Examination of philosophical foundations of some of the major concepts and institutions in social and political thought. Consideration of some of the perennial issues in ethical theory. Philosophical examination of a variety of issues in environmental ethics, such as the moral status of animals, the moral significance of nature, our duties to protect wilderness areas, the moral status of economic reasoning, and morally acceptable population policies. Basic concepts and techniques of deduction, emphasizing the modern treatment of such topics as quantification and rules of inference, with study of the classical treatment. Basic principles of induction, informal fallacies, and uses of logic in everyday life.
Course can count for literature as well as philosophy credit.
Philosophic significance of psychiatry, existentialism, and Marxism and their expression in 20th-century literature in the stories of Mann, Kafka, Hesse, Camus, Sartre, Koestler, Bellow, and Pynchon. Themes include paradox, alienation, absurdism, narcissism, totalitarianism versus democracy, art and neurosis, sexuality, symbolism, freedom, and authenticity. Topics include homosexuality, abortion, drugs, civil disobedience, capital punishment, and the rights of the individual versus the rights of society. Up to three credits in seminars listed under EUST 300 may be credited toward the philosophy major. Classical Greek philosophy, including pre-Socrates, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.