course will study philosophical issues arising from the encounter and conflict between different cultures. Focusing on the Spanish conquest of the Americas will address the general question of whether there is a just war, relating this discussion to fundamental questions in contemporary ethics and political philosophy. | |
| PHIL 2750 | Democracy (3.00) |
| Examines competing conceptions of the democratic ideal, both in the work of historic figures such as Locke, Rousseau, Madison and Mill, and in the work of a variety of contemporary political philosophers. Focuses in particular on the relation to the democratic ideal of majoritarian voting, civic association, public deliberation and basic liberal rights. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 2760 | Classics of Political Philosophy (3.00) |
| Considers some of the perennial questions in political philosophy through an examination of classical works in the field, including some or all of the following: Aristotle's Politics, Hobbes's Leviathan, Locke's Second Treatise of Government, and Rousseau's On the Social Contract. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 2770 | Political Philosophy (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | This course deals with the most basic problems of political philosophy. Discusses the justification of the state, political obligation and disobedience, social justice, demoncracy, and the morality of international politics. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. |
| PHIL 2780 | Ancient Political Thought (3.00) |
| A survey of the political ideas and theories of the ancient Greeks and Romans, including such works as Plato's REPUBLIC, Aristotle's POLITICS and Cicero's DE RE PUBLICA. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Fall 2010 | |
| PHIL 3110 | Plato (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | Introduces the philosophy of Plato, beginning with several pre-Socratic philosophers. Focuses on carefully examining selected Platonic dialogues. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. |
| PHIL 3120 | Aristotle (3.00) |
| An introduction to the philosophy of Aristotle, covering his major works in ethics, political philosophy, metaphysics, theory of knowledge, and literary theory. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 3130 | Hellenistic Philosophy (3.00) |
| This course will focus on Epicurean and Stoic philosophy. We will discuss issues in ethics, epistemology, logic, metaphysics, physics, psychology and religion. Prerequisite: at least one previous Philosophy course. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 3140 | History of Medieval Philosophy (3.00) |
| Examines the continued development of philosophy from after Aristotle to the end of the Middle Ages. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Spring 2013, Fall 2010 | |
| PHIL 3150 | Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | Studies the central philosophers in the rationalist tradition. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. |
| PHIL 3160 | Locke, Berkeley and Hume (3.00) |
| Studies the central philosophers in the empiricist tradition. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 3170 | Kant (3.00) |
| Primarily a study of Kant's metaphysics and epistemology, followed by a brief look at the views of some of Idealist successors. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 3180 | Nietzsche (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | A comprehensive study of the philosophy of Nietzsche, with an examination of his views on life, truth, philosophy, art, morality, nihilism, values and their creation, will to power, eternal recurrence, and more. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Prerequisite: instructor permission (previous course in philosophy preferred) Course was offered Fall 2012, Spring 2011 |
| PHIL 3190 | Wittgenstein (3.00) |
| Study of Wittgenstein's major works. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Prerequisite: two PHIL courses or instructor permission; PHIL 2420 recommended. | |
| PHIL 3310 | Metaphysics (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | Examines central metaphysical issues such as time, the existence of God, causality and determinism, universals, possibility and necessity, identity, and the nature of metaphysics. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. |
| PHIL 3320 | Epistemology (3.00) |
| Studies problems concerned with the foundations of knowledge, perception, and rational belief. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 3330 | Philosophy of Mind (3.00) |
| Studies some basic problems of philosophical psychology. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 3500 | Seminar in Philosophy (3.00) |
| Topics change from semester to semester and year to year. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 3520 | Topics in Contemporary Philosophy (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | Studies some recent contemporary philosophical movement, writing, or topic. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Spring 2012 |
| PHIL 3610 | Aesthetics (3.00) |
| Critically investigates central philosophical issues raised by artistic activity: To count as an artwork must a thing have a modicum of aesthetic value, or is it enough that it be deemed art by the community? Is aesthetic value entirely in the eye of the beholder or is there such a thing as being wrong in one's judgment concerning an artwork? including Wittgenstein, Sartre, and Pears. Course was offered Fall 2011 | |
