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2018-2019 Undergraduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Course Descriptions
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Use the course filter below to search for active courses.
Course numbers followed by an ‘L’ are cross-listed with another department or program.
This catalog may contain course information that is out of date. Before registering for a course, always check the course information in WISER.
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Occupational Education |
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OCC ED 220 - Teaching Methods for Vocational-Technical Education: Instructional Strategies
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course provides vocational-technical teachers with a wide variety of researched-based teaching methods and instructional strategies. Students in this course learn how to develop a unit of study and how instructional choices made by the vocational-technical educator are influenced by learning styles, motivation, and expectations. Students learn how to integrate vocational-technical and academic content by using a balanced instructional approach.
033395:1
3 Credit(s) |
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OCC ED 221 - Teaching & Assessing the Vocational-Technical Learner
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course provides vocational-technical teachers with the knowledge and tools to instruct and assess the technical, academic and employability skills of vocational students. Students in this course will learn to identify, develop, and model appropriate learning activities and assessments for the vastly divergent student population in vocational-technical education.
033393:1
3 Credit(s) |
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OCC ED 222 - Developing & Implementing a Standards Based Curriculum in Vocational-Technical Education
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course provides vocational technical educator candidates with the knowledge of the elements of a quality curriculum. Students learn how to develop a vocational technical curriculum and a competency-based student reporting system that incorporates the standards and performance indicators of the Academic and Vocational Technical Curriculum Frameworks. It is one of the courses required to obtain licensure as a vocational technical educator in Massachusetts.
033394:1
3 Credit(s) |
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OCC ED 223 - Teaching Methods for Vocational-Technical Education: Teaching Diverse Learners
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course provides vocational technical teachers with an understanding of how learning styles as well as issues of language and disability impact instruction and learning. Vocational technical educator candidates will learn to develop a teaching unit that focuses on readiness assessment, use of learning styles, attention to whole brain teaching, interpersonal skills, knowledge, and skill assessment.
033392:1
3 Credit(s) |
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OCC ED 224 - Addressing the Needs of Students with Disabilities in Vocational-Technical Education
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course provides Vocational Technical teachers with an overview of the Federal and State Special Education Laws and Regulations and how they are implemented in schools in Massachusetts. Students learn the elements of the Individual Education Plan (IEP), the roles of special and general educators, how to design curriculum and instruction using the information on the IEP, and how to modify their related classrooms to accommodate students with disabilities.
033391:1
3 Credit(s) |
Philosophy |
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PHIL 100 - Introduction to Philosophy
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
An introductory examination of the problems and scope of philosophy.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Humanities
024593:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 108 - Moral and Social Problems
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Important moral and social issues of current concern are examined and debated. The course covers several problems each semester from a list including criminal punishment, war, abortion, racism, violence, the death penalty, private property, sexism, animal rights, the environment, and hunger.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Humanities | Diversity Area: United States
001271:1
3 Credit(s) |
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4 Credit(s) |
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4 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 120 - Introduction to Logic
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
The study of valid reasoning using formal methods of proof with truth functions, deductions, and quantifiers. Analysis of the logical structure of language related to philosophical questions of truth, paradox, and reference.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Mathematics and Technology
001272:1
3 Credit(s) |
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4 Credit(s) |
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3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 208 - Existential Themes in Philosophy and Literature
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course introduces the area of philosophical and humanistic studies by means of a consideration of existentialist ideas in both literature and philosophy. Issues will be chosen from a list including the self in relation to others; authenticity, self-deception, and bad faith; freedom and responsibility; death and the meaning of life; and the possibility of objective knowledge.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Humanities
024698:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 210 - The Philosophy of Education
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Philosophical ideas and concepts relevant to the nature and aims of education.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Humanities
024619:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 211 - Ancient Philosophy
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This class is an introduction to Greek philosophy, from early Greek philosophy through to the Hellenistic period, with emphasis on the Presocratics, Plato, and Aristotle. It covers early theories about the nature of the cosmos, the good life, politics, theology, epistemology, appearance and reality.
Enrollment Requirements:
Prerequisite: PHIL 100
024702:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 212 - Modern Philosophy
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
The views of the continental rationalists-Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnitz-and the British Empiricists-Locke, Berkeley, Hume-in relation to general intellectual developments from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. (Course offered in the spring only.)
