May 18, 2024  
2020-2021 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
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2020-2021 Undergraduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Course Descriptions

 

Nursing
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Petroleum Engineering
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Philosophy
  
  

  • PHIL 1533 - Critical Thinking and Reasoning Skills

    (TCCNS = PHIL 2303)
    3 (3-0)

    This course provides an introduction to critical thinking, the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information in order to think through a problem clearly and communicate a solution effectively.  Although students will learn to recognize, analyze, evaluate, and compose arguments – the primary instrument of critical thinking and reasoning – and will investigate the various forms arguments take, addressing both formal and informal methods of argumentation and distinguishing between good arguments and bad arguments, the principal focus of the course is not on learning and applying critical thinking methodologies as such.  Rather, foremost emphasis is placed on exploring the role that critical thinking plays in the development, articulation, and analysis of ideas, values, and beliefs in various cultural contexts as well as the creative products through which these ideas, values, and beliefs are expressed.

    Core Code: 040N - Language, Philosophy & Culture


    Click here for the Spring 2024 Schedule of Classes

    Click here for the Summer I 2024 Schedule of Classes

    Click here for the Summer II 2024 Schedule of Classes

    Click here for the Fall 2024 Schedule of Classes
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  • PHIL 2203 - Philosophy of Race and Racism

    3 (3-0)

    This course explores various philosophical issues pertaining to race and racism. The first part of the course will focus on the history of the concept of “race” as well as various approaches philosophers have taken to defining and analyzing this concept. The second part of the course will consider the political, social, economic, and cultural implications of race with particular emphasis on the concept of “racism” and related concepts such as white privilege, white supremacy, and unconscious bias. Questions to be discussed throughout the semester include, but are not limited to: What is race? How does race differ from ethnicity, national origin, cultural affiliation, and other forms of collective identity? What is the relationship between race and other aspects of social identity such as class, gender, and sexual orientation? Are racial differences biological in nature, or are they socially constructed? Can value judgments about racial differences be intellectually and morally justified, or are such judgments objectionable by definition? What is racism/racial privilege? What are the different forms of racism and how do they relate to one another? What are the underlying causes of racism? What are the best strategies for combating racism? Throughout the course special attention will be given to recent political and social controversies surrounding race/racism such as police brutality, mass incarceration, racial inequality, post-racialism and “color-blindness,” etc.


    Click here for the Spring 2024 Schedule of Classes

    Click here for the Summer I 2024 Schedule of Classes

    Click here for the Summer II 2024 Schedule of Classes

    Click here for the Fall 2024 Schedule of Classes
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  • PHIL 3133 - Existence, Language, History: Twentieth-Century European Philosophy

    3 (3-0)

    Prerequisite(s): Communication Core  complete and 3 hours of prior philosophy coursework or permission of instructor.

    Europe in the twentieth century was a continent in crisis. Two world wars and a devastating economic depression killed or displaced millions of people and the role of science in spreading devastation on ever-greater scales left philosophers grappling with the very foundations of Western culture. This course will explore the major trends in twentieth-century European philosophy, widely known as the Continental tradition. We will investigate the ways in which Continental thinkers grappled with the crises of their times by (1) developing new philosophical methodologies such as phenomenology; (2) questioning the meaning and value of existence itself; (3) engaging with the power of our shared histories and their promises for the future; and (4) pushing on the limits of our language and its capacity to adequately capture a picture of the world and our place in it.


    Click here for the Spring 2024 Schedule of Classes

    Click here for the Summer I 2024 Schedule of Classes

    Click here for the Summer II 2024 Schedule of Classes

    Click here for the Fall 2024 Schedule of Classes
  

  • PHIL 3233 - Reason, Evidence, Faith: Early Modern Philosophy (1640-1800)

    3 (3-0)

    (formerly 2433)

    Prerequisite(s): Communication Core  complete and 3 hours of prior philosophy coursework or permission of instructor.

    During the Enlightenment, humans developed powerful new ways of exploring the world through science and technological manipulation. In 1641, Descartes laid the groundwork for what will be known as the Age of Reason. This course will explore the emergence of the rationalist tradition, which claimed that all knowledge could be established through reason alone. Competing with this view is empiricism, the evidence based philosophy claiming that all knowledge comes from the senses alone. Students will learn how these theories of knowledge shaped the world, introducing new scientific concepts and political ideas that continue to impact our lives in profound and dramatic ways. Throughout the course, we will see philosophers attempt to balance their faith in God with their emerging scientific discoveries and find a place for religion within a uniquely rational universe.


    Click here for the Spring 2024 Schedule of Classes

    Click here for the Summer I 2024 Schedule of Classes

    Click here for the Summer II 2024 Schedule of Classes

    Click here for the Fall 2024 Schedule of Classes
  

  • PHIL 3433 - Meaning, Rebellion, Freedom: Existential Philosophy

    3 (3-0)

    Prerequisite(s): Communication Core  complete and 3 hours of prior philosophy coursework or permission of instructor.

    Existentialism is a philosophical tradition that struggles with the meaning of life, the value and nature of human freedom, and our response to the possibility of an absurd world. This course explores the philosophical responses to these questions in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Students will grapple with whether or not humans are free, and what that means for our moral obligations. We will also think critically about suicide as a response to life’s potential meaninglessness, and both religious and atheistic responses to the possibility that human existence is absurd. Throughout the course we will engage with philosophy’s essential rebelliousness against human feelings of despair and anxiety about the meaning of our lives.


    Click here for the Spring 2024 Schedule of Classes

    Click here for the Summer I 2024 Schedule of Classes

    Click here for the Summer II 2024 Schedule of Classes

    Click here for the Fall 2024 Schedule of Classes
  
  

Physics
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Political Science
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Psychology
  
  
 

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