CRITICAL & HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY -	PHL 107, Section A - MWF 0930-1020 (Fall 2007)
								PHL 107, Section E - MWF 1130-1220 (Fall 2007)
Instructor: Dr. Eugene E. Selk

Prerequisites: None/Fulfills a Core B requirement

Course Description: This course examines some classical texts in philosophy and then explores problems raised by these texts.  The classic texts are Plato’s Republic, Aquinas’ “On Truth,” Hobbes’ Leviathan, Mill’s On Liberty, and Camus’ The Plague.  The problems are (1) the citizens’ obligation to the state, (2) truth, (3) liberty, (4) the meaning of life, and (5) cognitive, ethical, and aesthetic relativism.  The course also includes the basics of logic.

Required Work: Three exams (two-thirds essay and one-third objective), three reading quizzes, and two two-page papers.

Texts:	Plato, The Apology, The Crito, The Republic
	Hobbes, Leviathan
	J. S. Mill, On Liberty
	Camus, The Plague

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CRITICAL & HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY -	PHL 107, Section B - MWF 0930-1020 (Fall 2007)
									PHL 107, Section D - MWF 1030-1120 (Fall 2007)
Instructor: Dr. Amy E. Wendling

Prerequisites: None/Fulfills a Core B requirement

Course Description: In Greek, Philosophy literally means the “love of wisdom.”  In this course, we will begin with Eros, or sexual love, and see how it is treated in Ancient and Medieval Thinkers.  We will see how the rejection of this form of love is accompanied by a series of rejections of the material world and its illusions.  Ultimately, this will lead us into one of the great problems of Modern and Contemporary thought: the contest between idealism and materialism.  During our reading of historical texts, we will take care to note their enduring application to the current human condition.

In addition to Eros, we will also study Logos, or reason.  You will learn the basic structures, rules, and strategies of reasoned argumentation.  We will be able to spot how the thinkers we are reading deploy these structures, rules, and strategies.  You will also learn some of the common errors that corrupt clear thinking, called fallacies.

Required Work: Daily journal; participation/attendance; midterm exam; final exam.

Texts:	Augustine.  1961.  Confessions.  R.S. Pine-Coffin, trans.  New York: Penguin.
	Descartes, René.  1999.  Meditations and Other Metaphysical Writings.  New York: Penguin.
	Karl Marx and Eugene Kamenka.  1983.  The Portable Karl Marx.  New York: Penguin.
	Plato.  1989.  Symposium.  Paul Woodruff and Alexander Nehamas, trans.  Indianapolis: Hackett.
	Weston, Anthony.  2001.  A Rulebook for Arguments, Third Edition.  Indianapolis: Hackett.

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CRITICAL & HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY -	PHL 107, Section C - MWF 1030-1120 (Fall 2007)
									PHL 107, Section F - MWF 1130-1220 (Fall 2007)
Instructory: Dr. Kevin M. Graham

Prerequisites: None/Fulfulls a Core B requirement

Course Description: “Philosophy” is a Greek word meaning “love of wisdom.”  So in order to get acquainted with this subject, it would be helpful to understand something about love and to determine how the love of wisdom is similar to and different from other forms of love, including friendship and romantic love.  In this course we will discuss the nature of love, the nature of philosophy, the relationship between the two, and the role of each in a good human life.  Our discussion will be informed by the study of several major philosophical works on these topics drawn  from a variety of periods and cultures of Western civilization.

Required Work: One short essay (750 words), one medium-length essay (1000 words), two examinations, participation in class discussions, regular informal writing exercises.

Texts:	Weston, A Rulebook for Arguments, 3rd ed.
	Plato, Symposium
	Augustine, Confessions
	Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
	Sartre, No Exit
	de Beauvoir, The Second Sex

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CRITICAL & HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY -	PHL 107, Section G - MWF 1230-1320 (Fall 2007)
									
Instructor: Dr. J. Patrick Murray

Prerequisites: None/Fulfills a Core B requirement

Course Description: This course is a historical and critical introduction to philosophy that includes a short course in fundamentals of logic.  It is historical in that it will take up, in order, philosophers from four different periods of Western philosophy: ancient (Plato and Seneca), medieval (St. Thomas Aquinas), modern (Jean-Jacques Rousseau), and contemporary (de Beauvoir).  Moreover, attention will be paid to the historical distinctiveness of these periods, e.g., the dominance of the Roman Catholic Church in the medieval period or the rise of science in the modern period.  The course will be critical in that the texts will be examined and evaluated philosophically–are the claims made by the authors defensible?–rather than treated as dusty historical artifacts.  The logic portion of the course is intended to help in developing the skills of identifying, analyzing, evaluating, and constructing arguments.

Required Work: The primary work required is regular reading.  There will be quizzes, some unannounced.  There will also be three essay exams during the semester and a cumulative final exam.  Two short papers (two or three pages) are required.

