UWM Philosophy -- Fall 2000 course offerings

Fall 2000 course offerings

736-101: Introduction to Philosophy Se 001: Selected Topics and Issues 3 credits, U, HU M 6:30-9:10 pm Professor Steldt tel 414-229-4719 email philosophy@uwm.edu	We shall examine attempts to resolve various basic issues in philosophy such as the following: What is the rational foundation of morality? What is the relation between the mind and the body? How can we establish the existence of God? How are we accurately to describe and explain human behavior? Works of Plato, John Stuart Mill, Descartes, Hume, and E. O. Wilson will be discussed.
736-101: Introduction to Philosophy Se 002: God, Metaphysics and Value 3 credits, U, HU T 6:30-9:10 pm Professor Hawi tel 414-229-4395/4719 email hawi@uwm.edu	This course is a general orientation in the basic issues of philosophy. We discuss certain highlights in the philosophic tradition from Plato to John Stuart Mill. Such topics as: The proofs for God's existence, His nature, His relationship to man, the origin and scope of knowledge, the mind-body problem, evaluation of the scientific procedure, and the various standards of right and wrong behavior are examined and studied in detail.
736-101: Introduction to Philosophy Lc 401: Reflections on the Human Condition 3 credits, U, HU MW 10:30 am Lc 402: Reflections on the Human Condition 3 credits, U, HU MW 1:30 pm Professor Koethe tel 414-229-5216/4719 email koethe@uwm.edu	We will look at a representative selection of topics from the history of philosophy and current philosophical debates: ethics, social and political philosophy, the scope and nature of our knowledge of the world, the nature of the self and mind.
736-111: Informal Logic - Critical Thinking Se 101 3 credits, U, HU T 6:15-8:55 pm Professor Rice tel 414-229-4719 email philosophy@uwm.edu	The 2000 presidential elections are just around the corner. On a daily basis we encounter various ploys which attempt to elicit our vote. But we hardly need an election for this to be the case. Even in non-election years, advertisers, media editors, and the like confront us with arguments to convince us of one position or other. Our evaluation of these arguments plays an important role in determining the decisions we make - who to vote for, what product to buy, what bill to support, etc. The purpose of this course is twofold: (i) to teach students how to analyze, evaluate, and criticize arguments in practical settings and (ii) to teach students how to construct their own arguments and how best to present them in writing. As such, the emphasis will be more practical than theoretical. We will examine various kinds of real-life arguments (deductive, statistical, causal) drawn from a variety of sources. This course is taught off-campus at the U.C.C.E., 161 W. Wisconsin Ave., Room 6000.
736-192: Freshman Seminar Se 001: The Importance of Place: From Shopping Malls to Internet Chat Rooms 3 credits, U, HU TR 11:05 am-12:20 pm Professor C. Hedman tel 414-229-4669/4719 email cghedman@uwm.edu	How do the places in which we live, work, and play affect our thinking about nature, ourselves and others? How, e.g., does the place we call "home" affect our notions of beauty, justice, the good life, etc.? Does democracy require that the daily life of citizens be grounded in a particular place? Should schools focus more on introducing students to their natural surround and less on introducing them to "cyberspace" via the world wide web? Are the "places" provided by virtual reality and chat groups at best "pseudo places"; or, as some have argued, do they present new opportunities to form an identity that is not subverted by existing power relations? We will explore these issues by drawing on the work of geographers, literary theorists, environmentalists, cultural theorists, and philosophers. Students will be encouraged to study -- from these various perspectives -- a place of their choosing (e.g., their present neighborhood, their childhood neighborhood, a favorite chat group, etc.) Open to freshmen only.
