Exploration of a topic (to be determined) not covered by the standard curriculum but of interest to faculty and students in a particular semester.

An introduction to some major questions about knowledge and reality, such as the existence of God, the mind-body problem, free will and the nature and limits of knowledge. Historical and contemporary readings.

Fundamental philosophical problems. Works of major philosophers. Open to first-year students in the Honors Program. Credit will not be given for both PHI 109 and PHI 107.

Introduction to theories of major modern political philosophers (Locke, Rousseau, Hume, J.S. Mill, Marx). Contemporary theories of liberty, justice, and equality.

Presentation and evaluation of reasoning, including arguments, explanations, and the justification of decisions. Topics of current social and ethical interest will serve as examples, with one topic selected for extended study.

Classical and contemporary readings on basic topics in social and political philosophy; political obligation and authority, justice and basic rights, liberty and equality, the justification of democracy.

Racial justice in the United States, what it might be and what it might require. Topics may include distributive justice, fair equality of opportunity, fair housing and segregation, the criminal justice system, and reparations.

Offered through SUAbroad by educational institution outside the United States. Student registers for the course at the foreign institution and is graded according to that institution's practice. SUAbroad works with the SU academic department to assign the appropriate course level, title, and grade for the student's transcript.

Philosophical reflection on the question: what is the meaning of life. Survey of some of the most influential answers philosophers have given to this question, including god, happiness, work, action, play, mortality, and the absence of meaning.

Major philosophical theories about moral rightness, virtue, and the good life, such as utilitarian, Kantian, and Aristotelian theories. Historical and contemporary sources. Credit cannot be received for both PHI 192 and PHI 209.

Philosophical theories of human nature, their underlying metaphysical claims, and their ethical consequences.

Exploration of a topic (to be determined) not covered by the standard curriculum but of interest to faculty and students in a particular semester.

Selected topics in moral philosophy. Credit willnot be given for both PHI 209 and 192.

In this course we will explore a range of philosophical topics (skepticism, personal identity, the existence of God, free will, and death and immortality) by discussing films and classic and contemporary philosophical texts that engage with these topics.

Philosophical and ethical issues arising from sport, such as the nature of sport, the contribution of sport to well-being, sportsmanship and cheating, performance-enhancing drugs, genetic enhancement, violence, exploitation, gender, and disability.

Logic as a formal language, as a component of natural language, and as a basis of a programming language. Varieties of logical systems and techniques. Syntax, semantics and pragmatics.

Participation in a discipline or subject related experience. Student must be evaluated by written or oral reports or an examination. Permission in advance with the consent of the department chairperson, instructor, and dean. Limited to those in good academic standing.

Offered through SUAbroad by educational institution outside the United States. Student registers for the course at the foreign institution and is graded according to that institution's practice. SUAbroad works with the S.U. academic department to assign the appropriate course level, title, and grade for the student's transcript.

Exploration of a problem, or problems, in depth. Individual independent study upon a plan submitted by the student. Admission by consent of supervising instructor(s) and the department.

Great traditions in ethical theory; application to television, film, new media. Role of ethics in program and content development; and in business practices. Ethical issues arising from social networking, globalization, and new trends in the media. Priority given to Newhouse students.

Philosophical analysis of feminist theory. Feminist theories about human nature, gender, relations among gender, race and class, and causes of and remedy for women's subordinate status.

Exploration of a topic (to be determined) not covered by the standard curriculum but of interest to faculty and students in a particular semester.

Exploration of the enduring questions of ancient political philosophy¿questions about justice, the best regime, and the best way of life¿through a study of Plato¿s dialogues, Aristotle¿s Politics, and Machiavelli¿s The Prince.

Development of Western philosophy from the Presocratic Greek philosophers to the Hellenistic period. Major figures such as Parmenides, Zeno, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

God, causality, freedom, human nature and knowledge , the good life and the ideal state in classical Islamic philosophy. To include authors such as Al-Kind, Al-R'z', Al-F'r'b', Ibn S'n' (Avicenna), Al-Ghaz'l', Ibn Tufayl and Ibn Rushd (Averroes).