Texts:	(tentative)
	Plato, Five Dialogues
	Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
	Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
	David Hume, “The Skeptic”
	St. Thomas Aquinas, On Human Nature
	Jean Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Human Inequality
	Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Grand Inquisitor
	Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
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CRITICAL & HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY -	PHL 107, Section H - MWF 1330-1420 (Fall 2007)
									PHL 107, Section I -   MWF 1430-1520 (Fall 2007)
									
Instructor: Dr. Thomas J. Kiefer

Prerequisites: None/Fulfills a Core B requirement

Course Description:  Philosophy is one of the great achievements of human culture in that it considers, in a deep, general yet all-inclusive way, important issues and problems that affect everyone.  In this class, we will cover historical and contemporary approaches to fundamental problems in ethics, questions about the nature of knowledge and skepticism, and metaphysical issues personal identity, free will and the problem of evil.  We will also get a taste of ancient Greek philosophy through Plato, and Chinese philosophy through Lao Tzu.  By the end of the course, you should have a firm grounding in the basics of philosophy and critical  thinking.

Required Work: To be determined.

Texts:	Rauhut & Smith, Readings on the Ultimate Questions 2nd ed.
	Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
	Plato, Gorgias

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CRITICAL & HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY -	PHL 107, Section J - TR 0930-1045 (Fall 2007)

Instructor: Dr. Richard J. White

Prerequisites: None/Fulfills a Core B requirement

Course Description: This class will offer a basic introduction to the theory and practise of philosophy.  In the first place it will be a critical introduction:  we shall discuss a variety of the most enduring problems of philosophy from the meaning of the good life to the problem of the mind and its relationship to the body.  In each case, we will try to decide which arguments are the best arguments and we will try to think critically and reasonably about these important issues.  At the same time, however, this class will also be a historical introduction as we shall begin with the very first philosophers and work our way forward to the present time.  In the course of the semester, we will talk about the ancient Greeks, the medieval philosopher, the "modern" thinkers who emerged with the birth of modern science, and some more recent philosophers, like Marx or Camus, who have something to say about contemporary life.

Required Work:  Two take-home assignments, two mid-semester examinations and a comprehensive final examination.  Regular attendance and reasonable participation are expected.

Texts:	Original works by Plato, St. Augustine, Anselm, Descartes, Hume, Marx, Dostoyevsky, and Camus. 

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CRITICAL & HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY -	PHL 107, Section K - TR 1100-1215 (Fall 2007)
									PHL 107, Section L - TR 1230-1345 (Fall 2007)

Instructor: Mr. Andrew M. Jaspers, S.J.

Prerequisites: None/Fulfills a Core B requirement

Course Description:  This course is a study of human nature that attempts to introduce the student to philosophy in general.  It will engage the questions, “What is a human being?” and “What constitutes human happiness?”  As an introduction to Western Philosophy, the class will read and critically discuss classic texts from antiquity, the Middle Ages, and from modernity that approach these questions.  This class will also examine such closely associated issues as the relation of the soul and the body, the human search for meaning, and the nature of knowledge.  Finally, the course will also include an introduction to basic principles of logic and concepts of critical thinking.  

Required Work: Two short reading-response papers, one medium-length response paper, occasional quizzes, participation in class discussions, and two exams.

Texts:	Plato, The Trial and Death of Socrates (3rd edition) 
	Adler, Aristotle for Everybody
	Augustine, On Free Choice of the Will
	Aquinas, A Shorter Summa (ed. Kreeft)
	Descartes, selections from Meditations on First Philosophy
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CRITICAL & HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY - 	PHL 107, Section M - TR 1400-1515 (Fall 2007)
								PHL 107, Section N - Wed 1800-2030 (Fall 2007)

Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth F. Cooke

Prerequisites: None/Fulfills a Core B requirement

Course Description: This course will examine several key philosophical questions: What can one know about the world?  What is the nature of reality?  What is man's place in the universe?  What is the good life?  We will read the works of several key historical philosophers from the Ancient, Medieval, Modern, and Contemporary periods of thought, examining how they answered these questions and how they arrived at their theories.  Within these investigations, the student will be expected to assess the philosopher's argument and his theory, in addition to demonstrating a comprehensive understanding of it.  Ultimately the goal for the student is to think about these issues for herself.

Required Work:  Exams, participation, short written assignments, two papers.

Texts:  To be announced.

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CRITICAL & HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY -	PHL 107, Section O - TR 1400-1515 (Fall 2007)
									
Instructor: Staff

Prerequisites: None/Fulfills a Core B requirement

Course Description:  Introduction to Western Philosophy through reading and critical discussion of classic texts selected from each of Ancient, Medieval, Modern, and Contemporary periods of philosophy, and relation of problems raised by these texts to the current human condition.  Study of the nature of philosophy, the nature of knowledge, and the nature of reality. Introduction to basic principles of logic and concepts of critical thinking, including recognition of fallacies and construction and evaluation of arguments. 
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