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The LSU Department of
Philosophy offers a wide range of courses designed to encourage
students to think critically, to analyze and evaluate propositions and
arguments, and to ask questions about meaning, truth, and how we ought
to live. Some philosophy courses deal with issues that arise in other
fields of study and in certain professions and vocations. Such courses
include professional ethics, bioethics, philosophy of art, philosophy
of science, and philosophy and film. Logic courses are especially
recommended for students in business, mass communication, and pre-law.
[General
education courses are marked with stars *.
Course descriptions are below the list.]
INTRODUCTORY
*1000
Introduction to Philosophy
1001
Honors: Introduction to Philosophy
*1021
Introduction to
Logic
2000
LEVEL
LOGIC
*2010
Symbolic Logic I
2786
Logic, Science, and Society
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
*2033
History of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
2034 HONORS (Ancient and
Medieval)
*2035
History of Modern Philosophy
2036 HONORS (Modern)
MORAL AND SOCIAL AND
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
2000
Contemporary Moral Problems
2018
Professional Ethics
*2020 Ethics
2025 Bioethics
AESTHETICS
*2023 Philosophy
of Art
*2024
Philosophy in Literature
PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
*2028
Philosophy of Religion
SELECTED TOPICS AND
INDEPENDENT READING
2963, 2964, 2965
HONORS
COLLOQUIUM
2953 HONORS
3000
LEVEL
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
3110 The Philosophy
of Socrates
3090 Friedrich
Nietzsche
METAPHYSICS, EPISTEMOLOGY, AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
3950 Introduction to Epistemology
MORAL
AND SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
3052 Moral
Philosophy
CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY
3001 Existentialism
3003 French
Existentialism
AESTHETICS
3002 Philosophy
and Film
PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
3015 Christian
Philosophy
SELECTED TOPICS AND
INDEPENDENT READING
3020
Special Topics in Philosophy
4000
LEVEL
LOGIC
4010 Symbolic Logic II
4011 Topics
in Advanced Logic
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
4920 Presocratic
Philosophy
4922 Plato
4924 Aristotle
4926
Hellenistic Philosophy
4928
Augustine, Anselm, and Aquinas
4931
Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz
4933 Locke,
Berkeley, Hume
4935 Kant
4936 19th
Century Philosophy
4938
Philosophical Thought in America
4939 Kierkegaard
4972 Kant's
Moral Philosophy
METAPHYSICS, EPISTEMOLOGY, AND THE
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
4950
Advanced Epistemology
4951
Philosophy of Science
4952 Topics in
Metaphysics
4953
Contemporary Analytic Philosophy
LANGUAGE & MIND
4941 Philosophy
of Mind
4914
Philosophy of Language
MORAL AND SOCIAL AND
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
4015
Philosophy of Male and Female
4943
Problems in Ethical Theory
4945 Political
Philosophy
4946 Philosophy of
Law
4972 Kant's
Moral Philosophy
CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY
4003
Contemporary French Philosophy
4015
Philosophy of Male and Female
4948 Phenomenology
4954
Recent Speculative Philosophy
AESTHETICS
4940 Aesthetics
4002 Philosophy
of Film
PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
4944
Philosophical Theology
SELECTED TOPICS AND
INDEPENDENT READING
4786 Selected Topics
4991
Independent Reading and Research
7000
LEVEL
7901
Seminar in Contemporary Analytic Philosophy
7903
Seminar in Continental Philosophy
7905
Seminar in History of Philosophy
7910 Seminar
7991
Independent Reading and Research
8000
LEVEL
8000 Thesis Research
INTRODUCTORY
COURSES
* 1000 Introduction
to Philosophy
(3) Major works on such themes as appearance and reality, human nature,
nature of knowledge, relation of mind and body, right and good,
existence of God, and freedom and determinism.
1001
Honors: Introduction to Philosophy
(3) Prereq.: ENGL 1002 or equivalent. Same as PHIL 1000, with a special
honors emphasis for qualified students. Credit will not be given for
both this course and PHIL 1000.
*
1021 Introduction to Logic
(3) No special background presupposed. Formal and
informal reasoning; introduction to propositional logic; formal and
informal fallacies; scientific reasoning.
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2000
LEVEL COURSES
LOGIC
*
2010 Symbolic Logic I
(3) Classical propositional and first-order predicate logic; syntax and
semantics of formal languages; translation between formal languages and
English; formal methods of proof.
