Philosophy courses provide the opportunity for the development of a critical and unified understanding of experience and nature. This is accomplished through their concern — from both historical and contemporary perspectives — with the ethical, social and political, aesthetic, religious, metaphysical, epistemological, and scientific dimensions of existence.
The major in philosophy has three components: Readings in the History of Philosophy (12 credits), the portfolio, and for those who qualify, an honors thesis with its public oral examination (eight credits). All majors will take a minimum of 28 credits, 12 (three courses) in Readings in the History of Philosophy and eight (two courses) at the 300 or 400 level. Writing an honors thesis will raise the minimum credits to a total of 36. The minor in philosophy requires a minimum of 20 credits, including Philosophy 201 and 202.
Majors will take a two-course sequence, Philosophy 201 and 202, in which texts from Plato to Kant will be read closely. Having completed this sequence, majors will then take a third course of their choice in which they will follow out an interest generated from their reading. Finally, upon completion of these three courses, each major will write a 2,000-word paper that critically defines and discusses a topic that took on special interest and developed through their work in the three courses.
Each major will gather a portfolio of the following written work to be submitted to the department by the end of the third week of classes in spring semester of their senior year:
Each major will then take an oral examination based on their portfolio to be scheduled before the last two weeks of spring semester of their senior year that also will be graded, pass, fail, or pass with distinction.
Majors interested in writing an honors thesis must:
To receive honors in the major a student must earn at least an A- on both the honors thesis and its public oral examination in addition to passing with distinction both the portfolio and its oral examination.
Distribution credit: All four-credit courses in philosophy meet the equivalent of three periods per week. Courses will apply to the humanities distribution area, except for Philosophy 488, which will apply to the quantitative distribution area, and Philosophy 225, and 235, that can apply for either humanities or cultural pluralism.
Focuses on principles and standards applicable to thinking critically on any topic. Arguments and their analyses, the nature and use of evidence, fallacies both formal and informal, are included in the matters addressed in the course. Intended for first-year students and sophomores; open to juniors and seniors by consent only.
An introductory study of some of the major problems of philosophy. Among those general problems considered will be the nature of philosophy; problems of knowledge; metaphysical questions concerning materialism, idealism, and naturalism; and questions of ethics. Other problems may be considered as time permits. This course is intended for first-year students and sophomores; open to juniors and seniors by consent only.
After working through the response to evil in Jesus, Augustine, and Kant, we will examine Hannah Arendt's concept of the "banality of evil" within her larger understanding of the nature of violence in the modern world.
Consists of the careful reading and discussion of several classical texts of moral philosophy. For first-year students and sophomores; juniors by consent only; not open to seniors.
An introduction to some of the central arguments in the philosophy of religion, focusing on proofs for and against the existence of God and discussions of the nature of religious belief. For first-year students and sophomores. This course is open to juniors and seniors by consent only.
How is philosophy a necessary resource for responding to the most complex personal and social problems facing us today? The temptation, most especially for "pragmatic" Americans, is to see philosophy as a mildly interesting but ultimately abstract self-indulgence, and certainly not to see it as a necessary resource for, first, understanding, and then adequately addressing the most important problems we face. This course will explore the philosophical response to one such problem.
177A ST: Introduction to Asian Philosophy
4,4 Ashton
This course will introduce students to Asian philosophies with emphasis upon the traditions of South and East Asia. We will discuss topics including the meaning and nature of existence, the relation of the individual to society, the possibility of transcendence, the goal of self-cultivation, and the appreciation of beauty in art and nature. The course begins with an investigation of the origins of Hindu and Buddhist philosophies in India. It then takes up the philosophical traditions of China, focusing upon Confucian and Daoist thought. Finally, we will observe how Buddhism articulated its philosophy not only in India and China, but in Japan as well. This will involve an exploration of Zen Buddhism through the eyes of the 20th century philosopher, D. T. Suzuki, and the great haiku poets, Bashō and Buson. Throughout the course references will also be made to the larger cultural, socio-political, and environmental issues that are relevant to these traditions today. Distribution area: humanities or cultural pluralism.
