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GOD AND PERSONS: PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTIONS -	PHL 320 A - MWF 0930-1020 (Fall 2007)
								PHL 320 B - MWF 1030-1120 (Fall 2007)
Instructor: Dr. Jeffrey P. Hause

Prerequisites:  PHL 107; sophomore standing/Fulfills a Core A requirement

Course Description: Some thinkers have offered convincing arguments for the conclusion that God exists, while others have offered convincing arguments for the conclusion that he is merely a comforting (or discomforting) fiction.  In the first part of the course, we will examine instances of both sorts of argument.  Next, we will consider what attributes we can reasonably maintain of God.  Finally, we will ask whether being religious makes any important difference to a human being's life.  In the course of that discussion, we will also explore the nature of the human person.

Required Work:  Two papers, a midterm, a final, and (if needed) quizzes or short homework assignments.

Texts:  Readings will include selections from the following:  Robert Adams, Augustine, Aquinas, Graham Greene, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche.
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GOD AND PERSONS: PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTIONS -	PHL 320 C - MW 1530-1645 (Fall 2007)

Instructor: Dr. William O. Stephens

Prerequisites:  PHL 107; sophomore standing/Fulfills a Core A requirement

Course Description: What is God? Is God a person? What are persons? Who is a person? Are all human beings persons or only some? Is God one person, three persons, more than personal, or nothing like a person? Are dolphins persons? Are apes? Are computers? Are corporations? What determines the identity of persons? We will discuss these and related questions by studying the historical development of the concept of a person in a wide range of philosophical texts. How, philosophically, are we to understand God? We will study arguments on God's attributes, three types of arguments for God's existence, the problem of evil, life after death, divine foreknowledge and human freedom, and the plurality of religions.

Required Work:
	•	Daily class participation and quizlets (as many as are fated)) - 16 %
	•	Quiz #1 (Feb. 1) - 14%
	•	Quiz #2 (Feb. 22) - 14%
	•	Quiz #3 (March 22) - 14%
	•	Quiz #4 (April 14) - 14%
	•	Quiz #5 (April 28) - 8%
	•	1400-1700 word paper (20%)

Texts:	William O. Stephens, The Person: Readings in Human Nature (Prentice-Hall, 2006).  ISBN 978-0-13-184811-5
	William L. Rowe, Philosophy of Religion: An Introduction, 4th ed. (Wadsworth, 2007).  ISBN 0-495-00725-0
	William O. Stephens, How to Write Philosophy Papers (recommended).  ($4 at Philosophy Department)

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GOD AND PERSONS: PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTIONS - 	PHL 320 D - TR 0930-1045 (Fall 2007)
								PHL 320 E - TR 1100-1215 (Fall 2007)
Instructor: Dr. Michael A. Brown

Prerequisites: PHL 107; sophomore standing/Fulfills a Core A requirement
						
Course Description: All persons, whether human or not, have the ability to choose or act freely, whatever other properties they might have, or so we will assume for the purposes of this course.  That assumption leaves open the question of precisely what such freedom is.

The primary goal of this course is 1) to understand contemporary compatibilism and libertarianism, the two primary theories of what freedom is, against the backdrop of a third theory, hard determinism, according to which persons are not really free at all, 2) to put the student in a position to make an informed and reasoned judgment about which of those theories is more likely to be true, and 3) to consider whether that presumably true theory, whatever it turns out to be, is also likely to be true of God, assuming there is one.

Required Work: To be determined. 

Texts:	Augustine, On Free Choice of the Will
	Timothy Crane, The Mechanical Mind
	Fyodor Dostoevsky, selections from The Brothers Karamazov
	Robert Kane, A Contemporary Introduction to Free Will
	Lao-Tzu, Tao Te Ching
	Plato, Phaedo
	Raymond Smullyan, “Is God a Taoist?”
	William Rowe, Philosophy of Religion (fourth edition)
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GOD AND PERSONS: PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTIONS -	PHL 320 F - TR 1230-1345 (Fall 2007)
								PHL 320 G - TR 1400-1515 (Fall 2007)
Instructor:  Dr. Jerold J. Abrams

Prerequisites:  PHL 107; sophomore standing/Fulfills a Core A requirement

Course Description:  This course is an introduction to the study of the philosophy of religion.  The main topics covered include arguments for the existence of God, the problem of evil, the nature of religious experience, and Man's relationship to God.  We will read texts from all four periods of philosophy, ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary, and in historical order.

Required Work:  To be announced.

Texts:	To be announced.
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GOD AND PERSONS: PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTIONS -	PHL 320 N - Tues 1800-2030 (Fall 2007)

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

Prerequisites:  PHL 107; sophomore standing/Fulfills a Core A requirement

Course Description: This course will critically examine the basic presuppositions of theistic and Christian belief, the human person, and seek to integrate these two questions.  The classical synthesis of Thomas Aquinas on these questions will be examined as an example of an attempted integration.  Special problems considered will include the dialogue between religious faith and critical reason, free choice of the will, the problem of evil, and religious experience.

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

Texts:	Celestine Bittle, O.F.M.  God and His Creatures: Theodicy
	C.S. Lewis, “De Futilitate”
	David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (2nd edition)
	R.P. Phillips.  “Natural Theology”
	Malcolm Schofield.  “Theology and Divination”
	José Kany-Turpin.  “Theories of Religion”
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