PHIL 111 Contemporary Moral Issues
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
(PHIL 2306) Contemporary Moral Issues. Philosophy challenges students to understand, articulate and evaluate arguments from multiple points of view. Students evaluate the claims, presuppositions and reasoning of various positions, including one’s own, on contemporary social problems and analyze those problems using ethical and social theories. Students examine how ideas, values and other aspects of culture (including power and authority) shape and are shaped by human experience and institutions. Students practice respectful and thoughtful engagement on contentious matters, such as abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, the relationship between ethics and religion, violence and war, animal ethics, sexual morality, gender issues, health care ethics, equality and discrimination, biotechnology and bioengineering, economic injustice, climate ethics and global hunger and poverty, among others; also taught at Galveston campus.
PHIL 202 The Human Experience
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Introduction to classic transformative texts in the history of the arts, sciences, and humanities; interdisciplinary methods and approaches within the humanities; key ethical and moral debates across the human experience. Cross Listing: ARSC 202 and HIST 202.
PHIL 208 Philosophy of Education
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Basic social ideas and concepts of human nature in Western civilization; their implications for theories of education.
PHIL 240 Introduction to Logic
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
(PHIL 2303) Introduction to Logic. Introduction to formal methods of deductive and inductive logic including, but not limited to, truth-tables, formal deduction and probability theory; also taught at Galveston campus.
PHIL 251 Introduction to Philosophy
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
(PHIL 1301) Introduction to Philosophy. Philosophy challenges students to understand, articulate and evaluate arguments from multiple points of view. Students are introduced to perennial and central topics in philosophy such as the good life and happiness, the problem of death, the existence of God, the nature of reality, the relationship of mind and body, the scope and limits of knowledge, the foundations of ethical life and moral judgment, the individual and the community, and the place of the human being in the cosmos. Students critically consider how ideas, values and other aspects of culture shape human experience. Students develop a deeper understanding of their individual responsibilities and become more effective in engaging in a variety of cultural contexts. Instructors may organize the course either by central figures in the history of philosophy or by topic; also taught at Galveston campus.
PHIL 282 Ethics in a Digital Age
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Philosophy challenges students to understand, articulate and evaluate arguments from multiple points of view. Students explore the interplay between ethical and social theories, principles, and values, and the interconnected digital world, on concerns related to topics such as artificial intelligence, social media, intellectual property, privacy, surveillance, cybercrime and cyberwarfare, internet governance, computing professionalism and cyber policy and law. Students reflect on whether and how traditional moral conceptions (e.g., on the good life, personal and civic responsibility and virtues) have been transformed. Students examine how ideas, values and other aspects of culture (including power and authority) shape and are shaped by human experience and institutions. Students practice respectful, thoughtful and self-aware engagement to prepare them to navigate a variety of cultural environments; also taught at Galveston campus.
PHIL 285 Directed Studies
Credits 0 to 4.
0 to 4 Other Hours.
Directed studies in specific problem areas of philosophy. Prerequisite: Approval of department head.
PHIL 289 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 291 Research
Credits 0 to 3.
0 to 3 Other Hours.
Research conducted under the direction of faculty member in the department of philosophy and humanities. May be taken two times for credit. Prerequisites: Freshman or sophomore classification and approval of department head.
PHIL 305 Philosophy of Natural Science
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Philosophy challenges students to understand, articulate and evaluate arguments from multiple points of view. Students investigate scientific methods and achievements. Students examine the nature and types of explanation, discovery, confirmation, models and theories. Discussions may touch on questions such as: How sound are our reasons to think that accepted theories are better than rejected theories? What is required for something to be explained scientifically? How do we demarcate science from pseudoscience? For example, what is the status of Creation Science? Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.
PHIL 307 Philosophy of Social Science
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Philosophy challenges students to understand, articulate and evaluate arguments from multiple points of view. Students investigate the nature and objectivity of the social sciences, their paradigms and patterns of explanation. Students explore questions such as: Are there explanatory laws in the social sciences? Should social explanations always include information about individuals or can social facts by themselves be explanatory? What does the reproducibility crisis in the social sciences tell us? Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.
PHIL 314 Environmental Ethics
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Moral basis of duties to preserve or protect plants, animals and environmental systems; foundations of environmental law and policy; the idea of nature in philosophy; critique of social and economic analyses of environmental values. Prerequisite: Sophomore classification or approval of instructor; also taught at Galveston campus.
