Spring 2027 Residential Philosophy offerings
001: The Big Questions [Bergsma]
Central philosophical questions, including those about truth and reality, knowledge and belief, value and meaning, mind and body, God and soul.
003: The Ethical Life [Azeez, Zeppeiro]
Core questions and contemporary issues about ethical conduct, human values, character, wellbeing, freedom, responsibility.
004: The Human Condition [Nance]
Questions about the meaning of life, selfhood, human nature, authenticity, morality and mortality, happiness, and existence.
005: Philosophy and Film [Kalanaki]
Explores philosophical questions through movies, and explores the nature of film, art, beauty, and aesthetic experience through philosophical analysis.
007: Asian Philosophy [Imamkhodjaeva]
Hinduism, Buddhism (including Zen), Taoism, Confucianism, and Shintoism.
008: Gender Matters [Cassel]
Feminism; questions of gender identity, inequality, oppression, especially in relation with other imbalances of power.
009: Race, Racism, and Diversity [Sealey]
This course uses philosophy to think about the concepts of race and racism and how we might think about them otherwise.
010: Critical Thinking [Brown, Ijeoma, Coleman]
The standards for good reasoning, argumentation, and language, and of common fallacies; informal logic.
012: Symbolic Logic [Feiten, Agler, Rhodes]
Formal logical structures of propositions and arguments; tests and proof techniques for logical truth and deductive validity.
013: Nature and Environment [Villanueva]
Our relationship with and obligations to ecosystems, animals, wilderness, and the planet in general.
014: Love and Sex [Cassel, Chapman, Nelson]
Explores Western theories and attitudes concerning human intimacy, and examines various ethical issues involving love and sex, focusing on the United States.
015: How to Live [Mack-Georges]
Reflections on ways of life, from diverse philosophical perspectives, with frequent practical components.
060N: 1960’s Counterculture [Sollenberger]
Questions about the conditions and ideals of the good life, and about the nature of dominance and social control, focusing on this time of global revolution or reflection.
102: Existentialism [Vijfhuise]
Existential thinkers and their studies of human finitude, angst, faith, imagination, love, and consciousness itself.
103(w): Ethics [staff]
Historical and contemporary ethical theories, including conceptions of virtue, duty, autonomy, right action and the good life, the foundations of ethical norms, and their validity.
105: Philosophy of Law [Terrazas, Smith]
Reflection on the nature of law, punishment, the Constitution, property, justice, legislation, adjudication, and responsibility.
106: Business Ethics [Imamkhodjaeva]
Studies philosophical issues in business practices such as advertising and market development, trade and competition, labor rules and relations, and environmental and social costs.
107: Philosophy of Technology [De Warren]
What technology is, how humans shape and are shaped by complexity and change, and the future of technology.
108(w): Soc./Pol. Philosophy [Kwiatek, Barrero Flores]
Key topics in social and political philosophy, focusing on the themes of freedom, rights, equality, and responsibility.
109: Aesthetics [Bergsma]
Aesthetic experience and artistic production as conceived from antiquity to the present, with emphasis on the relation of such conceptions to ideas of truth and goodness.
110: Philosophy of Science [Feiten]
Examines core aspects of how scientists generate knowledge, including theories, experiments, models, types of reasoning, and statistical methods, with attention to the social context.
114: Feminist Philosophy [Wallace]
The intersections of gender, race, sexuality, class, and other dimensions of identity in relation to structures of power.
118: Environmental Ethics [Chavarria]
Current environmental problems and human development in the context of views of the relation of humans and nature.
119: Ethical Leadership [Aggleton, Sollenberger]
Studies moral questions concerning leadership and the development of admirable and effective leadership qualities.
125: Theories of Knowledge [Bowman]
A course in epistemology, focusing on belief, criticism, doubt, and the other critical terms connecting to understanding.
126w: Metaphysics [Agler]
Dive into the world of philosophical puzzles and paradoxes by exploring the nature of time, persons, and free will.
131N: BS: Identifying Bias and Falsehood [Feiten]
The course will consider the ways statements are used for aims other than to convey accurate information.
132: Bioethics [White]
Examination of approaches and issues in medical ethics, such as abortion, pandemic policy, and justice in healthcare.
135: Ethics in Jewish Tradition & Thought [Host]
A study of Hannah Arendt, focusing on evil, political action, and her intellectual predecessors, reading The Human Condition and The Life of the Mind.
139: Latino/a Philosophy [Calzadillas]
Covers race, class, gender, and ethnicity in relation to the Latino/a experience, and thus ethics, political theory, legal theory, critical philosophy of race, and feminist philosophy.
200: Ancient Philosophy [Host]
The origins of the discipline in Ancient Greece, with attention to the Presocratics, playwrights, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
201: Medieval Philosophy [Bernasconi]
Philosophy in the millennium between the fall of Rome and the rise of the Renaissance, and their connection to ancient Greek philosophy and their theological commitments.
202: Modern Philosophy: 1600–1800 [Abaci]
This course offers a survey of the philosophies of Early Modern philosophers, including Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume.