177B ST: Punishment & Responsibility
x, 4 Clearfield
Nationwide, over two million people are now in prison, including over 2000 at the Washington State Penitentiary here in Walla Walla. Yet as a society, there is no clear consensus regarding the goal(s) or purpose(s) of sending someone to prison. How can it be right intentionally to cause someone suffering? What is the connection between having done wrong and being justifiably made to suffer? And what kind of suffering can be justified, and under what circumstances? In this course we will critically examine some of the ultimate philosophical justifications of punishment, such as deterrence, incapacitation, retribution, and rehabilitation. We will also examine importantly related questions about personal responsibility and the conditions necessary for punishment to be appropriate. Finally, we will consider the relevance and impact of excuses and mitigating factors like mental illness, age, addiction, and socioeconomic status. Intended for first- and second-year students; juniors by consent; not open to seniors. Distribution area: humanities.
This course is a survey of some of the central figures and texts in the ancient western philosophical tradition. Readings may include texts from Plato and Aristotle, from the Presocratic philosophers, the later Hellenistic schools (which include the Stoics, Epicureans, and Skeptics), and other Greek intellectuals (playwrights, historians, orators). May be elected as Classics 201.
A survey of key 17th and 18th century European philosophers and texts, from Descartes' Meditations through key works by Hume and Kant.
Is there an American difference in philosophy? We will examine the roots of American Romanticism in Coleridge and Wordsworth to prepare reading selected essays by Emerson and Thoreau and then Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter. Prerequisite: one prior course in philosophy or consent of instructor.
The primary way most of us interact with both the animal world and the environment is through our choices in regards to what we will eat. How, though, should we make these choices? Is it wrong to eat meat? What is sustainable agriculture? How should we value the pleasures of food?
Is there an American difference in philosophy? We will examine contemporary developments of the founding of American thought in Emerson and Thoreau through a close reading of selected essays, autobiography, and short fiction by Stanley Cavell and Barry Lopez. Prerequisite: Philosophy 207 or consent of instructor.
This course focuses critically on theories of knowledge, truth, and justification, and the issues and problems they severally raise.
We will develop Thoreau's understanding of dwelling in "Dwell as near as possible to the channel in which your life flows" through reading Thoreau, Wendell Berry, Martin Heidegger, and Barry Lopez.
We will use texts from philosophy and literature to explore specific problems.
We will examine the experiential dynamics of specific religious phenomena, for example, the actions of forgiveness, of surrender in "conversion," and of "turning the other cheek." Readings will be taken from: Luke, Paul's letters, Augustine's Confessions, Kant's Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone, William James' Varieties of Religious Experience, Heidegger's The Phenomenology of Religious Life, and essays by Levinas.
This course focuses on a particular issue in the philosophy of education: how to both respect and cultivate the autonomy of one's students. Drawing primarily on Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, and Maria Montessori, we will explore autonomy-based approaches to education, from raising infants through developing mature adults.
This course is a philosophical consideration of race and recognition, focusing specifically on the African American experience. It seeks to guide students toward the creation of what bell hooks terms a "critical consciousness" as itself a form of critical thinking.
An historical look at the philosophical development of method and at philosophical issues in conflicts (theoretical, evidentiary, and social) in science.
This course will introduce students to some of the questions explored within the philosophy of feminism, questions such as: What is it to be a woman? Are women oppressed? How do institutions of motherhood, marriage, and sex shape the lives of women? To answer these questions, we will read works by Marilyn Frye, bell hooks, Andrea Dworkin, Susan Bordo, and Christina Hoff-Summers.
After developing a critical vocabulary through an examination of Hume's notion of taste, Kant's "reflective judgment," and Heidegger's reconceptualization of the work of art in "Building Dwelling Thinking," we apply this vocabulary to architecture using Karsten Harries' The Ethical Function of Architecture to help us critically assess the "aesthetic" governing Whitman's Penrose Library renovation project. Then moving from the "public" to the "private," we consider the sense of "aesthetics" at work in building your own home, using as a guide Witold Rybczynski's The Most Beautiful House in the World. May be elected as Art History 249.
Beginning with an examination of the claim of the beautiful in Elaine Scarry's On Beauty and Being Just, we will turn to experiment with the perception of sculpture in space working with reflections by Kant and Heidegger, and public artworks on campus. This will lead to an examination of architecture in Karsten Harries' The Ethical Function of Architecture, and the Japanese garden in Marc Keane's The Art of Setting Stones. Beyond the opening exercises in the aesthetic perception, you will design your own home with a garden. May be elected as Art History 241.
