Course Descriptions

Undergraduate - Lower Division Courses

Upper Division | Graduate Courses

SPRING 2011

1013/001 Introduction to Philosophy   MWF, 10:30-11:20   
[CRN – 10005]
Philosophy uses reason to analyze beliefs about life’s most fundamental questions. It is a kind of self-examination in which you explore what you think and reflect on whether you have good reasons for your opinions. In this course you will examine beliefs about fundamentally important issues, such as the nature of reality, the nature of the mind, the existence of God, what can be known about the world, and what makes actions moral. [IV-W Cult]

1013/002 Introduction to Philosophy: Justice in Society  MWF, 9:30-10:20  Ellis
[CRN – 10006]
Philosophers have always addressed the issue of justice.  They often do so by imaginatively constructing ideally just societies.  While this approach has yielded important insights, it is important to recognize that no actual society is ideal.  Real societies, past and present, are characterized by injustice: sexism, racism, ethnic hatred, economic discrimination, religious discrimination, etc.  To understand the demands of justice, we need to not only to reflect on the sort of society we should end up with; we need to think about how to get from here to there without ignoring, and so ratifying the results of, past and present transgressions.  This course will be concerned with introducing students to justice, both as a regulative ideal and as a conscious process of social transformation. [IV-W Cult]

1013/003 Introduction to Philosophy   TR, 9:00–10:15   Craig
[CRN – 10007]
The goals of this course are two-fold: to introduce students to 1) fundamental issues and ongoing debates in philosophy and 2) the method of philosophy. Students will become familiar with important and intriguing philosophical questions regarding knowledge, God, and the problem of evil by way of two novels and an introduction to the history of philosophical thought. Students will read Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder (2007), which ushers students through the history of philosophical ideas, from Socrates to Marx. This novel, in conjunction with traditional philosophical work, highlights questions about the nature of knowledge, the knower, and the justification of knowledge claims, all of which will be explored in this course. Students will also read Night by Elie Wiesel (2006 revised ed.), which illustrates the problem of evil with a first-hand account of the holocaust and forces analysis of the existence of God. This novel will also be supplemented with traditional philosophical pieces in order to investigate fundamental questions about the relationship between God and evil. Students will learn how to clarify problems, develop arguments, and respond to objections in order to offer answers to philosophical questions about knowledge, God, and the problem of evil. Any questions about this course should be directed to Prof. Lindsay Craig at Lindsay.R.Craig-1@ou.edu. [IV-W Cult]

1013/004 Introduction to Philosophy   TR, 10:30–11:45  Craig
[CRN – 10008]
The goals of this course are two-fold: to introduce students to 1) fundamental issues and ongoing debates in philosophy and 2) the method of philosophy. Students will become familiar with important and intriguing philosophical questions regarding knowledge, God, and the problem of evil by way of two novels and an introduction to the history of philosophical thought. Students will read Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder (2007), which ushers students through the history of philosophical ideas, from Socrates to Marx. This novel, in conjunction with traditional philosophical work, highlights questions about the nature of knowledge, the knower, and the justification of knowledge claims, all of which will be explored in this course. Students will also read Night by Elie Wiesel (2006 revised ed.), which illustrates the problem of evil with a first-hand account of the holocaust and forces analysis of the existence of God. This novel will also be supplemented with traditional philosophical pieces in order to investigate fundamental questions about the relationship between God and evil. Students will learn how to clarify problems, develop arguments, and respond to objections in order to offer answers to philosophical questions about knowledge, God, and the problem of evil. Any questions about this course should be directed to Prof. Lindsay Craig at Lindsay.R.Craig-1@ou.edu. [IV-W Cult]

1013/005 Intro to Philosophy (Honors)   TR, 12:00–1:15   Swoyer
This section requires permission from the Honor’s College
[CRN – 22634]
We will read several works by major Western philosophers. Although we will devote some time to each of the main areas of philosophy, the field is much too vast for us to probe all its nooks and crannies. We will have to concentrate on just a few sub areas, and we will focus on the questions:
1.    What sorts of human lives–what ways of living–are best?
2.    What sorts of social and political institutions are most suited to making such lives possible, particularly in the modern, global world?
3.    What is the relationship between mind and body? Are they one and the same, or are they somehow separate?
4.    What methods (if any) are best calculated to help us gain knowledge?
5.    What is rationality, and what is it good for?
6.    Does God exist?
7.    How can we justify our answers to questions like these?