736-192: Freshman Seminar Se 002: Freedom and Reason: The Challenges of Moral Life 3 credits, U, HU TR 4:30-5:45 pm Professor Bagnoli tel 414-229-5903/4719 email cbagnoli@uwm.edu http://www.uwm.edu/~cbagnoli	Morality puts some important constraints on our freedom. Sometimes we are morally obliged to do things we do not want to do. Are we free to disregard moral obligations when they conflict with our preferences? Why are moral constraints on our freedom acceptable? What reasons do we have to be moral? Is it always rational to behave according to the dictates of morality? Are there any compelling rational arguments for accepting morality? What is the source of authority of morality? Why does morality bind us? Is it just because we fear the blame of our fellows and we hope for their approval? Is it because we find moral obligations inescapable and authoritative in themselves, independently of what other people think of our behavior? Whose morality should we accept? Is there just one acceptable morality or many? Are we free to choose whatever ideal of life we happen to like? Does our morality entitle us to criticize people who do not agree with us? Why? What is a moral disagreement? How do we resolve moral conflicts? Can we resolve moral disagreement by reasoning? Should we try to resolve moral disagreements? Philosophers have offered diverse answers to all these questions. The purpose of this seminar is to consider from many perspectives the problem of the authority of morality, the possibility of resolving moral conflict and of moral disagreement. These theoretical questions will be addressed by considering particular practical cases. We will read classical and contemporary moral philosophers, such as Plato, Aristotle, I. Kant, J.S. Mill, F. Nietzsche, R. Hare, B. Williams, and P. Singer. Open to freshmen only.
736-192: Freshman Seminar Se 003: The Platonic Realm 3 credits, U, HU R 4:30-7:10 pm Professor Koethe tel 414-229-5216/4719 email koethe@uwm.edu	It has been said that all of Western philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher born in the fifth century B.C. Plato wrote in a form called the dialogue, in which different people confront and engage one another in conversations and arguments, about issues important to all human beings. We will use some of these dialogues - some of the earlier, shorter ones, as well as one of his major works, The Republic - as vehicles to explore both Plato's and our own views of right and wrong, the good life, human knowledge, the proper role of art, and the nature of ideal society. Open to freshmen only.
736-204: Introduction to Asian Religions Se 001 3 credits, U, HU TR 11:05 am-12:20 pm Professor Neevel tel 414-229-5215/4719 email wgneevel@uwm.edu	This course will be a historical and comparative introduction to Hindu and Buddhist religious life and thought. Special emphasis will be placed upon the development of the classical forms of these traditions within India. The Buddhist tradition will also be stressed as a missionary movement linking the various cultures of Asia and interacting with the indigenous traditions of East Asia.
736-204: Introduction to Asian Religions Lc 401 3 credits, U, HU MW 11:30 am Professor Wainwright tel 414-229-4395/4719 email wjwain@uwm.edu	Emphasis in this course will be upon the central doctrines and values of several forms of Hinduism and Buddhism, the arguments used to support them, and their relation to religious experience.
736-207: Religion and Science Se 001 3 credits, U, HU TR 4:30-5:45 pm Professor Emeritus Luce tel 414-229-5215/4719 email luce@uwm.edu	A flier for this course might reproduce the Dore engraving showing an utterly dejected Satan cast down on the rocks by an angry God. "You - the fallen intellectual!" would be the slogan. "You, the philosopher of science, like your predecessor Bertrand Russell, choose the chintziest versions of religion to rebut, and decry more sophisticated modes of belief as not 'really' religious belief at all." Readings from Bertrand Russell, N. R. Hanson, and R. M. Hare will document the situation. For a hard-nosed picture of scientific work we will turn to David L. Hull's Science as a Process (1988). David Hull - a Distinguished Professor here at UWM before he moved on to Northwestern - calls it a "Darwinian" account. For the impact and implications of Darwinian evolution itself we will turn to Darwin's own work, and then to the challenges of Daniel Dennett's Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995). If the problem is to explain how intelligence has come into existence, Dennett reminds us, it will hardly do to presuppose an intelligent cause. We will look at the claims that can be made for design or purposiveness at work in evolution (made e.g. by the biochemist Michael Behe) and the case that can be made against design (e.g. by the physicist Steven Weinberg). And of course we shall repeatedly ask about the relevance of all this to religious belief. Dare we take such actions as laying a flower on a grave, or praying for rain, or cursing one's computer, as elemental religious acts? Malinowski's Magic, Science and Religion (1926) and samples of Hindu poetry in the bhakti tradition might both provide clues.