| PHIL 3630 | Philosophy of Language (3.00) |
| Examines central conceptual problems raised by linguistic activity. Among topics considered are the relation between thought and language; the possibility of an essentially private discursive realm; the view that one's linguistic framework somehow 'structures' reality; and the method of solving or dissolving philosophical problems by scrutiny of the language in which they are couched. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Prerequisite: At least one course in philosophy at the 1000 level or above, or instructor permission. | |
| PHIL 3650 | Justice and Health Care (3.00) |
| Philosophical account of health care practices and institutions viewed against the backdrop of leading theories of justice (e.g., utilitarianism, Rawlsian contractarianism, communitarianism, libertarianism). Topics include the nature, justifications, and limits of a right to health care; the value conflicts posed by cost containment, implicit and explicit rationing, and reform of the health care system; the physician-patient relationship in an era of managed care; and the procurement and allocation of scarce life-saving resources, such as expensive drugs and transplantable organs. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Prerequisite: course in ethics of political philosophy from any department, such as RELG 2650, PHIL 1740, PLPT 3010, etc. | |
| PHIL 3651 | Genes, Nature and Justice (3.00) |
| What is a normal human being? What is the natural course for the human species? What does justice have to do with our genes? The emergence of technology allowing the manipulation of the human genome raises a number of ethical social, and political problems. This class will explore these challenges through philosophical argument. In particular, we will attempt to wrestle with notions such as natural, human being, perfection, enhancement and cure. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 3652 | Animals and Ethics (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | This course will examine the moral status of non-human animals and what the major ethical theories imply for our treatment of animals, including in scientific research and food. In an effort to examine their moral status, we will explore the questions of whether and to what extent animals experience pain and emotions. Course was offered Fall 2012 |
| PHIL 3670 | Law and Society (3.00) |
| Examines competing theories of law; the role of law in society; the legitimacy of restrictions on individual liberties; legal rights and conflicts of rights; and the relationships between law and such social values as freedom, equality, and justice. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 3710 | Ethics (3.00) |
| History of modern ethical theory (Hobbes to Mill) with especial emphasis on the texts of Hume (Treatise, Book III) and Kant, (Grundlegung), which will be studied carefully and critically. Among the topics to be considered: Is morality based on reason? Is it necessarily irrational not to act morally? Are moral standards objective? Are they conventional? Is it a matter of luck whether we are morally virtuous? Is the morally responsible will a free will? Are all reasons for acting dependent on desires? For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Spring 2011, Fall 2009 | |
| PHIL 3720 | Contemporary Ethics (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | Studies Anglo-American ethics since 1900. While there are selected readings from G. E. Moore, W. D. Ross, A. J. Ayer, C. L. Stevenson and R. M. Hare, emphasis is on more recent work. Among the topics to be considered: Are there moral facts? Are moral values relative? Are moral judgments universalizable? Are they prescriptive? Are they cognitive? What is to be said for utilitarianism as a moral theory? What against it? And what are the alternatives? For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. |
| PHIL 3730 | Ancient Ethical Theory (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 3780 | Reproductive Ethics (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | The focus of the course will be the exploration of various moral, legal and policy issues posed by efforts to curtail or enhance fertility through contraception, abortion, and recent advances in reproductive technology. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Prerequisite: One prior course in ethics from any department. Course was offered Spring 2012, Spring 2010 |
| PHIL 3790 | Research Ethics (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | Canvasses the history of research scandals (e.g., Nuremberg, Tuskegee) resulting in federal regulation of human subjects research. Critically assesses the randomized clinical trial (including informed consent, risk/benefit ratio, randomization, placebos). Examines the ethics of research with special populations, such as the cognitively impaired, prisoners, children, embryos and fetuses, and animals. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Prerequisite: One course in ethics or bioethics, or instructor permission. Course was offered Spring 2011, Fall 2009 |
| PHIL 3999 | Philosophical Perspectives on Liberty (3.00) |
| Examination of the nature and function of liberty in social theorists such as Adam Smith, JJ Rousseau, Ayn Rand, John Rawls, Robert Nozick. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Spring 2012 | |