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Humanities
Enrollment Requirements:
Prerequisite: One or preferably two PHIL courses
024599:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 215 - Philosophical Foundations of Public Policy
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course explores several central philosophical frameworks underlying contemporary public policy debates, including various conceptions of social justice and human rights, utilitarian theory and decision theory. The role of philosophy in public policy will be illustrated through an analysis of such contemporary issues as foreign policy and human rights, tax policy, cost benefit analysis, environmental and health care issues, workfare, world population problems, and the dangerous mentally ill.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Humanities
024708:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 216 - The History of Ethics
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course focuses on four or five philosophers whose impact on the development of Western thinking about ethics has been substantial, e.g., Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Kant, and Nietzsche. The following are the sorts of questions with which they were preoccupied, and upon which we focus in reading them: Is there a single ideal life which all human beings should strive to live-and if so, what does it consist in? What are the virtues that human beings should exemplify? Why should one live a moral life? Are there objective moral standards-and if so, how does one discover what they are? What roles do reason and the emotions, respectively, play in the moral life? Special attention is given to the role that one’s metaphysical views and one’s views of human nature play in shaping one’s theory of ethics.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Humanities
001273:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 218 - Major Social and Political Thinkers
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
The primary concern of this course is historical: the elucidation of the political and social theories of some of the major figures of the Western tradition (e.g., Plato, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, and Marx). Emphasis is given to the continuing relevance of these philosophers and political scientists.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Humanities
024601:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 220 - Environmental Ethics
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
An examination of humanity’s place in the natural world and its implications for ethics. Topics include the environmental crisis and the need for a new environmental ethic, the ethical dimensions of environmental policy issues, human-centered ethics, obligations to future generations, the intrinsic value of the natural world, animal rights, wilderness, and preservation of species.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Humanities
024602:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 222 - Moral Issues in Medicine
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Concepts of health, illness and healing, under different paradigms of medicine. Is medicine an art or science? What is the impact of medical technology on human life and death? What is considered “natural”? Attention is given to issues in human reproduction (e.g. in vitro fertilization, conception, abortion). Questions of authority, accountability in doctor-patient relationships, patient advocacy, self help, right to health care or to refuse treatment. Social and political questions of health care organization.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Humanities
024605:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 224 - The Philosophy of Art
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Late twentieth-century art has insistently challenged us to come to terms with our understanding of the very nature of the art work. This course is a survey of the major theories of the nature of art, with special emphasis on the views that art is a matter of representing or imitating reality, that art is a form of catharsis, that art is a matter of the expression of emotion, that art is a special kind of symbolic form. It also addresses such questions as the role of art history in a theory of aesthetic interpretation, the problem of forgery, the issue of artistic responsibility and the recent debates over censorship of the arts.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Humanities
024723:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 225 - The Philosophy of Religion
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
An application of imagination and reasoning in order to appraise the strengths or weaknesses of famous arguments concerning the relation of faith to reason and the existence or non-existence of a western type of God, in view of natural evil and of the rise of science. Discussion of the significance of reports of miracles and of mystical and religious experiences.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Humanities
024725:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 230 - Philosophy and Feminism
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Different philosophical theories of feminist issues, including women’s rights, whether women have a separate or special place in the family and social order, gender differences and biological factors in human nature, theories of patriarchy, how gender and world view are related. Readings from classical and contemporary philosophers and feminist thinkers. Note: At least one course in philosophy and one course in women’s studies are recommended, though not required.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Humanities | Diversity Area: United States
024731:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 255 - The Mystery of Consciousness
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Consciousness has been described as the last great mystery. In this course students will read philosophers who attempt to clarify why it seems so mysterious, including some who argue that it will never be possible to explain consciousness scientifically. On the positive side, student swill consider philosophical approaches to understanding consciousness in terms of mental representations and will examine how cognitive science has re-conceptualized the role of consciousness in our brains. The course will also look at several interesting scientific discoveries and consciousness and discuss their philosophical significance.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Humanities
039159:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 264 - Nineteenth Century Philosophy
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course offers an exploration of the works of such major thinkers of the nineteenth century as: Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche.