Does the nonhuman world have any intrinsic value or is it valuable only because of its relation to human interests? That is, does anything besides humanity have "moral standing"? If so, what is its basis? Should we, for instance accord rights to all those creatures that are sentient? If we do, will we have gone far enough, morally speaking? What about those creatures that lack sentience? What about the environment in which all creatures, human and nonhuman, live? Does it have moral standing? In answering these questions, we will consider the works of Aldo Leopold, Peter Singer, Karen Warren, Arne Naess, and Julian Simon, among others.
Metaphysics studies the ultimate nature of reality. In this course, we will focus on the metaphysics of the person. We will critically examine such topics as: the problem of free will, the nature of the mind/self, and how someone can change but still remain the same person.
A close reading of selected essays by Emerson with critical responses based on work by Nietzsche, Levinas, and Stanley Cavell.
Hannah Arendt disavowed the title of philosopher instead describing herself as a "political thinker." This seminar will investigate what Arendt means by this description, focusing in particular on the notions of "world," "natality," and what she calls the vita activa. Texts will include Between Past and Future, The Human Condition, and Eichmann in Jerusalem as well as selections from Arendt's work on Kant and aesthetics and cultural theory. Biweekly seminar papers and a final research paper will be required. Prerequisite: one course in Philosophy 300 level or above, or consent of instructor.
This course explores Kant's moral theory and recent appropriations of that moral theory in contemporary neo-Kantian ethics. Prerequisite: Philosophy 127 or consent of instructor.
Ludwig Wittgenstein was not one but two of the most important and original philosophers of the 20th century. Throughout his life, he emphasized the importance of understanding the nature of language, through which he addressed issues including logic, epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and ethics. But he did so in two radically different ways early and late in his career. In this course, we will work carefully through works from both periods, supplemented by relevant secondary sources.
In this class, we will explore the ethical and metaphysical questions associated with reproduction. So, for example, do we have a right to have a child? If we do, is there ever a situation when we should forego acting on that right? What obligations do we have to our offspring? Do those obligations change as our offspring grows? What relationship should heterosexual sex have to reproduction? Does this relationship shape when and whether two people engage in this activity? Finally, how does reproduction impact our understanding of our genders?
This course is an introduction to the philosophy of language. The focus will be on the nature of linguistic meaning and the relationship between words and the world. We also will consider some of the implications of those issues on the nature of cognition and on our understanding of reality through language.
A study of the nature and function of mind and consciousness and their place in the world of physical stuff. Readings will include classical as well as recent and contemporary work.
An examination of a philosopher or philosophical movement.
Looking at some key texts in Aristotle's corpus, including the Nicomachean Ethics, the Rhetoric, De Anima, the Physics, and the Posterior Analytics, we will think about what it means, for Aristotle, to be a person. Questions we will ask include: What sets us apart from other living things? How do we think and reason? What are our emotional lives like? What are our ethical commitments and obligations? Distribution area: humanities.
338B ST: Introduction to German Philosophy
4, x Ireland
This course will introduce students to seminal thinkers within the German philosophical tradition, beginning with Kant. Readings will be made available in both German and English, and may include selections from Schiller, Fichte, Hegel, Marx, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Husserl, Jaspers, Benjamin, Heidegger, Arendt, and Adorno. The format of the seminar will include weekly lectures, and small group discussion. For students pursuing German Studies, small group discussion will include work on the original German texts. May be elected as German 387A. Prerequisites: Philosophy 201 and 202 or consent of instructor. Distribution area: humanities.
In the Symposium Plato responds to the conception of eros presented by the contrast between the homophrosune that binds Penelope and Odysseus and Sappho's terrifyingly invasive lust (as trenchantly developed by Anne Carson in Eros the Bittersweet) with a set of speeches that culminate in the contrast between Diotima's presentation of the transcendentally transformational power of eros and Alcibiades putting Socrates on trial for erotic hubris. What is at stake for thinking in this Greek struggle between radically different conceptions of the power of eros? And how could the possibility of erotic wisdom be important for us today? Distribution area: humanities.