Theories of mind, matter, God and freedom put forth by rationalist philosophers such as Descartes, Spinoza, Malebranche, and Leibniz.

Major philosophical writings of the British empiricists, including Locke, Berkeley, and Hume, with a focus on their theories of knowledge, mind, and matter.

Political obligation in the writings of the three major social contract theorists, Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau. Additional reading from their critics such as Burke, Mill, and Marx.

Major 20th-century movements in philosophy.

Study of existentialism through the works of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, and others. May include relevant fiction from Gide, Sartre, Camus, Beauvoir, and others.

Relationship of faith and reason. Nature and existence of God. Nature of humans and of human destiny.

Offered regularly through Syracuse Abroad. Explores the nature and meaning of money for individuals and for society at large. 

This course focuses on the similarities and differences of Kierkegaard's and Nietzsche's views on selfhood, society, and religion.

The role of ethical concerns, imperatives, and restraints in international relations. Includes realism, just war theory, the ethics of nuclear deterrence, and other topics at the discretion of the instructor.

Central concepts in the analysis of science, such as law, explanation, theory, and confirmation. Controversies surrounding the nature of theoretical entities and the character of scientific change.

Examination of the structure, scope, and relevance of evolutionary explanations and introduces the basic concepts of philosophy of biology.

Central issues and approaches in classical and/or contemporary philosophy of mind, such as the mind-body problem, mental causation, consciousness, intentionality, dualism, behaviorism, functionalism, eliminativism.

Conceptual and methodological issues. Such topics as innate knowledge, intentionality, rationality, intelligence, computer model of mind, concept of a person, and self-consciousness.

Philosophical issues concerning artificial intelligence. Can machines understand, learn, think rationally, and be self-conscious? Critique of the computational theory of mind.

Offered through SUAbroad by educational institution outside the United States. Student registers for the course at the foreign institution and is graded according to that institution's practice. SUAbroad works with the S.U. academic department to assign the appropriate course level, title, and grade for the student's transcript.

Topics such as personal identity, possibility and necessity, the nature of time and space, freedom and determinism, and the distinction between particulars and universals.

This course explores the concept of free will, asking: what is it, can we have any, and why should we care?

An exploration of the metaphysics of personhood. By virtue of what am I the same person as the child in my baby photos, given that we are so different? What makes me me?

Topics such as the nature of knowledge, knowledge of the external world, theories of justification, a priori knowledge, skepticism, and the problem of induction.

Ethical writings of such philosophers as Aristotle, Epictetus, Aurelius, Hume, Butler, Kant, Mill, Sidgwick, Nietzsche, Bradley.

Selected problems and trends in recent ethical philosophy. Consideration of such questions as these: What is the nature of moral disagreement? What makes a person's life go well? What makes an action morally right

A survey of several main topics in environmental ethics including animal rights, the ethics of climate change, preservation of endangered species, and obligations to future generations.

Chief aesthetic theories from Plato to present. Application to literature and the fine arts.

The science of stem cells and the philosophical, religious and legal complexities surrounding the research and use of stem cell technologies.

Central issues in the philosophy of law such as the nature of law and obligation to obey the law; justification of punishment and of state restrictions on individual liberties; justice and the law.

Ethical issues in medicine and health policy such as technically assisted reproduction, physician-assisted suicide, genetic testing, obligations to the frail elderly, neonatal intensive care, and equity in access to health care. Credit cannot be given for both PHI 398 and REL 252.

Defining Life and Death. The possibility of an afterlife. The rationality of grief. The badness of death. The wrongness of killing. Weighing lives against each other. Ethics of radical life extension.

Exploration of a topic (to be determined) not covered by the standard curriculum but of interest to faculty and students in a particular semester.

A capstone course to be taken in the 3rd or 4th year in which students synthesize their skills in philosophical research, writing, and oral presentation. Required of all philosophy majors.

Offered only in Florence. Citizenship as a major crossroads in European political thought: key thinkers; permutations throughout European history; impact of globalization and European unification on concepts of citizenship, liberty, and justice.

Concepts of race and racial identity, their history, various meanings, and whether they should continue to be used. Political effects of racial identities, racism, integrationism, mixed race identity, and multiculturalism.

