Philosophy (PHIL)

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PHIL 2.     Ethics. 3 Units

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: Humanities (Area C2)

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Examination of the concepts of morality, obligation, human rights and the good life. Competing theories about the foundations of morality will be investigated.

PHIL 4.     Critical Thinking. 3 Units

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: Critical Thinking (A3)

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Study of the basic skills of good reasoning needed for the intelligent and responsible conduct of life. Topics include: argument structure and identification, validity and strength of arguments, common fallacies of reasoning, use and abuse of language in reasoning, principles of fair play in argumentation.

PHIL 6.     Introduction to Philosophy: Knowledge, World and Self. 3 Units

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: Humanities (Area C2)

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Representative selection of philosophical problems will be explored in areas such as knowledge, reality, religion, science, politics, art and morals.

PHIL 21.     First Year Seminar: Becoming an Educated Person. 3 Units

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: Understanding Personal Development (E)

Term Typically Offered: Fall only

Introduction to the nature and possible meanings of higher education, and the functions and resources of the University. Designed to help students develop and exercise fundamental academic success strategies and to improve their basic learning skills. Students have the opportunity to interact with fellow classmates and the seminar leader to build a community of academic support and personal support.

PHIL 26.     History of Philosophy. 3 Units

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: Humanities (Area C2)

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Introduction to the history of philosophy, emphasizing such themes as the foundations of knowledge, the nature of reality, the basis of a good life and a just society, the existence of God, and the nature of self, and tracing the development of these themes from antiquity to the modern period.

PHIL 27.     History of Early Modern Philosophy. 3 Units

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: Humanities (Area C2)

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Examines the major developments in Western philosophy after the Middle Ages, with emphasis on the period from Descartes to Kant. Attention will be paid to the general historical and cultural setting within which the philosophical theories developed.

PHIL 56.     Research Integrity. 1 Unit

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Basic regulatory and ethical requirements for doing research. Topics covered include protection of human subjects, data management, authorship, peer review, mentoring, animal experimentation, conflict of interest, and collaborative research.

Credit/No Credit

PHIL 60.     Deductive Logic I. 3 Units

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: Math Concepts & Quantitative Reasoning (B4)

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Introduction to deductive logic. Topics include: basic concepts of deductive logic; techniques of formal proof in propositional and predicate logic.

PHIL 61.     Inductive Logic I. 3 Units

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: Math Concepts & Quantitative Reasoning (B4)

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Introduction to inductive logic and the problem of decision under uncertainty. Topics include: the nature of inductive rationality, philosophical theories of induction and probability, cognitive biases and common errors in inductive reasoning, and philosophical problems in defining risk, rational agency, and the expected value of an action.

PHIL 89.     Philosophical Methods. 2 Units

Prerequisite(s): Student must be a declared Philosophy Major.

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

An introduction to philosophical methods and basic concepts to prepare students for coursework in the major. The survey of topics will emphasize developing skills in reading philosophical texts, writing philosophical analyses and engaging in philosophical discussions.

PHIL 101.     Ethics and Social Issues. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): GWAR certification before Fall 09; or WPJ score of 80+; or 3-unit placement in ENGL 109M or ENGL 109W; or 4-unit placement in ENGL 109M or ENGL 109W and co-enrollment in ENGL 109X; or WPJ score 70 or 71 and co-enrollment in ENGL 109X.

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: Writing Intensive Graduation Requirement (WI), GE AREA D

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer

Moral controversies that divide society today, such as abortion, the death penalty, affirmative action, sexism, war and peace. Emphasis is on identifying the relevant values and moral principles underlying competing views and subjecting them to rational assessment.

PHIL 102.     Professional and Public Service Ethics. 3 Units

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: Humanities (Area C2)

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer

Prepares students planning careers in professional practice or public service to identify, understand, and resolve ethical problems. Includes examinations of (i) ethical theory, rights and duties, virtue ethics, utilitarian ethics, social contract theory, and role morality; (ii) the philosophical underpinnings of professional codes of conduct, regulations, and norms of professional and public service practices; (iii) moral reasoning and argumentation; (iv) the relation between ethical judgement and action; (v) the relation between professional practice, public service, and democratic principles.