| PHIL 4010 | Seminar for Majors (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | Topic changes from year to year. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Prerequisite: Philosophy majors. |
| PHIL 4020 | Seminar for Majors (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 4500 | Special Topics in Philosophy (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. |
| PHIL 4990 | Honors Program (1.00 - 15.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the departmental honors program. Course was offered Spring 2013, Fall 2012, Spring 2012, Fall 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2009 |
| PHIL 4993 | Directed Reading and Research (1.00 - 3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | Independent study under the direction of a faculty member. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Spring 2013, Fall 2012, Spring 2012, Fall 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2009 |
| PHIL 4995 | Directed Reading and Research (1.00 - 3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | Independent study under the direction of a faculty member. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. |
| PHIL 4999 | Senior Thesis (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 5100 | The Historiography of Philosophy (3.00) |
| Examines the issues arising from the study of the history of philosophy. Authors include Aristotle, Hegel, Russell, Collingwood, and Rorty. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 5130 | Topics in Medieval Philosophy (3.00) |
| Seminar on St. Augustine, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Duns Scotus. Topics include the existence of God, accounts of necessity and possibility, the justification and acquisition of concepts, and the interaction between Platonism and Aristotelianism in Christian thought. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 5420 | Advanced Logic (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | Examines various results in metalogic, including completeness, compactness, and undecidability. Effective computability, theories of truth, and identity may also be covered. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Prerequisite: PHIL 2420 or equivalent. |
| PHIL 5450 | Language and Logic (3.00) |
| This course will examine, in light of classical readings and with the aid of the techniques of formal semantics and formal pragmatics, topics that have been given the most intense treatment: distinction between sense and reference, nature of meaning, relation between thought and language, etc. Course was offered Spring 2011 | |
| PHIL 5460 | Philosophy of Science (3.00) |
| Logical analysis of the structure of theories, probability, causality, and testing of theories. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Spring 2011 | |
| PHIL 5470 | Philosophy of Mathematics (3.00) |
| Comparison of various schools in the philosophy of mathematics (including logicism, formalism, and conceptualism) and their answers to such questions as 'Do numbers exist?' and 'How is mathematical knowledge possible?' For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Prerequisite: Some familiarity with quantifier logic or instructor permission. Course was offered Spring 2011, Spring 2010 | |
| PHIL 5480 | Philosophy of the Social Sciences (3.00) |
| Problems studied include explanation in the social sciences; the place of theory; objectivity; the relation between social science and natural science, philosophy, and literature. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Prerequisite: Six credits of philosophy or instructor permission. | |
| PHIL 5500 | Bioethics Seminar (3.00) |
| Topics vary annually and include 'Methods of Practical Ethics' and 'Reproductive Ethics.' For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Prerequisite: Fourth-year bioethics minor or interdisciplinary bioethics major. | |
| PHIL 5510 | Seminar on a Philosophical Topic (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Spring 2013, Fall 2012, Spring 2012, Fall 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2010, Spring 2010 |
| PHIL 5760 | Global Justice, Health & Human Rights (3.00) |
| This seminar attempts to expand the horizons of bioethics to include a set of important issues impacting global health. The focus is on current work in political phil bearing on the rationale and limits of political toleration; assistance to the 'distant needy'; nationalism vs. cosmopolitanism; the objectives and measures of human development;and the proposed role of human rights as a transcultural lingua franca for international ethics. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Spring 2013, Fall 2010 | |
| PHIL 5770 | Methods of Practical Ethics (3.00) |
| An in depth exposition and analysis of several important methods of moral thought in the area of bioethics -- e.g., ethical/political theory, mid-level principles, casuistry or case-driven analysis, common morality, narrative, feminism, pragmatism, human rights, etc. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Prerequisites: instructor Permission. | |
| PHIL 5780 | Reproductive Ethics (3.00) |
