Department of Philosophy

https://artsci.tamu.edu/philosophy/

Head: K. Sweet

PhD Advisor: O. Rivera

MA Advisor: O. Rivera

The Department of Philosophy at Texas A&M University offers the degrees of Master of Arts in philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy. Students may pursue studies in any area of philosophy under these programs, both of which have distinctive features. Applicants are asked to specify the degree they wish to pursue.

Humanities
Philosophy

Humanities

HUMA 685 Directed Studies

Credits 1 to 6. 1 to 6 Other Hours. Directed studies in specific problem areas in the humanities. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

Philosophy

PHIL 611 Ancient Philosophy

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Greek and Roman philosophy from 600 B.C. to 300 A.D.; emphasis on Plato and Aristotle. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

PHIL 616 Modern Philosophy

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Developments in philosophy from the Renaissance through the Enlightenment: Renaissance humanism and natural science, 17th- and 18th-century empiricism and rationalism, idealism; major thinkers including Descartes, Hume, Kant, Hegel. May be repeated for credit as content varies. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

PHIL 620 Contemporary Philosophy

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. 19th- and 20th-century philosophical movements: phenomenology, existentialism, positivism, pragmatism, analysis, process thought. May be repeated for credit as content varies. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

PHIL 623 American Philosophy

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. The genesis of American philosophical thought from the seventeenth century until the work of Emerson; subsequent concentration on the philosophies of Pierce, James, Royce, Dewey, Mead, Santayana and Whitehead. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

PHIL 624 Latin American Philosophy

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Reading and examination of the philosophical writings of some of the most important Latino/as (or Hispanic) contributors to the history of philosophy.

PHIL 625 Philosophical Inquiry in Schools

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. In-depth exploration of the theory and practice of pre-college (K-12) philosophy. Prerequisites: Approval of instructor.

PHIL 630 Aesthetics

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Metaphor, the ontology of artworks, art and artifactuality, aesthetic attitudes, concepts of aesthetic appraisal such as beauty and sublimity and theory of tropes. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

PHIL 632 Social and Political Philosophy

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Theories of justice, equality, liberty and authority in social and political institutions; individualism and the social contract; political philosophy of writers such as Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, Dewey and Rawls. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

PHIL 641 Mathematical Logic I

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. The metatheory of propositional and first-order logic. Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

PHIL 642 Mathematical Logic II

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Continuation of PHIL 641. Compactness, The Lowenheim-Skolem Theorems, computability theory and Church's thesis, formal arithmetic, Godel's Incompleteness Theorems, Tarski's Theorem and Church's Theorem; other topics might include systems of modal logic, intuitionistic logic and more advanced issues in set theory. Prerequisite: 641 or approval of instructor.

PHIL 643 History and Philosophy of Logic

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Selected topics on the historical development of logic; philosophical views of the nature of logical theory; the role of logical metatheory in the development of logic. May be repeated for credit as content varies. Prerequisite: PHIL 341 or 641 or approval of instructor.

PHIL 645 Philosophy of Science

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Philosophy of the natural and social sciences, including the nature of theories and laws, the notion of causation, probability and determinism and the nature of theoretical change. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

PHIL 646 Philosophy of a Particular Science

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Focus on methodological, epistemological and ontological issues in physics, or one of the special sciences, such as biology, psychology, cognitive science, economics. Application of philosophical methods to theoretical issues in the particular science. Relationships between theories and explanations of the particular science more basic sciences or other special sciences. May be repeated for credit for courses focusing on different sciences. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

PHIL 655 Philosophy of Mind

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. The mind-body problem, personal identity, thought and intentionality, action and responsibility; materialism, behaviorism, functionalism. May be repeated for credit as content varies. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

PHIL 658 Philosophy of Language

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. The nature of language, the various uses of language and their philosophical import, the nature of meaning, truth, reference and issues surrounding formal representations of natural languages. May be repeated for credit as content varies. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

PHIL 661 Seminar in the History of Philosophy

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Intensive study of a current issue in the history of philosophy. May be repeated for credit with variation in topic. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

PHIL 662 Seminar in Ethics and Value Theory

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Intensive study of current issue in ethics, ethical theory, applied ethics, aesthetics, or the work of particular philosophers in one of these areas. May be repeated for credit with variation in topic. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

