Upcoming Philosophy Courses

PHIL 101 – Introduction to Philosophy

Prof. Tiehen / MoWeFr 10-10:50 a.m.

Artistic and Humanistic Perspectives

Representative philosophical topics, such as mind and body, the grounds of knowledge, the existence of God, moral obligation, political equality, and human freedom, are discussed in connection with contemporary philosophers and figures in the history of philosophy.
 

PHIL 107 – Philosophy of Disability

Prof. Protasi / MoWeFr 11-11:50 a.m.

Artistic and Humanistic Perspectives / Experiential Learning / KNOW // Bioethics minor / STHS major

In this course students first read about the experience of disabled people and the history of the disability rights movement in the US, and how the approach to disability has evolved through time. Then, students devote some time thinking about the nature of disability; two families of approaches to disability are discussed (naturalism and social constructionism) with particular attention to philosophical approaches. The course then transitions toward more applied questions, such as: What is the relation between disability and well-being? Is disability intrinsically bad? How is disability analogous to other social identities, and how does ableism differ from other forms of oppression, if it does? Are genetic screening and selective abortion on the basis of disability morally permissible? How does mental disability differ from physical disability? Throughout the term, students volunteer with local organizations that support and work with disabled people. At the end of the course, students organize a symposium open to the campus community in which they share what they have learned.
 

PHIL 250 – Moral Philosophy

Prof. Tubert / TuTh 2-3:20 p.m.

Artistic and Humanistic Perspectives // AI and Human Values emphasis / Bioethics minor / Neuroscience major and minor / STHS major

This course examines a number of ethical theories - theories attempting to provide a systematic account of our beliefs about what is right and wrong, good and bad. The course examines a range of answers to questions like the following: What makes for a good life? What, if anything, is of value? What does morality require? Should we care about moral requirements and, if so, why? Is there a connection between morality and freedom? In addition to a careful study of various classic views, we will consider recent defenses and critiques of these views.
 

PHIL 286 – Ethics, Data, and AI

Prof. Tubert / TuTh 9:30-10:50 a.m.

Artistic and Humanistic Perspectives // AI and Human Values emphasis / Bioethics minor / Data Analytics minor / IHE: Science and Values / Neuroscience major and minor / STHS major 

This course focuses on social, economic, legal, and ethical issues that arise from the collection, analysis, and use of large data sets, especially when these processes are automated or embedded within artificial intelligence systems. The course explores the design of ethical algorithms by considering questions like the following: what kinds of biases are ethically problematic and how can they be avoided? what are the effects of automation on jobs and inequality? what are the privacy considerations that arise when collecting and using data? what is the ethical significance of transparency in automation? who owns data sets and who has the right to access information? who is responsible for actions that result from artificial intelligence systems? In thinking about these complex questions, students consider specific case studies of controversial uses of data and algorithms in fields such as medicine, biotechnology, military, advertising, social media, finance, transportation, and criminal justice, among others. In addition to relevant ethical theories, students are introduced to philosophical, legal, and scientific theories that play a central role in debates regarding the ethics of data and artificial intelligence. Readings are drawn from a number of classic and contemporary texts in philosophy, science and technology studies, law, public policy, and the emerging fields of "data ethics" and "robot ethics".
 

PHIL 331 – Metaphysics

Prof. Tiehen / TuTh 12:30-1:50 p.m.

Artistic and Humanistic Perspectives

This course is a survey of some of the central issues in contemporary metaphysics, the area of philosophy devoted to understanding the fundamental level of reality. Topics of the course may include existence and nonexistence, identity, personal identity, possibility and necessity, time and persistence, realism and antirealism, and free will. Featured philosophers may include W.V.O. Quine, Saul Kripke, David Lewis, Judith Jarvis Thomson, and Derek Parfit.
 

PHIL 389 – Race and Philosophy

Prof. Liao / TuTh 11 a.m.-12:20 p.m.

Artistic and Humanistic Perspectives / KNOW // African American Studies major and minor /Bioethics minor / IHE: Science and Values / IHE: Issues of Race and Ethnicity 

The construct of race is omnipresent in the way people think, the way society is structured, and even in the materials that people use. Despite its omnipresence, race remains difficult to discuss, if it is discussed at all, because of its theoretical complexity, contested social history, and emotional triggers. This course challenges students to engage in courageous conversations about the nature of race and its relations to mind, language, and aesthetics. Students will confront difficult questions such as: What is race? How does race influence human cognition? How does race structure human communication? How does race shape human aesthetic preferences and artistic endeavors? Students use tools developed in different areas of philosophy and its cognate disciplines to construct answers to these difficult questions about race. At the same time, students learn that these difficult questions about race can challenge and extend common conceptions of analytic philosophy.
 

