Spring 2027 Department of Philosophy Course Descriptions

Listed below are the Philosophy courses being offered at Purdue University in Spring 2027. The courses are listed by their five-digit course number and course title, followed by a brief description. The tables below each description also include information on the course type (e.g., lectures = ‘LEC’), the enrolment limit of the course, the day(s)/time of the course or each section of it, the classroom in which the course will be taught, and the instructor(s) for the course. Courses that include a recitation section are marked in the tables below as type ‘LEC/REC.’ Details of the recitation sections are not listed. The type ‘DIST’ indicates a fully asynchronous, online course. ‘Grad’ indicates that a graduate student will be the instructor of record. PHIL courses that are cross-listed with other courses are marked as such (e.g., ‘c/l DEPT 10000’).

Have questions about specific philosophy courses, philosophy major plans of study, or the new BA in AI and Cognitive Science plans of study? You can contact our Academic Program Manager, Samantha Ooley, via email at swalker@purdue.edu, by phone at 765-496-3495 and she is happy to answer any questions you have or to schedule an in-person meeting, or virtual meeting via Zoom.

100 LEVEL COURSES 

11000 The Big Questions: Introduction to Philosophy 

If philosophy has one overarching goal, it is to find better ways of thinking about the world we live in. To do this, philosophers need to be both curious and skeptical. They ask weird questions about things we normally take for granted. They ask for definitions of the concepts we use every day without even thinking about it, and propose ways that we can improve those concepts. They ask for arguments to justify our most basic beliefs and point out the places where those arguments are flawed or contradictory. They ask which parts of ordinary commonsense stand up to scrutiny, and which parts might be leading us astray. 

In this course, you’ll learn what it’s like to think like a philosopher by engaging a number of ‘Big Questions’ from both classic and contemporary philosophy: Does God exist? Do we have free will? How does the mind relate to the body and the brain? Can science ever crack the mystery of consciousness? What makes someone the same person at different points in their lives? Is the self an illusion? How can we know that we’re not dreaming, or in a computer simulation? What even is knowledge? How does the social world shape what we can know? 

11005 Introduction to Philosophy Through Video Games 

This course uses video games to demonstrate many of the fundamental problems of philosophy: What is the nature of reality? What can we know about the world and how do we know it? Should we be skeptics? Is morality real? Is there a connection between morality and living a good life? To better understand the philosophical problems presented in text, students will engage with these problems through active learning by playing video games relevant to these issues in lab sections. In lab sessions, students will play a variety of games to support reflection on course readings, and to challenge them to think deeply and begin to form answers to the philosophical questions posed by the course. 

11100 Introduction to Ethics 

In this introductory lecture and discussion course, we will focus on three topics in ethics, politics, and moral psychology: 1) Civilization and Its Discontents, 2) Individual and Citizen, and 3) Morality, Guilt, and False Ideals.  Civilization and Its Discontents is as much about human nature as it is about the political structures under which we live, and the resultant pressures these impose on our instinctual lives.  Civilized political life seems to be a kind of necessary evil, a trade-off between natural freedom and law/social convention.  If so, what are the limitations, if any, to the alienation of our natural freedoms for the sake of the security of law and civilized life?  In grappling with these issues, we will read works of Aeschylus, Plato, Hobbes, and Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. We will also watch two films, “The Ox-Bow Incident” (1943) and “Lord of the Flies” (1963), memorable films that vividly illustrate the philosophical issues we have been discussing. The second section, Individual and Citizen, focuses on political authority and its limits, and the nature of citizenship.  We will discuss these important issues in political philosophy as they arise in Locke and Rousseau.  The final section, Morality, Guilt, and False Ideals, is focused on moral psychology and human pathology.  We will focus on the nature and origin of morality and moral values, on the roles of reason and guilt in human life, and on human well-being and the variety of institutional and personal obstacles that frustrate our happiness.  On these issues we will read some Plato (again), Nietzsche, and Freud (again).  To conclude this part of the course, we will watch “Citizen Kane” (1941), one of the greatest (American) films, to see a cinematic version of megalomania and self-induced servitude. 

