Non-Degree Students: In order to register for PHL 505 thru PHL 515 and PHL 600 thru PHL 699, non-degree graduate students must receive permission from the Philosophy Department. A signed course permission slip must be submitted with registration materials. Course permission slips may be downloaded.

PHL 505 Prominent Philosophers (4-0-4). Concentrated study of the writings of outstanding philosophers. Usually, no more than one to two philosophers are studied in any one offering. Normally offered every semester.

PHL 510 Studies in the History of Philosophy (4-0-4). Study of a particular philosophical movement, its assumptions, methods, and implications, or the study of one historical figure.

PHL 514 Predicate Logic (2-0-2). Prerequisite: PHL 131 or equivalent course in sentential logic. Standard topics in predicate logic, including symbolization and proofs with monadic and relational predicates, demonstrating invalidity in predicate logic, and the logic of identity.

PHL 515 Symbolic Logic (4-0-4). Prerequisite: PHL 131 or equivalent, or permission of instructor. A thorough study of predicate logic with identity and an introduction to the study of logical theory.

PHL 520 Reasoning in Bioethics: Basic Issues (2-0-2). Examines alternative approaches to bioethical reasoning principlism, casuistry, and the philosophy of social justice—in relation to such questions as resource allocation, death and dying, and other issues in bioethics.

PHL 521 Reasoning in Bioethics: Contextual Approaches (2-0-2). Examines alternative approaches to bioethical reasoning—virtue theory, narrative ethics, intuitionism, and feminist ethics—in relation to such questions as informed consent, privacy, and institutional practices, with special attention to cultural relativism.

PHL 522 Clinical Bioethics: Cases I (2-0-2). Examines reasoning regarding classic and contemporary cases in bioethics. Professional conduct, conflicts of duties and conflicts of interests, relations among professions, cultural diversity, genetic counseling, and reproductive ethics are among topics typically included.

PHL 523 Clinical Bioethics: Cases II (2-0-2). Examines reasoning regarding classic and contemporary cases in bioethics. Human research subjects, informed consent, competence, organ transplantation, death and dying, and futility are among topics typically included.

PHL 524 Bioethics Policy: Prevention and Access (2-0-2). Examines health policies regarding such issues as prevention, primary care, uninsured and underserved populations, rationing, and aims of managed care relative to theories of justice. Includes international comparisons.

PHL 525 Bioethics Policy: Technology (2-0-2). Examines the impact of rapid technological change on bioethics. Among topics typically included are DNA technology, gene therapy, enhancement of inherited traits, transplant policy, surrogacy, health, and the human environment.

PHL 526 Bioethics and Law: Regulation (2-0-2). Examines the foundations of human health institutions and practices in federal tax-exemption legislation, federal financing (Medicare and Medicaid), state licensure laws, state insurance legislation, and proposal for health law reform.

PHL 527 Bioethics and Law: Rights (2-0-2). Examines individual rights in areas such as refusal of treatment, conception, birth, abortion, protection of human subjects in experimentation, the law of medical liability, and proposed patients’ rights legislation.

PHL 528 Bioethics: Special Topics (2-0-2). This course examines special topics in bioethics.

PHL 529 Bioethics: An Overview (1-0-1). Intended for health care professionals who seek basic information about bioethics. Focuses on moral theories, perspectives, and principles, with applications to health care issues. Facilitates active participation in health care decisions involving moral issues. Taught via the Internet.

PHL 540 Moral Reasoning and Bioethics (4-0-4). Critically examines systematic ethical theories and their accounts of moral reasoning in case studies and issues in bioethics. Analyzes relations between differences in levels of social organization and differences in levels of moral reasoning.

PHL 541 Clinical Issues in Bioethics (4-0-4). Focuses on moral problems that arise in the day-to-day practices of health care professionals, administrators, and researchers within the framework of existing institutions, social policies, and laws. Includes readings on controversial moral issues in clinical ethics.

PHL 542 Policy Issues in Bioethics (4-0-4). Review of the role of governments in developing and implementing health care policies. Readings and discussions cover such topics as surrogacy, transplantation, problems of financing, the allocation of resources, and experimentation.

