Philosophy Graduate Courses

PL 500 Philosophy of Law (Fall: 3)

Cross Listed with LL669
Offered Periodically
This course is intended for both pre-law students and those interested in the contemporary interface of philosophy, politics, and law. The course will cover the following four topics: (1) brief overview of the history of interrelation between law and philosophy (Hobbes, Rousseau, Kant, and Hegel); (2) constitutional legal theory (Dworkin, Ackerman, Michelman, Breyer); and (3) political liberalism, public reason and international law (Rawls, Habermas); and (4) human rights and globalization. The course is intended both to provide an overview of these various positions and to enable students to take a critical stance toward current debates.
David M. Rasmussen

Last Updated: 04-FEB-10

PL 505 The Aristotelian Ethics (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Philosophy Core
This course includes a reading of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and examines its principal themes: happiness, virtue, responsibility, justice, moral weakness, friendship, pleasure, and contemplation.
Arthur R. Madigan, S.J.

Last Updated: 08-FEB-10

PL 510 Contemporary Philosophy of Religion (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Core philosophy courses
Reflection on the themes of faith, divinity, and being in the world, as contested in the field opened by Heideggerian phenomenology. In addition to some key texts by Heidegger, we will read and discuss works by K. Rahner, B. Welte, J.-L. Marion, and J.-Y. Lacoste. At several points, it will also be useful to draw on the positions of Augustine and Aquinas.
Jeffrey Bloechl

Last Updated: 09-FEB-10

PL 512 Philosophy of Existence (Spring: 3)

Offered Biennially
An introduction to the main questions of existentialist philosophy from Kierkegaard and Nietzsche to Heidegger, Sartre and Camus. The major issues dealt with include freedom and determinism, desire and death, anxiety and the search for the absolute.
Richard M. Kearney

Last Updated: 08-FEB-10

PL 513 Anthropology of Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II (Spring: 3)

Cross Listed with TH515

Richard Spinello

Last Updated: 08-FEB-10

PL 516 Epistemology (Spring: 3)


Daniel McKaughan

Last Updated: 08-FEB-10

PL 518 Philosophy of Imagination (Fall: 3)

Readings in the philosophy of imagination from ancient myth to post-modernity. Beginning with Biblical and Greek accounts of images and image-making, this course will explore three main paradigm shifts in the western history of imagination: (1) the ancient paradigm of the Mirror (Plato to Augustine); (2) the modern paradigm of the Lamp (Kant to Sartre); (3) the postmodern paradigm of the circular Looking Glass (Lacan to Derrida). The course will conclude with a critical evaluation of the political and ethical functions of imagination in our contemporary civilization of cyber fantasy, simulation and spectacle.
Richard M. Kearney

Last Updated: 04-FEB-10

PL 524 Ethics: An Introduction (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Philosophy Core
Offered Periodically
Ethics, properly understood, is a practical discipline, i.e., an intellectually rigorous study with implications for personal and social life. This course will introduce students to the standard issues of contemporary Anglo-American ethics, but also to a broader selection of issues addressed in classical and contemporary philosophy. The goal is to develop a more adequate understanding of what it means to be practically reasonable and of how practical reasonableness can be embodied in personal and social life.
Arthur R. Madigan, S.J.

Last Updated: 04-FEB-10

PL 532 Philosophy of Religion in Human Subjectivity (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses in philosophy completed.
Blondel sought to reinstate a positive philosophy of religion into a French philosophical establishment that was repudiating the very idea of a philosophy of religion at the end of the 19th century. To do this he took philosophy into an existential turn to human action and subjectivity, 60 years prior to the better known atheistic existentialism of Sartre after WW II. In this course we shall study how Blondel engineered this existential turn to Action as a philosopher and how he used it phenomenologically to show the necessity of some supernatural religion at the heart of human subjectivity.
Oliva Blanchette

Last Updated: 08-FEB-10

PL 541 Philosophy of Health Science: East and West (Spring: 3)

Satisfies Cultural Diversity Core Requirement
This course will explore the underlying ethical suppositions of health care practice. Starting from concrete clinical problems such as the care of the elderly and the influence of technology, the course will attempt to draw out the philosophical assumptions of health care practice and show the necessity of an appropriate philosophical perspective in the resolution of day-to-day ethical dilemmas in health care. A close examination of medical practice, from Hippocratic regimen to high-tech medicine, will be undertaken. As a counterpoint, another ancient medical tradition from India, of about 500 B.C., will be studied.
Pramod Thaker

Last Updated: 08-FEB-10

PL 553 Capstone:Poets,Philosophers&Mapmakers (Spring: 3)

Cross Listed with UN553

Paul McNellis, S.J.

