Philosophy (PHI)

Examines general topics in various areas of philosophy showing different sides of issues; develops critical thought and philosophical method.

This course will philosophically examine contentious moral issues of the day. Among the topics that may be discussed are abortion, capital punishment, affirmative action, obligations of wealthy nations to poor nations, duties to non-human animals, vegetarianism, sex workers, pornography, legalized gambling and lotteries, gun control, drone warfare, human enhancements through drugs and prostheses, homosexual marriage, racial profiling, and legalization of currently illegal drugs.

Introduces value theory, good and bad, justification of obligations to others, relationship of free choice and determinism, and contemporary moral problems analyzed by ethical principles.

Introduces epistemology, metaphysics, knowledge as a reflection of the real world's properties and its relation to different viewpoints, the world as material objects, the mind and matter, and the role of scientific and technical knowledge in today's world.

Introduces philosophical views of being human and consequences of these for thought, action, and emotion.

Examines techniques of problem solving, decision making, and evaluating pros and cons of an issue; organizing data; forming strategies and giving reasons; perceptual, cultural, emotional, intellectual, and expressive blocks to thinking; and simple inductive reasoning and statistical fallacies.

Provides for the study of various philosophical topics not covered in other 100-level courses.

Studies selected issues of obligations and values: what are the bases of judgments of right, wrong, good and bad, and what are the applications of these?

Explores spirit, thought, and action of Asians culled from the contemporary relevance of classical readings. Texts include Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and Zen.

Enforcement of morals by law, the proper authority of the state or society over the individual. This course is the same as PSC 218, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements

Covers definitions, formal and informal errors of reasoning, and principles of deductive reasoning; also examines the Aristotelian tradition.

The world is full of complex problems and messy situations. This complexity makes it very hard for us to think through what is going on and how we might best try and develop solutions to our problems. The best tools we have for thinking through these problems are models. Models allow us to extract a simpler version of our problem from the messiness of the real world, and then test out our ideas to find the best solution. In this course, we will learn about a variety of models that the social sciences use to think about the world, and then examine the philosophical challenges of using models to guide our reasoning. We will learn about when models might help us, and when models might mislead us, and what we can do about it. Students will not only learn about models, but learn to think like a modeller.

The one credit UB Seminar is focused on a big idea or challenging issue to engage students with questions of significance in a field of study and, ultimately, to connect their studies with issues of consequence in the wider world. Essential to the UB Curriculum, the Seminar helps transition to UB through an early connection to UB faculty and the undergraduate experience at a comprehensive, research university. This course is equivalent to any 198 offered in any subject. This course is a controlled enrollment (impacted) course. Students who have previously attempted the course and received a grade of F or R may not be able to repeat the course during the fall or spring semester.

The three credit UB Seminar is focused on a big idea or challenging issue to engage students with questions of significance in a field of study and, ultimately, to connect their studies with issues of consequence in the wider world. Essential to the UB Curriculum, the Seminar helps students with common learning outcomes focused on fundamental expectations for critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and oral communication, and learning at a university, all within topic focused subject matter. The Seminars provide students with an early connection to UB faculty and the undergraduate experience at a comprehensive, research university. This course is equivalent to any 199 offered in any subject. This course is a controlled enrollment (impacted) course. Students who have previously attempted the course and received a grade of F or R may not be able to repeat the course during the fall or spring semester.

In this course, we will survey several issues in philosophy of religion: arguments for the existence of God, concepts of God/the divine, divine attributes, language about God/the divine, the problem of evil, the nature of religious belief, evidence for religion, miracles, the relationship between science and religion, and the status of religious experience. Primarily we will focus on the religious beliefs and traditions of the five major world religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism), but we will occasionally make forays into other religious traditions as well. No prior knowledge of philosophy is required. One textbook is required. Coursework will include: readings from classic and contemporary articles on philosophy of religion, open-book/take-home reading quizzes, an essay (approx. 1,400 words), a midterm exam, and a final exam.

