Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
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About the University
Undergraduate Education in New Brunswick/Piscataway
Programs of Study For Liberal Arts Students
Faculties Offering the Programs
Programs, Faculty, and Courses
Availability of Majors
Course Notation Information
Accounting 010
African Area Studies 016
Africana Studies
Aging 018
American History 512
American Literature
American Studies 050
Anthropology 070
Archaeology
Armenian 078
Art 080, 081
Art History 082
Arts and Science 090
Asian Studies 098
Astrophysics 105
Biochemistry
Biological Sciences
Biomathematics
Biomedical Sciences
Botany
Business Law 140
Catalan 145
Cell Biology
Chemistry 160
Chinese 165
Cinema Studies 175
Classics
Cognitive Science 185
Communication
Community Development
Comparative Literature 195
Computer Science 198
Criminal Justice 202
Criminology
Dance 203, 206
Dentistry
Douglass College Courses
East Asian Languages and Area Studies 214
Economics 220
Education 300
Engineering
English
Entomology
Environmental Certificates
European Studies 360
Exercise Science and Sport Studies 377
Film Studies
Finance 390
Food Science 400
Foreign Language Proficiency Certificates
French 420
Genetics
Geography 450
Geological Sciences 460
German 470
Gerontology
Greek 490
Greek, Modern Greek Studies 489
Hindi 505
History
History/French Joint Major 513
History/Political Science Joint Major 514
Hungarian 535
Individualized Major
Interdisciplinary Studies
Italian 560
Japanese 565
Jewish Studies 563
Journalism and Media Studies 567
Junior Year Abroad
Korean 574
Labor Studies 575
Latin 580
Latin American Studies 590
Life Sciences
Law
Linguistics 615
Livingston College Courses
Management 620
Marine Sciences 628
Marketing 630
Mathematics 640
Medical Technology 660
Medicine and Dentistry
Medieval Studies 667
Microbiology
Middle Eastern Studies 685
Military Education, Air Force 690
Military Education, Army 691
Molecular Biology
Music
Nursing
Nutritional Sciences 709
Operations Research 711
Pharmacy
Philosophy 730
Major Requirements
Minor Requirements
Departmental Honors
Courses
Physics 750
Physiology and Neurobiology
Planning and Public Policy 762
Polish 787
Political Science 790
Portuguese 810
Psychology 830
Public Health
Puerto Rican and Hispanic Caribbean Studies 836
Religion 840
Russian 860
Russian, Central and East European Studies 861
Rutgers College Courses
Science, Technology, and Society
Social Work 910
Sociology 920
South Asian Studies 925
Spanish 940
Statistics 960
Statistics-Mathematics
Study Abroad 959
Theater Arts 965, 966
Ukrainian 967
University College–New Brunswick College Courses
Urban Studies
Visual Arts
Women's and Gender Studies 988
Douglass College
Livingston College
Rutgers College
University College
Cook College
Mason Gross School of the Arts
Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy
Rutgers Business School: Undergraduate-New Brunswick
School of Communication, Information and Library Studies (SCILS)
School of Engineering
Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
General Information
Camden Newark New Brunswick/Piscataway
Catalogs
New Brunswick/Piscataway Undergraduate Catalog 2005-2007 Programs of Study For Liberal Arts Students Programs, Faculty, and Courses Philosophy 730 Courses  

Courses

Courses at the 300 and 400 levels are not open to first-year students, and courses at the 400 level are not open to sophomores. Any course prerequisite can be waived by permission of the instructor.


01:730:101Logic, Reasoning, and Persuasion (3) Development of skills in reasoning. Consideration of what an argument is, how arguments go wrong, what makes an argument valid. Application of techniques for clarifying meaning, evaluating, and constructing arguments. Enrollment not open to students who have taken 01:730: 201.
01:730:103Introduction to Philosophy (3) Examination of fundamental philosophical issues such as the meaning and basis of moral judgments, free will and determinism, theism and atheism, knowledge and skepticism, consciousness and the brain.