736-211: Elementary Logic Lc 401 3 credits, U, HU MW 10:30 am Lc 402 3 credits, U, HU MW 12:30 pm Professor Ross tel 414-229-4719 email philosophy@uwm.edu	The Island of Knights and Knaves is a place where only Knights and Knaves live. A Knight is a person who always tells the truth. Knaves, on the other hand, never tell the truth. Harry, who lives on the island, says: "If I am a Knight, then I'll eat my hat." Did you know that you can prove from the above information that Harry will eat his hat? Did you know that if everyone loves a lover and Madonna is a lover, then everyone loves everyone? Learn how to solve these and other puzzles in Philosophy 211, where we will study formal deductive logic -- the science of what follows from what. The concepts and techniques encountered in the study of deductive logic are of central importance to any analysis of argument and inference. They reflect fundamental patterns of proof found in science and mathematics, they underlie the programs that enable computers to "reason" logically, and they provide tools for characterizing the formal structures of language. This is an introductory course intended for students who have had no previous work in logic.
736-212: Modern Deductive Logic Se 001 3 credits, U, HU MW 5:30-6:45 pm Professor Liston tel 414-229-4736/4719 email mnliston@uwm.edu	The task of the first logic course -- Philosophy 211 -- was to develop a means for evaluating deductive arguments. This task involved the use of a formal language for expressing the logical structure of English sentences and the use of various formal techniques, including truth tables and deductions, for evaluating arguments. Once an English argument was translated into the formal language, formal techniques were used to solve an apparently informal problem, i.e., the problem of finding out whether it is possible for the conclusion of the argument to be false while all its premises are true. In Philosophy 212 we will continue this inquiry into the evaluation of deductive arguments. We will concentrate on two central areas. First, we will deal with statements and arguments that are more quantificationally complex than those studied in Philosophy 211. Second, we will address the issue of the adequacy of the formal system. Explicit definitions of validity of arguments and formal systems will be used for the investigation, via informal reasoning and proof, of what can be achieved by a deductive system. Philosophy 211 is a prerequisite for this class.
736-232:Topics in Philosophy Se 001: The Claims of Education 3 credits, U, HU TR 11:05 am-12:20 pm Professor Atherton tel 414-229-5904/4719 email atherton@uwm.edu	Why do I have to go to school? This is a good question at any age. Ten year olds are told they must go to school, that school of some sort is compulsory for them. Why? What sort of social role does education play that makes it mandatory for the young? Is education in fact a duty or is it rather a benefit? And if it is a benefit, in what ways are we benefited by education? Why should we want to go to school? We will seek the answers to these questions by looking at what contemporary philosophers and historical thinkers such as Socrates, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft and Dewey have had to say on these issues.
736-237:Technology, Values and Society Se 001 3 credits, U, HU MWF 10:30 pm Professor Mink tel 414-229-4719 email philosophy@uwm.edu	In this introductory course, we will examine the works of contemporary thinkers who have addressed the modern "problem of technology." Through the writings of thinkers as diverse as Marshall McLuhan, Heidegger, Roseanne Stone, Donna Haraway, and Deleuze and Guattari, we will especially focus on the way the new media - film, television, video, and the Internet - have changed the routines of everyday life, the patterns of perception, and even raised new issues and introduced new concepts into philosophy. We will also take the opportunity to view and discuss relevant films, videos, and artwork on the Internet.
736-241: Introductory Ethics Lc 401 3 credits, U, HU MW 12:30 pm Professor Sensat tel 414-229-4669/4719 email sensat@uwm.edu http://www.uwm.edu/~sensat	We shall study three basic approaches in moral philosophy: ethical rationalism, which takes moral principles to describe an independent order of values fixed in the nature of things, the ideal-spectator approach, which takes morally wrong actions to be those an impartial, sympathetic observer would disapprove of, and contractualism, according to which the correct moral principles are those which would be agreed to by all reasonable beings as a basis for their community. We shall see how the second approach leads naturally to utilitarianism, while contractualism has important sources in Immanuel Kant's moral philosophy. We shall see how the three basic approaches get reflected in theories of social and economic justice.