Introduces the formal techniques of deductive reasoning.

Introduces ethical issues encountered in such professions as medicine, engineering, public service, the media, business, social work, accounting, law, and manufacturing with an environmental impact, as well as the central concepts of professionalism.

Provides for the study of various philosophical topics not covered in other 200-level courses.

Examination of how humans should interact with the environment, both as individuals and as members of groups or organizations.

Examines current ethical positions and their applications to problems in business.

Examines current ethical positions and their application to ethical and social questions in medicine. This course is the same as SSC 237, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

An introductory class in jurisprudence and legal theory, covering general issues such as legitimacy, authority, validity, obligation, interpretation, economics, and the relation to morality, and/or specific issues such as criminal responsibility, punishment, promises, privacy, civil rights, accidents, property, etc.

This course will investigate some very influential conceptions of health and disease and then apply the theories to some major controversies in medicine. Topics include: conceptions of health and disease, leading naturalist, normativist, and hybrid accounts of disease, and current controversies in medicine (whether medicine is essentially pathocentric, whether mental health practitioners are medicating healthy people, whether ¿normal¿ grief is to be viewed as a pathological condition, whether the disabled should be cured, whether children born with sexual organs of both sexes should be surgically altered, whether health is the key condition to our being autonomous, whether the addicted are diseased, and whether aging is a healthy normal stage).

Our aesthetic styles and preferences say a lot about us. But what do they reflect about our moral code? Does it mean something bad if you prefer certain body types? What if you like gangsta rap? What if you laugh at a racist joke? Questions like these exist at the intersection of ethics and the philosophy of art. This course will examine such questions as w well as others having to do with intellectual property, government-funded arts, political art, and the aesthetics of environmental preservation. The aim of the course is to introduce the variety of different ways that ethical issues affect art and aesthetic experience.

Selected issues in aesthetics, appreciation and evaluation of art, literature and drama.

Studies philosophical issues as they are developed in philosophical texts and in literary works.

Study of philosophical issues, ideas and questions presented or raised by fiction, plays, music and other components of popular culture.

Is there any real point in anything? Or are we just thrown into the world and forced to make our way through until, eventually, we die? This course will confront such questions. In it, we will ask what the meaning of life is. We will ask what that question even means, and we will survey a range of possible answers to it. We will talk about theism and evolution, nihilism and death, and happiness and purpose. Readings will be heavily interdisciplinary and will include traditional philosophical texts as well as fiction, poetry, speeches, memoirs, think-pieces, psychology, and art.

Examines selected views, traditions or issues in Chinese, Japanese, Indian or Southeast Asian philosophies. This course is the same as AS 252 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

This course is a writing-intensive undergraduate seminar-style course designed to provide detailed guidance in the construction of philosophical essays. Developing this skill is of central importance to anyone interested in serious work in philosophy, but is useful for anyone in disciplines or trades that seek written work with clearly articulated argumentative structure. We will work through all the parts of the philosophical essay, from the title to the bibliography, in discrete sections, before combining them in complete essays. This will take us through the full process of developing a paper, from research to presentation, and onto final revisions. Final papers will be prepared for blind review, with an eye to submission to an undergraduate journal of philosophy. The final paper will be uploaded to your ePortfolio.

Introduction to the philosophy of mind, emphasizing both historically significant and contemporary discussion of the relationship between mind and the material world.

Examines the nature of theories in the sciences and the philosophical issues associated with them, explores causation, explanation, and induction.

Considers theories within the social sciences and the issues of how, if at all, they are fundamentally different from the theories of physical sciences.