PHL 543 Bioethics and the Law (4-0-4). Students learn rudimentary legal-research skills, the structure of the legal system, and health care law as applied to classical and contemporary issues, such as death and dying, transplantation, genetic and reproductive law, human subjects research, and employee testing for drug use.

PHL 544 Bioethics and Biotechnology (4-0-4). An application of bioethical viewpoints and major ethical theories to issues in biotechnology such as informed consent in genetic modification, potential risk and harm to humans and nonhuman animals, health resources used for human enhancement, genetic modification of agricultural products, stem cell research, use of human embryos, and human cloning. Tutorials on human genetics and recombinant DNA will be covered.

PHL 545 Health Economics and Bioethics (4-0-4). An introduction to health economics and the economist’s perspective and an exploration of applications of these constructs to bioethics and bioethical analysis. Applications may include advance directives and such bioethical principles as informed consent and patient autonomy. Patient cases and public policy proposals may be subjected to economic and bioethical analysis. Includes an overview of bioethics. Offered via the Web.

PHL 546 Ethics of Human Reproduction (4-0-4). Explores some of the issues surrounding human reproduction including abortion, contraception, the medicalization of birth, the autonomy of pregnant women, and a variety of issues surrounding assisted reproductive technologies. An overview of the main controversies related to these topics, as well as more in-depth analysis of specific controversies, are provided. Media representations, and whether they contribute to meaningful public debate, are considered. Students develop skills to analyze these ethical issues and effectively articulate their own position.

PHL 614 Logic and Its Pedagogy (2-0-2). Prerequisite: One course in deductive logic; intended for logic teaching assistants, and students who aim to teach introductory logic. Approaches to teaching the main topics in basic courses in deductive logic. Students prepare and teach a logic class or review session.

PHL 615 Logical Theory (4-0-4). An introduction to symbolic logic for graduate students, and/or an examination of the issues involved in the application of symbolic logic to the description and solution of philosophical issues. Normally offered every year.

PHL 620 Analytic and Linguistic Philosophy (4-0-4). An overview of the central problems in linguistic analysis as they underlie philosophical issues.

PHL 625 Philosophy of Science (4-0-4). A detailed study of a few central problems in either the natural sciences or the social sciences (normally the problems of only one kind of science are examined in any one offering).

PHL 630 Theory of Knowledge (4-0-4). Systematic investigation of one central problem in the theory of knowledge, or a thorough investigation of one important philosophic work. Normally offered every year.

PHL 635 Metaphysics (4-0-4). Systematic investigation of central problems in metaphysics, or a detailed examination of one important metaphysical work. Normally offered every year.

PHL 640 Ethics (4-0-4). A systematic investigation of ethical theories, or a detailed examination of one problem or theory of ethics or meta-ethics.

PHL 645 Aesthetics (4-0-4). Analysis of the process of artistic judgment and artistic criticism; problems concerning the evaluation of art in a context of established standards and the evaluation of such contexts.

PHL 650 Social and Political Philosophy (4-0-4). The logic of social and political institutions; examination of problems concerning the determination of values, application of rules, and justification of decisions. Normally offered every year.

PHL 689 Research Methods in Philosophy (4-0-4). An introduction to research materials and methods in philosophy. Open only to students taking another graduate course in philosophy or working on an approved research project.

PHL 691 Directed Research (1-4 credits). Prerequisite: 12 hours of graduate study or permission of instructor. For students who wish to do research in preparation for the comprehensive examination; regular reports to advisor required. Only four credits in PHL 691 may be counted toward the MA degree. Graded S/U.

PHL 693 Selected Problems (4-0-4). Consideration of one specific issue in contemporary philosophy.

PHL 696 Advanced Research (1-4 credits). Prerequisite: Eight hours of graduate study or permission of instructor. For students who wish to do research in special areas; regular reports to advisor required. Only four credits in PHL 696 may be counted toward the MA degree.

PHL 699 Thesis (1-8 credits). Prerequisite: Approval of the Graduate Affairs Committee of the Philosophy Department. A public defense of the thesis is required and will be scheduled by the Graduate Affairs Committee.