Spring 2025 Course Offerings
For a complete list of courses and course descriptions, please see the University Catalog. If you have further questions, please contact the department at 207.581.3866.
Course Offerings
PHI 100 0991-LEC 46290/PHI 100 0401-LEC 46289 , Contemporary Moral Problems, Web Online Only, 3 cr.
Max Enrollment: 60 combined, Instructor: Joe Arel
Course Description: Examines a variety of moral problems causing controversy in contemporary society. Focuses on evaluating arguments for and against competing solutions to these problems. Also discusses different philosophical strategies for thinking about moral obligations and relationships. Topics surveyed may include abortion, affirmative action, euthanasia, feminism, the environment, capital punishment, welfare, and aid to the needy, technology, war and racism, among others. Gen Ed: Ethics, West Cult Trad, and Social Context & Inst.
PHI 100 WINT-LEC 46291, Contemporary Moral Problems, WINTER (12/30/24-1/17/25) -Web-Online, 3 cr.
Max Enrollment: 39, Instructor: Joe Arel
Course Description: Examines a variety of moral problems causing controversy in contemporary society. Focuses on evaluating arguments for and against competing solutions to these problems. Also discusses different philosophical strategies for thinking about moral obligations and relationships. Topics surveyed may include abortion, affirmative action, euthanasia, feminism, the environment, capital punishment, welfare, and aid to the needy, technology, war and racism, among others. Gen Ed: Ethics, West Cult Trad, and Social Context & Inst.
PHI 102 0001-LEC 46292, Introduction to Philosophy, TuTh 2:00-3:15pm, Barrows Hall 130, 3 cr.
Max Enrollment: 45, Instructor: Robby Finley
Course Description: An introduction to philosophy approached through a selection of central questions: What should count as philosophy and what is it for? What is knowledge and can I ever know anything? What counts as “real” and why? What can I say about my experience of the world and are other things conscious in the same way? When, if ever, am I free to choose to act or believe? What makes something good and what does that mean for my choices and my life? Through discussion of these problems we come to learn methods that philosophers employ, practice skills in philosophical inquiry, gain tools in precise and careful analysis, and think about the relationship between philosophy and other fields. Gen Ed: Ethics and West Cult Trad.
PHI 102 0002-LEC 46293, Introduction to Philosophy, MW, 2:00-3:15pm, Neville Hall 208, 3 cr.
Max Enrollment: 40, Instructor: Andy Mallory
Course Description: This course is an introduction to the fundamental ideas and methods of the western philosophical tradition. Students will engage in close, guided readings of significant texts from this tradition and will be given the tools necessary to develop their own original ideas in response to it. Additionally, readings for this course will be presented and organized thematically rather than chronologically, so students can expect to encounter a wide variety of sources within western philosophy. Students should come away from this course with a strong grasp of the core themes of the western philosophical tradition, as well as the ability to articulate their own original ideas regarding it. Gen Ed: Ethics, West Cult Trad.
PHI 102 0003-LEC 462934, Introduction to Philosophy, MW, 3:30-4:45pm, Neville Hall 208, 3 cr.
Max Enrollment: 40, Instructor: Andy Mallory
Course Description: This course is an introduction to the fundamental ideas and methods of the western philosophical tradition. Students will engage in close, guided readings of significant texts from this tradition and will be given the tools necessary to develop their own original ideas in response to it. Additionally, readings for this course will be presented and organized thematically rather than chronologically, so students can expect to encounter a wide variety of sources within western philosophy. Students should come away from this course with a strong grasp of the core themes of the western philosophical tradition, as well as the ability to articulate their own original ideas regarding it. Gen Ed: Ethics, West Cult Trad.
PHI 102 0004-LEC 46295, Introduction to Philosophy, MWF, 2:00-2:50pm, Jenness Hall 108, 3 cr.
Max Enrollment: 40, Instructor: Mike Devito
Course Description: An introduction to philosophical thought and critical thinking through a reading of works from the world’s philosophical traditions. Readings will include selections from works by Plato, Aristotle, Nagarjuna, Zhuangzi, Mengzi, Descartes, Elizabeth of Bohemia, and others. Questions will be asked about the nature of wisdom and knowledge, the essence of reality and of ideas, human nature, virtue and community, justice, and political life. Assignments will include discussion posts, and quizzes. Gen Ed: Ethics and West Cult Trad.