We will read the following in their entirety (as well, perhaps, as one or two other things):
1. Plato, Republic
2. Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
3. John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
4. Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols
5. William James, "The Will to Believe"
6. Jean Paul Sartre, Existentialism as Humanism
[IV-WC]

1013/900 Introduction to Philosophy   W, 6:30-9:20
[CRN – 10009]
Philosophy uses reason to analyze beliefs about life’s most fundamental questions. It is a kind of self-examination in which you explore what you think and reflect on whether you have good reasons for your opinions. In this course you will examine beliefs about fundamentally important issues, such as the nature of reality, the nature of the mind, the existence of God, what can be known about the world, and what makes actions moral. [IV-W Cult]

1013/995 Introduction to Philosophy   Online
[CRN – 10011]
Philosophy uses reason to analyze beliefs about life’s most fundamental questions. It is a kind of self-examination in which you explore what you think and reflect on whether you have good reasons for your opinions. In this course you will examine beliefs about fundamentally important issues, such as the nature of reality, the nature of the mind, the existence of God, what can be known about the world, and what makes actions moral. [IV-W Cult]

1103/001 Critical Reasoning   MWF, 10:30-11:20   
[CRN – 10013]
This is not a typical philosophy class. It has the purely practical goal of developing thinking skills that you will apply outside of this particular class. Accordingly, we won’t stress facts or complicated formulas that you might quickly forget. (The facts we will discuss are fascinating and hard-to-forget discoveries about how people reason badly.) We will stress techniques that you can use in other classes and in everyday life (and on tests like the Law School Admission Test and the Graduate Management Admission Test). [ III-SS ]

1103/002 Critical Reasoning    TR, 10:30–11:45   Swoyer
[CRN – 10014]
This course focuses on real-world reasoning.  Topics include the nature and evaluation of evidence, biases and distortions in perception and memory; the assessment of risks (like that from terrorism), the role of emotions in thought; social aspects of reasoning; superstition and pseudoscience, and prejudice.  There will be three examinations (including the final), and about one homework assignment, quiz, or project each week.  The text is The Critical Reasoning Course Manual. It will be available at King Kopy Shop and on the World Wide Web.  You can see the exact list of topics we will cover and get a look at the course manual by visiting the course homepage: http://www.ou.edu/ouphil/faculty/chris/critreas.html. [III-Soc Sci]]

1113/001 Introduction to Logic   MWF, 8:30–9:20   
Prerequisite: Math 0123 or satisfactory score on Math Placement Test
[CRN – 10018]
What are the skills of a good thinker?  Some of the skills possessed by a good thinker will be offered in this introductory course on logic.  For example, you will learn how to develop the ability to identify and discriminate good arguments from bad arguments. More specifically, you will learn how to develop the ability to monitor yourself and others so as to identify and prevent the use of fallacious reasoning.  This class will provide the tools needed for you to demonstrate why an argument’s conclusion does or does not follow from its premises.  Moreover, you will learn about the basic concepts of logic, the formal patterns of valid reasoning, and how to construct a sound deductive argument or cogent inductive argument.  This class, then, will help train you into becoming a good—responsible—thinker. As a result, you will have been given the opportunity to acquire some of the skills that increase one’s ability to reliably form true beliefs and avoid false ones. [I-Math]

1113/002 Introduction to Logic  TR, 12:00-1:15   Hawthorne
Prerequisite: Math 0123 or satisfactory score on Math Placement Test
[CRN – 10021]
This course will introduce you to the central concepts of Deductive Logic. This is the logic by which the premises of an argument, if true, may guarantee the truth of a conclusion. We’ll focus on the following central concepts of deductive logic: true or false statement; tautology, contradiction, and contingent statement; logically consistent or logically inconsistent collection of statements; logically equivalent or logically non-equivalent pair of statements; valid or invalid deductive argument. I’ll teach you techniques for evaluating these logical properties of statements and arguments. You’ll begin by learning the logic of compound statements, called sentential logic (or Boolean logic). From there we’ll extend your reach to a logic that’s sensitive to the internal structure of statements, called predicate logic. After that we’ll briefly delve into the workings of Inductive Logic, which is the logic by which evidence statements may support hypotheses as probably true. This is the logic employed by the sciences to test scientific hypotheses and theories. We’ll conclude the course by investigating a philosophical view of the role played by logic in the acquisition of human knowledge. [I-Math]  