024704:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 281 - Special Topics
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
A sophomore level course offering selected topics in philosophy. Course content varies and will be announced prior to registration.
024924:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 286 - What is Freedom?
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Freedom is arguable the central value of modern Western societies. but what is freedom? This course tries to answer this question by approaching the concept of freedom from three distinct points of view, metaphysical, moral-psychological, and political. The course first takes up the questions of free will, of whether or not subjects are genuinely free to choose between different courses of action. The course then investigates the relationship between freedom and moral responsibility. Lastly, the course asks about the meaning of political freedom. Is political freedom secured by the having of certain fundamental rights, or does it also require that one live in a democratic society.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Humanities
039160:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 287 - Equality
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Examination of the ideals of social equality and equal respect in the context of actual inequalities of gender, race, and sexual orientation. Topics are drawn from the following: The nature of equality; racism and racial inequality; justice and the division of labor in the family; sex roles; affirmative action; sexual harassment; sexual orientation and the family; sameness, difference, and equality.
Course Attribute(s):
Diversity Area: United States
024753:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 290 - The Philosophy of Law
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course explores fundamental questions concerning the nature of law and the relation between law and justice. It examines questions concerning the source of the obligation to obey law, the limits of the obligation to law, and the moral conditions that make law possible. This exploration leads to an examination such of different judicial philosophies of constitutional interpretation as original intent, judicial restraint, and judicial activism. The course continues with a study of some perplexing questions about the meaning of equality and justice as they arise in legal cases dealing with race and/or gender. Some offerings of this course conclude with an exploration of the moral basis of international law by way of a critical analysis of the Nuremberg Trial.
024756:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 297 - Asian Philosophy
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course introduces students to some of the principal philosophical traditions of India and China. It examines the belief- systems of Hinduism and Buddhism in both India and China, as well as Taoism. Participants also explore in somewhat more detail the Hindu school of Advaita Vedanta in the work of Sankara, and the Madhyamika Buddhism of Nagarjuna. Traditional topics to be addressed include metaphysics, the theory of self (or not-self), relations of world and mind, the status of God (or the lack thereof), the situation of women in these religions, the goal of philosophy, and others. Comparisons among these traditions and with Western thought are attempted and encouraged, but no prior knowledge of specific traditions is assumed.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: World Cultures | Diversity Area: International
024764:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 305 - Action
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
It is said that life is a string of choices - and this course will look at some of the philosophical and psychological issues of how and why we choose our actions. There is a place of cookies in front of someone - they take one. Perhaps another signed up for the army, or did not go to a friend’s housewarming party. The question of this class is why we act the way we do. What plays a role in actions such as those just mentioned and the endless other choices that we perform everyday? Could we have done differently? Is there such a thing as “free will” and if so what is it? Is the process of choice different for different kinds of actions? What are the characteristics of goal-directed or intentional action? How and to what extent are our actions shaped by action affordances - i.e. possibilities that we sense in our environment? How are actions shaped by rational thinking, by past experience, by social structures, or by moral obligation? The course will touch on all these factors of influence and introduce different ways of theorizing the very nature of choices, actions and agency. The readings for the course will be both historical and contemporary and be rooted in philosophy of mind but will draw on interdisciplinary sources such as theories and empirical findings from neuroscience, developmental psychology, sociology and behavioral economics. Further as questions of action are always also questions of value, issues of moral responsibility and politics will repeatedly be taken up as well.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Social & Behavioral Sciences
039766:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 311 - Medieval Philosophy: Islamic, Jewish, Christian
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
In this course we will read one or two major medieval Christian philosophers (e.g., Augustine and Aquinas), one or two major medieval Muslim philosophers (e.g. al-Ghazali and ibn Rushd [Averroes]) and one or two major medieval Jewish philosophers (e.g., Saadia and Maimonides). We will focus on some or all of the following themes: God’s existence, God’s nature, God’s justice, the creation of the universe, the priority of reason versus faith, the literal versus metaphorical nature of religious language, and the soul’s immortality.