736-244: Ethical Issues in Health Care Se 101: Contemporary Problems 3 credits, U, HU T 6:15-8:55 pm Professor N. Hedman tel 414-229-4719 email nahedman@uwm.edu	In this course, a case study approach to biomedical ethics will be taken. We will begin with an introduction to moral theory (both traditional and feminist perspectives) as well as the basics of ethical argument and dialogue. We will then apply these approaches and skills to several ethical problems currently confronting health providers and their patients and families: [1] the allocation and delivery of medical resources and the impact managed care has had on the patient-provider relationship; [2] beginning of life concerns, including maternal/fetal conflicts, prenatal screening & abortion and treatment decisions for seriously impaired infants; and, finally [3] decision making at the end-of-life including pain management, foregoing life-sustaining treatments, advance directives, euthanasia and assisted dying. Students in the various health-related fields, social work, health administration and pre-law should find this course relevant but anyone with a general interest in these issues would be welcome. This course is taught off-campus at St. Michael's Hospital, 2400 W. Villard Ave, Franciscan Room. Women's Studies Course.
736-245: Critical Thinking and the Law Se 101: Law of Torts 3 credits, U, HU W 6:15-8:55 pm Professor Santilli tel 414-229-4719 email philosophy@uwm.edu	The goals of critical thinking are to instill in the student an understanding of the fundamental principles of analysis, problem solving and construction of an argument. In order to convey these principles, students are taught how to use tort law using legal materials, including but not limited to, the language used by the legal profession and legal resources. It is through the study of law that teachers hope to impart to their students a system for analytical thinking which they may use in their every-day lives. Texts used will include Prosser, Wade and Schwartz's, Torts Cases and Materials, Restatement (Second) Torts and case law. This course is taught off-campus at U.C.C.E., 161 W. Wisconsin Ave., Room 6000.
736-250: Philosophy of Religion Se 001 3 credits, U, HU TR 12:30-1:45 pm Professor Mondadori tel 414-229-5904/4719 email mondadf@uwm.edu	We shall analyze and discuss (a) some of the traditional arguments for the existence of God (especially St. Thomas' Five Ways, and the ontological argument), (b) the so-called problem of Evil (we shall read texts by Leibniz and Hume), (c) the question whether or not God's omniscience and human freedom are mutually consistent, and (d) the problem of miracles.
736-271: Philosophical Traditions Se 001: Western Great Lakes American Indian Philosophy 3 credits, U, (HU&) MWF 11:30 am Professor Boatman tel 414-229-6686/4719 email boatman@uwm.edu	A study of selected aspects of Western Great Lakes American Indian Philosophy from the perspective of some traditional Elders. Ontological and cosmological facets of the Metaphysics, including selected perceptions of the essential nature of "Being," will be focused upon. Throughout the course particular emphasis will be placed on the important and very special role of Female Beings in the universe. Women's Studies Course.
736-324: Philosophy of Science Se 001 3 credits, U/G TR 11:05 am-12:20 pm Professor Schwartz tel 414-229-4771/4719 email schwartz@uwm.edu	This course will explore the nature of scientific inquiry, as well as consider what, if anything, is special about the scientific enterprise. We will start by trying to get a firm understanding of such core notions of scientific methodology as: explanation, cause, laws, and probability. Next we will explore how concepts and hypotheses of science get their empirical meaning. This study will lead us to consider questions about the relation of theoretical terms to "reality" and to problems concerning how science can or cannot test its theories. The last third of the course will focus on recent challenges to both the "objectivity" of science and the "rationality" of scientific practice.
736-355: Political Philosophy Se 001 3 credits, U/G TR 2:05-3:20 pm Professor Wainwright tel 414-229-4395/4719 email wjwain@uwm.edu	An examination of the political thought of Plato, Hobbes, Locke, Burke, Rousseau and Mill. Special emphasis will be placed on the problem of elitism, the question of natural rights, the question of political participation, and the importance of "moral factors" (sentiment, custom, shared values, etc.) in constructing and maintaining a good society.