PHIL 103.     Business and Computer Ethics. 3 Units

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: GE AREA D

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer

Analytical treatment of controversial moral issues which emerge in the business world, e.g., affirmative action, corporate responsibility, the global economy, industry and environmental damage, social effects of advertising, the computer threat to personal privacy, ownership of computer programs. Discussion will focus on basic moral principles and concepts relevant to these issues.

PHIL 104.     Bioethics. 3 Units

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: GE AREA D

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer

Ethical dilemmas faced by professionals and patients in the field of medicine, e.g., patient self-determination and informed consent, discrimination in health care, euthanasia, abortion, surrogate motherhood, genetic modification, and rights to health care. Emphasis is on the well-reasoned application of general moral principles to practical medical decisions.

PHIL 105.     Science and Human Values. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): GWAR certification before Fall 09; or WPJ score of 80+; or 3-unit placement in ENGL 109M or ENGL 109W; or 4-unit placement in ENGL 109M or ENGL 109W and co-enrollment in ENGL 109X; or WPJ score 70 or 71 and co-enrollment in ENGL 109X.

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: Writing Intensive Graduation Requirement (WI), GE AREA D

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Examination of the values implicit in a scientific culture and the problems that arise as a commitment to the development of scientific knowledge and technology. These problems include: distinguishing good scientific practice from bad; the intrinsic value of scientific knowledge independent of its benefits in application; the proper and improper applications of scientific knowledge.

PHIL 106.     Philosophy of Medicine. 3 Units

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Examination of philosophical issues arising in medical theory and practice. Topics include: concepts and theories of health, disease, disability, and death; causal inference, extrapolation, and statistical inference in medical research; ethical concepts and theories relevant to therapeutic treatment and research; animal experimentation; evidence-based medicine and randomized clinical trials; objectivity and bias; expertise and clinical judgment; public health policy and health inequalities.

PHIL 112.     History Of Ethics. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): GWAR certification before Fall 09; or WPJ score of 80+; or 3-unit placement in ENGL 109M or ENGL 109W; or 4-unit placement in ENGL 109M or ENGL 109W and co-enrollment in ENGL 109X; or WPJ score 70 or 71 and co-enrollment in ENGL 109X.

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: Writing Intensive Graduation Requirement (WI), Humanities (Area C2)

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Investigation of the main approaches to ethics in Western moral philosophy. Emphasis on Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Kant and Mill.

PHIL 115.     Philosophy In Literature. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): GWAR certification before Fall 09; or WPJ score of 80+; or 3-unit placement in ENGL 109M or ENGL 109W; or 4-unit placement in ENGL 109M or ENGL 109W and co-enrollment in ENGL 109X; or WPJ score 70 or 71 and co-enrollment in ENGL 109X.

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: Humanities (Area C2), Writing Intensive Graduation Requirement (WI)

Term Typically Offered: Spring only – even years

Study of selected works of fiction which focus on philosophically controversial questions, e.g., basic moral dilemmas, the meaning of life, alienation, nihilism, the existence of God.

PHIL 117.     Existentialism. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): GWAR certification before Fall 09; or WPJ score of 80+; or 3-unit placement in ENGL 109M or ENGL 109W; or 4-unit placement in ENGL 109M or ENGL 109W and co-enrollment in ENGL 109X; or WPJ score 70 or 71 and co-enrollment in ENGL 109X.

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: Humanities (Area C2), Writing Intensive Graduation Requirement (WI)

Term Typically Offered: Fall only

Study of the problem of the existing individual, or inner self -- most especially the problem of choice in the context of radical freedom and finitude. Particular attention will be paid to the philosophical writings of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Sartre, through some major literary works of these figures and others (Camus, Dostoevsky) will also be considered.

PHIL 122.     Political Philosophy. 3 Units

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: Humanities (Area C2)

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

A philosophical examination of the individual, the community, and rights; the conflict between individual rights and the common good; various conceptions of justice, equality, liberty and the public good; and the relationship of politics to ethics, economics, law; war and peace.

