LARTS 356 Problems in Philosophy
This course offers an introductory overview of fundamental issues in three fields of philosophy: ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics. The course invites students to think critically about problems in these branches of inquiry as they engage with great philosophical texts from both the ancient and modern periods in Western history. In the field of ethics, the course will address the questions of whether or not we have free will, and whether our moral perspective is subjective or objective? In the field of epistemology, the course examines how philosophers have analyzed the nature of knowledge itself, and how we can know about things that we have not directly observed. In the area of metaphysics, the course will examine philosophical discussions about the nature of consciousness and personal identity. Students will learn to practice critical thinking as they explore the ways in which great Western philosophers, from both the past and the present, have addressed these important questions in the three fields of ethics, epistemology and metaphysics.