203: 19th Century Philosophy [Host]
This course surveys the development of European philosophy from Kant through post-Kantianism, especially German Idealism and its critics (for example Kierkegaard, Marx, and Nietzsche).
204: 20th Century Philosophy [Aggleton]
Important trends in philosophy from the past century, focusing on the crisis of foundations, and exploring continental and analytic approaches.
205: American Philosophy from 1840 [Wretzel]
To what extent is there an autonomous tradition of philosophy in the United States, one that contrasts with European traditions and reflects democracy and modernity?
208: Contemporary Philosophy [Wretzel]
Philosophers, problems, and themes of today and tomorrow, drawing from historical resources and addressing new issues.
242: Happiness and Well-Being [Kwiatek]
An analysis and comparison of philosophical (conceptual) and psychological (social-scientific) methods for studying human flourishing.
437: World Philosophies [Sealey]
This course is framed by the questions of sovereignty; land and decolonization; and “human to other-than-human” relations. As we work through texts by scholars including Vine Deloria, Jr., Kyle Whyte, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Leanne Betamosake Simpson and Audra Simpson, we will attend to the ways our core issues are shaped by a history of indigenous struggle/resistance against, and refusal of, settler colonial violence in North America.
457: Am I My Brother’s Keeper: Levinas and the Drama of Otherness [De Warren]
A reading of Levinas’ seminal work Totality and Infinity, contextualized with the sources he thinks with (Gabriel Marcel, Simone Weil, Karl Barth, Franz Rosenzweig) and those who responded to him in the ethical domain (Jacques Derrida, Jean-Luc Marion, Enrique Dussel, Judith Butler).
458: Human Extinction [Toadvine]
Contemporary debates in light of Enlightenment reflections on humanity’s vocation and the destiny of reason through 20th-c concerns with technology, finitude, and planetary fragility. A focus on existential risk, longtermism, and apocalypticism. Authors may include Anders, Benatar, Bostrom, Colebrook, Derrida, Heidegger, Jonas, Kant, Nancy, Ord, Russell, Torres, Whyte.
461: Plato’s Republic and Laws [Moore]
The Republic considers the problem of old age, the nature of justice, education, the structure of the soul, domestic arrangements, women, philosophy, knowledge, regime change, democracy, art, and eschatology. The Laws considers human nature, drinking parties, the origins of civilization, political realism, the efficacy of laws, and atheism.
473: Person, Action, and Freedom in Kant and the post-Kantian German Tradition [Bowman]
Kant distinguishes between humanity (rational animality) and personality (responsiveness to moral law); this raises interesting problems and possible solutions, which we study through Kant’s own texts, and those of Jacobi and Hegel, the latter including chapters from Phenomenology of Spirit, Philosophy of Right, and Lectures on Fine Arts.
- For 500-level seminars, see https://philosophy.la.psu.edu/graduate/currentgrads/graduate-course-descriptions/
Fall 2026 Residential Philosophy offerings
001: The Big Questions [Toadvine]
Central philosophical questions, including those about truth and reality, knowledge and belief, value and meaning, mind and body, God and soul.
002: Society and Politics [Calzadillas]
Core questions and contemporary issues about power, justice, government, violence, community, and identity.
003: The Ethical Life [Meeks]
Core questions and contemporary issues about ethical conduct, human values, character, wellbeing, freedom, responsibility.
004: The Human Condition [Cassel]
Questions about the meaning of life, selfhood, human nature, authenticity, morality and mortality, happiness, and existence.
007: Asian Philosophy [Nelson]
Hinduism, Buddhism (including Zen), Taoism, Confucianism, and Shintoism.
008: Gender Matters [Payne]
Feminism; questions of gender identity, inequality, oppression, especially in relation with other imbalances of power.
009: Race, Racism, and Diversity [Smith]
Introduction to the concepts of race and racism and asks, with the tools of philosophy, why we think about them as we do and how we might think about them otherwise.
010: Critical Thinking [Peralta, Vijfhuise]
The standards for good reasoning, argumentation, and language, and of common fallacies; informal logic.
012: Symbolic Logic [Feiten, Agler]
Formal logical structures of propositions and arguments; tests and proof techniques for logical truth and deductive validity.
013: Nature and Environment [Barrero Flores]
Our relationship with and obligations to ecosystems, animals, wilderness, and the planet in general.
014: Love and Sex [Cassel, Ugboajah, Cavarria]
Explores Western theories and attitudes concerning human intimacy, and examines various ethical issues involving love and sex, focusing on the United States.
015: How to Live [Bergsma, Matheny]
Reflections on ways of life, from diverse philosophical perspectives, with frequent practical components.
060N: Phil and 1960’s Counterculture [De Warren]
Questions about the conditions and ideals of the good life, and about the nature of dominance and social control, focusing on this time of global revolution or reflection.
102: Existentialism [D. Aggleton]
Existential thinkers and their studies of human finitude, angst, faith, imagination, love, and consciousness itself.
103(w): Ethics [staff]
Historical and contemporary ethical theories, including conceptions of virtue, duty, autonomy, right action and the good life, the foundations of ethical norms, and their validity.