| The focus of the course will be the exploration of various moral, legal and policy issues posed by efforts to curtail or enhance fertility through contraception, abortion, and recent advances in reproductive technology--e.g., in vitro fertilization, cloning, stem cell research, genetic screening and enhancement, etc.. Emphasis on philosophical questions bearing on concepts of harm, coercion, commodification, and responsibility. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Prerequisites: One prior course in ethics or political philosophy, instructor permission. | |
| PHIL 5790 | Research Ethics (3.00) |
| Studies the history of research scandals (e.g., Nuremberg, Tuskegee) resulting in federal regulation of human subjects research; examines and critically assesses the randomized clinical trial (including informed consent, risk/benefit ratio, randomization, placebos); and considers the ethics of research with special populations, such as the cognitively impaired, prisoners, children, embryos and fetuses, and animals. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Prerequisite: Graduate standing. | |
| PHIL 7110 | Plato (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 7120 | Aristotle (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 7150 | Continental Rationalism (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Fall 2009 | |
| PHIL 7160 | British Empiricism (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 7250 | Logical Positivism (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 7310 | Epistemology (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 7320 | Topics in Epistemology (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 7330 | Metaphysics (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 7340 | Philosophy of Mind (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 7341 | Mental Content (3.00) |
| Examines a variety of issues concerning the nature of mental content, including one or more of the following. (1) The ontological status of mental content: Does mental content relate us to abstract objects? What are the prospects for naturalizing intentionality? (2) The relationship between intentional content and phenomenal character: Are these distinct features of mental states, or is one of these properties reducible to the other? Course was offered Fall 2012 | |
| PHIL 7350 | Self-Knowledge (3.00) |
| We will examine some leading controversies about self-knowledge, and consider how those controversies bear on questions about knowledge, the mind, personal identity, and action. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Fall 2010 | |
| PHIL 7430 | Inductive Logic (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 7440 | Philosophical Logic (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 7450 | Topics in the Philosophy of Language (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Fall 2012 | |
| PHIL 7500 | First Year Seminar (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | Seminar for First Yr graduate students. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. |
| PHIL 7510 | Tutorial Instruction (3.00) |
| Tutorial Instruction. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 7520 | Seminar on a Philosophical Topic (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | Seminar on a Philosophical Topic. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. |
| PHIL 7530 | Readings in Philosophy (3.00) |
| With the permission of the instructor, a student may arrange to take an undergraduate course for graduate credit under this designation. The student will attend lectures and cover the subjects of the undergraduate course, but will do additional reading and/or written work; the student's work in the course will be graded on a scale appropriate for graduate course work. | |
| PHIL 7610 | Aesthetics (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 7630 | Legal Philosophy (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 7631 | Rights (3.00) |
| This seminar will examine the nature of and possible justifications for claims of right. Readings will be from both classical and contemporary sources. The works we read will be authored principally by philosophers, with a few pieces by political and legal theorists. Course was offered Spring 2011 | |
| PHIL 7632 | Rescue, Charity and Justice (3.00) |
| This course examines arguments for and against moral and legal "positive" duties (to assist others). We consider possible duties to give emergency aid (rescue), to improve the condition of the needy (charity), and to impose more equitable distributions of goods within and between nations (justice). Course was offered Fall 2012 | |
| PHIL 7634 | The Duty to Obey the Law (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | This seminar will examine philosophical debates concerning the duty to obey the law (or political obligation) and the grounds for various kinds of legal disobedience. Readings will be from contemporary sources in political philosophy and legal theory. |
| PHIL 7640 | Philosophy of History (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 7710 | Ethics (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Fall 2009 | |
| PHIL 7720 | Contemporary Ethics (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Spring 2011, Spring 2010 | |
| PHIL 7750 | Well-Being (3.00) |
| In this class we will explore the related questions of: what makes a life go well; what contributes to flourishing; and, what counts as welfare. We will spend the majority of the semester studying the dominant accounts of the nature and sources of well-being, and then examine efforts to define and measure well-being in economic theory and social psychology. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Fall 2010 | |