01:730:104Introduction to Philosophy (4) Same as 01:730:103 with special emphasis on development of proficiency in writing. Credit not given for both this course and 01:730:103.
01:730:105Current Moral and Social Issues (3) Application of moral theory to selected contemporary issues. Possible topics include abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, punishment, equality, sexism, racism, affirmative action, privacy, obligations to the world's needy, treatment of animals, drug use, and the meaning of life.
01:730:106Current Moral and Social Issues (4) Same as 01:730:105 with special emphasis on development of proficiency in writing. Credit not given for both this course and 01:730:105.
01:730:107Introduction to Ethics (3) Exploration of basic issues in ethical theory and metaethics. Topics may include consequentialism, deontology, virtue theory, constructivism, value relativism, the objectivity of values, value skepticism, free will, and the nature of the values and practical reasons.
01:730:164Introduction to Philosophy through Film (2) Uses contemporary film as a stimulus for rigorously examining philosophical problems.    This course is only taught in Winter Session.
01:730:201Introduction to Logic (3) Introduction to formal logic, covering truth functional propositional logic and quantification theory. Emphasis on developing symbolic techniques for representing and evaluating arguments.
01:730:205Introduction to Modern Philosophy (3) Study of the formative period of modern philosophy. Readings selected from works of Descartes, Leibniz, Spinoza, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant.
01:730:210Philosophy of Language (3) Examination of central issues in the philosophy of language concerning questions of meaning and reference. Prerequisite: 01:730:201.
01:730:220Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge (3) Evaluation of evidence, criteria for truth, the nature of belief, theories of perception. Not open to students who have taken 01:730:412.
01:730:225Introduction to the Philosophy of Science (3) Study of scientific methodology using examples from a variety of scientific disciplines. Nature of scientific laws and theories, explanation, confirmation, objectivity, changes in scientific knowledge. Not open to students who have taken 01:730:425.
01:730:249Medical Ethics (3) Moral problems in medical practice and research. Issues such as euthanasia, right to medical care, human experimentation, genetic engineering, rights of patients, nature of death, scarce medical resources.
01:730:250Environmental Ethics (3) Ethical matters concerning the environment; moral justification for coercing individuals and corporations, just distribution of resources, moral rights of nonhuman animals; study of topical issues such as clean air standards, population control, land use.
01:730:251Ethics and Business (3) Social and moral problems that arise in the context of business: profit motive, corporate social responsibility, use and abuse of corporate power, truth in advertising, consumer rights, strikes, stockholders' rights, preferential hiring.
01:730:252Love, Personhood, and Sexual Morality (3) Nature and kinds of love; relationships between sex and love; respect for persons. Topics such as adultery, jealousy, sexual perversion, sexual exploitation, the rationale of moral restrictions of sex.
01:730:255Introduction to Social and Political Philosophy (3) Survey of philosophical writings on the origin and nature of the state. Topics include the individual and the state, the social order, nature and limitation of state authority, political obligation, liberties of citizens.
01:730:258Philosophy and the Black Experience (3) Analysis of what constitutes the black experience and analysis of issues in the black experience, such as racial integration, racial separatism, racism, black values.
01:730:260Philosophical Ideas in Literature (3) Philosophical issues in literary works. Topics such as freedom and determinism, conceptions and reality of the self, the quest for meaning, the existence of evil.
01:730:261Philosophical Ideas in Science Fiction (3) Philosophical issues in science fiction. Topics such as time travel, personal identity, mind-body problem, nonhuman rationality, parallel worlds.
01:730:263Philosophy and the Arts (3) Introduction to the major issues in the philosophy of art, with emphasis on the implications of recent developments in film, music, and painting for art theory.
01:730:265Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion (3) Basic issues in the philosophy of religion, East and West: existence and nature of God, problem of evil, faith versus knowledge, mysticism and its claims, the problem of religious language, attacks on religion by Hume, Nietzsche, Marx, and Freud.
01:730:268Introduction to Existentialism (3) Study of the works of some recent existentialist philosophers and the ways in which their analysis of human existence affects their views of freedom, choice, and action.
