UWM Philosophy -- Summer 2002 course offerings

Summer 2002 course offerings

Introductory Courses
736-101: Introduction to Philosophy Se 011: God, Metaphysics and Value 3 credits, U, HU MWR 6:30 pm-9:15 pm 4 weeks beginning week of 5/28 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 Se 051: Selected Topics and Issues 3 credits, U, HU MWR 1:30 pm-3:20 pm 6 weeks beginning week of 6/24 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.
736-211: Elementary Logic Se 011 3 credits, U, HU MWR 9:30 am-11:20 am 6 weeks beginning week of 5/28 Professor Steldt tel 414-229-4719 email karlsteldt@hotmail.com	The overall goal of this course is the development of procedures for evaluating deductive arguments. The first order of business is the identification of arguments in ordinary writing. These then have to be translated into a formal language. At this point powerful techniques can be applied to ascertain the validity of arguments, even very complex ones.
736-211: Elementary Logic Se 031 3 credits, U, HU TR 6:30 pm-9:15 pm 6 weeks beginning week of 6/10 Professor Liston tel 414-229-4736/4719 email mnliston@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.
Intermediate and Advanced Courses
736-232: Topics in Philosophy Se 011: Popular Music from Blues to Punk and Hip Hop 3 credits, U, HU MWR 6:30 pm-9:15 pm 4 weeks beginning week of 5/28 Professor Gendron tel 414-229-4771/4719 email bgendron@uwm.edu	This course will treat blues, jazz, and rock music as major art forms of this century which have had significant cultural and social ramifications. Through a detailed history of popular music in this century, we will be addressing questions like: How are blues, jazz, and rock related to each other? How do they differ? What have been the controversies about them? In what sense, if any, are they true art forms? How do they compare in quality with "classical" music or contemporary experimental music? We will explore the very important influence of African-American music on popular music, and the continued discrimination against this music. We will also examine the important connection between the emergence of various youth subcultures - the beats, hippies, punks, graffiti culture - and the emergence of various musical styles (e.g., modern jazz, psychedelic rock, grunge rock, rap). Finally, we will consider the impact of various technological and institutional changes on popular music (e.g., long-playing records, stereophonic sound, AM vs. FM radio, CD players).
736-237: Technology, Values and Society Se 051 3 credits, U, HU MWR 6:30 pm-9:15 pm 4 weeks beginning week of 6/24 Professor Mink tel 414-229-4719 email kmink@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, Paul Virilio, 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 Se 011 3 credits, U, HU MWR 1:30 pm-3:20 pm 6 weeks beginning week of 5/28 Professor Steldt tel 414-229-4719 email karlsteldt@hotmail.com	This course will explore the potentialities and limits of discourse in determining how to live our lives. We shall focus on utilitarianism, rationalism, and contractualism as attempts to establish those potentialities and limits. Two other topics we shall discuss are ethical relativism and possible criteria of moral responsibility.
736-253: Philosophy of the Arts Se 091 3 credits, U, HU MWR 6:30 pm-9:15 pm 4 weeks beginning week of 7/22 Professor Mink tel 414-229-4719 email kmink@uwm.edu	In this course, we’ll study some of the most exciting work of the twentieth century in order to come to terms with the “essence” of modern art. We will look at film (e.g., Eisenstein, Godard, Cassavetes), literature (from Beckett to Burroughs), painting (Duchamp, Bacon, Mary Kelly, Gerhard Richter, et. al.), installation and performance art (Robert Smithson, Mike Kelley, Laurie Anderson, etc.), architecture (Eisenmann, Tschumi and others), music and dance (Cage, Cunningham), digital photography, video, and multimedia work. We’ll be guided by writers like Benjamin, Virilio, and Deleuze and Guattari, along with many other contemporary thinkers and critics. Our discussion of themes like surface and simulacrum; shock, inertia, and speed; the cry, the crack, and the fold will show that ours is an age of the “neo-Baroque”.
736-271: Philosophical Traditions: Western Great Lakes American Indian Philosophy Women's Studies Course Se 311 3 credits, U, HU TWR 9:00am - 11:50am 4 weeks beginning week of 5/28 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.

For a complete list of philosophy classes, please refer to the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee Summer 2002 Schedule of Classes. This booklet is available through Enrollment Services, Mellencamp Hall Room 274 or on the web at http://www.uwm.edu/schedule/

Page updated April 1, 2002
Site maintained by Luca Ferrero
ferrero@uwm.edu

Introductory Courses

Intermediate and Advanced Courses