024779:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 318 - Race and Racism
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course examines the genesis of the idea of “race” as a way of viewing human differences from the 16th to the 19th centuries. It also explores conceptions of “racism” in relation to such contemporary phenomena as white privilege, “institutional racism,” race and crime, race and intelligence, affirmative action, racial hostility among non-“white” groups, “internalized racism,” race and class, and anti-immigrant hostility. Finally, the course looks at the notion of “mixed race” persons, their place in the hierarchy of racism and their role in challenging the concept of “race” itself. Though the course focuses primarily on whites and African Americans, racism as it bears on Native Americans, Asian Americans and Latinos is also considered.
Course Attribute(s):
Diversity Area: United States
024786:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 321 - Public Health Ethics
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This advanced introduction to public health ethics examines the ethics of society’s organized measures to prevent disease and improve population health. Starting with a range of public health initiatives and laws, the course explores how a government’s obligation to respect individual freedom should be weighed against an obligation to prevent diseases and improve population health. The course then examines data on health disparities and social determinants of health to ascertain how far a government’s obligations should extend to narrow inequities that out certain groups at increased risk of disease and poor health outcomes.
039721:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 327 - Meaning and Being
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Exploration of themes in recent European philosophy, such as the self and the social world, anti-Cartesianism, subjectivity, language, and embodiment. Special attention to the life-world, being-in-the-world, and forms of life. Readings from such philosophers as Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and Wittgenstein. The course is an appropriate sequel to PHIL 264 or PHIL 227.
024788:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 333 - Ethical Theory
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
A study of some of the major contemporary approaches to issues of right and wrong, good and bad, and good character: utilitarianism, deontology, the ethics of care, virtue ethics, feminist ethics, and issues of current importance in ethics-relativism, moral excellence, gender differences in morality. A systematic rather than historical approach. (Course offered about every two years.)
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Humanities
Enrollment Requirements:
Prerequisite: One PHIL course
024790:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 337 - The Ethics of Human Subjects Research: Consent, Coercion and Exploitation
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course is an advanced introduction to the ethics of human subjects research. The course starts with a brief history of the tragedies and triumphs of human subjects research, before introduction the codes, regulations and scholarly work that guide the ethics of this enterprise. Three philosophical concepts - consent, coercion and exploitation - are then used to introduce some of the most pressing issues in medical research ethics today.
Enrollment Requirements:
Prerequisite: PHIL 100 or PHIL 108 or PHIL 222 or PHIL 217
038358:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 344 - The Philosophy of Mind
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
The nature of mind and its relation to body and matter, with emphasis on recent advances in philosophy and psychology.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Humanities
024798:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 345 - Theory of Knowledge
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Knowledge-its nature, forms, methods, scope, and validation. What are the relations of knowledge and justification to sense experience? For example, does knowledge of our surroundings rest upon a foundation of sense experience? Is knowledge of the so-called “truths of reason” in some way independent of evidence provided by sense experience? How is a body of knowledge related to an individual knower? Does the justification of one’s beliefs depend upon what psychology reveals about the reliability of methods for acquiring the beliefs? Readings from contemporary sources.
024800:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 346 - The Philosophy of Science
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
The nature of scientific explanation, with attention to the social and philosophical aspects of scientific methodology.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Humanities
024801:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 347 - Problems of Metaphysics
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Ideas such as substance, causality, mind and body, and free will, as they appear in several major metaphysical systems.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Humanities
024803:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 348 - The Self
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
What is it with which we identify ourselves? We will critically examine, discuss, and write about different viewpoints concerning what we think we know most intimately - the self.
036549:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 351 - Plato
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Plato’s ethics, metaphysics, and theory of knowledge in the Phaedo, Republic, Theaetetus, Cratylus, Parmenides, Sophist, Statesman, and Philebus, as a solution to problems raised by his predecessors, notably the Pythagoreans, Heraclitus, Parmenides, and the Sophists.
024808:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 360 - American Pragmatism
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course is a survey of American Pragmatism. In it we will examine the three central figures of the pragmatic traditions: Charles S. Peirce, William James, and John Dewey. While Pragmatism is the most important philosophical movement produced by the United States, it also has a global philosophical significance owing to the fact that it was the first movement to decisively break with certain key assumptions governing Modern philosophy. Specifically, it broke with the rationalist notions that cognition could be examined in abstraction from action and that truth could be defined independently of human inquiry. The goal of this course-besides coming to an in-depth understanding of each of the major pragmatic figures-is to understand how Pragmatism challenges these assumptions while also providing us with a new picture of cognition, knowledge, truth, inquiry, communication, action, and freedom. At the end of the course we shall see how Pragmatism was applied to concrete social problems and issues by looking at the work of Jane Adams and Alain Locke.