01:730:297Sophomore Advanced Seminar (3) Intensive study of some classic philosophical text (e.g., Kant's Critique of Pure Reason) or central philosophical question (e.g., the mind-body problem). Extensive writing of papers and discussion of reading material. Prerequisites: Outstanding performance in at least one course in philosophy and permission of instructor.
01:730:301Socrates and Plato (3) The thought of Socrates and Plato in the Platonic dialogues. The Socratic method; moral theory. Plato's early dialectic, theory of innate knowledge, theory of forms. Prerequisite: One course in philosophy other than 01: 730:101 or 102.
01:730:302Plato and Aristotle (3) Major work of Plato, such as the Republic; Aristotle's critical reaction and alternative theories in metaphysics, psychology, logic, ethics, and politics. Prerequisite: One course in philosophy other than 01: 730:101 or 102.
01:730:304The Origins of Medieval Philosophy (3) Emergence of a distinct medieval philosophical style (Philo of Alexandria); the Platonic legacy in Augustine and Boethius; the development of philosophical theology in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Prerequisite: One course in philosophy other than 01: 730:101 or 102.
01:730:305Philosophy in the High Middle Ages (3) Impact of Aristotle in the Muslim-Jewish world (Averroës and Maimonides); the development of medieval science; Christian Scholasticism (Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus). Prerequisite: One course in philosophy.
01:730:306Between Medieval and Modern Philosophy (3) Critique of Aristotelian philosophy; the emergence of a new or "secular" Aristotle; the revival of Plato in the Italian Renaissance; the "new science" of Galileo. Prerequisite: One course in philosophy other than 01: 730:101 or 102.
01:730:307Descartes, Locke, and the 17th Century (3) Early development of modern views about the nature of the physical world; relation between the mental and the physical; the nature of one's self; skepticism and certainty. Readings from Descartes, Locke, and others, such as Spinoza, Leibniz, Hobbes. Prerequisite: One course in philosophy.
01:730:308Hume, Kant, and the 18th Century (3) Some major works of Hume and Kant with some attention to other 18th-century philosophers. Comparison of views on the structure of consciousness, space and time, the limits of knowledge, the foundations of natural sciences, mathematics, and metaphysics. Prerequisite: One course in philosophy.
01:730:310Contemporary Movements in Philosophy (3)Major movements in 20th-century philosophy, such as American pragmatism, development of logic, logical positivism, existentialism, phenomenology. Philosophers such as Peirce, James, Frege, Russell, Carnap, Wittgenstein, Sartre, Heidegger, Husserl.
Prerequisite: One course in philosophy.
01:730:311Classical Jewish Philosophy (3)Major trends and figures in medieval Jewish thought; Jewish Platonism (Solomon ibn Gabirol); Jewish Aristotelianism (Maimonides); the critique of philosophy (Hallevi); Jewish philosophy in the Renaissance.
Credit not given for both this course and 01:563:312.
01:730:312Modern Jewish Philosophy (3)Thinkers and systems in modern Jewish philosophy, including interpretations of Jewish tradition, Jewish Kantianism (Cohen, Buber), Jewish existentialism and postmodernism (Rosenzweig, Levinas), the Holocast, and Jewish feminism.  
Credit not given for both this course and 01:563:312.
01:730:315Applied Symbolic Logic (3) Use of deduction techniques (see 01:730:201) to formalize various subject matters such as modal logic, set theory, formal arithmetic, and relevance logic. Prerequisite: 01:730:201.
01:730:328Philosophy of Psychology (3) Conceptual and methodological issues about information, mental illness, innate structure, developmental stages, rationality, deviance. Behaviorism, reductionism, cognitivism, and structuralism. Prerequisite: One course in psychology or philosophy.
01:730:329Minds, Machines, and Persons (3) Comparison of the nature of the human mind and that of complex machines. Consequences for questions about the personhood of robots. Prerequisite: One course in philosophy.
01:730:330The Ethics of War (3) A brief survey of the relevant historically significant views toward war including, but not limited to pacifism, just war theory, terrorism, and realism. Prerequisites: Two courses in philosophy other than 01: 730:101. Recommendation: 01:730:103, 104 or 105, 106.