In this course, we will explore formal approaches to individual and group decision making, while assessing their philosophical significance and practical applications. First, we explore rational choice theory by considering the relationship between instrumental rationality and formal utility theory, different conceptions of preference and utility, and objections to the standard assumptions of rational choice. Following that, we have a brief interlude with game theory by addressing the prisoner¿s dilemma, Nash equilibrium, and backward induction. Finally, we connect the formal theory of rational choice to issues in social and political philosophy with a focus on social choice theory and its applications to democracy. Throughout, you will learn basic concepts and techniques essential for approaching and analyzing issues in the interdisciplinary field of philosophy, politics, and economics.

Words and sentences in English and other languages are meaningful. So, it seems that words and sentences have meanings. But what are meanings ? Are meanings entities of some sort ? Are they physical objects ? Mental objects ? Abstract objects ? What are the meanings of such words as Barack Obama, dog, red, run, and, and the? How are meaning, reference, truth, thought, and communication related ? And how do words and sentences get their meanings and referents ? We will begin this course by considering several theories about the nature of meaning and reference. We will then consider the use of language in communication and other speech acts. We will end with applications of philosophy of language to law, ethics, and metaphor. Pre-requisite: One prior course in philosophy, preferably in analytic.

Explores theories of reality; freedom and determinism; and the reality of the self, the mind, and the body.

Engineers and computer scientists can impact thousands of lives and are often put in difficult situations, such as those involving internal pressures and constraints surrounding deadlines and budgets. This is why it's essential for them to develop a habit of considering the ethical implications of their choices, as even seemingly small, everyday decisions can have unintended consequences. This course will introduce students to engineering and computing ethics by teaching them to identify ethical issues in engineering and computer science practice and acquire ways to think about them. Students will become familiar with ethical theories, professional ethics, and the ethical codes of their particular field. Through analyzing and discussing case studies, they will develop skills in critical thinking, communication, and reflection. This course is the same as EAS 330.

Considers epistemology: The nature, sources, kind, scope, and certainty and validity of knowledge.

Examines attempts in moral philosophy to find a justification for the basic ethical principles; also considers conception of an ethics based on natural law.

The discipline of economics holds tremendous sway over how we understand and evaluate our shared social and political institutions. Even so, the fundamental assumptions driving economic analysis remain extremely controversial from a philosophical point of view. In this course, we will therefore critically assess several of these economic assumptions. First, we examine the supposed moral and political neutrality of economics. Second, we reconsider homo economicus, or the assumption that people are rational, optimizing agents driven by self-interest. Third, we tease apart standard approaches to money, property, and markets. While our analysis may challenge traditional notions of economics, we will also consider how answering these challenges may give rise to more equitable and just economic ideals.

Explores the moral status of legality and the legal status of morality, the status of unjust laws, and the role of moral judgments of lawmakers. Is a good law one that does good? This course is the same as SSC 338, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Examines conceptions of the good society and programs for improving contemporary societies; also explores democracy, equality, discrimination, civil disobedience, revolution, liberalism, conservatism, communism, capitalism.

Surveys political theories in a systematic or historical way.

Around 767 million people (or about 10.7% of the global population) live in extreme poverty. These people frequently lack effective access to proper nutrition, adequate shelter, safe drinking water, and sanitation. As a result, they also bear the greatest burdens of famine and epidemic disease, and they also frequently face social and political conditions of unrest and systematic oppression. In this course, we will pursue the question of what, if anything, we in technologically and economically developed nations owe to the global poor. We will therefore focus considerable attention on competing theories of global justice, as well as the interrelationships between poverty, health, and human rights. We will critically examine different strategies for international development that emphasize one or more of these three things, and we will consider how information about their complex interactions should be factored into the development process.

Considers artistic creativity and expression, beauty and the sublime, the role of art in society.

Examines the degree to which fundamental concepts that lead philosophical investigation are affected by gender prejudice, and perhaps also by other cultural blinders such as those related to race or nationality.