Enrollment Requirements:
Prerequisite: PHIL 100 or PHIL 108
037072:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 379 - Reality and Illusion, East and West
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
It is ordinary believed, either consciously or subconsciously, that “reality” is being experienced and known by way of perceptions of things under optimal conditions. What is this reality believed to be like (say, causally governed? Dualistic? Independent?)? Are those characteristics immediately present in perceptions? Is it the only reality that there is? In this course, these questions will be explored and investigated through close examinations of philosophical works from both East (e.g., Buddhist and Daoist writings) and West (e.g., Plato, Hume, Schopenhauer).
Enrollment Requirements:
Prerequisite: PHIL 100 or PHIL 108
040706:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 380 - Social & Political Philosophy
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Representative problems and themes of social and political philosophy, especially the concepts of human rights, liberty, justice, equality, law, social obligation and the social contract. These topics are explored through the work of classical and contemporary political and social philosophers.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Humanities
Enrollment Requirements:
Prerequisite: One or preferably two PHIL courses
024743:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 381 - Special Topics
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course offers study of selected topics within this subject. Course content and credits vary according to topic and are announced prior to the registration period.
024815:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 387 - Capitalism and Socialism
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
a comparative study of the philosophical foundation of two major systems of economic production and distribution. Through readings of representative authors the course focuses on the values embodied in each system. For Example: equality, justice, civil liberties, cooperation, and individual initiative. The nature and importance of underlying assumptions about human needs and desires are also considered.
Enrollment Requirements:
Prerequisite: PHIL 100
024754:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 395 - International Ethics
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course examines moral and political arguments concerning government and individual actions in the area of foreign policy, international relations, and global economic policy. Questions considered include: When, if ever, is war or intervention justified? Does justice require redistribution of wealth around the globe? Do universal human rights exist? Can they be enforced?
024818:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 397 - Marxist Philosophy
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
A philosophical exploration of the thought of Karl Marx, based on a reading of his early and mature works. Topics discussed are idealism and materialism; the relation between theory and practice; dialectic; alienation; ideology; class; the analysis of capitalism; reification; and some contemporary theories, including critical theory and socialist feminism. Other theorists read include Lenin, Engels, Mao Tse Tung, Lukacs, Braverman, EP Thompson, Marcuse, and Gorz.
Enrollment Requirements:
Prerequisite: PHIL 100
024755:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
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PHIL 414 - Contemporary Analytic Philosophy
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course deals with some major trends in analytical philosophy in the twentieth century. It examines such movements as logical atomism, logical positivism, ordinary language philosophy, contemporary pragmatism, and irrealism, in order to explore their emphasis on the role of language in the formulations of solutions to traditional problems in epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics. The course also explores current debates over relativism. Readings include the work of such philosophers as Russell, Carnap, Ayer, Austin, James, Quine, Goodman, Putnam, and others. Some knowledge of logic is desirable.
Enrollment Requirements:
Prerequisite: PHIL 120
024782:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 418 - The Ideas of Constitutional Democracy
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course focuses on philosophical questions raised by the remarkable contemporary diffusion of constitutional democracy. What is the proper conception of “constitutionalism”? Of “democracy”? Of their surprising combination in “constitutional democracy”? What institutions, legal structures, political arrangements and practices are required for, conducive towards, or antithetical to constitutional democracy? And, what method or methods should we adopt in approaching these vast and various questions?