HISTORY
OF PHILOSOPHY
*
2033 History of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
(3) An honors course, PHIL 2034, is also available. Introduction to
philosophy through a study of some of the main writings of classical
and medieval philosophy.
2034 HONORS
Tutorial in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy (1) To be taken
concurrently with PHIL 2033. 1 hr. of tutorial instruction per week for
honors students.
*
2035 History of Modern Philosophy
An honors course, PHIL 2036, is also available. Introduction to
philosophy through a study of some of the main writings of modern
philosophy.
2036 HONORS
Tutorial in Modern Philosophy (1) To be taken concurrently with PHIL
2035. 1 hr. of tutorial instruction per week for honors students.
PHILOSOPHY OF
LANGUAGE, MIND, AND SCIENCE
2786
Logic, Science, and Society
(3) Prereq.: completed analytical reasoning area of general education
or consent of instructor. Logic, evidence, probability, and induction;
objectivity and relativism; technology and utopia.
MORAL AND SOCIAL AND
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
2000
Contemporary Moral Problems
(3) Philosophical study of contemporary moral problems
such as capital punishment, preferential treatment, sexual equality,
sexual liberation, terrorism, war and nuclear arms, animal rights,
world hunger, environmental ethics, and the morality of suicide.
2018
Professional Ethics
(3) Special problems of obligation and evaluation related to law,
medicine, politics, and education, as well as business, engineering,
and architecture; altruism, trust, vocation, codes of honor,
professional privilege, and responsibilities for others arising from
differential abilities.
* 2020 Ethics
(3) Classical and recent theories of obligation and value, including
works of philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hume, and
Nietzsche; topics including freedom, rights, justification of moral
judgments.
2025 Bioethics
(3) Defining health and disease; deciding on rights, duties, and
obligations in the patient-physician relationship; abortion and the
concept of a person; defining and determining death; euthanasia and the
dignity of death; allocation of medical resources, both large-scale and
small-scale; experimentation with fetuses, children, prisoners, and
animals; genetic testing, screening, and interference.
AESTHETICS
* 2023
Philosophy of Art
(3) Philosophical theories of beauty, art, and art criticism.
*
2024 Philosophy in Literature
(3) Philosophical themes in world literature: fiction, poetry, drama,
and autobiography.
PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
*
2028 Philosophy of Religion
(3) Same as REL 2028. Essence and meaning of religion as a pervasive
phenomenon in human societies; faith and reason, nature of divinity,
arguments for and against God's existence, religious knowledge and
experience, morality and cult, the problem of evil.
SELECTED TOPICS AND
INDEPENDENT READING
2963,
2964, 2965 HONORS
Independent Work for Honors Students (1,1,1) Prereq.: sophomore
standing, completion of at least 3 hrs. of philosophy with a grade of B
or higher, and a gpa of at least 3.00 in all work taken. Readings,
conferences, and reports underfaculty direction.
COLLOQUIUM
2953 HONORS
Philosophical Colloquium (3) Prereq.: a grade of B or higher in at
least one other philosophy course; or consent of instructor. Subject
drawn from prominent philosophical works.
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3000
LEVEL COURSES
HISTORY
OF PHILOSOPHY
3090
Friedrich Nietzsche
(3) See GERM 3090.
3110
The Philosophy of Socrates
(3) Early dialogues of Plato; Socrates on pleasure, friendship, virtue,
justice, courage, temperance, wisdom, and happiness; on knowing the
better and following the worse; on reason and inspiration; Socratic
irony.
METAPHYSICS, EPISTEMOLOGY, AND
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
3950
Introduction
to Epistemology
(3)
Survey of central issues in the theory of knowledge: knowledge as
justified true belief; the Gettier problem; induction as a source of
justification; a priori knowledge; fallibilist vs. infallibilist and
internalist vs. externalist conceptions of justification; structure of
justification.
MORAL AND SOCIAL AND
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
3052 Moral
Philosophy
(3) May be taken twice when topics vary. Topics in ethics and
meta-ethics: egoism, consequentialism, deontology, moral relativism,
virtue ethics, values, ethics and religion; naturalistic fallacy, truth
and justification, realism and objectivity, motivation and practical
reasoning, autonomy, and game theory.
CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY
3001
Existentialism
(3) Basic themes of existentialist philosophy; the works of
Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Jaspers, Heidegger, Camus, Marcel, and Sartre.
3003
French Existentialism
(3) Major themes, issues, and theories of the French existentialist;
existence, essence, and the question of Being; death, nothingness, and
anxiety; freedom, responsibility, and values; the ethical and the
other; authors include Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone De Beauvoir, Maurice
Merleau-Ponty; Albert Camus, Emamnuel Levinas, Jean Beaufret, Gabriel
Marcel, Emmanuel Mounier.
AESTHETICS
3002
Philosophy and Film
(3) Films as philosophical texts.
PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
3015
Christian Philosophy
(3) Prereq.: one course in either philosophy or religious studies or
equivalent. Also offered as REL 3015. Applications of philosophy to
such themes in Christianity as knowing God, nature, and the structure
of faith, revelation, incarnation, faith and science, Christianity and
other faiths.
SELECTED TOPICS AND
INDEPENDENT READING
3020
Special Topics in Philosophy
(1-3) May be taken twice for credit when topics vary.
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4000
LEVEL COURSES
LOGIC
4010 Symbolic Logic
II
(3) Prereq.: PHIL
2010 or consent of instructor. Syntax and
basic model theory of classical first-order logic; soundness and
completeness.
4011
Topics in Advanced Logic
(3) Prereq.:
PHIL 4010 or consent of instructor. Also offered as LING 4011.
Topics may include advanced metatheory of symbolic languages,
intensional logics, and Montague grammar.
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
4920
Presocratic Philosophy
(3) Prereq.: PHIL 2033 or equivalent. Study of the major Presocratic
Philosophers from Thales up to and including the Sophists.
4922 Plato
(3) Prereq.: PHIL 2033 or equivalent.
4924 Aristotle
(3) Prereq.: PHIL 2033 or equivalent. Topics from Aristotle's
Metaphysics, Physics, De Anima, and the logical treatises.
4926
Hellenistic Philosophy
(3) Prereq.: PHIL 2033 or equivalent. Study of the major Hellenistic
PHilosophical Schools: the Epicureans, the Stoics, and the Sceptics.
4928
Augustine, Anselm, and Aquinas
(3) Also offered as REL 4928. Study of three major figures in medieval
philosophy; emphasis on the development of the patristic, monastic, and
scholastic traditions.
4931
Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz
(3) Prereq.: 6 hrs. of philosophy or consent of instructor. 17th
century rationalism, with emphasis on epistemology and metaphysics.
4933
Locke, Berkeley, Hume
(3) Language, epistemology, ontology, self, God, causation, realism,
and idealism in the writings of these British empiricists.
4935 Kant
(3) Prereq.: PHIL 2035 or equivalent. Basic topics and arguments in
Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.
4936
19th Century Philosophy
(3) Prereq.: PHIL 2033 and 2035; or equivalent. 19th century
philosophy, with emphasis on German thought; readings in Fichte, Hegel,
Marx, Nietzsche, Bergson, and others.
4938
Philosophical Thought in America
(3) Late 19th and early 20th centuries; topics from such philosophers
as Peirce, James, Royce, Dewey, Santayana, Ward, and Mead.
4939 Kierkegaard
(3) Also offered as REL 4939. Study of his works, such as, Either/Or,
The Sickness Unto Death, Fear and Trembling, Concluding Unscientific
Postscript, Stages on Life's Way, and The Present Age. Also offered as
REL 4939.
4972
Kant's Moral Philosophy
(3) Study of some or several of Kant's principal works in moral
philosophy such as, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals,
Metaphysics of Morals, Critique of Practical Reason, and Anthropology
From a Pragmatic Point of View.
METAPHYSICS,
EPISTEMOLOGY, AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
4950 Advanced
Epistemology
(3)
Topics may include naturalized epistemology, internalism vs.
externalism about justification, a priori knowledge, justification and
truth, skepticism, Bayesian approaches to justification, contextualist
theories of knowledge, and the possibility of non-inferential
justification.
4951
Philosophy of Science
(3) Prereq.: consent of instructor. Philosophical issues related to
concept formation and theory construction in the natural, behavioral,
and social sciences.
4952
Topics in Metaphysics
(3) May be taken twice when topics vary. Such topics as ontology,
modalities, universals, truth, causation, reductionism, identity
(physical and personal), realism, and the meaning of life.
