PHIL 210. CRITICAL THINKING. 5 Credits.

Satisfies: a BACR for humanities and arts.
Logic as a tool for the analysis of informal arguments. The course develops techniques for formalizing and testing arguments from everyday life.

PHIL 211. INTRODUCTORY PHILOSOPHY. 5 Credits.

Satisfies: a BACR for humanities and arts.
Some traditional problems about the nature of the world and human knowledge. Typical problems concern the existence of God, personal identity and free will, the relations of minds to bodies and of perception to the external world.

PHIL 212. INTRODUCTORY ETHICS. 5 Credits.

Satisfies: a BACR for humanities and arts.
An examination of the nature and content of morality. Two questions are central: Is morality based on knowledge or on emotion? Is there a rational motive to act morally?

PHIL 213. MORAL ISSUES IN AMERICA. 5 Credits.

Satisfies: a BACR for humanities and arts.
An introduction to normative moral issues in current thought and life. Typical problems concern social justice, the relation of work to a person’s concept of himself, manipulation and indoctrination in a technological society and relationships between social success and human flourishing.

PHIL 214. PHILOSOPHICAL VOICES AND POP CULTURE. 5 Credits.

Satisfies: a university graduation requirement–diversity.
This course is a thematic survey of several areas of basic philosophical problems. It will combine an examination of philosophical themes in media and popular culture—including fiction, television and cinema—with retrieval of under-represented, diverse voices addressing each thematic area. Themes may include, but are not restricted to: metaphysics, theory of mind and knowledge, aesthetics, ethics and social and political theory.

PHIL 215. INTRODUCTION TO FORMAL LOGIC. 5 Credits.

Notes: recommended for students who successfully completed PHIL 210.
Satisfies: a BACR for humanities and arts.
Logic is presented as a formal deductive system. The course develops sentential logic and introduces predicate logic.

PHIL 221. ETHICAL COMMUNICATION AND MORAL JUDGMENT. 2 Credits.

Notes: Delivered online only. Please purchase books at the EWU bookstore or order any required readings using 2-day express mail, the digital version, or the audio version.
Pre-requisites: CMST 360 and ENGL 201.
A skills improvement course focusing on the way we treat our family and friends, our co-workers, bosses, and employees, and how we act toward strangers with whom we must coordinate our actions in a pluralistic society. Students learn how to make small but highly impactful changes in how they communicate ethically and make moral judgments in the “real world.”

PHIL 296. EXPERIMENTAL COURSE. 1-5 Credits.

Experimental course.

PHIL 299. INDEPENDENT STUDY. 1-5 Credits.

Independent Study

PHIL 311. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY. 5 Credits.

Cross-listed: HONS 311.
Pre-requisites: successful completion of ENGL 101.
Major political theories and analysis of arguments that attempt to justify actual or proposed political and social institutions.

PHIL 312. PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. 5 Credits.

Pre-requisites: successful completion of ENGL 101.
Philosophical problems with religion and theology. Typical problems concern the existence of God, God’s relation to evil, the immortality of the soul, the meaning of religious language and the criteria for theological verification.

PHIL 320. HISTORY OF ANCIENT WESTERN PHILOSOPHY. 5 Credits.

Cross-listed: HONS 320.
Pre-requisites: successful completion of ENGL 101.
The history of Greek philosophy from the first theories about the causes of the universe to the Socratic inquiry about how to live and to Plotinus’ theory of the soul.

PHIL 321. HISTORY OF MODERN WESTERN PHILOSOPHY. 5 Credits.

Cross-listed: HONS 321.
Pre-requisites: successful completion of ENGL 101.
16th–18th century European philosophy against the background of religion and science. The main theme is the relation of knowledge to reason and experience.

PHIL 322. HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY WESTERN PHILOSOPHY. 5 Credits.

Cross-listed: HONS 322.
Pre-requisites: successful completion of ENGL 101.
This course is a survey of the major European and American schools of the 19th and 20th century philosophy. Course material includes German idealism, existentialism, utilitarianism, Marxism, pragmatism, feminism, logical positivism and post-modernism.

PHIL 331. CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 5 Credits.

Cross-listed: HONS 331.
Pre-requisites: successful completion of ENGL 101.
Satisfies: a university graduation requirement–global studies.
The history of Chinese philosophy from the legendary Xia Dynasty to the golden age of the Song Dynasty. Focuses on Confucius’ humanistic ethics, the naturalistic philosophy of Daoism, and the early Chinese schools of Buddhism.

PHIL 332. LATIN AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY OF LIBERATION. 5 Credits.