| PHIL 7770 | Political Philosophy (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Spring 2013, Spring 2010 | |
| PHIL 7995 | Supervised Research (1.00 - 12.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Spring 2013, Fall 2012, Spring 2012, Fall 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2009 |
| PHIL 8110 | Topics in Ancient Philosophy (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 8140 | Medieval Philosophy: Augustine and Thomas Aquinas (3.00) |
| Medieval Philosophy: Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 8160 | Hume's Ethics (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 8161 | Hume and Kant on Ethics (3.00) |
| In the seminar we will examine the moral theories of David Hume and Immanuel Kant, in that order. The main texts are Hume's Treatise and Kant's Groundwork, but considerable attention will be given as well to Hume's second Enquiry and to Kant's Critique of Practical Reason and Metaphysics of Morals. Course was offered Fall 2012 | |
| PHIL 8170 | Kant: The First Critique (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 8180 | Kant's Ethics (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 8190 | Nineteenth-Century German Philosophy (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 8230 | Development of Analytical Philosophy (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 8270 | The Philosophy of Wittgenstein (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 8290 | Topics in Contemporary Philosophy (3.00) |
| Topics in Contemporary Philosophy. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 8310 | Metaphysics (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 8320 | Contemporary Epistemology (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Spring 2012, Spring 2010 | |
| PHIL 8330 | Philosophy of Mind (3.00) |
| Philosophy of Mind. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 8340 | Philosophy of Mind (3.00) |
| Philosophy of Mind. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Spring 2013 | |
| PHIL 8350 | Seminar on Free Will (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 8360 | Experience (3.00) |
| The course addresses recent literature on the following questions: (1) what is the ontological nature of experience? (sense-data theories vs. state theories vs. disjunctivism); (2) is the phenomenal character of experience exhausted by its representational content? (representationalism vs. qualia realism); (3) does experience contain any nonconceptual representational content? (4) are the intrinsic features of experience introspectible? Course was offered Fall 2011 | |
| PHIL 8370 | Possible Worlds (3.00) |
| This seminar focuses on the metaphysics of possibility and necessity, along with other related topics. It's central texts are Alvin Plantinga's "The Nature of Necessity" and David Lewis's "On the Plurality of Worlds". | |
| PHIL 8420 | Advanced Logic and Foundations of Mathematics (3.00) |
| Advanced Logic and Foundations of Mathematics. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 8460 | Philosophy of Science (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 8510 | Seminar on a Philosophical Topic (3.00) |
| Seminar on a Philosophical Topic. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 8630 | Legal and Philosophical Concepts (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 8640 | Law and Morality (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 8650 | Freedom and Responsibility (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 8710 | Problems in Ethics and Metaethics (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 8770 | Problems in Political Philosophy (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 8780 | Theories of Justice (3.00) |
| For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. | |
| PHIL 8995 | Supervised Research (3.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Spring 2013, Fall 2012, Spring 2012, Fall 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2009 |
| PHIL 8998 | Non-Topical Research, Preparation for Research (1.00 - 12.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/.For master's research, taken before a thesis director has been selected. Course was offered Spring 2013, Fall 2012, Spring 2012, Fall 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2009 |
| PHIL 8999 | Non-Topical Research (1.00 - 12.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | For master's thesis, taken under the supervision of a thesis director. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Spring 2013, Fall 2012, Spring 2012, Fall 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2009 |
| PHIL 9998 | Non-Topical Research, Preparation for Doctoral Research (1.00 - 12.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | For doctoral research, taken before a dissertation director has been selected. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Spring 2013, Fall 2012, Spring 2012, Fall 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2009 |
| PHIL 9999 | Non-Topical Research (1.00 - 12.00) |
| Offered Fall 2013 | For doctoral dissertation, taken under the supervision of a dissertation director. For more details on this class, please visit the department website at http://www.virginia.edu/philosophy/. Course was offered Spring 2013, Fall 2012, Summer 2012, Spring 2012, Fall 2011, Summer 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2009 |