11400 Global Moral Issues 

This course introduces various ethical issues that arise in our globally connected world today.  After a brief introduction on the nature of ethical claims, this course moves through five units.  The first looks at the value of patriotism and whether we ought to think of ourselves as first and foremost ‘global citizens.’  We then move on to our duties and obligations to the global poor, from providing aid, (abstaining from?) buying products produced in sweatshops and volunteering abroad.  Issues of population control, environmental sustainability, and climate change are next, looking at questions like – is it wrong to procreate, given the carbon footprint of the average American?  The second half of the course will largely consist of questions concerning immigration and border control, as well as ethical engagement in warfare.  Special attention will be given to current issues, such as whether undocumented immigrants should be deported and the ethics of just war, including the U.S.'s (lack of) involvement in recent global conflicts.  The course ends with a unit on feminism and multiculturalism, asking how we balance advancing women’s rights while respecting other cultural perspectives 

11500 Philosophy: What Are You Going to Do with That? (1 cr. hr.)  

A 1 credit course for philosophy majors designed to help them navigate their progress toward the PHIL degree and what they will eventually apply it to doing. Students will gain an understanding of what the different branches of philosophy explore, plan a path of study through the major requirements, and develop a portfolio of professional documents toward applying to internships and jobs. PHIL majors are encouraged to take this course in the spring of their first or second year. 

15000 Principles of Logic 

[Note: This course fulfills UCC quantitative reasoning/math requirements.] This course is an introduction to the basic concepts and methods of modern logic, with emphasis on the construction and appraisal of complex patterns of reasoning. Some of the things expected will be the recognition and reconstruction of arguments in ordinary language, the symbolization of propositions and arguments from English into logical notation, the testing of arguments for validity, and understanding and constructing proofs. You will be expected to know the notation and the techniques of propositional and predicate logic. Put less formally, you will learn what it means for a claim to follow from others, and to recognize and construct good arguments of your own. 

200 LEVEL COURSES 

20700 Ethics for Technology, Engineering, And Design  

This course focuses on a specific form of professional ethics, addressing the moral obligations of engineers and designers in an increasingly global world. By focusing on case studies, students learn to apply a general conceptual framework to the specific facts of new and unique situations. The course first covers what this ethical framework is, then provides practice in applying it to cases. The readings and exercises will culminate in a final case study, which is more detailed, and which will be presented both verbally and in writing. 

20800 Ethics of Data Science 

As applications of data science permeate more aspects of our lives, new and important ethical issues are arising. However, especially because we’re entering uncharted territory, reasoning clearly about the ethical implications of data science isn’t easy. This course provides students with the tools for doing so, including a conceptual framework for ethical reasoning in professional settings, as well as a procedure for case-study analysis that allows students to practice employing this conceptual framework. Together, these components help prepare students to be ethical professionals and responsible global citizens. 

21900 Philosophy and the Meaning of Life 

Existentialism is a movement in contemporary philosophy and literature that is always an attraction for students of philosophy. It is attractive to many because existentialists promised to be "engaged" with real life issues in the world and recognizes the value of lived experience in making sense of one's world. The existentialists are among the most quoted of any philosophers—and perhaps the least understood. 

The existentialists’ works will challenge our most important beliefs and ideals, and demand that we offer explanations for our beliefs—perhaps more than any other thinkers, Kierkegaard, Sartre, Beauvoir, and Nietzsche, Gordon, Dostoevsky, Rilke, Camus, Lispector, and Barth are out to rattle your cage, and mine. They offer very harsh assessments of the value structures we have been conditioned to accept, and very hard ideas about what to do to live in an “authentic” manner or to “live one’s life as a work of art.” 

What does it mean to believe in God? What is free will? What is freedom? How are we responsible for our actions? What is the value of values? What is the meaning of human existence? How do we understand the meaning of death? What is the allure of suicide? What is the relation between the aesthetic and the ethical aspects of our existence? How are art and science related? What is authentic existence? These are the sorts of questions that occupied the thinkers who produced the works we will be discussing. They were neither the first nor the last to ask such questions; but they pose them in such poignant ways! 

There are no prerequisites other than patience, intelligence, good will, a tolerance for different perspectives, and a keen desire to encounter some interesting ideas from some of the best and most provocative writers in the Western philosophical tradition. It will help, of course, if you have had Introduction to Philosophy, 19th Century Philosophy, Modern Philosophy, Modernist Literature, or courses in recent European thought; but this knowledge is not presupposed. 