PHIL 315 Military Ethics
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Major ethical issues in modern military practice: ethics of leadership, just war theory, killing of the innocent and the moral status of the rules of war.
PHIL 317 Climate Ethics
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Ethical and value questions related to climate change and climate policy; moral responsibility for and theoretical approaches to climate change; climate justice; ethical analysis of mitigation, adaptation and geoengineering policies. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification.
PHIL 320 Philosophy of Mind
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Relation of mind to body, nature of thought and knowing, the free will problem, death and immortality. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.
PHIL 330 Philosophy of Art
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Philosophy challenges students to understand, articulate and evaluate arguments from multiple points of view. Students read texts that examine fundamental questions about the creation of art, the nature of beauty and aesthetic experience. Possible themes for exploration include the relationship of art to morality, the role of art in society and the impetus for artistic production. Classes may treat these themes through contemporary writings, through an historical approach that engages thinkers in the history of philosophy or by examining specific art forms. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor; also taught at Galveston campus.
PHIL 331/RELS 331 Philosophy of Religion
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Philosophical problems of Western religion such as the existence of God, the problem of evil, types of theism, rational, empirical and mystical approaches to God. Cross Listing: RELS 331/PHIL 331.
PHIL 332 Social and Political Philosophy
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Philosophy challenge students to understand, articulate and evaluate arguments from multiple points of view. Students investigate key questions, concepts and debates in social and political thought, including those that were particularly influential on the founding generation of the United States. Sources include canonical primary texts but may also encompass more contemporary or critical responses to the canon. Emphasis is on fundamental problems in political life and may include: the source of political authority, the just distribution of the burdens and benefits of social life, the limits of state authority, the essence of political community, citizenship or responsibilities of civic life. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.
PHIL 334 Philosophy of Law
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Philosophy challenges students to understand, articulate and evaluate arguments from multiple points of view. Students survey debates regarding foundational philosophical issues about the law. While the specific issues covered may vary from semester to semester, paradigmatic topics include: what makes a law a law, the relation of law to morality, the appropriate aim of criminal punishment, the basis of criminal responsibility, methods for interpreting the U.S. Constitution, the scope or limits of a specific constitutional right, the obligation to obey the law and civil disobedience, critiques of liberalism and the aim of tort law. Students examine major jurisprudential theories — such as natural law, positivism, realism and critical and phenomenological approaches — to understand how legal systems define justice, obligation and authority. Readings include both historical and contemporary jurisprudence as well as case law. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.
PHIL 336 Advanced Topics in Philosophy of Law
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Philosophy challenges students to understand, articulate and evaluate arguments from multiple points of view. Students pursue focused and in-depth study of a specific topic in philosophy of law. The topic changes semester to semester. Recent versions focused on: the meaning and scope of First Amendment rights, the legal protection of privacy, the history of differing conceptions of the rule of law, modern theories of legal positivism and realism and the study of legal ontology, which investigates the ways in which laws and legal institutions exist relative to other social objects. Readings are drawn from historical and/or contemporary jurisprudence as well as case law. Students design and execute independent research projects connected to the theme of the seminar. Contact the department for information about the theme for an upcoming semester. May be taken three times for credit. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.
PHIL 341 Symbolic Logic I
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Students explore the metatheory (formal languages, model theory and proof theory) of several basic systems of mathematical logic, including at least classical propositional logic and first-order logic with the theory of identity. Prerequisite: PHIL 240 or approval of instructor.
PHIL 342 Symbolic Logic II
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Students explore advanced topics in logical theory. Instructors choose from topics such as: modal logic, higher-order logic, set theory, the theory of computability, Gödel's incompleteness theorems and non-classical logic. Prerequisite: PHIL 240, PHIL 341 or approval of instructor.
PHIL 351 Theory of Knowledge
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Major topics in epistemology such as the problem of induction, perception theory, memory and the problem of other minds. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.
