1. Required Courses:

a) PHIL 201 Logic 3 cr

b) PHIL 102 Great Thinkers 3 cr
or
PHIL 260 Ancient Philosophy 3 cr
or
PHIL 261 Early Modern Philosophy 3 cr

c) PHIL 405 Seminar for Majors: Discussant 1 cr

c) PHIL 410 Seminar for Majors: Presenter 1 cr
(410 not repeatable)

2. At least 15 credits of upper-level courses in the major must be completed at UW-Parkside. Phil 410 and 405: Seminar for Majors, 496: Directed Study and 499:Independent Study do not count toward these 15 credits.

3. A total of no more than 6 credits of Phil 496 and 499 Independent Study will count toward the major. No more than 2 credits of PHIL 405 will count toward the major.

4. A grade of C-minus or higher is required in any course to be counted toward the major.

5. A 2.50 or better GPA in courses counting toward the major is required. Not all philosophy courses taken need be counted toward the major.

6. In the junior and senior years, philosophy majors must take PHIL 405 or 410, Seminar for Majors in Philosophy, each semester. In connection with 410, they must each present a paper before a joint meeting of the department and the Parkside Philosophical Society, and complete a portfolio of work done at UW Parkside demonstrating competence in the presentation and evaluation of philosophical issues.

7. All majors are required to complete two courses, one at the 300 level, in each of three of the following four areas:

(1) ethics, value theory and political thought.

PHIL 104 Introduction to Human Values
PHIL 206 Introduction to Ethics
PHIL 207 Classical Political Philosophy
PHIL 213 Aesthetics
PHIL 215 Contemporary Moral Problems
PHIL 220 Politics, Law and Society
PHIL 250 Philosophy of Law
PHIL 306 Modern Political Philosophy
PHIL 307 Contemporary Political Thought
PHIL 320 Value Theory
PHIL 328 Ethics in the Criminal Justice System
PHIL 350 Philosophy of Law

(2) History of Philosophy.

PHIL 102 Great Thinkers
PHIL 200 Topics in the History of Philosophy
PHIL 231 Christian Thought (depending on the topic)
PHIL 260 History of Philosophy: Ancient
PHIL 261 History of Philosophy: Early Modern
PHIL 300 History of Philosophy: Ancient
PHIL 301 History of Philosophy: Early Modern
PHIL 302 Topics in the History of Philosophy

(3) Metaphysics and Philosophy of Religion.

PHIL 204 Reason and Reality
PHIL 231 Christian Thought
PHIL 205 Philosophy of Religion
PHIL 255 Topics in Continental Thought
PHIL 305 Philosophical Analysis (depending on the topic)
PHIL 315 Metaphysics
PHIL 355 Topics in Continental Thought

(4) epistemology and philosophy of science.

PHIL 105 Introduction to Scientific Thought
PHIL 203 Truth, Knowledge and Belief
PHIL 303 Set Theory and Logic
PHIL 305 Philosophical Analysis (depending on the topic)
PHIL 310 Philosophy of Science

No course may be used to cover two areas at once. The department will sometimes assign courses to different areas depending on their topics, and Majors will be informed of such assignments in advance.

a. Knowledge of the field, as demonstrated in course work. This includes knowledge of the history of philosophy, the current status of discussion of major issues in the field, and a grasp of important terminology and methodologies.

b. The ability to present philosophical issues, positions, and reasoning effectively, both orally and in a written format.

c. The ability to argue plausibly and validly for a philosophical position and against contradictory alternatives to it, as demonstrated in the work contained in the student's portfolio. This includes the ability to apply formal logic, conceptual analysis, standard forms of philosophical argumentation, and other appropriate tools of debate. The argumentation presented should display, as well as an understanding of the usual forms of deductive and abductive argument found in other fields, a grasp of the principle modes of argumentation used chiefly or only in philosophy.

d. The ability to develop a sympathetic understanding of the meaning and resources of philosophical positions alien to the student's own views, to be demonstrated in the work contained in the portfolio.

e. Use of standard research tools, competent assessment of sources, and the development of useful bibliographies, to be demonstrated in the work contained in the portfolio

2. The following topics are those that we expect a major to have knowledge of by the time of graduation. In evaluating the accomplishment of this end it should be observed that no one will have knowledge of every topic, and most will specialize in one area at the expense of others, but we expect that every major will have mastered a number of topics in each area, and a considerable number in some areas. In evaluation we will identify three levels of competence on a given topic: Level 1: Basic familiarity with the issue, view, or technique concerned. This is the sort of knowledge that might be expected from an introduction to the topic in Philosophy 101. Level 2: Knowledge in some depth, including knowledge of various positions that can be taken on an issue and their pros and cons, knowledge of contrasting views, or knowledge how to apply the technique in simple cases. This is the sort of knowledge that might be expected if the topic is dealt with at some length, with active discussion, in an intermediate level course. Level 3: Knowledge in considerable depth, of the sort that might be gained in an upper level course devoted to the matter. It is expected that all students will end up with Level 1 knowledge of the majority of the topics listed, a Level 2 knowledge of a dozen or so topics, and possibly a Level 3 knowledge of one or two.