PHI 102 0990-LEC 46298/PHI 102 0400-LEC 46297, Introduction to Philosophy, Web Online Only – EIGHT WK 03/10/25 – 05/02/25, 3 cr.
Max Enrollment:49 combined, Instructor: Jessica Miller
Course Description: Introduction to Philosophy is an introduction to the academic discipline of Philosophy. This course introduces students to major questions and methods of inquiry in Philosophy. Methods of inquiry include clear and concise articulation, logical argument, critical analysis, and synthesis. In addition to basic logic, topics include epistemology (what is knowledge), metaphysics (what is reality), and practical philosophy (how should we live our lives?). Gen Ed: Ethics, West Cult Trad.
PHI 104 0002-LEC 43922, Existentialism and Literature, TuTh 11:00am-12:15pm, Deering Hall 113, 3 cr.
Max Enrollment: 40, Instructor: Susan Bredlau
Course Description: Existentialism is a revolutionary movement in 20th century philosophy that studies the ways in which it is up to us to make our lives and our world meaningful. The texts we will read in this course will offer insightful and perspective-shifting studies of human nature in addition to challenging us to reflect personally on the values by which we live and, indeed, to ask ourselves whether we are honest with respect to how we live our lives. We will also consider works of contemporary literature that help to bring out these existentialist themes in particularly vivid and intimate ways through their content as well as their form of expression. Gen Ed: Ethics, West Cult Trad, Artistic and Creative Expression.
PHI 201 0001-LEC 47534, Practicing Philosophy, TuTh, 12:30-1:45pm, The Maples 217, 3 cr.
Max Enrollment: 20, Instructor: Don Beith
Course Description: This course is open to anyone who wants to discover what philosophy is all about. To that end, we will focus on the theme of wisdom, while studying and discussing texts from thinkers likely including the Buddha, Plato, Aristotle, Lao Tzu, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Dewey, Simone de Beauvoir, Audre Lorde and Gloria Anzaldúa. We will focus on methods and conventions of philosophy, with emphasis on cultivating the skills needed to read, understand, discuss, analyze, and write philosophically. There are no prerequisites. Gen Ed: West Cult Trad, and Writing Intensive.
PHI 230 0001-LEC 45130, Ethics, MWF 1:00-1:50pm, Stevens Hall 365, 3 cr.
Max Enrollment: 40, Instructor: Jessica Miller
Course Description: Readings and discussions of works by Aristotle, Mill, Kant, Nietzsche, and other moral philosophers. In each case, the nature of the system, its summum bonum and defense is examined, criticized, and tested for its applicability to personal and public ethical predicaments. Gen Ed: Ethics, West Cult Trad, and Social Context & Inst.
PHI 232 0001-LEC 45470, Environmental Ethics, TuTh 9:30am-10:45pm, Boardman Hall 210, 3 cr.
Max Enrollment: 40, Instructor: Don Beith
Course Description: A study of environmental ethical principles ranging from the history of Maine ecology to contemporary issues in environmental justice. We will study Thoreau’s The Maine Woods alongside traditional ecological knowledges and Wabanaki thinking, then read the ethics of the built environment through Alexander Wilson’s The Culture of Nature and other social constructivist thinkers, concluding our investigations with Rob Nixon’s Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor and ecofeminist thinkers. Gen Ed: Ethics, Population & the Environment, and Social Context & Inst.
PHI 235 0001-LEC 43247, Biomedical Ethics, MWF 10:00-10:50am, Stevens Hall 375, 3 cr.
Max Enrollment: 40, Instructor: Jessica Miller
Course Description: We will investigate the ways we are always engaged in ethical decision making and how it is often those practices that we assume are helpful or good that most require ethical consideration. We will focus on experiences of illness, disability, and dying to consider how these experiences challenge common understandings of our bodies, health, and what it means to care for others. We will also examine how interactions between individuals are always situations within broader social and political contexts and reflect on how our understanding of disease, mental illness, and scientific research impedes or supports communal, as well as individual, well-being. Gen Ed: Ethics, West Cult Trad, and Social Context & Inst.
PHI 287 0001-LEC 45132, Classical Indian Philosophy, TuTh 11:00am-12:15pm, The Maples 217, 3 cr.
