Course Overview

Please view the Moravian University Course Catalog for a complete listing of the Philosophy Department course offerings.

100-Level Courses

PHIL 110: Introduction to Logic

Traditional formal logic together with discursive logic, fallacies, and argument construction. (PTK: Logic and Reasoning) (TAGS: Critical Reading) 4 Credits, 1 Unit.

PHIL 120: Introduction to Philosophy

Tasks and the subject matters of philosophy, including the major theories of reality, knowledge, religion, morality and social justice. Attention to several classic philosophical texts as primary source readings. (M3) (PTK: Logic and Reasoning) (TAGS: Critical Reading) 4 Credits, 1 Unit.

PHIL 130: Hip Hop Music, Spoken Word

We will investigate how some Hip Hop music and Spoken Word works engage with classic Western philosophical themes and questions, including those of knowledge, metaphysics, ethics, love, and justice. How do some contribute to knowledge and some perpetuate injustice, sexism, and violence? How does Rakim relate to Augustine's arguments on God, Gil Scot-Heron to Kant on punishment, Lil' Kim on 'the objectifying gaze'? Students will be required to attend two spoken word workshops or performances, and to view and listen to material outside of class. (PTK: Humanistic Inquiry) (TAGS: Equity and Inclusion; TAGS: Ethical Deliberation) 4 Credits, 1 Unit.

200-Level Courses

PHIL 213: Philosophy of Science

A study of what is science, how it works, what distinguishes it from other disciplines, and what is the nature and value of scientific inquiry and scientific theories. (U1) (PTK: Scientific Process) (TAGS: Critical Reading) 4 Credits, 1 Unit.

PHIL 220: Advanced Logic: Propositional and Predicate Logic

A study of advanced topics in logic, including propositional and predicate logic. (PTK: Logic and Reasoning) (TAGS: Critical Reading) 4 Credits, 1 Unit.

PHIL 222: Ethics

Study and examine historical and contemporary normative ethical theories of how to live rightly, including issues of social and political life. (M3)

PHIL 224: Applied Ethics

Applied Ethics: The Ethics of Killing A study of the application of ethical theory to complex real and fictitious cases concerning contemporary moral issues such as euthanasia, abortion, capital punishment, animal rights, cloning, torture, same sex marriage, etc. (U2) Fall. (PTK: Humanistic Inquiry) (TAGS: Ethical Deliberation; TAGS: Critical Reading) 4 Credits, 1 Unit.

PHIL 226.2: Ethics Bowl

This course examines, within teams, ethical cases with the purpose of developing ethical positions supported by arguments, debated at the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl Competition. (TAGS: Public Speaking) 2 Credits, 0.5 Units

PHIL 227.2: Ethics Bowl

PHIL 228: WI: Sports Ethics

This course introduces students to ethical concepts, theories, and methods through which they can reflectively analyze and perform ethical decision making in the realm of sports and recreation, within an evolving cultural, political and technological environment. A substantial part of the course will be devoted to case studies and the implementation of ethical theories to concrete cases. Writing-Intensive. (TAGS: Public Speaking) 4 Credits, 1 Unit.

PHIL 230: Advanced Topics: Ethics of Abortion

This course analyzed the ethical issue of abortion through examination of philosophical/ethical investigation includes address of abortion and public reproductive health, abortion in a changing legal justice landscape in the U.S., and the intersection of abortion and religious ideas and values. Prerequisite: Two 200 Level Philosophy Courses & Junior or Senior Class Standing. Prohibited: PHIL 330. (TAGS: Ethical Deliberation) 4 Credits, 1 Unit.

PHIL 232: Philosophy of Psychiatry & Mental Illness

This course examines foundational philosophical questions about psychiatry and mental illness, including whether psychiatric disorders are best understood as medical diseases, social constructs, or hybrid phenomena. Students engage with major theoretical and empirical frameworks shaping contemporary debates about mental disorder, diagnosis, and psychiatric classification. (M4) (PTK: Social Systems) (TAGS: Ethical Deliberations) 4 Credits, 1 Unit

PHIL 234.2: Aristotle on Friendship

This course studies Aristotle's conception of friendship as described in Books VIII and IX of the Nicomachean Ethics. 2 Credits, 0.5 Unit.

PHIL 238 A: Knowledge, Power, and Virtue

This course examines philosophical questions about knowledge, belief, and justification, with particular attention to the roles of power, social structure, and intellectual virtue in shaping what we know and how we come to know it. Students explore both traditional and contemporary approaches to epistemology, including virtue epistemology, ethical epistemology, feminist epistemology, and social epistemology. (M3) (PTK: Social Systems) (TAGS: Ethical Deliberations) 4 Credits, 1 Unit.