PHIL 663 Seminar in Metaphysics and Epistemology

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Seminar in Metaphysics or Epistemology. Intensive study of a current issue in metaphysics, epistemology, or other core areas of philosophy. May be repeated for credit with variation in topic. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

PHIL 664 Seminar in Applied Philosophy

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Intensive study of a topic involving the application of philosophical concepts and theories to an issue arising in another scientific or academic field. May be repeated for credit with variation to topic. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

PHIL 681 Seminar

Credits 0 to 3. 0 to 3 Other Hours. Principles and practices of effective undergraduate teaching and learning; socialization to the profession of philosophy; systematic introductions to all departmental faculty members and their work. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisites: Enrollment in PhD program in Philosophy, or approval of instructor.

PHIL 682 Philosophical Authors

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Intensive study of works of an individual important philosopher, their historical context, and criticisms and interpretations of them. May be repeated for credit with different authors. Prerequisites: Appropriate background in history of philosophy and approval of instructor.

PHIL 683 Philosophical Pedagogy

Credit 1. 1 Lecture Hour. Teaching practicum for PhD students in philosophy; detailed examination of all aspects of teaching philosophy to university- and college-level students. Prerequisite: Enrollment in PhD program in Philosophy or approval of instructor.

PHIL 684 Professional Internship

Credits 1 to 6. 1 to 6 Other Hours. Practical experience in an institutional or organizational setting appropriate to analysis and understanding of issues in some area of applied philosophy. Prerequisite: Approval of committee chair and department head.

PHIL 685 Directed Studies

Credits 1 to 6. 1 to 6 Other Hours. Directed studies in specific problem areas in philosophy.

PHIL 689 Special Topics in...

Credits 1 to 4. 1 to 4 Lecture Hours. Selected topics in an identified area of philosophy. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

PHIL 691 Research

Credits 1 to 15. 1 to 15 Other Hours. Research for thesis. Prerequisites: Approval of department head and committee chair.

Bermudez, Jose Luis, Professor
Philosophy
PhD, Cambridge University, 1992

Climenhaga, Nevin, Assistant Professor
Philosophy
PHD, Notre Dame University, 2017

Conway, Daniel W, Professor
Philosophy
PHD, University of California at San Diego, 1985

Deere, Don Thomas, Assistant Professor
Philosophy
PHD, DePaul University, 2016

George, Theodore D, Professor
Philosophy
PHD, Villanova University, 2000

Hanson-Park, Jared, Visiting Assistant Professor
Philosophy
PHD, University of Miami, 2022

Islekel, Ege Selin, Assistant Professor
Philosophy
PHD, DuPaul University, 2018

Jaima, Amir R, Associate Professor
Philosophy
PHD, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 2014

Koepsell, David Richard, Instructional Associate Professor
Philosophy
JD, University at Buffalo, 1995
PHD, University at Buffalo, 1997

Lavender, Jordan, Assistant Professor
Philosophy
PHD, University of Notre Dame, 2022

Menzel, Christopher P, Professor
Philosophy
PHD, University of Notre Dame, 1984

Miller, Glen, Instructional Professor
Philosophy
PHD, University of North Texas, 2015

Palmer, Clare A, Professor
Philosophy
PHD, University of Oxford, 1993

Peterson, Martin B, Professor
Philosophy
PHD, Kungliga Tekniska högskolan Royal Institute of Technology, 2003

Radzik, Linda C, Professor
Philosophy
PHD, The University of Arizona, 1997

Raymond, Dwayne F, Instructional Associate Professor
Philosophy
PHD, University of Western Ontario, 2006

Rivera, Omar, Associate Professor
Philosophy
PHD, The Pennsylvania State University, 2007

Sansom, Roger B, Associate Professor
Philosophy
PHD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2002

Sweet, Kristi, Professor
Philosophy
PHD, Loyola University, Chicago, 2006

Wilson, Aaron, Visiting Instructional Assistant Professor
Philosophy
PHD, University of Miami, 2014

Zhou, Lianghua, Assistant Professor
Philosophy
PHD, University of Michigan, 2024