01:730:340History of Ethics (3) Work of great philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Mill. Topics such as nature and moral judgment, justification of moral standards, the good life and its relation to doing what is right.
01:730:341Ethics through History (3) An examination of some of the most important moral theories in the history of philosophy. Possible authors include Plato, Aristotle, Butler, Hume, Kant, Mill, and Nietzsche. Some contemporary philosophers may be discussed as well. Prerequisite: One course in philosophy.
01:730:342Social and Political Philosophy through History (3) An examination of some of the most important social and political theories in the history of philosophy. Possible authors include Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Mill, and Marx. Some contemporary philosophers may be discussed as well, including Rawls and Nozick. Prerequisite: One course in philosophy or psychology.
01:730:343Marx and Marxism (3) Central introduction to Marx's thought. Topics such as materialism; dialectics; analysis of capitalism; class and class struggle; social revolution, political program for socialism.
01:730:345Philosophy and the Law (3) Examination of normative problems in law. Topics such as justification of punishment; limits of the law; nature of excuses; negligence; strict liability; mens rea requirement.
01:730:347Philosophical Issues in Feminism (3) Clarification and analysis of feminist thought. Critical study of scientific theories of sex differences. Issues such as the family, abortion, nature of persons, prostitution, discrimination, pornography. Prerequisite: One course in philosophy other than 01: 730:101 or one course in women`s studies.
01:730:352Plato (3) Philosophy of Plato through close readings of selected dialogues supplemented by relevant readings in other ancient and contemporary philosophers. Credit not given for both this course and 01:190:352 or 01:490:352.
01:730:358Philosophy of Law (3) Examination of the nature and purpose of law and legal systems; analysis of judicial decision making and the role of discretion.
01:730:360Philosophical Aspects of Cognitive Science (3) Exploration of ways in which research and discoveries in cognitive science influence, and have been influenced by, philosophical theorizing. Topics include consciousness, innate knowledge, mental representation, and the nature of rationality.
01:730:363Philosophy of Criticism: Art and Literature (3) Nature of art criticism and its place in the art world. Concepts of reason, taste, interpretation, and appreciation.
01:730:364Aesthetics of Film (3) Problems in the philosophy of art raised in theory and practice of film. Variety of films screened in conjunction with the course.
01:730:365Philosophy of Music (3) Concept of musical expression; music as language; music and drama; music and representation; the nature of the musical work.
01:730:367American Philosophy (3) Study in its historical setting of inquiry into the nature of experience, truth, goodness, and society by American philosophers including James, Peirce, Dewey, Royce, Lewis, Whitehead. Prerequisite: One course in philosophy other than 01: 730:101 or 102.
01:730:368Hindu Philosophy (3) Upanishads, Patanjali, Bhagavad Gita; theories of matter, energy, states of consciousness; meditation. Yogas of knowledge, action, devotion. Karma. Ethics. Comparison of Hindu and Western cosmology. Credit not given for both this course and 01:840:358.
01:730:369Buddhist Philosophy (3) Interdependence, impermanence, relativity; suffering; path to liberation; meditation; karma as cosmic justice; death and rebirth. Compassion as central ethical value. Theravada, Mahayana, and Tibetan Buddhism. Prerequisites: Two courses in philosophy other than logic. Recommended: 01:730:265 or 368.
01:730:370Contemporary Philosophy of Religion (3) Modern philosophical discussions of religious language and experience; the possibility of religious knowledge; the nature of religious discourse; mysticism and truth; divine omniscience; religious morality. Prerequisite: One course in philosophy other than logic.
01:730:371Philosophies of Death and Dying (3) Theories of death and dying in different metaphysical systems; Plato; Eastern philosophy; existentialism; thanatology. Extinction versus continuity of consciousness. Attitudes toward death and ethical values. Prerequisite: One course in philosophy other than logic. Sophomores by permission only.
01:730:374Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism (3) Basic characteristics and tenets of Islam as religion: the early theological controversies, the major thinkers and mystics; their interaction with the other aspects of Islamic civilization. Credit not given for both this course and 01:840:374 and 01:685:374.
