Philosophy

• CAS PH 427: Heidegger and Existential Philosophy
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two philosophy courses. - This course critically examines what, in the case of human beings, it means to be, based upon Heidegger's "existential" posing of this question in his early, but unfinished work, Being and Time.
• CAS PH 436: Gender, Race, and Science
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous PH courses, or consent of instructor. - An upper-level exploration of topics in the philosophy of gender and philosophy of race, informed by historical and scientific inquiry. Explores philosophical questions about the nature of race and racism, sex and sexism. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Social Inquiry I
• CAS PH 443: Philosophy of Mind
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two courses in philosophy or consent of instructor. - The topic is sentience, embodiment, and the brain. The aim is to develop a "neurophenomenological" approach to consciousness and embodied experience in cognitive science and the philosophy of mind.
• CAS PH 445: The Philosophy of Love
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: one philosophy course, or consent of instructor. - What is love? What different forms does it take (e.g. parental love, romantic love)? Is love non- rational or are there reasons of love? We aim to answer these and other philosophical questions by focusing on contemporary philosophical writings on love.
• CAS PH 446: Philosophy of Religion
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPH300 & CASPH310) - Critical investigation of the limits of human knowledge and the theoretical and practical demands for meaning attached to notions of God, providence, immortality, and other metaphysical conditions of human thriving, from Plato to modern philosophies of religion. Effective Spring 2022 this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
  • Social Inquiry I
• CAS PH 452: Ethics of Health Care
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPH350) and two other philosophy courses, or consent of instructor (PH 150 and PH 251 are recommended). - Medicine and health care offer a unique opportunity to explore the nature of humanity and the world and to ask fundamental questions concerning the nature of birth, life, and death, and what it is to be a person. Readings from both classical and contemporary writings in ethics, medicine, law, and public health policy.
• CAS PH 453: Classical to Early Modern Political Theory
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPH350) - Focuses on philosophical subjects relevant to ethics and politics, such as virtue and happiness; human nature and reason; qualifications of leadership; aims and means of civic education; and conceptions of law (man-made, natural, divine). Texts by Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Machiavelli. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Ethical Reasoning, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
• CAS PH 456: Topics in Philosophy and Religion
  Topic for Fall 2024: Why are we here? Alongside philosophers and religious thinkers, this course explores different versions of this question. Why are we here reading and talking? Why are we at BU? Why are we here at all? Does life have some meaning? Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
• CAS PH 458: Crime and Punishment: Philosophical Perspectives
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous PH courses, or consent of instructor. First Year WritingS eminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) - This course will explore philosophical questions about the criminal justice system, both in its ideal form and as it exists today. We will examine historical and contemporary writings on punishment, focusing on concepts of punishment, justifications for punishment, preventative detention, the death penalty, and alternatives to punishment. We will also ask how deep historical and contemporary injustices, including institutionalized racism, affect how we should theorize about institutions of punishment, their possible reform, or perhaps even their abolition. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, The Individual in Community, Social Inquiry II.
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  • The Individual in Community
  • Social Inquiry II
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS PH 459: Political and Legal Philosophy
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. - Examination of the individual's responsibilities under law, specifically of the idea that there is a general moral obligation to obey the law, including unjust law, and the contrasting idea of civil disobedience-- the possibility of morally justified resistance to law. Also offered as CAS PO 499.
• CAS PH 460: Epistemology
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPH310 & CASPH360) - An examination of some of the central questions concerning the nature, scope, sources, and structure of knowledge.
• CAS PH 461: Mathematical Logic
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASMA293) or consent of instructor. - The investigation of logical reasoning with mathematical methods. The syntax and semantics of sentential logic and quantificational logic. The unifying Godel Completeness Theorem, and models of theories. A look at the Godel Incompleteness Theorem and its ramifications. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings.
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  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
• CAS PH 462: Foundations of Mathematics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPH461) or consent of instructor. - Axiomatic set theory as a foundation for, and field of, mathematics: Axiom of Choice, the Continuum Hypothesis, and consistency results. Also offered as CAS MA 532.
• CAS PH 463: Philosophy of Language
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPH310 & CASPH360) and one other course in philosophy, or consent of instructor. - Critical survey of the main issues in the philosophy of language and the foundations of linguistics, including the ideas of logical form and the universality of languages as well as the basic ideas of generative grammar, possible-worlds semantics, Wittgenstein, and speech-act theories.
• CAS PH 465: Philosophy of Cognitive Science
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPH310 & CASPH360) and one other philosophy course; or consent of instructor. - The course begins with in-depth study of leading scientific work on the evolution of cognition and culture. Next, we draw on this work as we think about social conflict and social change, especially in the context of American political culture. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Scientific Inquiry II, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
  • Scientific Inquiry II
• CAS PH 468: Philosophical Problems of Logic and Mathematics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPH310 & CASPH360) and one other philosophy course; or consent of instructor. - Selected traditional metaphysical and epistemological problems in the light of modern logic and various studies in the foundations of mathematics, including the nature of the axiomatic method, completeness in logic and mathematics, and the nature of mathematical truth.
• CAS PH 470: Philosophy of Physics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous PH courses, or consent of instructor. - An introductory survey of fascinating problems in contemporary philosophy of physics. The basic ideas and main features of physical theories, which touch upon nature at its most fundamental level and interact most crucially with philosophy in general, are outlined, so that students will have a road map of the central problems in the field. Throughout, the driving theme is the entanglement of a radical revision in our conceptualization of the world (which is forced upon us by the changes in the physical picture of the world due to major developments in modern physics) with central philosophical. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Scientific Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
  • Scientific Inquiry I
• CAS PH 472: Philosophy of Biology
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous PH courses, or consent of instructor. - Conceptual problems in biology; unity or pluralism of science; hierarchy theory; biological explanation; evolutionary theory, teleology and casuality, statistical explanation; the species problem; mind and the brain; and language in animals and humans.
• CAS PH 476: Philosophy of the Earth Sciences: From Deep Time to the Anthropocene
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous PH courses, or consent of instructor. - Examines philosophical and methodological issues arising in the geosciences, from reconstructing events in deep time, proxy data, and the catastrophism-uniformitarianism debate, to analog and computer simulation modeling, and the Anthropocene debate, drawing examples from geology, archaeology, paleontology, and climate science.
• CAS PH 484: Topics in Speculative Philosophy
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: any one philosophy course from CAS PH 440-447, or consent of instructo r. - Topic for Fall 2015: Meaning.