4953
Contemporary Analytic Philosophy
(3) Prereq.: one logic course and either PHIL 2035 or 4933. Topics from
leading philosophers in such contemporary movements as logical
empiricism, formalism, and ordinary language analysis, including Moore,
Russell, Wittgenstein, Carnap, Goodman, Ryle, Strawson, and Quine.
PHILOSOPHY OF
LANGUAGE AND MIND
4941
Philosophy of Mind
(3) Prereq.: PHIL 2033 and 2035; or equivalent. Recent philosophical
treatments of human nature; the mind-body problem, identity of the
person in time, the person as rational and volitional, and relation of
the person to the world.
4914
Philosophy of Language
(3) Prereq.: one logic course or consent of instructor. Also offered as
LING 4914. Various theories of meaning, their implications and
presuppositions, and their relevance to issues in such areas as theory
of perception, theory of truth, metaphysics, ethics, philosophy of mind
and action.
MORAL AND SOCIAL AND
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
4943
Problems in Ethical Theory
(3) Prereq.: two courses in philosophy or consent of instructor. Recent
developments in ethics.
4945
Political Philosophy
(3) Prereq.: PHIL 1000 or 2020 or equivalent. Freedom, obligation,
authority, justice, law, the state, and revolution.
4946
Philosophy of Law
(3) Moral issues in foundations of law and legal authority; nature of
law; civil disobedience; principles of punishment; legal liability;
morals legislation; Good Samaritan laws; moral basis of contract law.
4972 Kant's Moral Philosophy
(3) Study of some or several of Kant's principal works in moral
philosophy such as, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals,
Metaphysics of Morals, Critique of Practical Reason, and Anthropology
From a Pragmatic Point of View.
CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY
4003
Recent French Philosophy
(3) Major contemporary French philospohers, including Bergson, Sartre,
Merleau-Ponty, De Beauvior, Levinas, Derrida, Foucault, Nancy Ricoeur,
Marion, Janicaud; themes such as the rethinking of ethics, the question
of humanism, and political thought; intellectual movements such as
structuralism and post-structuralism, phenomenology, hermeneutics and
deconstruction, feminism and psychoanalysis.
4015
Philosophy of Male and Female
(3) Philosophical examination of the concepts of human nature that
underlie a variety of theories about women and femininity.
4948
Phenomenology
(3) Prereq.: PHIL 2035 or 4936 or equivalent. Contemporary
phenomenology; reading in Husserl.
4954
Recent Speculative Philosophy
(3) Prereq.: two other philosophy courses or consent of instructor.
Theories of being and knowing in recent absolute idealism, process
philosophy, and phenomenological existentialism.
AESTHETICS
4940 Aesthetics
(3) Meaning and truth in the arts; artistic intention; critical canons.
4002
Philosophy of Film
(3) Therories of film.
PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
4944
Philosophical Theology
(3) Prereq.: two courses in philosophy and/or religious studies. Also
offered as REL 4944. Major themes and works in philosophical theology.
SELECTED TOPICS AND
INDEPENDENT READING
4786
Selected Topics
(3) May be taken for a max. of 6 sem. hrs. when topics vary.
4991
Independent Reading and Research
(1-3) Prereq.: written consent of instructor and department. May be
taken for a max. of 6 hrs. of credit when topics vary. Total credit
earned as a graduate student in PHIL 4991 and PHIL 7991 combined may
not exceed 9 hrs.
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7000
LEVEL COURSES
7901
Seminar in Contemporary Analytic Philosophy
(3) Philosophy of language, metaphysics, realism, anti-realism, and
philosophy of logic and mathematics.
7903
Seminar in Continental Philosophy
(3) Major figures and/or movements in continental philosophy.
7905
Seminar in History of Philosophy
(3) May be taken for a max. of 9 hrs. of credit when topics vary. Study
of a major philosopher or school of philosophy.
7910 Seminar
(3) May be taken for a max. of 6 hrs. of credit when topics vary. May
be offered as LING 7910 when topic is appropriate.
7991
Independent Reading and Research
(1-6) Prereq.: written consent of instructor and departmental director
of graduate studies. Total credit earned as a graduate student in PHIL
4991 and PHIL 7991 combined may not exceed 9 hrs.
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8000
LEVEL COURSES
8000
Thesis Research
(1-12 per sem.) S/U grading.
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