Cross-listed: HONS 332.
Pre-requisites: ENGL 101 or equivalent.
Satisfies: a university graduation requirement–diversity.
A research seminar focused on justice and liberation in the context of Latin America. Surveys a wide range of Philosophies including Indigenous, Colonial, Scholastic, Positivist, Feminist, Vitalist, and Pragmatist philosophies. Topics include the deleterious effect of ideas and practices from Europe and the US within the region, liberatory praxis against oppression, the continued effects of US colonialism on Puerto Rico and how Latin American philosophy fosters political liberation.

PHIL 396. EXPERIMENTAL. 1-5 Credits.

Experimental.

PHIL 398. SEMINARS ON SELECTED TOPICS. 1-5 Credits.

Pre-requisites: 5 credits of philosophy and successful completion of ENGL 101.

PHIL 400. SPECIAL PERIODS IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY. 5 Credits.

Pre-requisites: successful completion of ENGL 101.
Intensive study of a period in the history of philosophy that is not included in the 320–322 sequence.

PHIL 411. THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE. 5 Credits.

Pre-requisites: 5 credits of philosophy and successful completion of ENGL 101.
The nature, grounds, and limits of human knowledge. Topics typical of the course are perception, memory, truth, knowledge of other minds, and the relations among knowing, believing and doubting.

PHIL 415. FEMINIST THEORIES. 5 Credits.

Cross-listed: GWSS 415, HUMN 415.
Pre-requisites: GWSS 101 or upper level GWSS or PHIL course.
Feminist theories developed to explain women’s subordinate position in society and current trends in feminist thought. Includes psychoanalytic feminism, feminist literary criticism and cross-cultural views of feminism.

PHIL 417. WOMEN AND ETHICS. 5 Credits.

Cross-listed: GWSS 417.
Pre-requisites: one of the following: GWSS 101, PHIL 211, PHIL 212.
Satisfies: a university graduation requirement–diversity.
The course will begin with a brief examination of the treatment of women within traditional ethics. We will then address the views of early women philosophers, followed by a close analysis of contemporary feminist approaches to ethics.

PHIL 420. QUEER THEORY. 5 Credits.

Cross-listed: GWSS 420.
Pre-requisites: any upper division GWSS or PHIL course.
This course examines the emerging field of queer theory. Queer theory questions the stability of various identity categories, suggesting instead that all performances of sex, gender, and sexuality are influenced by cultural, historical and political factors.

PHIL 435. MAJOR AUTHORS IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY. 5 Credits.

Notes: repeatable for credit with different authors.
Pre-requisites: successful completion of ENGL 101.
Intensive study of a single major philosopher.

PHIL 440. WOMEN AND PHILOSOPHY. 5 Credits.

Cross-listed: GWSS 440.
Pre-requisites: at least 4 credits in WMST and/or PHIL.
The course offers an examination of the treatment of concepts relating to women and femininity, both by traditional philosophers and by more recent feminist philosophers. The course will address key issues within philosophy while simultaneously exploring the role of gender in the production of philosophical knowledge.

PHIL 445. BIOMEDICAL ETHICS. 5 Credits.

Pre-requisites: ENGL 101.
This course is an examination of a variety of moral theories as well as professional oaths and codes of ethics in order to clarify, analyze and propose solutions to significant contemporary ethical problems in biological research and medical practice. These may include abortion, genetic research on humans, animals and crops, stem cell research, advance directives, end-of-life issues, etc.

PHIL 447. ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS. 5 Credits.

Pre-requisites: PHIL 212 or PHIL 213 or permission of instructor.
This course is a study of mainstream and alternative moral theories regarding the environment, including the application of these theories towards contemporary environmental problems, such as climate change, pollution, resource depletion, species extinction and land use.

PHIL 490. PHILOSOPHY SENIOR CAPSTONE. 5 Credits.

Pre-requisites: completion of one of the following: PHIL 320, PHIL 321, or PHIL 322.
Satisfies: a university graduation requirement–senior capstone.
In this seminar, the advanced student of philosophy consolidates and synthesizes philosophical scholarship and community-focused, practical application. Working collaboratively, instructor and students relate the theories and methods of public intellectuals and social critics across various disciplines, drawing conclusions about the nature of critical thinking, public argumentation, and social change.

PHIL 496. EXPERIMENTAL COURSE. 1-5 Credits.

PHIL 497. WORKSHOP, SHORT COURSE, CONFERENCE, SEMINAR. 1-5 Credits.

PHIL 498. SEMINARS. 1-5 Credits.

PHIL 499. DIRECTED STUDY. 1-5 Credits.

Pre-requisites: 10 credits of philosophy and successful completion of ENGL 101; permission of the instructor, department chair and college dean.