338B ST: The Philosophy of Kashmir Śaivism
x, 4 Ashton
This course introduces students to the philosophy of Kashmir Śaivism, a religio-philosophical tradition that thrived in present-day Kashmir between the 9th and 12th centuries C.E. The first third of the course will provide students with an accelerated introduction to some of the major topics of Indian philosophy, including the nature of phenomenal existence, the possibility of self-transcendence, the relation of the individual to society, and the structure of aesthetic experience. The remainder of the course explores the approach of Kashmir Śaiva philosophy to these issues. Emphasis will be placed upon the ontological, epistemological, and aesthetic theories of the 10th century philosopher, Abhinavagupta, the central figure from this school of thought and one of the most influential philosophers in the history of South Asian thought. Prerequisites: Philosophy 177 or 340 or consent of instructor. Distribution area: humanities or cultural pluralism.
An examination of a philosophical problem.
340 ST: Philosophical Aesthetics East and West
4,x Ashton
This course will introduce students to topics in philosophical aesthetics through a comparative approach. Themes to be examined during the course include the nature of aesthetic experience, the relationship between truth and art, conceptions of self-cultivation and its aesthetic dimension, and the interrelatedness of art, nature, and the human community. The course begins with an overview of some basic concepts in Western aesthetics in order to develop a critical vocabulary and identify some of our own presuppositions in thinking about these topics. It then turns to some of the aesthetic traditions of India, China and Japan. The aim here is two-fold. For one, we look to encounter these traditions on their own terms so that we can gain some appreciation for Asian aesthetic sensibilities from “the inside-out.” Secondly, we hope to elicit interesting juxtapositions of Western and Asian aesthetic categories with a view to deepening and clarifying our own responses to core problems in philosophical aesthetics. Prerequisite: One prior course in Philosophy, Art History, or Asian Studies; or consent of instructor. Distribution area: humanities or cultural pluralism.
Many people's lives are intertwined with animals. But while animals are clearly very important, few wonder about what kinds of creatures they are. Are they merely organic machines or are they conscious in some way? Do they think? Do they feel pain? Can they have beliefs? Moreover, do animals have rights that oblige us to protect them from harm? These are the questions we will address in this class. Prerequisite: at least one other course in a related field.
In a set of lectures to his students, Kant claimed that all of philosophy could be reduced to the question, "What is the Human Being?" This course focuses on that question. Almost half of the course will be spent exploring Kant's answer to the question, which also will provide an opportunity to explore Kant's philosophy as a whole. The rest of the course will look at several contemporary approaches to the problem (including, for example, scientific —especially evolutionary — accounts of human beings and existentialism). Prerequisite: Philosophy 202 or consent of instructor. May be elected as German 351.
This course offers an advanced reading of several of the most important papers in contemporary philosophy of science, dealing with issues such as the nature of scientific "rationality," whether scientific theories contribute to understanding what is real, the nature of scientific evidence and scientific laws, and specific philosophical issues in contemporary physics and biology. Prerequisite: one previous philosophy course or consent of instructor.
A substantive consideration of one or more values (such as justice, happiness, or charity), based on primary sources from Western philosophy. Prerequisite: Philosophy 127 or consent of instructor.
A close reading of a text from the classic American philosophical tradition.
An examination of a text or problem from the Continental philosophical tradition.
Martin Heidegger's Being and Time (1927) is arguably one of the most groundbreaking works of philosophy published in the 20th century. This seminar is an intensive exploration of Heidegger's most important conceptual innovations in that work. These innovations include the relationship between Dasein, care, and world; the analysis of being-toward-death, anxiety, and the call of conscience; and the "destructuring" of the Western philosophical tradition. The seminar will be focused on the close reading of Being and Time supplemented by other primary and secondary sources intended to facilitate the understanding of basic terms and concepts. The course is writing intensive, and will include biweekly papers and responses, a final seminar presentation, and a final paper. Prerequisite: Philosophy 201 or 202 or consent of instructor. May be elected as German 422.
Study of selected philosophies or philosophic problems. Prerequisite: consent of and arrangement with instructor.
An introduction to the methods of symbolic logic, including the propositional calculus, quantification theory, and the logic of relations. Recommended for, and restricted to, advanced students who are considering graduate work in philosophy. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
A course designed to further independent research or projects resulting in the preparation of an undergraduate honors thesis and including an oral defense of the central issues of the thesis to be taken during the second term of the student's senior year. Required of and limited to senior honors candidates in philosophy. Prerequisites: admission to honors candidacy.
