Courses

Examines ethical questions concerning life and death. Special emphasis is placed on understanding and evaluating moral and legal perspectives on these questions, within the larger tradition of Western philosophy, and in the face of the current technological revolution. Issues include: the moral status of humans, the meaning of personhood, sanctity of life versus quality of life, genetic engineering, reproductive technologies, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, abortion.

Topics may vary. Courses offered to date:Existence, Truth, and Possibility Medieval Cosmology Empericism Neoplatonism and Early Christianity Foundations of Ethics

Under the direction of the student's approved thesis advisor, a course of reading and study which leads to the development of both a significant bibliographical essay (or annotated bibliography) and a thesis proposal. The latter includes at least the following: major question(s) to be addressed; significance of the issue(s); methodologies to be used; theories to be addressed and primary sources to be examined.

Under the direction of a supervisor, students not doing a thesis research and write a major paper of approximately 10-15,000 words in length.

This course surveys and engages central philosophical issues relevant to assessing normative religious pluralism.

This course examines some of the most influential views of human nature advanced by philosophers and scientists in the history of Western civilization, and explores the implications of these views for ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics. The ideas of Plato and Aristotle, as well as ideas that Christianity has drawn from these ancient Greek philosophers are examined before exploring views advanced in modernity and postmodernity.

This course surveys and engages philosophical issues connected to technology, and the human manipulation and transformation of nature. For example, is the human good essentially tied to technological development? Should technological advancement be allowed to constrain or even determine social, political and moral decisions? Is technology an essentially neutral means to ends otherwise determined or do technological means bring with them their own ends? What are the differences between the natural and the artificial? Has technology taken the place formerly held by religion or spirituality?