PHIL 352/AFST 352 Africana Philosophy
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Students understand, articulate and evaluate arguments from multiple points of view and may consider perspectives from a range of cultures. Students examine the philosophical contributions born of and germane to the experience of the African diaspora, which includes but is not limited to those who identify as African, Afro-Caribbean or African-American. Emphasis, themes and readings vary depending on the instructor; possible themes may include various conceptions of modern notions of freedom, equality, humanity and reason, taken up in the historical context of institutional slavery and the colonization of the Global South. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor. Cross Listing: AFST 352/PHIL 352.
PHIL 361 Metaphysics
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Topics concerning the fundamental nature of reality such as what exists, the mental and the physical, universals and individuals, space and time, God. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.
PHIL 371 Philosophy of Literature
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Philosophy challenges students to understand, articulate and evaluate arguments from multiple points of view. Students analyze multifaceted relationships between philosophy and literature. Class may include philosophical analysis of major recurrent themes in world literature as well as examination of what is philosophical about literature itself. Students may read works by philosophers in addition to novelists and essayists.
PHIL 376/FILM 376 Philosophy, Film and Evil
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Philosophy challenges students to understand, articulate and evaluate arguments from multiple points of view. Students examine the concept of evil through the medium of film, exploring how cinema reflects, interprets and interrogates philosophical understandings of morality, suffering and human nature. Students engage with major philosophical approaches to evil, such as classical theodicies and free will defenses and modern accounts of cruelty, moral psychology and systemic violence, while analyzing cinematic depictions that illuminate these themes. Students investigate how film both represents and questions moral experience. Lectures, discussions, screenings and writing projects combine to cultivate philosophical insight through visual storytelling in cinema. Students practice respectful, thoughtful and self-aware discourse on contentious issues and understand how power and authority are exercised in and shape institutions so that they are able to competently navigate a variety of cultural environments. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor. Cross Listing: FILM 376/PHIL 376.
PHIL 381 Ethical Theory
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Values and conduct such as moral relativism, self-interest, utilitarianism, rules, nature of valuation, ethical language and argumentation. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor; also taught at Galveston campus.
PHIL 383 Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Ethical, social, and epistemic aspects of the development of artificial intelligence (AI); foundational normative principles and their application; consequences of AI; responsible use and regulation. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification, or approval of instructor.
PHIL 385 Philosophy and Technology
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Philosophical investigation of the creation and use of technology; the relations between technology, science and engineering; and how technology influences human existence, ethics and society. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.
PHIL 408 Latin American Philosophy
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Advanced philosophical investigation into the tradition of Latin American philosophy and its key approaches, ideas, cultural production and politics; major figures from the colonial period to the present; philosophical themes related to areas such as legacies of colonialism, identity, ethics, culture, politics, knowledge and meta-philosophy. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification.
PHIL 409 Philosophy of Gender
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Philosophy challenges students to understand, articulate and evaluate arguments from multiple points of view. Students pursue advanced philosophical investigation into key approaches and themes of feminist thought. Students engage in philosophical and critical evaluation of the role of gender and sex in the formation of intellectual and cultural history, social norms and identity. May be taken two times for credit as content varies. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.
PHIL 410 Classical Philosophy
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Major philosophers from 600 BCE to the end of the third century CE such as the Pre-Socratics, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Hellenistic, and Roman philosophy. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.
PHIL 411 Medieval Philosophy
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Major philosophers from the fourth century through the 14th century, emphasizing writers such as Augustine, Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Hildegard of Bingen, and William of Ockham. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.
PHIL 412 Seventeenth-Century Philosophy
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Significant seventeenth-century texts in metaphysics, epistemology, moral psychology, and political philosophy; authors such as Cavendish, Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Leibniz, and Locke. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.
PHIL 413 Eighteenth-Century Philosophy
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Significant eighteenth-century texts from philosophers such as Berkeley, Cockburn, Hume, Kant, and Rousseau. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.
PHIL 414 Nineteenth-Century Philosophy
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Significant nineteenth-century texts from philosophers such as Bettina, Bradley, Dubois, Hegel, Husserl, Kierkegaard, Marx, Mill, and Nietzsche. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.
PHIL 415 American Philosophy
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
The thought of philosophers such as Peirce, James, Royce, Santayana, Mead, Dewey and Whitehead. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.
PHIL 416 History of Early Analytic Philosophy
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Major philosophers in contemporary Anglo-American thought such as Moore, Russell, Wittgenstein, Ayer, Quine, Austin, Ryle, and Barcan Marcus. Prerequisites: PHIL 240.