PHIL 123.     Philosophy and Feminism. 3 Units

Term Typically Offered: Spring only – even years

Study of feminist perspectives on important philosophical questions. Examples of the questions treated are: mind-body dualism; reason and emotion; the fact/value distinction; the nature of the public and private realms; equal rights; and whether knowledge is intrinsically "gendered." Different feminist perspectives will be considered and compared with traditional approaches to these questions.

PHIL 125.     Philosophy Of Science. 3 Units

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: Further Studies in Area B (B5)

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer

Study of the philosophical problems that arise in the sciences: the nature of scientific reasoning, the limits and styles of explanation, identifying pseudoscience, values in science, unity and diversity of the sciences, and science's impact on our world view.

PHIL 127.     History of Ancient Philosophy. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): PHIL 89.

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Examination of the origins of Western philosophy, with emphasis on the works of the Pre-Socratics, Plato, and Aristotle.

PHIL 128.     History of Modern Philosophy. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): PHIL 89.

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Examination of the major developments in Western philosophy after the Middle Ages with emphasis on the period from Descartes to Kant.

PHIL 131.     Philosophy Of Religion. 3 Units

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: Humanities (Area C2)

Term Typically Offered: Summer only

Introduction to philosophical theology, the philosophical study of religious assertions, arguments, and beliefs: the existence and nature of God; the rationality of religious belief; the relation of faith to reason; the problem of evil; immortality and resurrection; the possibility of miracles; the meaning of religious language. Includes both traditional and contemporary approaches.

PHIL 136.     Philosophy Of Art. 3 Units

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: Arts (Area C1)

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Inquiry into the nature of art, beauty and criticism, with critical consideration of representative theories.

PHIL 145A.     Chinese Philosophy. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): GWAR certification before Fall 09; or WPJ score of 80+; or 3-unit placement in ENGL 109M or ENGL 109W; or 4-unit placement in ENGL 109M or ENGL 109W and co-enrollment in ENGL 109X; or WPJ score 70 or 71 and co-enrollment in ENGL 109X.

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: Writing Intensive Graduation Requirement (WI), Humanities (Area C2)

Term Typically Offered: Spring only

Survey of the major philosophical traditions of China and Japan, focusing on concepts of nature, man, society, freedom and knowledge. Special attention will be given to Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and recent philosophical movements. Taught alternate semesters with PHIL 145B.

PHIL 145B.     Philosophies Of India. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): GWAR certification before Fall 09; or WPJ score of 80+; or 3-unit placement in ENGL 109M or ENGL 109W; or 4-unit placement in ENGL 109M or ENGL 109W and co-enrollment in ENGL 109X; or WPJ score 70 or 71 and co-enrollment.

General Education Area/Graduation Requirement: Writing Intensive Graduation Requirement (WI), Humanities (Area C2)

Term Typically Offered: Fall only

Survey of the major schools of Indian philosophical development. The emphasis will be on the Hindu and Buddhist traditions, with consideration given to competing notions of the self, consciousness, the origin of human suffering, and the possibility of transcendence.

Note: Taught alternate semesters with PHIL 145A.

PHIL 153.     Philosophy Of Mind. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): 3 units in philosophy or instructor permission.

Term Typically Offered: Spring only

Rival theories of the nature of the mind and mental activity, including dualism, materialism, functionalism. Difficulties in achieving a theoretical understanding of familiar psychological concepts such as belief, sensation, emotion, intention.

PHIL 154.     Philosophy Of Language. 3 Units

Term Typically Offered: Fall only

Study of philosophical issues concerning language: theories of the nature of linguistic meaning, in particular those involving the concepts of sense, reference, truth conditions, intention, convention, speech act, and force. Topics include the relation between meaning and reference to objects, and between meaning and mental processes. Emphasis on contemporary views, including views on the promise of a theory of language to shed light on fundamental philosophical problems in metaphysics and the philosophy of mind.

PHIL 155.     Philosophy Of Law. 3 Units

Term Typically Offered: Spring only

Theories of the nature of law, e.g., natural law, legal positivism, legal realism. Selected controversies in contemporary law will also be studied, such as the justification of punishment, the legislation of morality, judicial activism vs. judicial restraint.

