Summer 2003 course offerings
Introductory Courses in Philosophy | |
|
736-101: Introduction to
Philosophy |
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 Lec 012 Selected Topics and Issues 3 credits, U, HU MWR 9:30am-11:35am 6 weeks beginning week of 5/27 Professor Steldt tel 414-229-5216/4719 email karlsteldt@hotmail.com |
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 Lec 011 3 credits, U, HU MWR 1:30pm-3:35pm 6 weeks beginning week of 5/27 Professor Tierney tel 414-229-5217/4719 email mailto:mnliston@uwm.edu Lec 071 |
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 | |
| 736-213: Introduction
to the Philosophy of Science Lec 051 3 credits, U, HU MWR 6:30pm-9:48pm 4 weeks beginning week of 6/23 Professor Mink tel 414-229-5903/4719 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 Lec 011 3 credits, U, HU MWR 1:30pm-3:35pm 6 weeks beginning week of 5/27 Professor Steldt tel 414-229-5216/4719 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. |
| 736-245: Critical
Thinking and the Law Lec 151 Law of Contracts 3 credits, U, HU MW 6:30pm-9:05pm 8 weeks beginning week of 6/23 Professor Santilli tel 963-1356/550-1532 (cell) email santilli@execpc.com |
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 contract 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
Murphy, Speidel and Ayres’ Studies in Contract Law, 5th Edition,
and Restatement of Contracts (Second) and case law.
This course is taught off-campus at School of Continuing Education, 161 W. Wisconsin Ave., Rm. 6000. |
| 736-253: Philosophy
of the Arts Lec 091 3 credits, U, HU MWR 6:30pm-9:48pm 4 weeks beginning week of 7/21 Professor Mink tel 414-229-5903/4719 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". |
| 736-272 Philosophical
Classics Lec 021 The Life and Death of Socrates 3 credits, U, HU M-F 9:30am-12:00pm 1 week beginning week of 6/2 Professor Atherton tel 414-229-5904/4719 email atherton@uwm.edu |
Socrates’ life and teachings were immortalized by his great pupil, Plato and in his own right, Socrates has been accorded an honored place in the history of philosophy. Yet he remains an enigmatic figure. What sort of a teacher was this man who insisted he was the wisest of all because he knew nothing? Why did the Athenians find his teachings so threatening that they put him to death? In this course we will seek to uncover the puzzle that was Socrates through a reading of Plato’s account of his last days. |
| 736-272 Philosophical
Classics Lec 071 Descartes' Meditations 3 credits, U, HU MWR 1:30pm-3:35pm 2 weeks beginning week of 7/7 Professor Tierney tel 414-229-5217/4719 email rtierney@uwm.edu |
If we sometimes dream, then perhaps the world we perceive when awake has no more reality than the world we dream about. How can you be sure that you do not believe that 2+2=4 because an evil demon has tricked you into so believing? With speculations like these, Descartes took his figure of a meditator into an understanding of the underlying nature of reality, where minds are firmly distinct from bodies and our knowledge of the nature of reality is saved from skepticism through a proof for the existence of God. We will follow the thoughts of the meditator through the steps Descartes laid out for him or her, and see why Descartes ushered in a new era of philosophical endeavor. |
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Page updated April 8, 2003 Site maintained by Luca Ferrero ferrero@uwm.edu & Michele Strader mstrader@uwm.edu |