22100 Introduction to Philosophy of Science 

An introduction to the scope and methods of science and to theories of its historical development. Topics may include scientific revolutions, theories of scientific method, the nature of scientific discovery, explanation, and the role of values in scientific change. 

22300 Fate and Free Will 

This course is focused on a fascinating set of topics related to the question of whether we have free will. Many reasons have been proposed for thinking that our fate is determined: arguments from logic, from science, and from theology have been employed with the aim of showing that our fate is already sealed. But has our fate been sealed? And if so, what does that imply about freedom and responsibility? We will be examining and evaluating arguments for determinism and fatalism and considering their implications in connection with questions such as whether we have free will, whether we are morally responsible for anything, and whether humans can sensibly engage in such activities as deliberating, punishing, praising, and blaming. Most of our readings will be from contemporary philosophers. The course requirements will include regular attendance and several non-cumulative exams. 

24000 Social and Political Philosophy 

Cross-listed with POL 22900. We will consider some of the central questions of political philosophy. What is justice and whom is it good for?  What is the proper function of the state and under what conditions is revolution legitimate?   What is property, what are property rights, and what is a just distribution of property?  To what extent, if at all, should governments limit the freedom of their citizens?  What sort of respect is owed to the customs practiced by other cultures? Our authors will include Plato, Locke, Rousseau, Mill, Marx, Nozick, and Nussbaum.  There will be three papers, along with a requirement to write a question or comment on the reading for most classes. 

25501 Introduction to Cognitive Science: Minds, Brains, And Machines 

This course will provide an introduction to foundational topics in the philosophy of mind. We will consider the relationship between the mind and the body, and the mental to the physical more generally. We’ll ask, and look at some candidate answers to, questions like “What is a mind, and what are its component parts? How does a mind work? How are minds related to brains, and to the physical bodies that they seem to animate and control? How do minds represent the world around them? What is a self? What is the nature of consciousness and subjective experience? Could other animals, aliens, computers, robots or other types of entities have minds, or be conscious? How would we know? How can empirical efforts like the cognitive sciences help shed light on these questions? Could scientific theories of the mind supplant our intuitive conceptions of the mind? If so, what would be the implications?” 

29000 Environmental Ethics 

An introduction to philosophical issues surrounding debates about the environment and our treatment of it. Topics will include degradation of the environment, over-consumption and its consequences, and the necessity of responsible stewardship of the natural environment for future generations.  There are no pre-requisites for this course.  All you need is a curious mind...  

29300 Introduction to Chess as Philosophical Inquiry 

This course investigates thought, agency, habit, and skilled performance through the practice of chess. Most sessions begin with active play and study, using over-the-board and online platforms to generate predicaments for philosophical reflection and analysis. Students examine expertise, the distinction between knowing how and knowing that, and the relation between striving play and achievement play. They also learn to notate their games, annotate key positions, and critically analyze their own play. The course explores the phenomenology of chess by comparing play with and without machine assistance. Graded work includes participation, a reflective journal (including self-annotated games), and three essay exams. Readings include John Dewey, Hubert Dreyfus, Loren Schmidt, Gilbert Ryle, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Bernard Suits, and C. Thi Nguyen. No previous chess knowledge is assumed, and players of all skill levels are encouraged to enroll. 

300 LEVEL COURSES 

30100 History of Ancient Philosophy 

1. FRANK’S SECTION:This is a first course in the history of philosophy in antiquity, covering a period of almost a thousand years. The course divides into three main parts. We begin at the beginning (where else?) when philosophy emerged from non-philosophical modes of thought in the 6th century BCE. We will trace the intellectual paths blazed by the first philosophers, Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, and Parmenides. Thanks to them, we became skeptical about the nature, even the reality and value, of the world around us, no longer confident that what we perceive maps on to what there really is, and that what seems good to us really has value. With such skepticism in the air we turn to the giants of philosophy in antiquity, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, who, each in his own way, attempts to respond to the fear that knowledge about the sensible world is unattainable and that the reality of a realm of values is a vain imagining. Finally, we will spend some time on philosophy after Aristotle, a very rich intellectual period that saw the rise of Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Skepticism--competing schools of philosophy, indeed ways of life. The post-Aristotelian philosophical movements developed through discussions and disagreements with each other, but they will be presented here as a set of intelligent responses to Aristotle and his views about the nature of human well-being. 