PHIL 156.     Philosophy of the Social Sciences. 3 Units

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

An examination of concepts and problems arising in the philosophical study of the social sciences, including issues pertaining to ontology, epistemology, methodology, values & objectivity, scientific models, and explanation. Some questions explored are: What are social phenomena and social categories? What makes social science different from natural science? How do values influence the practice of social science? What kinds of mathematical and computational models are used in social science? How does social science explain social phenomena?

PHIL 160.     Deductive Logic II. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): CSC 28 or PHIL 60 or instructor permission.

Term Typically Offered: Spring only

Further study of deductive logic. Topics include: principles of inference for quantified predicate logic; connectives; quantifiers; relations; sets; modality; properties of formal logical systems, e.g. consistency and completeness; and interpretations of deductive systems in mathematics, science, and ordinary language.

PHIL 176.     Twentieth Century Anglo-American Philosophy. 3 Units

Term Typically Offered: Spring only

Rise of the analytic tradition in contemporary Anglo-American philosophy represents a turn toward common sense, science, language, logic and rigor. Readings will cover the philosophical movements of common sense, logical atomism, logical positivism, ordinary language philosophy and more recent analytical philosophy.

PHIL 180.     Knowledge and Understanding. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): PHIL 60 or 61; PHIL 127 and 128 or instructor permission.

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Examines the nature of knowledge and understanding, as well as related concepts such as explanation, justification, and belief. Representative topics include: the Gettier problem, skepticism, the factivity of understanding, naturalized epistemology, pragmatic encroachment, and the value of knowledge. Emphasis is on contemporary formulations.

PHIL 181.     Metaphysics. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): PHIL 60 or 61; PHIL 127 and 128 or instructor permission.

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Examines arguments concerning the nature of reality. Representative topics include: substance, space, time, God, free will, determinism, identity, universals. Emphasis is on contemporary formulations.

PHIL 182.     Ethical Theory. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): PHIL 60 or 61; PHIL 127 and 128 or instructor permission.

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Examines major topics in normative ethics and meta ethics. Representative topics in normative ethics include principles of goodness, virtue, and right action as featured in utilitarianism, virtue theory, Kantianism, or rights-based theories. Representative topics in meta ethics include the semantics of moral terms, the epistemology of moral belief, and the metaphysics of moral properties.

PHIL 183.     Rationality. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): PHIL 60 or 61, PHIL 127, PHIL 128

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Examines the nature of rationality, its value, structure, limits, purpose, origins, operations, and proper use. Topics include the nature of deductive rationality, inductive rationality, bounded rationality, irrationality, reasoning under ignorance and uncertainty, probabilistic decision-making, expected value theory, utility theory, and game theory.

PHIL 189.     Senior Seminar in Philosophy. 1 Unit

Prerequisite(s): Philosophy majors (any concentration), 21 upper-division units in Philosophy, and graduating semester; or instructor permission.

Corequisite(s): Philosophy major (any concentration) and graduating semester; or instructor permission.

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

A required capstone experience in the philosophy major. The course involves: completion of a senior essay under direction of a faculty member; preparation for knowledge and skills examination; submission of written critiques for three public events in philosophy; completion of departmental assessment questionnaire.

PHIL 190.     Selected Philosophers. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): 6 units in Philosophy or instructor permission.

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

An examination of the works of one or more important philosophers in different philosophical areas such as ethics, political philosophy, metaphysics, logic and epistemology.

Note: This course can be repeated for credit once if the second iteration focuses on a different philosopher than the first

PHIL 192B.     Topics in Bioethics. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): 6 units of Philosophy or instructor permission

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Advanced in-depth study of an ethical dilemma faced by professionals and patients in the field of medicine, such as patient self-determination and informed consent, discrimination in health care, euthanasia, abortion, surrogate motherhood, genetic modification, or rights of health care.

PHIL 192E.     Topics in Epistemology. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): 6 units in Philosophy or instructor permission.

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Topics include: the nature of inquiry, knowledge, explanation, understanding, rationality, judgment, and decision.

Note: This course can be repeated for credit once if the second iteration focuses on a different specific topic within Epistemology.

PHIL 192F.     Topics in Ethics. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): 6 units in Philosophy or instructor permission.