01:730:380Ethics and Practical Reasoning (3) Investigation of selected topics concerning practical reason and practical reasoning. Possible topics include the nature of reasons, normatively, irrationality, the role of will in action and intention, biases or "errors" in reasoning, moral dilemmas, and problems raised by intransitivity and incommensurability of values. Prerequisite: One course in philosophy.
01:730:393,394Independent Study (1-4,1-4) Individual study in some philosophical topic under the direction of a member of the department.
01:730:401Plato (3) Intensive study of selected works of Plato, with emphasis upon the later dialogues such as Theaetetus, Sophist, and Philebus. Prerequisite: 01:730:203 or 301 or 302.
01:730:402Aristotle (3) Topics in Aristotle's logic, physics, metaphysics, and philosophy of language. Prerequisite: 01:730:203 or 301 or 302.
01:730:403Ancient Philosophy after Aristotle (3) Philosophy in the Hellenistic and Roman world. Stoics, Sceptics, and Epicureans; Hellenistic-Jewish philosophy; the revival of Aristotle; Plotinus, and the neo-Platonic tradition. Prerequisite: One course in Greek philosophy.
01:730:404Spinoza (3) Spinoza's theological political treatise: prophecy, miracles; faith and reason. Spinoza's Ethics: God and his attributes, the human mind; human bondage and freedom. Prerequisites: Two courses in philosophy. Recommended: 01:730:205 or 307.
01:730:405Kant (3) Critical examination of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason; emphasis on metaphysical and epistemological views. Prerequisites: Two courses in philosophy, including one of the following: 01:730:205, 307, 308, 412, or 415.
01:730:406Nineteenth-Century Philosophy (3) Critical reaction to Kant and the philosophy of the Enlightenment: Fichte, Hegel. Rise of the social sciences. Antecedents of 20th- century intellectual movements. Prerequisites: Two courses in philosophy.
01:730:407Intermediate Logic I (3) Metatheory of propositional and first-order predicate logic. Completeness is proved and its consequences are explored. Prerequisite: 01:198:205 or 01:730:201 or 315.
01:730:408Intermediate Logic II (3) Computability and recursiveness; metatheory of first-order theories; incompleteness theorems; special topics as time permits. Prerequisite: 01:730:407.
01:730:409Wittgenstein (3) Detailed study of either Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and its relation to writings of Frege and Russell; or Philosophical Investigations and related writings. Prerequisites: One course in philosophy and 01:730: 101.
01:730:411History of Epistemology (3) Historical development of positions on one or more epistemological issues, such as sensory knowledge, necessary truths, first-person authority, other minds, skepticism, and scientific method. Prerequisites: Two courses in philosophy other than 01: 730:101 or 102.
01:730:412Epistemology (3) Topics such as belief, certainty, justification, knowledge, and skepticism. Detailed examination of epistemological writings of traditional and contemporary authors. Prerequisites: Logic (01:730:201 or higher) and one course in philosophy other than 01:730:101 or 102.
01:730:414History of Metaphysics (3) Historical development of positions on one or more metaphysical issues, such as substance, change, casuality, universals, matter, space, time, free will, necessity, possibility, contingency. Prerequisites: Two courses in philosophy other than 01: 730:101.
01:730:415Metaphysics (3) Topics such as essence, particulars and universals, causation, space, time, identity. The nature of metaphysical arguments and problems of ontology. Realism and its alternatives. Prerequisites: 01:730:201 and one course in philosophy.
01:730:418Philosophy of Mind (3) Mind-body problem, the nature of consciousness; rationality; intentionality; human freedom. Theories of dualism, physicalism, functionalism, and behaviorism. Prerequisites: Two courses in philosophy.
01:730:419Philosophy of Perception (3) Philosophical study of perception and of our access through it to knowledge and reality. Prerequisites: Three courses in philosophy.
01:730:420Philosophy of Language (3) Philosophical study of language and linguistics. Pragmatics, theories of learnability, meaning and reference, formal semantics, truth, indexicality. Prerequisites: Logic and two courses in philosophy.