736-430: History of Ancient Philosophy Se 001 3 credits, U/G TR 4:30-5:45 pm Professor Mondadori tel 414-229-5904/4719 email mondadf@uwm.edu	In the thought of Ancient Greece we uncover a remarkable phenomenon. The Ancient Greeks, starting from an essentially myth-making way of understanding the world and the human place in it, as found in the work of Homer and Hesiod, developed their ideas to a culmination in a theory of the natural world and of human nature and human contact put forward by Aristotle, which dominated human thinking for many hundreds of years and is still said to capture human "common sense" beliefs about the world. How did this transition come about? We will look at the changing questions asked by the Pre-Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, as well as the reflections of these questions in Greek literature and history, in order to understand how their ideas and theories about the natural world and human nature resulted in the development of natural science, ethics and political theory.
736-438: Problems in Marxism Se 001 3 credits, U/G TR 12:30-1:45 pm Professor Sensat tel 414-229-4669/4719 email sensat@uwm.edu http://www.uwm.edu/~sensat	Many people know that Marx criticized the economics of his day for providing an inverted view of reality, treating the social as natural and vice-versa. But often people are not aware that he treats this "doctrinal" inversion as an expression of a real social inversion in which social practices operate as a "second nature" hostile to the practices' participants. This idea of an inverted social world is Marx's most important contribution to the self-understanding of modern society. We shall try to make sense of this idea, by studying relevant writings by Marx, Lukacs and others.
736-475: Special Topics in Indian Religious Thought Se 001: Vedanta and The Bhagavad Gita 3 credits, U/G TR 3:30-4:45 pm Professor Neevel tel 414-229-5215/4719 email wgneevel@uwm.edu	This course will begin with a close study of two of the most important Hindu scriptural sources, the Upanishads (also known as the Vedanta, "the End of the Veda") and the Bhagavad Gita. We will then consider these two scriptures as the bases for the Vedanta Darsana or school of systematic and critical religious thought, especially according to the interpretation of the two most important classical Vedantic thinkers, Sankara and Ramanuja. In conclusion and as time allows, we will examine modern Hindu interpretation of these texts, especially Mahatma Gandhi's reliance upon the Gita.
736-522: Special Topics in the Philosophy of Science Se 002: Minds, Thought and Mentality 3 credits, U/G T 1:45-4:25 pm Professor Schwartz tel 414-229-4771/4719 email schwartz@uwm.edu	Human thought and action are dependent on and mediated by the knowledge and mental skills we possess. Perhaps the core topic in the study of cognition is to explain how this knowledge and skill base is stored or represented by our mind/brain. This course will explore conceptual and theoretical problems that lie at the heart of current debates in philosophy, psychology, linguistics and computer science over the nature of mentality and mental representations. We will consider such questions as: is there a language of thought?, can we really think in images?, in what way may our behavior be guided by rules?, may a significant part of knowledge base be innate? Issues concerning animal and machine intelligence will be examined in these contexts.
736-532: Philosophical Problems Se 001: Philosophy of Human Nature 3 credits, U/G TR 9:30-10:45 am Professor Hawi tel 414-229-4395/4719 email hawi@uwm.edu	This is a course on philosophical anthropology. The main focus is the study of Human Nature. "What is man so thou are mindful of him?" The answer to this question gives rise to the multiple forms that philosophical anthropology has taken. The course will concentrate on the highlights of both the philosophic and scientific traditions in their attempts to delineate and explain human nature. Also, it includes an examination of the three basic aspects of the concept of man: the Classical, the Christian-Islamic, and Modern. The psychological, moral and legal implications of human cloning will be given some attention.