DR. MARIÑA’S SECTION: This class will focus on Ancient Metaphysics, with particular attention to works by Plato and Aristotle’s Physics and Metaphysics.  

30200 History of Medieval Philosophy 

Medieval philosophy covers an extensive period in the history of philosophy, spanning the centuries from the fall of Rome in the 5th century and the rise of Islam in the 7th century to the expulsion of the Jews and Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century. Medieval philosophy is also geographically and culturally diverse, connecting the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic worlds from Iberia in the west to Transoxiana in the east. Common to all strands of Medieval philosophy is its indebtedness to the Greek philosophical tradition and, in particular, to Aristotle. In this course, we will explore themes in metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics central to the development of medieval philosophy. Authors we will examine include Augustine of Hippo, Al-Fārābī, Ibn Sīnā, Ibn Rushd, Peter Abelard, and Thomas Aquinas. 

30300 History of Modern Philosophy 

Concentrates on the major philosophical writers from the Renaissance to the beginning of the nineteenth century: Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume, Kant. Some in other areas, e.g., Galileo, Newton, Calvin, are also considered. 

31000 Classical Chinese Philosophy 

A survey of classical Chinese philosophy (c. 1050-200 BCE), focusing on seven major philosophers (and their followers): Kongzi (Confucius), Mengzi (Mencius), Zhuangzi, Laozi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, and Sunzi (Art of War). Topics include: the nature and value of morality, the proper role of ritual in human life, whether human nature is good or bad, how one becomes a virtuous person, theories of knowledge, governance, and warfare. No knowledge of Chinese is expected. 

32200 Philosophy of Technology 

A philosophical examination of the nature and history of technology, as well as its complex impact on humans and the world. 

35000 Philosophy and Probability 

The aim of this course is to use mathematical probability to explicate the concept of (supporting) evidence or “confirmation” and then use that explication to address a variety of foundational problems in the philosophy of science. Topics include: 

1. The rules of mathematical probability and their relevance to epistemic probabilities.
2. The concept of epistemic probability and how it differs from statistical and physical probability.
3. The “relevance theory” of confirmation and different measures of the degree of confirmation.
4. Bayes’ theorem and the structure of scientific reasoning.
5. The raven paradox: why do positive instances confirm different universal generalizations to such different degrees?
6. The asymmetry question: why does strong or conclusive evidence against a scientific theory seem so much easier to come by than strong or conclusive evidence for it?
7. What’swrong with statistical significance testing? 
8. Intrinsic probability.
9. Goodman’s paradox and the new riddle of induction: how can one theory be more likely to be true than all competing theories even though that theory fits the data no better or even worse than some of those competing theories?
10. The problem of simplicity: what is simplicity and why are simpler theories not just easier to use, but also more likely to be true?

There are no pre-requisites for this course, but competence in basic arithmetic and algebra is presupposed. The requirements for the course are regular attendance, homework, quizzes, and a comprehensive final exam. There is no textbook for this course, but a small number of relatively short readings will be recommended. 

35501 Major Questions in Cognitive Science 

The philosophy of cognitive science uses tools from philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, and computer science to answer foundational questions about how the mind works. In this course, we’ll survey a range of contemporary debates in the philosophy of cognitive science, focusing on topics like the distinction between perception and cognition, the relationship between memory and imagination, the relationship between language and thought, whether there exist basic emotions and more. 

400 LEVEL COURSES 

40200  Studies in Medieval Christian Thought 

A study of some of the main trends and major figures of the Christian Middle Ages (roughly 400-1400 A.D.).  Emphasis will be on the way thinkers from this period make use of philosophy in theology, especially in developing their views about such issues as the nature and existence of God, the nature and use of religious language, and specifically Christian doctrines such as Trinity, Incarnation, and Atonement.  Some attention will also be given to the way in which medieval thinkers attempted to build on developments in the early church, especially those of the so-called Patristics.  Readings (in English translation) may include Augustine, Boethius, Anselm, Abelard, Aquinas, Scotus, and Ockham. 

41300 Advanced History of Modern Philosophy 

In this class we will focus on understanding Kant’s critical project in the first Critique. Topics will include Kant’s arguments for why space and time cannot be a feature of things in themselves, the unity of the act of thinking, the forms of judgment and the problem of their application, and the categories and principles as providing criteria for the truth of judgments and their relation to the unity of science. The class will be of special interest to advanced undergraduates in modern philosophy and its intersection with the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of science. 