List of Topics

Value Theory

Ethics

The nature of philosophical ethics.
The difference between ethics and related areas, such as law and religion.
The main metaethical challenges to ethics:

Relativism, Subjectivism, Naturalism, Egoism.

The rational justification of a personal commitment to ethical ideals.
Moral realism, moral constructivism and moral nihilism.
Normative ethical theories:

Act and Rule Utilitarianism, Deontology (Kant), Virtue Ethics, Natural Law.

Free will and ethical responsibility.
Feminist themes.
Application of theory to moral problems.

Abortion and medical ethics, Punishment and forgiveness, Just war, Rights of animals, Business and professional ethics, Environmental ethics, ethics of friendship and love.

Philosophy of Law

The difference between philosophy of law and ethics, religion, etc.
The debate between natural law and positivism.
The nature of law.
The Common Law tradition vs. Roman Law.
Fundamentals of Civil Law, Criminal Law, Constitutional Law.
Legal institutions -- Property rights, Punishment, etc.
The interpretation of the law.

Political and Social Philosophy

The nature of the state.
The justification of the state -- Anarchism.
The legitimate powers of the state -- Coercion, Paternalism, Capitalism vs. socialism.
Rights of individuals within the state.
Libertarianism vs. communitarianism
Rawls vs. Nozick.
Forms of liberalism -- forms of communitarianism.
Marxism.
Conceptions of freedom.

The nature of knowledge in the social sciences.
Individualism vs. Holism, causal and non-causal explanation, rationality in explanation (economics), relativism and the effects of values on research.

Metaphysics and Philosophy of Religion

Causation.
Time.
Universals.
Substance.

Historical survey of religious views.
Nature of religion.
Proofs of God's existence.
Problem of evil.
Divine attributes.
Religious epistemology.
Faith and Reason.

Philosophy of Mind and Psychology

The mind-body problem -- the varieties of materialism, Qualia, Forms of reductionism.
Intentionality.
Consciousness.
Mental causation.
Action theory.
Free will and determinism.
Psychoanalytic theory.
Behaviorism.

Epistemology and Philosophy of Science

Definition of Knowledge: Internalism and justificationism, Foundationalism, Coherentism, reliabilism and Indefeasibility.

Skepticism: Cartesian arguments, arguments based on the causal theory of perception.
Responses to skeptical arguments, in relation to definitions of knowledge.

Empiricism vs. rationalism.
Idealism and phenomenalism.
The Kantian response.
Wittgenstein.
The rejection of justificationism and/or internalism.

Theories of perception and the objects of perceptual experience.

The problem of induction: The classical problem—Hume, Falsificationism, Reliabilism, Goodman's ‘new problem.'

Causation.
Scientific Realism and Anti-realisms --- Instrumentalism, behaviorism, etc.
Confirmation and probability.
Theories of explanation.
Scientific revolutions and incommensurability.
Quantum mechanical problems.
Problems in evolutionary theory, biological function.

Logic

Logical technique: Syllogistic logic, Fallacies, Truth-functional logic, Quantification.

Logical theory: Set theory and the foundations of mathematics, Russell's paradox and the crisis in mathematical logic, Frege.

Philosophy of mathematics:

Formalism, Intuitionism.
Realism, empiricism.
Why is mathematics applicable to the world?

Philosophy of Language

Definite descriptions and reference, and Causal theories of reference.
Existence, a predicate?
Universals and universal predication.
Necessity and possibility.
Theories of truth: the Semantic Theory and the Correspondence theory.
Theories of metaphor.
Formalism and Wittgensteinian objections. Effects of the pragmatic context on meaning.
Speech Acts.

Aesthetics

The nature and function of art.
The nature of aesthetic judgment and taste: Objectivism vs. subjectivism, Hume, Kant, Contemporary accounts.

Aesthetic qualities.
Representation and expression.
Interpretation and artist's intention.
Ethical issues in art.

History of Philosophy

Ancient Philosophy

Pre-Socratics, the beginnings of metaphysics.
Plato and the Theory of Forms.
Plato's ethics and political philosophy.
Aristotle and substantial forms.
Hellenistic ethical theories.

Early Modern Philosophy

Rationalists on knowledge, substance.
Empiricists on knowledge, ‘ideas' and the mind.
Kant's metaphysics and epistemology.
Kant on ethics.
The discussion of God's existence, the Rationalists, Hume and Kant.