Last Updated: 08-FEB-10

PL 576 Two Existentialisms: Sartre and Marcel (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
No philosophers more directly address the problems ordinary people think to be the most important than the existentialists. And, no two existentialists form a more perfect and total contrast than Marcel and Sartre: theist versus atheist, humanist versus nihilist, personalist versus rationalist, mystic versus reductionist. We will enter into each of these opposite world views by careful, thoughtful Socratic reading of a few key texts.
Peter J. Kreeft

Last Updated: 04-FEB-10

PL 577 Symbolic Logic: Theory and Practices (Fall: 3)

An introduction to the powerful ways the logical forms woven into deductive reasoning and language can be analyzed using abstract symbolic structures. The study of these structures is not only relevant for understanding effective reasoning but also for exploring the Anglo-American analytic philosophical tradition and foundations of mathematics, computer science, and linguistics. Philosophically interesting properties about logical systems will be explored, including the task of proving whether a logical system is complete and consistent. A number of interesting topics of twentieth century logic will be briefly considered such as set theory, Russell's paradox and Goedel's theorems.
The Department

Last Updated: 04-FEB-10

PL 578 Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (Fall: 3)

This course serves as an introduction to Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason." Virtually every section of Kant's masterwork has led to conflicts in interpretation, and an introductory course cannot comprehensively address these controversies. Instead, we will focus our efforts on a close exegesis of the text, touching on fundamental conflicts of interpretation when necessary, while at the same time situating Kant's position in relation to both his predecessors and the contemporary debates of his time.
Mary S. Troxell

Last Updated: 09-FEB-10

PL 593 Philosophy of Science (Fall: 3)

An introduction to the central themes of twentieth century history and philosophy of science. Topics to be discussed include the classic and contemporary problems of demarcation, explanation, confirmation, laws of nature, inter-theoretic reduction, social and historical critiques of neo-positivism, and the realism-antirealism debate. We will examine some philosophical perspectives sometimes thought to be closely associated with science including empiricism, pragmatism, naturalism, and physicalism. We will also discuss a number of other issues, including questions about objectivity and the role of values in science, about the methods, scope, and limits of science, and about whether science provides anything like a worldview.
Daniel McKaughan

Last Updated: 04-FEB-10

PL 599 Kant's Moral Philosophy (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Some understanding of Kant's epistemology
Offered Biennially
We will do a close reading of The Critique of Practical Reason, The Grounding of the Metaphysics of Morals, and selected essays.
Ronald K. Tacelli, S.J.

Last Updated: 04-FEB-10

PL 604 Social Construction (Spring: 3)

This course explores recent claims that important categories of social life--notably including race, ethnicity, and gender--are not grounded in nature, but are inventions of human societies. We treat the content of such claims, reasons adduced for them, and some of their implications for individual attitudes and social policies.
Jorge Garcia

Last Updated: 08-FEB-10

PL 611 Global Justice and Human Rights (Spring: 3)

Cross Listed with LL611
This course will study the history of the idea of global justice from its early inception in Stoic law; to its formulation in social contract theory in Hobbes and Locke; through Kant's idea of cosmopolitan justice; to its contemporary reconstruction in John Rawls, David Held, Jurgen Habermas and Thomas Pogge. In the context of examining the status of global justice we will consider the problem of world poverty and how human rights can be defended in a global context with ever increasing problems associated with homelessness on a world scale.
David M. Rasmussen

Last Updated: 08-FEB-10

PL 612 Heidegger and Art (Fall: 3)


Dastur

Last Updated: 04-FEB-10

PL 625 The Problem of Self-Knowledge (Fall: 3)

A human being is more than a rational animal. We are symbolic beings with a polymorphic consciousness, have language, and a relational existence to others, the cosmos, and transcendence. Insights from the selected readings and pedagogy will serve both as a maieutic and a heuristic; inspiring us to articulate who we are, how we ought to live with others, and how we are to collaborate with others and transcendence in originating creative and healing insights in response to challenges of humanity at the dawn of our 21st century. This course is inspired by Socrates' imperative and dictum: "Know thy self."
Brian Braman

Last Updated: 04-FEB-10

PL 628 Schelling (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: At least 12 hours of philosophy
This course will be conducted as a seminar. It will be devoted to a close reading of a major text by Schelling. The interpretive work with this text will be supplemented by student presentations.
John Sallis

Last Updated: 09-FEB-10

PL 649 Philosophy of Being I (Fall: 3)

Forthcoming
Oliva Blanchette

Last Updated: 17-FEB-09

PL 650 Philosophy of Being II (Spring: 3)

Forthcoming.
Oliva Blanchette

Last Updated: 17-FEB-09

PL 670 Technology and Culture (Fall: 3)