42500  Metaphysics 

According to Immanuel Kant, 

There was a time when metaphysics was called the queen of all the sciences, and if you take intentions for accomplishments, she certainly deserved this title of honor, because of the superior importance of her objects.  Now it comes with the fashion of the age for everyone to show her contempt, and the matron, outcast and forsaken, wails like Hecuba: Recently the greatest of all, governing so many races and children, now I am driven into exile, destitute.  

We will do what we can to help her out.  Our topics include the natures of existence, possibility, time, and causation. We will also discuss free will and personal identity.  The readings will be more or less recent papers in analytic metaphysics. The guiding spirit of the course will be careful and rigorous, so that we may avoid sliding into nonsense.  There will be three papers, along with a requirement to write a question or comment on the reading for most classes. 

49000 Personal Identity and Language 

We will examine the problem of personal identity in the context of linguistic agency. How do we become who we are through communicating with others? What is the “space of subjectivity” that emerges in speaking and writing? How is linguistic agency intertwined with ethical agency and embodiment? Calvin O. Schrag examines these questions in the context of the “linguistic turn” in twentieth century continental thinkers (i.e., Derrida, Foucault, and Habermas). We will examine how Schrag’s pioneering work is complemented by the ontology of Merleau-Ponty’s late work

500 LEVEL COURSES  

50600 Advanced Philosophy of Religion 

This examines agnosticism in both religious and non-religious contexts. The term “agnosticism” has both a psychological sense (“Sue is agnostic about cosmic inflation”) and a propositional sense (“Muslims reject the doctrine of agnosticism”). We will focus primarily but not exclusively on psychological agnosticism, exploring both the psychological issue of what kind of mental state it is and the epistemological issue of when and why being in that state is epistemically rational. Concerning the former issue, we will survey leading accounts in the contemporary literature, including views of agnosticism as an omission, as a sui generis attitude, as a higher-order belief, and as a middling credence. Turning from psychology to epistemology, we will examine both general theoretical questions like whether agnosticism should be treated as a rational “default” and when agnosticism is the appropriate response to one’s evidence, as well as specific or applied questions like whether religious agnosticism is justified. The course will be co-taught by Liz Jackson of St. Louis University. 

52500 Studies in Metaphysics 

This course in analytic metaphysics will be divided into four parts: 

• First, we’ll consider several topics related to human freedom (such as fatalism, agent vs. event causation, and freedom’s relation to causal determinism, moral responsibility, and foreknowledge).  

• Second, we’ll examine some traditional debates associated with universals and particulars (such as realism vs. nominalism, bundle vs. substratum theory, constituent vs. relational ontology). 

• Third, we’ll have a look at some hotly disputed questions concerning the metaphysics of material objects (such as the nature of change, persistence, composition, and material constitution). 

• Fourth and finally, we’ll investigate some important topics connected with the metaphysics of modality (such as the nature of possible worlds, essential vs. accidental properties, counterpart theory, and possible but nonexistent objects). 

The course requirements will include two papers and also some shorter weekly assignments on the readings. There will be no final exam. 

55200 Philosophy Of The Social Sciences 

The course will provide a dialogue between methodological individualism and holism on the nature of scientific social explanations.  We will consider how contemporary schools understand (1) the ontology of groups (e.g., abstractions, objectively real social facts, biologically determined collectives, intentional agents, plural subjects, blind aggregates, etc.) and (2) the concept of explanation employed.  The course will then confront the actuarial theory  -  its implications for algorithmic bias (AI), racism and social ‘facts.’   

Philosophy Doctoral Graduate Students: This course is traditionally associated with, and satisfies, an area requirement for the Philosophy of Science. 

55300 Mathematical Logic 

An introduction to metatheoretic studies of formal axiomatic systems. Basic set theory is developed for use as a tool in studying propositional calculus. Further topics may include many-valued logics and basic (metatheory for) modal or predicate logic. 

58000 Emotions 

This course will investigate central metaphysical, epistemological, and evaluative questions about emotions. This will includes questions about what emotions are, whether they are reliable epistemic tools,  and what role particular emotions play in leading a good life. In pursuing these questions, we will engage with both historical and contemporary approaches, as well empirical research on emotion.