Enrollment Requirements:
Prerequisite: One 300-level or higher PHIL course
037074:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 430 - Literary Theory and Critical Theory
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course presents contemporary literary theory in connection with related developments in contemporary philosophy of language. Philosophy of language asks: What is it for a set of signs or symbols to have meaning? How is meaning, in general, possible, and how is it that a particular set of signs can have a particular meaning? What is a language? What is the relation between the sign and the signifier, the word and the object? What is the relation between writing, speech, and being? Literary theory and critical theory ask: What is a literary text? What is a genre and why do we distinguish them? What is an author? What is interpretation? Is paraphrase (saying the same thing two different ways) really possible? What is the role of the critic? How do the norms governing interpretation help to shape the “reality” that is interpreted? Readings range from ordinary language philosophy (e.g., Wittgenstein, Austin, Searle) to structuralism to new criticism to reader-response theory, deconstruction, and post-structuralism.
024823:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 440 - Philosophy of Language
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course examines 20th century analytic approaches to understanding the role of language in understanding mind, self, and world. Questions about the interplay between semantics and pragmatics will be addressed throughout the course, while focusing on questions about meaning, reference, truth, and the varieties of actions we accomplish through what we say. Topics include Russell’s theory of descriptions and its critics, speech acts, and inferentialism.
024826:1
3 Credit(s) |
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PHIL 450 - Rights
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course examines a range of contemporary theories, including those of Rawls, Nozick, Feinberg, and Dworkin. It outlines the classical tradition, and introduces the work of legal positivists like Austin and Hart. Emphasis is placed on alternatives to rights based theories and on criticisms of rights systems, such as that put forward by contemporary communitarians, virtue theorists, and feminist theorists.
024827:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHIL 452 - Aristotle
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Aristotle’s philosophy as a response to Plato’s views about meaning, being, knowledge, ideas, number and the good.
024828:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHIL 455 - Hegel and German Idealism
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course is an introduction to the philosophy of Hegel and to the Hegelian tradition, through a reading of Hegel’s major work, The Phenomenology of Spirit. Other readings for the course include excerpts of The Science of Logic and The Philosophy of Right, as well as important critical sources.
024829:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHIL 462 - The Critical Philosophy of Immanuel Kant
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
The Critique of Pure Reason, with special attention to Kant’s epistemology and critique of metaphysics.
024831:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHIL 478 - Independent Study I
1 - 3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Independent study on approved topics in philosophy.
Enrollment Requirements:
Instructor consent
024836:1
1 - 3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHIL 479 - Independent Study II
1 - 3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Study of a particular area of this subject under the supervision of a faculty member. Students wishing to register must do so through the department.
024839:1
1 - 3 Credit(s) |
Philosophy and Law |
| |
-
PHILLAW 210 - Legislative Labyrinth
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Legislatve Labyrinth
000495:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHILLAW 260 - Latina/nos and the Law
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course is an introduction for students to understand how legal institutions and systems in the United States have impacted the Latina/nos community. This is essentially a U.S. history course teaching to and about subject matters often neglected in K-12 education. Beginning with an examination of Columbus and his impact to the Americas the course examines the initial creation of the system of oppression against the Latina/nos community. Through a variety of methods of learning including mock trial, small group work, individual critical reading of articles/book chapters/case law/statutes, and critical class viewing and debriefing of video presentation - students will get a better understanding of the U.S. and the core principles that built this country and the backs on whom this country was built upon. After a review of the past, the course will offer an examination of contemporary issues involving how Latina/nos have or have not been able to fully participate in life in the U.S. due to discriminatory laws and policies. It will then explore issues pertaining to voting rights, immigration reform, educational rights, privacy/reproductive rights. English Only laws, ethnic studies ban, right to participate in the jury process, and a host of other legal issues as revealed through case studies.
039926:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHILLAW 300 - Basic Legal Rsng&Rsr
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Basic Legal Rsng&Rsr
000494:1
3 Credit(s) |
Physics |
| |
-
PHYSIC 107 - College Physics I
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Non-calculus introductory physics for life-science students and others with a program requirement for a year of physics at this level. Topics include mechanics, fluids, wave motion, kinetic theory of gases, temperature and heat. Students who need or want laboratory work in physics should enroll concurrently in PHYSIC 181 . Note: Students may not receive credit for both PHYSIC 107-108 and 113 -114 .
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Natural Sciences
Enrollment Requirements:
Prerequisite: MATH 130 or higher or equivalent placement or permission of instructor
025076:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHYSIC 113 - Fundamentals of Physics I
4 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
The first semester of calculus-level introductory physics. Topics include mechanics, fluids, waves, kinetic theory, and heat. Students who need or want laboratory work in physics should enroll concurrently in PHYSIC 181 . Note: Students may not receive credit for both PHYSIC 107 -108 and 113-114 .