736-532: Philosophical Problems Se 002: Moral Objectivity 3 credits, U/G TR 6:00-7:15 pm Professor Bagnoli tel 414-229-5903/4719 email bagnoli@uwm.edu http://www.uwm.edu/~cbagnoli	Why is objectivity important in ethics? When we judge from a moral point of view we try to be objective, unbiased and impartial. When we are judged from a moral point of view, we want to be judged objectively and impartially. It seems that in our ordinary language moral judgments should aspire to objectivity. However, it is a matter of contention whether moral judgments can aspire to objectivity. The main philosophical disagreement concerns the standards of objectivity in ethics: in which sense are moral judgments capable of objectivity? Philosophers who defend moral realism claim that moral judgments are objective insofar as they correctly represent moral facts. Non-realists rebut that there are no such facts; no assumption about peculiarly moral fact is needed in order to account for ethical objectivity. This debate has a significant impact on the question of moral disagreement. What is a moral disagreement? Are moral disagreements resolvable by rational argument? If they are not, does not that show that ethics cannot be objective? In this course we will consider how the question of ethical objectivity is addressed by some of the most interesting contemporary philosophers such as G.E. Moore, L. Wittgeinstein, C. Stevenson, R. Hare, J.L. Mackie, T. Nagel, C. Korsgaard, B. Williams, B. Blackburn and D. Wiggins.
736-681: Seminar in Advanced Topics Se 001: Hume 3 credits, U/G W 2:30-5:10 pm Professor Atherton tel 414-229-5904/4719 email atherton@uwm.edu	The importance of the epistemological and metaphysical arguments put forward by David Hume in Book I of A Treatise of Human Nature and An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding is without question. A clear grasp of Hume's metaphysical and epistemological views is required, not only for a proper understanding of Hume's ethics and philosophy of religion, but is also necessary in order to follow the ramifications of much late 18th century, 19th century and 20th century English language philosophy, much of which takes place in conversation with his ideas. The central importance of Hume's work notwithstanding, what remains puzzling about the reaction to Hume's ideas is that there is no general agreement at all about what kind of philosopher Hume was. Hume is variously presented as an arch-sceptic, as a naturalistic psychologist or as the first post-sceptical philosopher. Through a close reading of Book I of A Treatise of Human Nature and Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, together with some representative samplings of the critical literature, we will try to come to terms with the mystery that is David Hume.
736-712: Fundamentals of Formal Logic Se 001 3 credits, G MW 5:30-6:45 pm Professor Liston tel 414-229-4736/4719 email mnliston@uwm.edu	See Description for 736-212
736-758: Seminar in Major Philosophers Se 001: Foucault 3 credits, G M 2:30-5:10 pm Professor Gendron tel 414-229-4771/4719 email bgendron@uwm.edu	Arguably one of the most influential philosophers since World War II, Michel Foucault has significantly shifted the philosophical agenda, which he approached in a refreshingly multi-disciplinary manner. Foucault has revised the Nietzschean claim that all knowledge is an expression of the will-to-power. Particularly, he has provided detailed historical analyses of the complicity of the modern "human sciences" with the subtle systems of faceless "disciplinary power" that have evolved during the past two centuries. In connection with this, he has been especially attentive to the history of the marginalized, excluded, and institutionalized groups of modern society -- those deemed insane, chronically sick, criminal, or sexually deviant. Foucault is well-known also for his innovative methodologies. Proceeding on the belief that philosophy must be historically and archivally informed, Foucault first developed what he called an "archaeological" approach, through which one attempts to delineate the structure of "discursive formations." Later he turned to a Nietzschean "genealogical" approach, which focuses particularly on the "technologies" of power. Now that Foucault's work is solidly ensconced in the academic canon, it is time to review critically whether and to what extent it continues to have relevance. We will read selections from Foucault's most important works: Madness and Civilization, The Birth of the Clinic, The Order of Things, The Archaeology of Knowledge, Discipline and Punish, and The History of Sexuality. We shall also attend to his frequent and remarkable interviews, which are equally part of his "work".

For a complete list of philosophy classes, please refer to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Fall 2000 Schedule of Classes. This booklet is available through Enrollment Services, Mellencamp Hall Room 274 or on the web at http://www.uwm.edu/schedule/

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