Texas A&M University > College of Liberal Arts > Department of Philosophy > Courses > Graduate Philosophy courses

Graduate Course Descriptions

PHIL611 Ancient Philosophy

Greek and Roman philosophy from 600: B.C. to 300 A.D.; emphasis on Plato and Aristotle.

PHIL614 Medieval Philosophy

Christian, Jewish and Islamic thought from 300 to 1450; emphasis on Augustine and Aquinas.

Developments in philosophy from the Renaissance through the Enlightenment: Renaissance humanism and natural science, 17th and 18th century empiricism and rationalism, idealism; major thinkers including Descartes, Hume, Kant, Hegel.

PHIL620 Contemporary Philosophy

19th and 20th century philosophical movements: phenomenology, existentialism, positivism, pragmatism, analysis, process thought.

PHIL623 American Philosophy

The genesis of American philosophical thought from the seventeenth century until the work of Emerson; subsequent concentration on the philosophies of Pierce, James, Royce, Dewey, Mead, Santayana and Whitehead.

PHIL630 Aesthetics

Metaphor, the ontology of artworks, art and artifactuality, aesthetic attitudes, concepts of aesthetic appraisal such as beauty and sublimity and theory of tropes.

PHIL631 Philosophy of Religion

Investigation of metaphysical and epistemological issues concerning religious claims, beliefs, and experiences.

PHIL632 Social and Political Philosophy

Theories of justice, equality, liberty and authority in social and political institutions; individualism and the social contract; political philosophy of writers such as Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, Dewey and Rawls.

PHIL633 Philosophy of Law

This course investigates the nature of law, one of the key issues in the philosophy of law. Some of the questions we consider are: Is there a necessary connection between law and morality? What distinguishes the law from other standards relevant to human deliberation towards choice and action? When and why are we obligated to obey the law? When and why is civil disobedience permissible?

PHIL635 Ethical Theory

Theories of moral value and conduct, moral language and argumentation; consequentialist and deontological approaches to ethics; ethical naturalism; theories of virtue.

PHIL640 Epistemology

Nature and origin of knowledge, skepticism, belief, truth, rationality, justification and reliability and knowledge of necessary truths.

PHIL641 Mathematical Logic I

The metatheory of propositional and first-order logic: definitions of formal languages for these systems, their proof theory, model theory, and demonstrations of their soundness and completeness. The course begins with an overview of the basic elements of set theory, including functions and relations, infinite sets, infinite cardinal numbers, and Cantor's Theorem.

PHIL642 Mathematical Logic II

Continuation of PHIL 641: Compactness, The Lowenheim-Skolem Theorems, computability theory and Church's thesis, formal arithmetic, Godel's Incompleteness Theorems, Tarski's Theorem, and Church's Theorem. Other topics covered in the course might include systems of modal logic, intuitionistic logic, and more advanced issues in set theory.

PHIL643 History and Philosophy of Logic

Selected topics on the historical development of logic; philosophical views of the nature of logical theory; the role of logical metatheory in the development of logic.

PHIL645 Philosophy of Science

Philosophy of the natural and social sciences, including the nature of theories and laws, the notion of causation, probability and determinism and the nature of theoretical change.

PHIL646 Philosophy of a Particular Science

Focus on the methodological, epistemological, and ontological issues in physics, or one of the special sciences, such as biology, psychology, cognitive science, economics. Application of philosophical methods to theoretical issues in the particular science. Relationships between theories and explanations of the particular science to more basic sciences or other special sciences. May be repeated for credit for courses focusing on different sciences. Prerequisite: Consent of instructor.

PHIL650 Metaphysics

Classical and contemporary treatments of the nature of reality, God, the existence of universals, space, time, causality; realism and antirealism, the existence and nature of abstract entities, the nature of events, the nature and logic of time and modality, freedom and determinism, and personal identity.

PHIL655 Philosophy of Mind

The mind-body problem, personal identity, thought and intentionality, action and responsibility; materialism, behaviorism, functionalism.

PHIL658 Philosophy of Language

The nature of language, the various uses of language and their philosophical import, the nature of meaning, truth, reference and issues surrounding formal representations of natural languages.

PHIL661 Seminar in the History of Philosophy

Intensive study of a current issue in the history of philosophy. May be repeated for credit with variation in topic. Prerequisite: 12 hours of graduate work in Philosophy and approval of instructor.

PHIL662 Seminar in Ethics and Value Theory

Intensive study of a current issue in ethics, ethical theory, applied ethics, aesthetics, or the work of particular philosophers in one of these areas. May be repeated for credit with variation in topic. Prerequisite: 12 hours of graduate work in Philosophy and approval of instructor.

PHIL663 Seminar in Metaphysics and Epistemology

Intensive study of current issue in metaphysics, epistemology, or other core areas of philosophy. May be repeated for credit with variation in topic. Prerequisite: 12 hours of graduate work in Philosophy and approval of instructor.

PHIL664 Seminar in Applied Philosophy

Intensive study of a topic involving the application of philosophical concepts and theories to an issue arising in another scientific or academic field. May be repeated for credit with variation in topic. Prerequisite:

PHIL671 Professional Ethics

Basic concepts and theories underlying major contemporary ethical codes with application to ethical problems encountered in professions such as engineering, law, business and teaching.

PHIL682 Philosophical Authors

Intensive study of the works of an individual important philosopher, their historical context, and criticisms and interpretations of them. May be repeated for credit with different authors. Prerequisite: appropriate background in the history of philosophy and approval of instructor.