1113/900 Introduction to Logic   M, 6:30–9:20 p.m.  
Prerequisite: Math 0123 or satisfactory score on Math Placement Test
[CRN – 25631]
What are the skills of a good thinker?  Some of the skills possessed by a good thinker will be offered in this introductory course on logic.  For example, you will learn how to develop the ability to identify and discriminate good arguments from bad arguments. More specifically, you will learn how to develop the ability to monitor yourself and others so as to identify and prevent the use of fallacious reasoning.  This class will provide the tools needed for you to demonstrate why an argument’s conclusion does or does not follow from its premises.  Moreover, you will learn about the basic concepts of logic, the formal patterns of valid reasoning, and how to construct a sound deductive argument or cogent inductive argument.  This class, then, will help train you into becoming a good—responsible—thinker. As a result, you will have been given the opportunity to acquire some of the skills that increase one’s ability to reliably form true beliefs and avoid false ones. [I-Math]  

1213/001 Introduction to Ethics   MWF, 9:30–10:20   Lublink
[CRN – 10023]
How should we live?  What does it mean to be a good person?  Where does morality come from?  How should we approach today’s pluralistic world?  This course introduces you to the tools you need to think critically about these questions.  We’ll find that philosophers all the way back to Plato and Aristotle have grappled with these issues and have come up with intriguing ways of answering them.  We’ll also look at specific issues such as poverty and famine, euthanasia, abortion, and the problem of torture. [IV-W Cult]

1213/002 Introduction to Ethics   MWF 11:30-12:20  Lublink
[CRN – 10024]
How should we live?  What does it mean to be a good person?  Where does morality come from?  How should we approach today’s pluralistic world?  This course introduces you to the tools you need to think critically about these questions.  We’ll find that philosophers all the way back to Plato and Aristotle have grappled with these issues and have come up with intriguing ways of answering them.  We’ll also look at specific issues such as poverty and famine, euthanasia, abortion, and the problem of torture. [IV-W Cult]

1213/003 Introduction to Ethics   TR 1:30-2:45  
[CRN – 25632]
How should we live? What is the nature of a just society? Can the diverse moral values of different cultures be reconciled? What is the ultimate foundation of morality? This course introduces you to the tools you need to think critically about such questions and surveys some of the answers philosophers have offered. It also applies philosophical theories to specific moral issues such as poverty and famine, the environment, business transactions, euthanasia, abortion, and whether animals have rights. [IV-WC]

1213/900 Introduction to Ethics   T, 6:30–9:20 p.m.
[CRN – 10027]
How should we live? What is the nature of a just society? Can the diverse moral values of different cultures be reconciled? What is the ultimate foundation of morality? This course introduces you to the tools you need to think critically about such questions and surveys some of the answers philosophers have offered. It also applies philosophical theories to specific moral issues such as poverty and famine, the environment, business transactions, euthanasia, abortion, and whether animals have rights. [IV-WC]          

1223/001 Introduction to Asian Philosophy   TR, 9:10-10:15   Feldt
[CRN – 22636]
“Eastern philosophy” has made frequent appearances in today’s popular culture and is often set apart as a unified tradition in strict opposition to Western worldviews.  However, this categorization is misleading and does a disservice to the diversity and complexity of Asian thought.  Highlighting this diversity, this course will introduce the foundational texts of the major philosophic schools from India (Hinduism and Buddhism) and China (Confucianism and Daoism).  We will examine the primary philosophic questions addressed by each tradition, and where appropriate seek to make connections to parallels in the Western thought.  Overall, the goal of this course is to introduce how these different traditions offer valuable contributions to general philosophical questions.  No previous knowledge or experience with philosophy is assumed, nor is an existing familiarity with Asian culture or history required.  We will be using an introductory textbook coupled with primary texts for our study, and grades will be determined by four exams and occasional short (1-2 pages) writing assignments. [IV-NonW]