PHIL 417 Phenomenology
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Phenomenology from its nineteenth-century origins to the present; authors such as Brentano, Husserl, Scheler, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Levinas, Henry, Marion, and Irigaray. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.
PHIL 418 Existentialism
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Existentialism from its nineteenth-century origins to the present; philosophers such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Buber, Rosenzweig, Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Camus. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.
PHIL 419 Current Continental Philosophy
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Philosophy challenges students to understand, articulate and evaluate arguments from multiple points of view. Students focus on major philosophers and philosophical approaches from the 20th and 21st century in reference to primary texts associated with areas such as: phenomenology; hermeneutics; critical theory; structuralism, deconstruction and poststructuralism; feminist theory; postmodernism; and related areas. Students explore themes such as understanding and interpretation, language and meaning, ideology critique, power and issues of social justice. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.
PHIL 420 Comparative Philosophy
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Use of comparative methods, ranging from comparison and contrast of methods, problem framing, and argumentation, to cross-cultural problem-solving employing resources drawn from different traditions, to examine philosophical topics such as reality, knowledge, and morality. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.
PHIL 424 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. Prerequisites: PHIL 240 and junior or senior classification; or approval of instructor.
PHIL 451 Probability and Decision
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Philosophy of probability, including such topics as competing interpretations of probability, confirmation theory and the relation between probability and degrees of belief; decision theory, including such topics as utility and expected utility, causal decision theory vs. evidential decision theory and game theory. Prerequisites: 3 hours of core MATH and 3 hours of PHIL.
PHIL 452 Social Choice
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
An exploration of social choice theory and different approaches to decision-making in groups, including applications to voting and democratic theory. Possible topics include interpersonal utility comparison, Arrow's impossibility theorem, Condorcet’s jury theorem, strategic voting, gerrymandering and political polarization. Prerequisite: 3 hours of core MATH and 3 hours of PHIL.
PHIL 470 Animal Welfare, Ethics and Law
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Key conceptions of animal welfare; approaches to animal ethics; analysis of important ideas in animal law; consideration of animal contexts such as agricultural, experimental, wild, companion and zoo animals. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification, or approval of instructor.
PHIL 480 Medical Ethics
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Critical analysis of major ethical issues in medicine including truthtelling, confidentiality, paternalism, genetics, abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and social justice in health care.
PHIL 482 Ethics and Engineering
Credits 3.
2 Lecture Hours.
2 Lab Hours.
Philosophy challenges students to understand, articulate and evaluate arguments from multiple points of view. Students explore ethical and social theories, principles and engineering codes of ethics and their application to ethical challenges faced by engineers. Students engage with issues, such as satisfying responsibilities to an employer, client, fellow employees, one’s profession and the public; managing project pressures, risks, liability, regulations and environmental concerns. Students practice resolving challenges that arise from varying norms found in international and cross-cultural initiatives, especially on gifts, bribes and extortion. Students critically consider the ways engineers and engineering change the human experience, cultures and the environment. Students practice respectful and thoughtful dialogue on contemporary issues, become aware of their own perspectives and understand how power and authority are exercised in and shape institutions so that they can competently navigate a variety of cultural environments. Coursework focuses on independent ethical analysis of real and hypothetical cases and on the techniques that can be used to evaluate them. Prerequisite: Junior classification.
PHIL 484 Professional Internship
Credits 0 to 6.
0 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. May be taken five times for credit. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor and department head.
PHIL 485 Directed Studies
Credits 0 to 6.
0 to 6 Other Hours.
Directed studies in specific problem areas of philosophy. Prerequisite: Approval of department head.
PHIL 489 Special Topics in...
Credits 1 to 4.
1 to 4 Lecture Hours.
0 to 4 Lab Hours.
Selected topics in an identified area of philosophy; also taught at Galveston campus. May be repeated for credit.
PHIL 491 Research
Credits 0 to 3.
0 to 3 Other Hours.
Research conducted under the direction of faculty member in the department of philosophy and humanities. May be taken two times for credit. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification and approval of dean of college.
PHIL 497 Independent Honors Studies
Credits 1 to 3.
1 to 3 Other Hours.
Directed independent studies in specific philosophical problems. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification either as Honors students or with overall GPR of 3.25; letter of approval from head of student's major department.