This course offers students an opportunity to carefully consider the roots -- both historical and philosophical-- of political economy. We begin with Adam Smith¿s and Immanuel Kant¿s seminal arguments that lay the foundation for optimism about the promise of commerce in the modern world. Following that, we consider a series of powerful critiques by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Karl Marx that reject the conceptual apparatus of Smith and Kant, while offering different categories for thinking through the issue of political economy. Finally, we conclude with Alexis de Tocqueville, who attempts to answer the critiques and put commerce on a more solid foundation.

Conflict is an intractable feature of life, whether occurring between family members, friends, coworkers, political organizations, citizens, nations, and even within oneself. No matter what discipline or career you pursue, you will often find yourself in situations where your responsibility exceeds your authority. You must then be prepared to secure the legitimate cooperation of others to do your job, advance your career, and even maintain meaningful personal relationships with your family and friends. Using the latest research in conflict resolution, this course will prepare you for these challenges. First, we explore the nature of conflict while you reflect on your own personal tendencies during conflict. Second, we consider different tactics and strategies, ranging from simple bargaining to more nuanced conflict resolution techniques. Third, we examine how to more productively approach interpersonal interactions that may cause stress, anxiety, or frustration. Throughout, you will practice developing your powers of communication, persuasion, and conflict resolution in various class activities. Take these exercises seriously, and you will learn a great deal about yourself and finish the course better prepared to manage life¿s inevitable conflicts.

Critically considers a selected philosophical issue.

Reviews the history of Greek philosophy from Pre-Socratic philosophers to the Hellenistics.

Studies the history of philosophy from Plotinus to the end of the Middle Ages. This course is the same as JDS 366.

Reviews the history of metaphysics and epistemology from the Renaissance to Kant.

Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha, claimed to have discovered the key to eliminating suffering. Suffering, he thought, arises because our most basic experiences of the world are mistaken. In the thousands of years that followed, his philosophical and psychological insights have been developed by thinkers around the world. This course will present an introduction to the basic philosophical positions of Buddhist philosophy and their development. This course is the same as AS 376 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

The 19th century Industrial Revolution (steam engine, railroad, mass production) is not yet the 20th century Communications Revolution (phone, radio, movies, TV, computers, internet, Wi-Fi, cell phones, cable). The last thoughts and outlooks of a three thousand year old spiritual-intellectual heritage in the West reach their fruition and open new prospects, such as the spread of democracy, the rise of liberal religion, the growth of metropolitan culture, and the prospect of general prosperity. Seeking these breakthroughs at their sources, we will explore the old and the new in the prose and poetry of Kant, Mendelsohn, Hegel, Feuerbach, Schopenhauer, Marx, Melville, Dostoyevsky, Whitman, Comte, Darwin, Bergson, Nietzsche and Freud, among others. This course is the same as JDS 381.

Three independent schools of philosophy developed across the twentieth century: (1) Continental European phenomenology and social-political thought; (2) Anglo-American linguistic and logical analysis and (3) American pragmatism and process philosophy. Some major figures of each are: (1) Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, Levinas,Frankfurt School, Derrida and Deleuze; (2) Frege, Russell, Moore, Ayer, Wittgenstein, Quine, Rawls, Austin, Searle; (3) Dewey, Mead, Whitehead, Buchler, Randall Jr., Hartshorne and Neville. Depending on the Instructor, an introduction to the development and key ideas of one or more of these schools will be taught.

Provides for the study of various philosophical topics not covered in other 300-level courses.

Studies logical systems designed to express concepts of necessity and possibility. Develops semantic accounts employing systems of possible worlds. Examines philosophical topics and problems related to necessity and possibility.

Involves an in-depth critical examination of selected issues in philosophy of the natural or social sciences.

Examines selected views, traditions or issues in Chinese philosophy.

Considers selected issues in ancient philosophy, including comparison of major positions.

This course will explore advanced issues at the intersection of philosophy, political science, and economics. Each discipline explores complex social problems with its own toolkit, and with its own set of questions. The goal of this course will be to integrate these different approaches into a richer lens on how we can confront complex social issues.

Provides for the study of various philosophical topics not covered in other 400-level courses.