PHIL 400 – Topics in Philosophy

Topic: AI and Classical Philosophical Problems
Prof. Tiehen / MoWe 2-3:20 p.m.

Prerequisites: three courses in philosophy

Artistic and Humanistic Perspectives 

This course examines whether or not some classic philosophical problems are transformed by recent advances in AI—and if so, how. Readings will be taken from both philosophy and AI, and will include both historical and cutting-edge material. Some of the classic philosophical problems we might consider concern the nature of consciousness, the problem of other minds, the nature of virtue and how it is connected to human nature, the conditions for authentic romantic love, our moral obligations to nonhuman beings, and God and the problem of evil. Some of the recent AI advances we will be reading about include research on Claude’s J-space and whether it constitutes a global workspace, whether LLMs show “sparks” of artificial general intelligence, the Hugging Face incident, the phenomenon of alignment faking, character training, sycophancy, and more.
 

PHIL 497 – Public Philosophy

Prof. Protasi / Fr Noon-12:50 p.m.

Experiential Learning

This course invites students to go beyond the traditional classroom, and bring the ideas and practices of academic philosophy to a public audience. For example, Students may coorganize an undergraduate conference, in which they peer review submission from students across the country, construct a conference program, and provide commentaries on presentations. The process of bringing the ideas and practices of academic philosophy to a public audience demands students to utilize flexible and sophisticated problem-solving skills to address unscripted problems. To build on these direct experiences, students must reflect on how the experiences have shaped the students' academic growth and understanding of self, others, or the world.

Email Prof. Sara Protasi at sprotasi@pugetsound.edu for permission to enroll in this course.
 

Philosophy Faculty are Also Teaching:

 

BIOE 400 – Bioethics Integration Seminar

Prof. Liao / TuTh 8-9:20 a.m.

Prerequisites: BIOE/REL 292 or BIOE/PHIL 292

Artistic and Humanistic Perspectives // Bioethics minor

This is the last, and thus capstone course required of all students who aim to attain the interdisciplinary Minor in Bioethics. Since the Integration Seminar enrolls seniors from a variety of majors, the primary goals of the course are two-fold: (1) for students to learn to process, synthesize and integrate the ethical implications of the courses they have taken toward the Bioethics Emphasis, and (2) for students to discover their post-baccalaureate "niche" in the scholarly community of Bioethics and the medical humanities. Weekly themes in medical humanities include: the history of medicine; literature, the arts, and medicine; philosophy and medicine; religion and medicine. Students will also have the opportunity to read classic primary texts in bioethics -- articles, books, and films -- from different sub-disciplines of the field, such as race and health care, medicine and technology, history of medicine, narrative medicine, end-of-life issues, and many more. In analyzing these texts, students will learn to explain why each one is regarded as a model in its field, and to process and articulate its relevance for one's own interest area within Bioethics and the medical humanities. The course builds upon students' own interest areas and acquired expertise as they undertake a capstone project that is presented to faculty members on the Bioethics Faculty Advisory Board.
 

CCS 146 – Seven Deadly Sins

Prof. Protasi / MoWeFr 9-9:50 a.m

Fulfills First Year Critical Conversations Seminar Unit

Wrath, pride, envy, greed, gluttony, sloth and lust are the so-called "seven deadly sins", vices traditionally condemned in the Christian tradition and also in many other religious and cultural contexts. In this course, students start by learning the genealogy of the list, that is, how it historically came about, its classical Greek underpinnings, and some of its developments in the thought of the Fathers of the Christian Church, such as Thomas Aquinas. Then, they compare this Christian approach to the Buddhist and/or Islamic approach to vice, and reflect on the social construction of the notion of sin in general, and these sins in particular. After this introductory period, the bulk of the course consists in the philosophical analysis of each of the vices, in thinking about how they manifest in our contemporary secular multi-religious American society, and in which virtuous ways they can be counteracted, including the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. Finally, students work on a capstone project aimed at producing a research paper on one or all of the seven "deadlies" from an interdisciplinary perspective.