Medieval Philosophy

Theological themes in Augustine and other early Christian thinkers.
The problem of universals and philosophy of language.
Aristotelianism vs. Platonism.
Later medieval thought, voluntarism, the primacy of the particular.

Nineteenth and Twentieth Century

Idealism: Hegel (Fichte and Schelling)
Marx
Anti-Enlightenment: Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Dostoyevsky
Existentialism: Sartre
Pragmatism: James, Pierce

Continental Thought

Hermeneutics and Ontology: Schleirmacher, Dilthey, Heidegger, Gadamer, Ricoeur
Phenomenology: Brentano, Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty
Existentialism: Camus, Kafka, Sartre
Religious Continental Thought: Barth, Bonhoeffer, Maritain, Tillich, Simon Weil
Critical Theory (Frankfurt School): Adorno, Habermas, Marcuse
French Feminism: Simone de Beauvoir, Helene Cixous, Luce Iragaray, Julia Kristeva
Post-Psychoanalyic thought: Jacques Lacan, Slvoj Zizek
Semiotics, Semiology and Structuralism: Barthes, Eco, Levi-Strauss, de Saussure
Post-Structuralism: Deleuze, Foucalt, Levinas
Post-Modernism: Baudrillard, Deleuze, Foucalt, Lyotard
Deconstruction: Derrida

3. The Philosophy Department will assess each Major's overall performance through:

3.1. Semester Reviews. Each semester the department will meet with each major separately to discuss the major's progress in acquiring the competencies listed in Paragraph 1 above. The major will bring to the review the evaluations of his work in each of the courses he is taking in philosophy, provided by his professors on the Evaluation of Major form. He will also produce a self-evaluation, and the department will provide him with an evaluation after the meeting. These evaluations, as well as copies of his/her written work in the course with instructor's comments, will be kept in his/her Major Portfolio, a copy of which will be kept in the department records.

Expected Outcome: That the semester reviews and the portfolio indicate the following, or at least progress toward the following: (a) an accurate understanding, unhampered by prejudice, how divergent philosophical views and traditions might approach the questions raised, (b) knowledge of current work in the field on the topics listed in Para. 2 above, (c) effective reasoning, (d) use of at least one contemporary philosophical technique, for example, conceptual analysis, formal logic, or current analytic patterns of argument, and (e) the ability to write in clear, standard English.

3.2. A Major Seminar: This one-hour course will be required of all Majors in each semester in which they are enrolled as Majors, and have Junior or Senior Status. All majors should take the course 3 times if possible, so that they can provide a critical review for those presenting in their Senior year, and observe how to proceed in their Senior year before they get there. The course will be offered every semester. Seniors will be responsible for the preparation of a paper to be delivered to the Seminar and the Parkside Philosophical Society in their Senior year. (A Senior need make only one presentation, but can take the Seminar both semesters.) The Seminar will be graded on the basis of performance on the paper delivered to the Seminar if such a paper is delivered, and otherwise on the basis of attendance and participation. Seniors should take the Seminar in the Fall to allow an opportunity in the Spring to remove an incomplete, should the paper prove unsatisfactory.

Expected outcome: (1) The talk delivered (a) will be well expressed, well organized, and clear, (b) will present a plausible evaluation of some philosophical view or theory, (c) will draw on an understanding either of historical classics in philosophy or important contemporary work bearing on the issue approached in the talk, and (d) will deal sympathetically and effectively with some view opposing the student's own.

3.3. The Major Portfolio must include at least four major essays, which will generally be drawn from course work in philosophy, but may include other work if the faculty deem it relevant to philosophy. This portfolio should document progress toward and achievement of the competencies in Para. 1 above. In addition to essays exhibiting these competencies, the portfolio should also contain the Semester self-evaluations and departmental evaluations, as well as the instructor's evaluation for the student for each course taken. In the student's next to last semester a more comprehensive self-assessment of the student's whole career, highlighting the student's strengths and recognizing weaknesses, should be developed by the student.

4. All Majors must be informed, at the time they enter the program, of the above requirements for completion of the Major both verbally and in writing. These requirements and a description of the Major Seminar will also be added to the Catalog description of the Major. Each student's advisor must work closely with the student to insure that the Major Portfolio is kept in order, and courses suitable for acquiring and demonstrating required competencies are taken.

5. The Department will maintain a file for each Major that will receive their final transcripts, all recommendations written on their behalf, copies of their portfolios, and other relevant data, such as Departmental Honors and records of service to the Department. These files will be confidential, for the use of Department Faculty, and will be made available to others, except for recommendations written under specified conditions of confidentiality, only upon the student's written request. Any such request will then be included in the file.