105: Philosophy of Law [Terrazas]
Reflection on the nature of law, punishment, the Constitution, property, justice, legislation, adjudication, and responsibility.
106: Business Ethics [Imamkhodjaeva]
Studies philosophical issues in business practices such as advertising and market development, trade and competition, labor rules and relations, and environmental and social costs.
107: Philosophy of Technology [Feiten]
What technology is, how humans shape and are shaped by complexity and change, and the future of technology.
108(w): Social/Political Philosophy [Lim, Wretzel, Esner]
Key topics in social and political philosophy, focusing on the themes of freedom, rights, equality, and responsibility.
109: Aesthetics [Ortega]
Aesthetic experience and artistic production as conceived from antiquity to the present, with emphasis on the relation of such conceptions to ideas of truth and goodness.
110: Philosophy of Science [Feiten]
Examines core aspects of how scientists generate knowledge, including theories, experiments, models, types of reasoning, and statistical methods, with special attention to the social context of science.
114: Feminist Philosophy [Wallace]
Examines feminist philosophy and the intersections of gender, race, sexuality, class, and other dimensions of identity in relation to structures of power.
118: Environmental Ethics [Sollenberger]
Current environmental problems and human development in the context of views of the relation of humans and nature.
119: Ethical Leadership [Aggleton, Sollenberger]
Studies moral questions concerning leadership and the development of admirable and effective leadership qualities.
124: Philosophy of Religion [Mack-Georges]
Studies the idea and existence of God, religious experience, religious belief, and religion in relation to science.
126w: Metaphysics [Agler]
Dive into the world of philosophical puzzles and paradoxes by exploring the nature of time, persons, and free will.
132: Bioethics [Abaci]
Examination of approaches and issues in medical ethics, such as abortion, pandemic policy, and justice in healthcare.
133N: Ethics of Climate Change [Hernandez]
The science, policy, and ethics of climate change, one of the great moral problems of our time.
136N: Art/Philosophy in Classical Greece [Moore]
The human meaning and theory of ancient drama and dialogue, with lots of watching of plays and films.
137N: Philosophy of Wellness and Sport [White]
An introduction to philosophy through attention to athletics, bodily training, competition, and ideas of health.
200: Ancient Philosophy [Lobach]
The origins of the discipline in Ancient Greece, with attention to the Presocratics, playwrights, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
201: Medieval Philosophy [Imamkhodjaeva]
Philosophy in the millennium between the fall of Rome and the rise of the Renaissance, and their connection to ancient Greek philosophy and their theological commitments.
202: Modern Philosophy: 1600–1800 [Bowman]
This course offers a survey of the philosophies of Early Modern philosophers, including Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume.
203: 19th Century Philosophy [Bowman]
This course surveys the development of European philosophy from Kant through post-Kantianism, especially German Idealism and its critics (for example Kierkegaard, Marx, and Nietzsche).
204: 20th Century Philosophy [Bergsma]
Important trends in philosophy from the past century, focusing on the crisis of foundations, and exploring continental and analytic approaches.
205: American Philosophy from 1840 [Sollenberger]
To what extent is there an autonomous tradition of philosophy in the United States, one that contrasts with European traditions and reflects democracy and modernity?
402: Seminar in European Philosophy [Bergsma]
A close reading of Deleuze and Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus, focusing on concepts such as the plane of immanence, the rhizome, deterritorialization, lines of flight, becoming, and the body without organs, and tracing their philosophical, artistic, and political significance.
408: Seminar in Social and Political Philosophy [White]
Examination of authoritarianism, including fascism, in historical and contemporary form, from the perspectives of philosophers, authoritarians themselves, and political commentators. Topics include warning signs and features, and potential responses. Authors include Hannah Arendt, Jason Stanley, Carl Schmitt, and others.
418: Seminar in Ethical Theory [Miller]
This course studies consequentialism, deontology, virtue ethics, and several contemporary normative theories; metaethical questions about particularism and pluralism; and issues of moral psychology, emotion, religion, and moral dilemmas.
468: Jewish Philosophy [De Warren]
This course explores the rich history of Jewish philosophy since the Medieval Ages through to the 20th-century, focusing on debates about the relation between Judaism and Christianity, ethics and religion, Jewish identity and religious experience, the challenges of secularism, and the issue of Zionism. We may read Maimonides, Mendelssohn, Heine, Cohen, Rosenzweig, Benjamin, Buber, Levinas, and Derrida.
472: Islamic Philosophy [Brockopp]
A survey of the major texts from the Islamic philosophical tradition, focusing primarily on the classical period (ninth to twelfth centuries) and its influence on modern thinkers. We read translations of those who made an impact on European civilization (Algazel, Avicenna, Averroes, etc.) as well as lesser-known scholars, such as Basran saint Rabia al-Adawiyya (d. 801) and African leader Usuman dan Fodio (d. 1817). Our goal is a solid understanding of the depth and breadth of Islamic philosophy.
- For 500-level seminars, see https://philosophy.la.psu.edu/graduate/currentgrads/graduate-course-descriptions/