01:730:421 Semantics of Language (3) The philosophical study of natural language semantics. Covers traditional questions about the semantics of names, predicates, adverbs, psychological ascriptions, and demonstrative and indexical expressions. Verbs of change. Comparative adjectives. Prerequisite: 01:730:201.
01:730:422Philosophy of Logic (3) Is logic a theory? The status and use of alternative logics. What logics and other mathematical systems can tell us about language and relations among language, belief, and the world. Prerequisite: 01:730:315.
01:730:424The Logic of Decision (3) Analysis of rational preference and nondeductive inference with special emphasis on the examination of alternative concepts of utility and probability. Prerequisite: One course in logic.
01:730:425Philosophy of Science (3) Detailed study of one or more of the following topics: explanation, confirmation, causation, the status of theoretical entities, objectivity, reductionism, unity of science. Prerequisites: Logic, one course in science, and one course in philosophy. Recommended: 01:730:225.
01:730:426Philosophy of Physics (3) Methodology of the physical sciences. Philosophical problems of space and time, measurement, and causation in modern physics. Prerequisite: One course in physics or one course in philosophy. Recommended: 01:730:225.
01:730:427Philosophy of Social Sciences (3) Explanation. Relation to natural sciences. Discussion of debates in areas such as structuralism, functionalism, classical modeling, path analysis, statistical testing, and construct validation. Prerequisite: One course in a social science.
01:730:428Topics in the Philosophy of Psychology (3) Detailed philosophical study of topics such as psychological explanation, implications of psychotherapy and theories of cognition, perception, learning, and personality. Prerequisites: One course in psychology and one course in philosophy. Recommended: 01:730:225.
01:730:435Philosophy of History (3) Theories of history and historical explanation; comparison of the methodologies of history and sciences; problems of historical interpretation. Prerequisites: One course in history and one course in philosophy.
01:730:441Ethical Theory (3) Examination of leading contemporary views in normative ethics and metaethics. Possible topics include the nature of reasons and value, the justification of moral judgments, the meaning of moral terms, theories of right action, and competing approaches to moral theory, including skepticism. Prerequisites: Two courses in philosophy.
01:730:445Topics in Social and Political Philosophy (3) Exploration of important authors or topics in social and political philosophy. Material may range from classical masterpieces to unpublished manuscripts. Prerequisites: Two courses in philosophy other than 01: 730:101.
01:730:450Topics in Moral and Political Philosophy (3) Explores at an advanced level some of the most important authors or topics in moral philosophy. Material may range from classical masterpieces to unpublished manuscripts. Topics will vary by instructor. Prerequisites: Two courses in philosophy other than 01: 730:101 or 102.
01:730:459Advanced Seminar in Ethics (3) Examines some of the deepest and most fundamental issues in moral theory and practical reasoning. Topics may include nature of morality, nature of reasons, impartiality, universal laws, Kantianism, consequentialism, contractualism, normativity, attitudes to time, obligations to future generations, the structure of moral ideals, competing conceptions of good, and transitivity. Prerequisite: Permission of instructor required.
01:730:461Topics in Aesthetics (3) Concepts of place and time in literature and the status of imaginary objects and fictional characters. The relevance of truth and morality to literature. Prerequisite: One course in philosophy.
01:730:465Phenomenology and Existentialism (3) Issues in phenomenology and existentialism, selected from Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty. Consideration of contemporary philosophical literature. Prerequisite: 01:730:268 or one other course in philosophy.
01:730:480Issues in Contemporary Philosophy (3) Examination of some central issue(s) in contemporary philosophy. Topics vary from term to term. Prerequisites: Two courses in philosophy at the 300 or 400 level.
01:730:493,494Independent Study (1-4,1-4) Individual study in some philosophical topic under the direction of a member of the department.
01:730:495-496Honors in Philosophy (BA,BA) Individual conferences with adviser. Independent study of a book selected by the student from a list of works announced by the department. Prerequisite: Permission of chairperson.
 
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