Online Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy (BA)

Writer Zora Neale Hurston describes research as “formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose." This course will help students hone their research skills, along with all other aspects of academic writing. Students will receive step-by-step guidance through the process while writing about topics they want to explore. In this course, students will learn how to compose thoughtful research questions, gather and evaluate supporting facts, and create an organized outline for a research paper. Students will also learn how to properly cite sources, avoid plagiarism, flesh out a research paper’s paragraphs with substantive details, and turn in a polished final paper. Students will work within a supportive university community and will receive plentiful, constructive feedback.

This course is intended to equip the student with a baseline understanding of issues and concepts that compose the Western philosophic enterprise, and to serve as a point of departure for their further studies in Philosophy.

Critical Thinking introduces skills, concepts, models, and techniques for reading, writing, and thinking critically. Critical thinking is a necessary process for identifying and solving problems in academia and the workplace, as well as interpreting information in the media. Through the use of critical and logical thought processes, students will develop practical, analytical skills that prepare them for the investigative nature of being life-long learners.

This course examines themes in the thought of Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoic, Epicurean, and neo-Platonist philosophers of the ancient world. It enables the student to enter the “great conversation” of western civilization as well as debate the fundamental questions that surround science, religion, self-awareness, ethics, and politics. (Prerequisite: PHIL101)

This course considers the synthesis of Christianity with classical pagan philosophy achieved by St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. What became of the ancients’ ideal of human knowledge in an age when philosophy became the “handmaid of theology"? What were the underpinnings of the “natural law” conception of moral and political philosophy? How did this medieval synthesis break down, on the scientific side with Galileo’s challenge to Aristotelian physics and astronomy, and on the moral and political side with Machiavelli’s portrayal of a Renaissance prince? (Note to Students: The course materials, assignments, learning outcomes, and expectations in this upper level undergraduate course assume that the student has completed all lower level general education and career planning coursework necessary to develop research, writing, and critical thinking skills. Students who have not fulfilled all general education requirements through courses or awarded transfer credit should strongly consider completing these requirements prior to registering for this course. (Prerequisite: PHIL101)

This course focuses on the work of European philosophers from roughly 1600 to 1800. Students will study the philosophy of René Descartes and traces the development of philosophical rationalism and empiricism in thinkers such as John Locke, David Hume, and Baruch Spinoza. In addition, the class will cover the transcendental idealism of Immanuel Kant. (Prerequisite: PHIL101)

This contemporary philosophy course explores major figures, debates, and developments in Analytic, Continental, and Postmodern philosophy from the 19th century to the present. Students examine thinkers such as Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Sartre, Arendt, and Putnam. Emphasis is placed on philosophical arguments about individual liberty, moral and political philosophy, consciousness, and the nature of truth and existence. Through critical reading, writing, and discussion, students gain a deeper understanding of how contemporary philosophers continue to influence thought across society, science, government, and daily life. (Prerequisite: PHIL101).

This course will examine the field of ethics and provide the tools for ethical decision-making. Students will analyze texts for meaning, apply theories learned to various areas of moral concern, such as war, euthanasia, divorce, and poverty. The course will also provide an overview of how philosophers have thought about moral problems and some of the solutions they have proposed. Students will develop the ability to think about moral problems in a clear and logically consistent manner.

Philosophy of Science will introduce students to the origins and development of modern science and how that is distinguished from pseudo-science; the importance of deduction and induction and their separate methodologies; the process of the scientific method; scientific change and scientific revolutions, particularly that of Thomas Kuhn; and selected philosophical problems in the basic sciences, such as absolute space, biological classification, the modular mind, and recent discoveries of neuroscience.

This course is an examination of the historical and contemporary concepts and techniques used in logic, emphasizing classical and modern treatments of topics such as rules of inference. The course will cover the principles of deduction, induction, informal fallacies, and uses of logic in everyday life. (Prerequisite: PHIL101)

This course is a study of environmental issues from a moral and philosophical approach. Issues raised in the course include the moral obligation, or lack thereof, to preserve and protect the environment, the ethical presumptions that underlie environmental policy, the traditional theories of moral philosophy applicable to contemporary environmental problems, and the potential for a new conception of the relationship between humanity and nature.

This course surveys the main issues in the philosophy of law. We will study seminal work on questions like “what is the law?”, “what is the relationship between the law and morality?”, “what does it mean for someone to be responsible for a crime?,” and “what makes a punishment reasonable?”

This bioethics course examines some of the primary ethical issues in human health, biomedical research, and healthcare, as well as the ethical challenges they present. These philosophical problems are approached scientifically, argued rationally using ethical theory, and critically examined for practical application. Students will explore case studies and hypothetical situations that require judgment and decision-making, connecting philosophical principles to real-world dilemmas in medicine, law, science, and society. Although students are encouraged to think for themselves, they are required to demonstrate a clear understanding of different positions on any given issue, providing a strong foundation in biomedical ethics and the medical humanities.

This course will cover basic themes in the topics of metaphysics and epistemology. It will investigate the basic question of "being," or what reality is most fundamentally, as well as the fundamental question of knowledge, or what distinguishes real knowledge from mere belief or opinion. Students will be asked to investigate questions regarding the existence or non-existence of God, and to critically examine leading metaphysical options such as theism, atheism, materialism, and idealism. They will also be considering questions regarding the acquisition and justification of various epistemic claims. Particular topics will include free will, determinism, skepticism, and truth.