Max Enrollment: 30, Instructor: Derek A Michaud
Course Description: This course introduces major philosophical schools in pre-modern India (7th cen. BCE – 8th cen. CE), including Sāṃkhya, Yoga, Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika, Mīmāṃsā, Vedānta, Jainism, Buddhism, and Cārvāka. Special emphasis is placed on arguments about the nature of the self, its relationship to ultimate reality, and methods of overcoming the human predicament. Readings include original texts by Indian philosophers in English translation as well as contemporary discussions and developments of their views. In this way the continuing influence of these philosophies in the religions and cultures of South Asia and worldwide diaspora is highlighted. Gen Ed: Ethics, Cultural Diversity and International Perspectives.
PHI 336 0001-LEC 46134, Feminist Philosophy/WGS 410 0001-LEC 44973, Feminist, Gender & Queer Theory, TuTh 2:00-3:15pm, Stevens Hall 375, 3 cr.
Max Enrollment: 12 combined, Instructor: Elizabeth Neiman
Course Description: An introduction to the overlapping but sometimes conflicting traditions of feminist, gender, and queer theories. Gen Ed: Writing Intensive.
PHI 404 0001-SEM 47616, Pragmatism, Democracy and Education, Tu 4:00-6:50pm, The Maples 217, 3 cr.
Max Enrollment: 20, Instructor: Robby Finley
Course Description: Pragmatism, understood as a philosophical tradition starting in the 1870s and as a general approach to philosophical inquiry, stands as one of the most important American contributions to philosophy. It is perhaps best characterized by a commitment to (i) an anti-foundationalist and fallibilist model of inquiry and to (ii) the view that the meaning of a concept is determined by its practical consequences. In this seminar, we are especially interested in the application of these commitments to democracy and education in the pragmatist tradition. We start with a careful reading of the classical pragmatists: Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, and John Dewey, then continue by looking at the work of contemporary inheritors of the tradition, which include Richard Rorty, Cornel West, Susan Haack, and Cheryl Misak, among others. This allows us to explore later developments of the position that apply pragmatic ideas in lots of different ways, from cultural critique to models of deliberative democracy and education’s role in the modern democracy. We will see how pragmatism has had a lasting effect on a variety of debates not only in philosophical methodology, but also in the philosophy of education and social and political philosophy.
PHI 432 0001-LEC 45471, Environmental Justice, Th 4:00-6:50pm, The Maples 217, 3 cr.
Max Enrollment: 20, Instructor: Don Beith
Course Description: A critical study of historical and multicultural perspectives on environmental justice. This course will focus on environmental intersectionality, the theory that environmental burdens disproportionately affect oppressed social groups. Attention will be given to environmental philosophy, ethics and policy, ranging from local indigenous struggles, to national and global issues. Gen Ed: Ethics, Social Contexts and Institutions, Population and the Environment and Writing Intensive.
PHI 475 0001-SEM 45192, Junior/Senior Seminar – Philosophy of Health, W 4:00-6:50pm, The Maples 217, 3 cr.
Max Enrollment: 20, Susan Bredlau
Course Description: Should we distinguish our minds from our bodies? What do we mean by illness? What do we mean by mental illness? What is a psychiatric diagnosis? In this course, we will consider these and many other questions. We will consider whether mind and body should be treated as separate entities and explore what we mean by health, paying particular attention to the implications of our understanding of health for our understanding of mental illness. We will also reflect on the philosophical assumptions that undergird our current healthcare system. Authors to be studied will likely include Rene Descartes, Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Arthur Kleinman, Tanya Luhrmann, and Michel Foucault. Over the course of the semester, students will develop their own independent philosophical project related to the theme of health and illness.
JST 205 0001-LEC 47475, Jewish History & Antisemitism from Antiquity to the Founding of the State of Israel, TuTh 12:30-1:45pm, Murray Hall 114, 3 cr.
Max Enrollment: 24, Instructor: Bill Siemers
Course Description: This course is a history of antisemitism, describing its manifestations from pre-Christian Alexandria to the founding of the State of Israel. Students will be exposed to several academic and popular theories of antisemitism, exploring debates about its proper scope and development, and integrate these ideas with a study of the arc of Jewish history, read closely together in primary sources. Gen Ed: Cultural Diversity and International Perspectives and Ethics.
For questions or permission, please contact The Philosophy Department at 207-581-3866 or email Jen Bowen at jennifer.bowen@maine.edu