Interdisciplinary approach to examine concepts of identity and difference, challenges notions of subjectivity, nation and gender. Philosophical, political, and gender-related dimensions explored. Offered only in Florence.

Offered only in Madrid. Course proposes an in-depth treatment of a selection of Greek and Judaeo-Christian classics and ends with discussion of modern works that bond both traditions.

Contemporary contractualist, rights-based, and communitarian theories of social justice.

Interrelationships and contemporary debate over interpretations of their major works. Topics include: philosophy of history, human nature, dialectics, theory of knowledge, alienation, concepts of self and freedom. Additional work required of graduate students.

Twentieth-century French and German philosophical criticism of the legacy of the Enlightenment and its conceptions of subjectivity and epistemology. Critical theory, hermeneutics, poststructuralism, and psychoanalytically inspired theories. Additional work required of graduate students.

The philosophical analysis and critique of colonialism's representations of other cultures and justifications for intervention, as well as debates over effective forms of resistance.

The influence of the intersection between reason, imagination, and emotion on ethics, politics, community, and religious thought within modern Judaism.

Feminist approaches to traditional philosophical questions in various areas, including epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, and philosophy of science. Use of philosophical tools and methods on questions regarding the subordination of women.

Advanced topics in logic (e.g. basic set theory, model and proof theory of propositional, predicate, and modal logic) and formal techniques in the study of natural language. Additional work required of graduate students.

Participation in a discipline or subject related experience. Student must be evaluated by written or oral reports or an examination. Permission in advance with the consent of the department chairperson, instructor, and dean. Limited to those in good academic standing.

Offered through SUAbroad by educational institution outside the United States. Student registers for the course at the foreign institution and is graded according to that institution's practice. SUAbroad works with the S.U. academic department to assign the appropriate course level, title, and grade for the student's transcript.

In-depth exploration of a problem or problems.  Individual independent study upon a plan submitted by the student. Admission by consent of supervising instructor or instructors and the department.

Philosophical study of a selection of contemporary ethical issues, such as racism, sexism, inequality, violence, and poverty.

For Ethics majors. Focused on producing a significant research project in ethics related to primary major. Developing important research skills, presenting work in class and participating with classmates for feedback.

Completion of an Honors Capstone Project under the supervision of a faculty member.

Study of a significant philosopher or philosophical movement.

Examination of principal works such as Plato's Sophist or Aristotle's Metaphysics, or of central themes such as weakness of will or knowledge and belief.

Study of a significant philosophical problem.

Predicate calculus with identity, its relationship to mathematics and to computer theory. Important results concerning independence, consistency, completeness, decidability and computability.

Systems of modal logic (logic of the terms "necessary" and "possible"). Formalization and evaluation of modal arguments and basic concepts of metatheory and semantics. Related logics.

Diverse ways in which philosophers from Plato to Wittgenstein have understood the concept of mathematics.

Concept and phenomenon of language. Logical, epistemological, and metaphysical ramifications of natural language and speech.

Impact of classical mechanics, relativity, and quantum theory on philosophical accounts of space, time, matter, and causality.

Philosophical and methodological issues in social and behavioral science. Role of laws in explanation of human action, methodological individualism and holism, functional explanation, value-neutrality, behaviorism, and com puter simulation.

Advanced study of topics in philosophy of mind.

Offered through SUAbroad by educational institution outside the United States. Student registers for the course at the foreign institution and is graded according to that institution's practice. SUAbroad works with the S.U. academic department to assign the appropriate course level, title, and grade for the student's transcript.

Introduction to metaphysical inquiry.

Exploration of a problem, or problems, in depth. Individual independent study upon a plan submitted by the student. Admission by consent of supervising instructor(s) and the department.

Ethical theories in professional, organizational, and political-economic fields in health care. Specific issues: assisted suicide, professional codes, ethics of "cost- cutting" and justice with respect to care.

Use of ethical theory in thinking about case problems in health care. Moral dilemmas: use of reproductive technologies, abortion, surrogate motherhood, research with humans, refusal and withdrawal of treatment, physician-assisted suicide.