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Natural Sciences
Enrollment Requirements:
Corequisite: MATH 140 and for physics majors PHYSIC 181
025078:1
4 Credit(s) |
| |
4 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHYSIC 121 - Introduction to Astronomy
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Descriptive introduction to astronomy and astrophysics. Topics include introductory material on light, telescopes, and spectroscopy; properties of stars and stellar evolution, including the formation of stars, stellar energy cycles, red giants, white dwarfs, supernovae, neutron stars, and black holes; galactic structure; the expansion of the universe; cosmology; the past and future of the universe.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Natural Sciences
025156:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHYSIC 126 - Solar System Astronomy
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Descriptive introduction to the study of the solar system and its structure. Topics include the historical development of early astronomy; the properties of the sun; the planets and their satellites; comets, asteroids, and meteorites; the results of spacecraft exploration.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Natural Sciences
Enrollment Requirements:
Prerequisite: MATH 114QR or higher or equivalent placement score or permission of instuctor
025168:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHYSIC 134 - Energy for the Future
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
The current means of providing energy for our society are not sustainable. The need for secure, alternative and clean sources of power is increasingly apparent. This course, intended for a general audience, provides an overview of the energy problem. It covers the ways we currently obtain and use power and considers the scientific and technological issues involved in emerging technologies.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Natural Sciences
033903:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHYSIC 181 - Physics Laboratory I
2 Credit(s) | Laboratory |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Exploration of basic physical phenomena through laboratory work. Experiments in kinematics, mechanics and hydrostatics. This course is designed to accompany either level of introductory physics.
Enrollment Requirements:
Corequisite: PHYSIC 107 or PHYSIC 113
025094:1
2 Credit(s) |
| |
2 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHYSIC 211 - Introduction to Contemporary Physics
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
The third semester of calculus-level introductory physics. Topics include special relativity; the historical development of quantum theory; elements of quantum mechanics; with applications to atomic, molecular, solid state, nuclear and particle physics. Students who need or want laboratory work in modern physics should enroll concurrently in PHYSIC 281 .
Enrollment Requirements:
Prerequisite: PHYSIC 114 or permission of instructor
025196:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
3 Credit(s) |
| |
3 Credit(s) |
| |
3 Credit(s) |
| |
3 Credit(s) |
| |
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHYSIC 331 - Optics
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
An introductory treatment of the physics of light. Topics include geometrical optics, interference and diffraction of light, electromagnetic wave theory, polarization, propagation of light in dispersive media and crystals, optical instruments, holography, lasers.
025213:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHYSIC 350 - Statistical Physics
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Topics in heat, thermodynamics, kinetic theory, and elementary statistical mechanics.
Enrollment Requirements:
Prerequisite: PHYSIC 312 or permission of instructor
025214:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHYSIC 362 - Computational Science
4 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course provides an introduction to some of the computational techniques employed, as well as illustrative applications in the natural sciences, and is intended to be accessible to majors from all science disciplines. The topics covered will begin with the numerical computation of derivatives and integrals. After discussing methods for finding roots of equations, solutions to systems of linear equations will be studies using matrix methods. These techniques are then extended to the solution of systems of ordinary differential equations with boundary or initial conditions. Scientific applications will include discrete and continuous time population and ecological models; reaction kinetics; radioactive decay; and solutions to one-dimensional Poisson and Schroedinger equations. Students will use MATLAB software as a platform to explore these computational techniques.
Enrollment Requirements:
Prerequisite: PHYSIC 113 and MATH 140 or permission of instructor
025215:1
4 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHYSIC 382 - Intermediate Laboratory
3 Credit(s) | Lecture and Laboratory |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Experiments in geometrical and physical optics, electronics, atomic physics, and nuclear physics. Individual program of experiments for each student according to his or her interests and previous experience.