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Topics include: animal rights, abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide, poverty, race, gender, same-sex marriage, war and humanitarian intervention, environmental ethics, ethics of science or technology, and other advanced topics in bioethics.

Note: This course can be repeated once for credit if the second iteration focuses on a different specific topic within Ethics

PHIL 192L.     Topics in Philosophy Language. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): 6 units in philosophy or instructor permission.

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Advanced topics in the philosophy of language. Topics may include: sense and reference, meaning and force, intentions vs. conventions, conditions for sameness of sense, conditions for successful reference, propositional content, indexical and demonstrative reference, and the semantics of propositional attitude and perceptual reports, linguistic pragmatics.

PHIL 192M.     Topics in Philosophy of Mind. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): 6 units in philosophy or instructor permission.

Topics in Philosophy of Mind. Topics may include: Artificial Intelligence; Qualia; functionalism; philosophy of neuroscience; property dualism; eliminative materialism; or specific theories of consciousness. Emphasis is on contemporary formulations.

PHIL 192O.     Topics in Contemporary Metaphysics. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): 6 units in Philosophy or instructor permission

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Contemporary topics in metaphysics. Topics may include: Ontology; realism and anti-realism; universals; individuals; substance; identity through time and change; kinds and degrees of necessity; physicalism; moral realism; realism regarding social entities. Emphasis is on contemporary formulations.

PHIL 192P.     Topics in Social and Political Philosophy. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): 6 units in Philosophy or instructor permission.

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Topics include: specific theories such as anarchism, libertarianism, and contractualism; feminist theories; critical race theory; philosophy of education; and other concepts such as authority, justice, rights, equality, and freedom.

Note: This course can be repeated for credit once if the second iteration focuses on a different specific topic within Social and Political Philosophy.

PHIL 192R.     Topics in Philosophy of Religion. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): 6 units of Philosophy or instructor permission

Topics may include: The problem of evil, atheism, modal arguments for God's existence, design arguments for God's existence, reformed epistemology, recent work in natural theology, divine hiddenness, skeptical theism, or Molinism. Emphasis is on contemporary formulations.

PHIL 192S.     Topics in Philosophy of Science. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): 6 units of Philosophy or instructor permission.

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Topics include: Issues in the epistemology and ontology of science; special problems in the philosophy of mathematics, physics, chemistry, cognitive science, and biology; naturalistic and non naturalistic approaches to understanding scientific inquiry.

Note: This course can be repeated for credit once if the second iteration focuses on a different specific topic within the Philosophy of Science

PHIL 192T.     Topics in Philosophy of Social Science. 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): 6 units in Philosophy or instructor permission.

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Topics include: the ontology of social kinds, social construction, individualism vs. structuralism, philosophy of economics, explanations of social injustice, critical theory, methodology of social sciences, and categorization and measurement in the social sciences.

Note: This course can be repeated for credit once if the second iteration focuses on a different specific topic within the Philosophy of Social Science.

PHIL 195.     Philosophy Internship. 1 - 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): Instructor permission.

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Supervised work experience in an approved office or organization where significant philosophical issues are raised. The student must write regular reports on these issues. Supervision is provided by the faculty instructor and a managing official in the work situation. Open to majors only.

Credit/No Credit

PHIL 196.     Experimental Offerings in Philosophy. 3 Units

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Experimental offerings will be scheduled as needed.

PHIL 197.     Honors Thesis. 1 Unit

Prerequisite(s): Admission into Philosophy Department Honors Concentration.

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Capstone seminar for Honors Program students in Philosophy major. Student will propose, research, write, and present an honors thesis; student will also provide comments and criticism of other honors theses.

PHIL 199.     Special Problems. 1 - 3 Units

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Special projects calling for independent philosophical investigation under the supervision of an individual faculty member.

Note: Requires prior approval of the faculty member under whom work is to be conducted.

Credit/No Credit

PHIL 299.     Special Problems. 1 - 3 Units

Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

Special projects calling for independent philosophical investigation under the supervision of an individual faculty member.

Note: Requires graduate status and prior approval of the faculty member under whom work is to be conducted.

Credit/No Credit