2003-2004 - The University of Scranton

PHIL 320 3 cr.
(P) Aesthetics
The main theories of the essential character of
beauty or art, how they are judged, how they are
related to the mind and the whole person, how
they are created and how this creativity expresses
a commitment to oneself and to the world.
PHIL 321 3 cr.
Great Books
Major thinkers in the Western philosophical,
religious, political and literary traditions. This
course emphasizes philosophical themes in
literature.
PHIL 325 3 cr.
(P) Literature and Ethics
This course examines the “old quarrel between
philosophy and literature,” the dispute between
Plato and Ancient Athenian poets regarding the
best and truest source of moral knowledge, and
examines the impact of this quarrel on contemporary
moral theory and practice.
PHIL 326 3 cr.
(P,D) Advanced Topics in Feminist Philosophy
(Prerequisite: PHIL 218, other women’s studies
courses, or permission of instructor.) This course
will explore a special topic in feminist philosophy.
Course may be repeated as topics vary. Possible
topics might include: feminist aesthetics,
issues of equality, theories of the body. This
course is cross-listed with Women’s Studies.
PHIL 327 3 cr.
Readings in the Later Plato
A survey and contextualization of the dialogues
usually said to be “Later” in Plato’s intellectual
development will precede a textually based
examination of those dialogues in which Plato’s
dialectic turns on the “concept” of difference.
Thaetetus, Sophist, and Parmenides will be
emphasized.
PHIL 328 3 cr.
(P) Philosophy of Literature
This course examines the nature of literature,
and its relation to philosophy and political life.
Students will study both classical texts on literature
and contemporary Anglo-American examinations
and appropriations of them, as well as
recent European literary theory.
PHIL 331 3 cr.
(P) Feminist Philosophy of Science
A feminist critique of both the alleged value-free
character of modern science and the positivist
philosophy of science supporting this view. The
Arts and Sciences/Philosophy 175
course thus focuses on feminist arguments for the
contextual, i.e., social, political and economic,
nature of science and the resulting need to
rethink such key concepts as objectivity, evidence
and truth in light of androcentrism and gender
bias. Consideration is also given to critical
responses from feminist and nonfeminist defenders
of more traditional accounts of science.
PHIL 340 3 cr.
(P,D) Philosophy and Judaism
A study of several Jewish thinkers who lived and
wrote in the context of two “endings”: the end
of European Jewery in the Holocaust and the
end of the Jewish Diaspora through the creation
of Israel.
PHIL 410 3 cr.
(P) Philosophy of Culture
Examines the meaning of the term “culture.”
Explores the notions of civilization and barbarism,
common principles in cultural development,
and the interaction of such cultural forces
as myth, magic, language, art, religion, science,
and technology. Special attention will be given to
the question of “progress” and “regress” in culture.
PHIL 411 3 cr.
(P) Thomas Aquinas: Philosophy and
Controversy
PHIL 411 is a contextual study of Thomas
Aquinas’ philosophy, a great thinker in the 13th
century. Selections from his metaphysics, ethics,
and anthropology will be examined. His dispute
with the Averroists on the status of the intellect,
the condemnation of some propositions of his in
1277, and his later canonization in 1325 will
also be discussed.
PHIL 412 3 cr.
(P,D) Art and Metaphysics
The course utilizes the work of Martin Heidegger
as well as several contemporary American novels
to explore the philosophical problem of nihilism
as it manifests itself today in the relationship
between modern technology and art. Special
attention is given to modern architecture.
PHIL 414 3 cr.
(P,D,W) Philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas
This course is a study of the 20th-century Jewish
philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. We will focus
on Levinas’ theory of ethical experience, an
account that takes its categories from both Greek
and Hebrew sources, thereby enriching the dialogue
between Jewish and Christian traditions in
philosophy.