PHIL 3930-01 | Applied Ethics
This course introduces students to contemporary ethical issues through the framework of Ethics Bowl. Our learning will be hands-on: students will apply ethical theories in real-world settings by working with local high school Ethics Bowl teams. As an ethics course, we will explore major ethical frameworks and concepts, using them to analyze and discuss pressing moral questions. Case studies will be drawn primarily from Ethics Bowl competitions, covering topics such as:
Can book bans be justified on principled grounds?
What ethical standards, if any, should apply to true crime media?
Is service-learning itself an ethical practice?
By engaging with these and similar cases, students will sharpen their ability to construct and evaluate ethical arguments in a rigorous and thoughtful manner.
- PHIL 3894-01 | Service Learning
This course integrates ethical inquiry with practical engagement in the community through Ethics Bowl. Students will work directly with local high school Ethics Bowl teams, applying ethical theories and concepts to real-world discussions. As a service-learning course, this class emphasizes reciprocal learning: students will not only contribute to the Ethics Bowl program but also gain valuable insights from their engagement with the broader community.
Students who successfully complete this course will earn four credits, with the fourth credit fulfilling the service-learning co-requisite.
PHIL 1210-04 | Elementary Symbolic Logic
We engage in conversations every day—expressing emotions, sharing opinions, and attempting to persuade others. Whether you are making a claim about the weather (“The rain outside annoys me”) or presenting a political argument (“I think Biden is a good president”), logical reasoning plays a crucial role in effective communication.
This course is designed to enhance students' logical thinking skills through the study of formal logic. We will examine deductive reasoning, focusing on arguments that involve necessary logical relationships. The course covers:
Sentential logic: defining and analyzing valid arguments using formal methods such as truth tables and natural deduction.
Predicate logic: extending our study to more complex logical structures.
By mastering these tools, students will develop the ability to construct clear, precise, and well-reasoned arguments.