Cross Listed with MI267
This interdisciplinary course will first investigate the social, political, psychological, ethical and spiritual aspects of Western cultural development with a special emphasis on scientific and technological metaphors and narratives. We will then focus on the contemporary world, examining the impact of our various technological creations on cultural directions, democratic process, the world of work, quality of life, and especially on the emergent meanings for the terms "citizen" and "ethics" in contemporary society. Students will explore technologies in four broad and interrelated domains: (1) Computer, Media, Communications and Information Technologies, (2) Biotechnology, (3) Globalization, and (4) Environmental Issues.
William Griffith

Last Updated: 04-FEB-10

PL 704 Plato's Republic (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
In this course, we will explore in depth Plato's Republic, with particular attention to parallels between the Republic and the literary works of Plato's predecessors, including Homer, the tragedians, and Aristophanes. The focus of our reading will be on the role of poetry, imagination, and narrative in the dialogue.
Marina B. McCoy

Last Updated: 09-FEB-10

PL 706 Advanced Topics in Medieval Philosophy (Spring: 3)

We will study how Neo-Platonism and Aristotelism dialogued, argued, merged, parted in medieval metaphysics, especially in the 13th and 14th centuries. The opportunity will thus be offered to work on fundamental concepts such as participation, causality, creation, being, essence and existence, form and matter, substance and accident, etc. The class is especially designed for giving graduate students a strong and in-depth presentation of medieval thought, an essential moment of the development of western philosophy.
Jean-Luc Solere

Last Updated: 09-FEB-10

PL 708 Hermeneutics of the Stranger (Spring: 3)

Cross Listed with TH 708
This seminar engages with the problem of how we interpret the stranger. It begins with a genealogy of some of the major responses of western thought to the inaugural scene of host and stranger--mythic, Platonic, Abrahamic. It then examines a number of thinkers in contemporary continental philosophy who have explored the enigma of the stranger in terms of hospitality, translation, justice and the uncanny. Such thinkers include Kristeva, Strangers to Ourselves, Derrida, Of Hospitality, Ricoeur, On Translation, Levinas, Totality and Infinity. Additional readings will be provided in class. The seminar also involves presentations, discussions, and a final paper.
Richard M. Kearney

Last Updated: 08-FEB-10

PL 709 Aristotle on Science and the Sciences (Spring: 3)

Scholars increasingly appreciate the profound connections between Aristotle's philosophical positions in works such as the Ethics, De Anima, and Metaphysics and his theory of scientific knowledge, its conditions and methods. Knowledge may be logical, ethical, or physical; it may be practical, productive, or theoretical; it may be mathematical, physical, or theological; and while some things are more knowable to us, others are more knowable in themselves. Whether in psychology, metaphysics, ethics, or natural science, Aristotle's epistemological and methodological commitments determine his starting points, shape the exposition, and decisively influence the outcome of his investigations.
William Wians

Last Updated: 08-FEB-10

PL 711 Merleau-Ponty (Fall: 3)


Dastur

Last Updated: 04-FEB-10

PL 713 Virtue and Action (Fall: 3)

This course treats the moral virtues and vices, especially in their relationship with right action, obligation, and supererogation in, for example, virtuous/vicious action, acting virtuously/viciously, performing an act of virtue/vice, being virtuous/vicious in doing something, its being virtuous/vicious of someone to perform an action, and so on. We will discuss objective and subjective accounts of the virtues and vices, intention-sensitivity, and treat output-driven, input-driven, and mixed accounts of duty.
Jorge Garcia

Last Updated: 04-FEB-10

PL 720 Platonic Theories of Knowledge (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
The purpose of this course will be twofold: to explore Platonic considerations of perception and memory in the Theaetetus and dialectic in the Sophist; and to investigate what Plotinus does with this Platonic inheritance in his major study of the soul and its way of knowing. Both philosophers show the intersection of perception and intellectual knowledge in a way that is essential for understanding the Platonic project as a whole and especially the possibilities and limits of human knowledge.
Gary M. Gurtler, S.J.

Last Updated: 08-FEB-10

PL 722 German Idealism (Fall: 3)

This course deals with the development of German philosophy in the period immediately following the appearance of Kant's three Critiques. Attention will be given to (1) the initial reception of the critical philosophy; (2) Fichte's reformulation and systematization of the critical philosophy in the form of the Wissenschaftslehre; (3) Schelling's appropriation of Fichte's thought and his extension of it to the philosophy of art and of nature; (4) the emergence of Hegel's early thought from this development.
John Sallis

Last Updated: 04-FEB-10

PL 731 Michel Foucault (Spring: 3)