Enrollment Requirements:
Prerequisite: PHYSIC 281 or permission of instructor
025222:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHYSIC 421 - Atomic Physics and Introduction to Quantum Mechanics
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
The fundamental and elementary applications of quantum mechanics with emphasis on physical content rather than formalism. Elementary wave mechanics developed and applied to simple atomic structure. Topics include spectroscopic and other phenomena which form the experimental basis of modern atomic physics, the role of the Pauli principle and spin in determining periodic atomic properties, and radiation phenomena.
Enrollment Requirements:
Prerequisite: PHYSIC 321 or permission of instructor
025226:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHYSIC 422 - Nuclear and Particle Physics
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
A continuation of PHYSIC 421 . The basic properties of nuclei, particle scattering, radioactivity, nuclear stability, dynamics of nuclear reactions, potential well and barrier problems in quantum mechanics, and particles.
025228:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHYSIC 479 - Readings in Physics I
1 - 4 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Supervised individual study of special topics in physics that are not available in regular courses.
Enrollment Requirements:
Prerequisites: A minimum of 60 credits and approval of plan of study by supervising instructor and department chair
025230:1
1 - 4 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHYSIC 480 - Readings in Physics II
1 - 3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Supervised individual study of special topics in physics that are not available in regular courses.
Enrollment Requirements:
Prerequisites: A minimum of 60 credits and approval of plan of study by supervising instructor and department chair
025233:1
1 - 3 Credit(s) |
| |
4 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHYSIC 487 - Research in Physics I
1 - 3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Supervised research.
Enrollment Requirements:
Prerequisites: A minimum of 60 credits and approval of plan of study by supervising instructor and department chair
025236:1
1 - 3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
PHYSIC 488 - Research Physics II
1 - 3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Supervised research.
025237:1
1 - 3 Credit(s) |
Political Science |
| |
-
POLSCI 101 - Introduction to Politics
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course introduces and explores the conceptual vocabulary of politics. Though concerned with problems of political theory, it is designed not for theorists but for anyone who thinks, talks, or worries about the public world. A series of brief case studies is used to show how real-world outcomes are affected by our political ideas and assumptions.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Social & Behavioral Sciences
025400:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
POLSCI 102 - Government and Politics of the United States
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
An introduction to the structures, processes, and results of the American governmental system. The course focuses on the national government and national political behavior, although state, regional, and local structures and issues are also introduced. Topics include institutions of government, political principles and ideologies, public opinion, political socialization, political parties, mass media, elections, interest groups, civil rights and civil liberties, public policies and policy making.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Social & Behavioral Sciences
025339:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
POLSCI 103 - Introduction to Political Theory
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course consists of close readings of three texts considered foundational to the history of Western political thought: Plato’s Republic, Machiavelli’s The Prince, and Marx and Engels’ Communist Manifesto. It will examine the characteristic questions and problems raised by these texts concerning the nature of politics and justice, and examine what roles moral and epistemological knowledge might play with regard to both. Also considered will be questions of genre, history, and rhetoric, with special attention given to questions regarding authorial intent, readership, and audience.
Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Humanities
035045:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
4 Credit(s) |
| |
-
POLSCI 201 - Comparative Politics of Industrialized Societies (C)
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Introductory survey of political systems in the industrialized world, including the United States, Europe, and Japan.
025340:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
POLSCI 202 - Comparative Politics of Third World Countries
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
Introductory survey of political systems in non-industrialized nations, drawing on examples from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Course content focuses on the nature of the development process and the evolution of political institutions and practices.
Course Attribute(s):
Diversity Area: International
025341:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
POLSCI 203 - Public Policy (A)
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
The process of policy making and the manner and effects of policy implementation in states and localities.
025342:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
POLSCI 220 - International Relations (B)
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
This course focuses on basic patterns and concepts which explain interactions among nations. Special attention is given to the role of ideologies, international organizations, conflict resolution, the impact of multinational corporations, underdevelopment, the international dimension of human rights, ethnic, “racial,” religious, and gender differences, and the dynamics of globalization.
Course Attribute(s):
Diversity Area: International
025343:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
3 Credit(s) |
| |
-
POLSCI 251 - Ancient and Medieval Political Thought (D)
3 Credit(s) | Lecture |
Course can be counted for credit once
Description:
The origins and the early development of the main political ideas of the West. (Course offered in the fall only.)
000314:1
3 Credit(s) |
| |
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