James Bernauer

Last Updated: 08-FEB-10

PL 732 Husserl's Ideas: Book I (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Some background in Kant, although not mandatory, is strongly recommended
Offered Periodically
In this class we will examine Husserl¿s groundbreaking work Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and a Phenomenological Philosophy primarily from a systematic perspective. An effort will be made to connect Husserl¿s phenomenology with the broader tradition of transcendental philosophy. The goal of the class is to learn Husserl¿s phenomenological method and to understand key notions of phenomenology such as reduction, intentionality, pure consciousness, noesis-noema.
Andrea Staiti

Last Updated: 09-FEB-10

PL 741 Seminar: Law and Justice (Spring: 3)

Forthcoming
David M. Rasmussen

Last Updated: 13-FEB-09

PL 746 Rawls' Political Philosophy (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Familiarity with the Works of John Rawls
Offered Periodically
Now that most of Rawls' work is available, I plan to teach a seminar which covers his work from A Theory of Justice to The Law of Peoples.
David M. Rasmussen

Last Updated: 04-FEB-10

PL 762 Soren Kierkegaard (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
This course will deal primarily with the early pseudonymous writings of Soren Kierkegaard. The following topics will be emphasized: (1) the function of irony and indirect communication in the pseudonymous works, (2) Kierkegaard's conception of freedom and subjectivity, and (3) the nature of the relationship which Kierkegaard posits between reason, autonomy, and faith.
Vanessa P. Rumble

Last Updated: 08-FEB-10

PL 770 Levinas and Lacan on Desire (Spring: 3)


Jeffrey Bloechl

Last Updated: 08-FEB-10

PL 780 Readings in Theory (Spring: 3)

Cross Listed with EN 780, RL 780
This course is organized as an introduction to the reading of literary theory for graduate students in various disciplines. Its aim is to develop in students an awareness and sensitivity to the specific means and ends of interpreting literary and extra-literary language today. The course seeks to provide students with a basic familiarity with some of the most formative linguistic, anthropological, philosophical, and literary antecedents of the diverse and often contentious theoretical models occupying, some would say, plaguing, the contemporary literary critical scene. Readings from Saussure, Levi-Strauss, Jakobson, Barthes, Lacan, Ricoeur, Geertz, Austin, Derrida, and de Man, among others.
Ernesto Livon-Grosman

Last Updated: 08-FEB-10

PL 794 Philosophy and the Church Fathers (Spring: 3)

Cross Listed with TH 794
Introduction to the major Church Fathers and their varying attitudes towards philosophy. The role of philosophy in the development of patristic theology. Particular influences of Aristotle, Epicurus and the Stoa. Reception and transformation of Platonism and the reciprocal influence of Christianity upon Greek thought.
Margaret Schatkin

Last Updated: 08-FEB-10

PL 799 Readings and Research (Fall/Spring: 3)

By arrangement.
The Department

Last Updated: 04-FEB-10

PL 801 Thesis Seminar (Fall/Spring: 3)

A research course under the guidance of a faculty member for those writing a master's thesis.
The Department

Last Updated: 02-MAR-04

PL 802 Thesis Direction (Fall/Spring: 3)


The Department

Last Updated: 02-MAR-04

PL 807 Kant's Critique of Judgment (Spring: 3)

This course considers the Critique of Judgment both as the completion of the critical philosophy and as the pivotal work of modern aesthetics. The classical themes to be discussed include natural and artistic beauty, genius, aesthetic ideas, and the divisions and nature of the various arts.
John Sallis

Last Updated: 08-FEB-10

PL 826 Seminar on Law and Justice (Spring: 3)

Cross Listed with LL822

David Rasmussen

Last Updated: 08-FEB-10

PL 871 The Summa Theologiae of St Thomas Aquinas (Fall: 3)


Peter J. Kreeft

Last Updated: 04-FEB-10

PL 888 Interim Study (Fall/Spring: 0)

Required for master's candidates who have completed all course requirements but have not taken comprehensive examinations. Also for master's students (only) who have taken up to six credits of Thesis Seminar but have not yet finished writing their thesis.
The Department

Last Updated: 04-FEB-10

PL 990 Teaching Seminar (Fall/Spring: 0)

This course is required of all first- and second-year doctoral candidates. This course includes discussion of teaching techniques, planning of curricula, and careful analysis of various ways of presenting major philosophical texts.
Ronald K. Tacelli, S.J.

Last Updated: 08-FEB-10

PL 998 Doctoral Comprehensives (Fall/Spring: 1)

Required for doctoral candidates who have completed all course requirements but have not taken their doctoral comprehensive examination.
The Department

Last Updated: 04-FEB-10

PL 999 Doctoral Continuation (Fall/Spring: 1)

All students who have been admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree are required to register and pay the fee for doctoral continuation during each semester of their candidacy. Doctoral Continuation requires a commitment of at least 20 hours per week working on the dissertation.
The Department

Last Updated: 04-FEB-10