The following descriptions of courses being offered by the Philosophy Department in Summer 2022 were submitted by the course instructors. Exceptions are descriptions in braces {…}, which have been adopted from the Undergraduate Catalogue (students desiring further information regarding the specific content of courses with bracketed descriptions are advised to contact the instructors directly).
Specific information regarding the dates, times, and locations of these courses may be found in the Registrar’s official Schedule of Courses for Summer 2022.
Summer A
PHI 2010 Introduction to Philosophy — Dr. Rick
If you’re reading this, you might be doing so because you’re looking for the answer to some questions. That’s good! Asking questions is a very philosophical thing to do! Now, maybe one of your questions is the following: What is this Introduction to Philosophy course going to be about? Well, you know how sometimes people answer a question with a question? Here’s an answer to your question with a series of questions—ones that we’ll be exploring in this course by way of introducing ourselves to some of philosophy’s urgent and enduring inquiries: What makes for a good and meaningful life? Is anything really valuable in itself, or do things just seem valuable because we care a lot about them? Given that we often disagree about values, how can we structure our social lives so that we can all get along, in spite of our disagreements? What really exists in the world, if anything? What is the nature of reality? And, how can we know if and when we’ve found the answers to any of these questions? For that matter, how can we know anything at all? These questions and boundless others will be our touchstones in this course, as we examine both classical and contemporary philosophical texts. (H) (WR)
PHI 2100 Logic — J. Costanzo
This course will introduce students to formal logic and its applications to reasoning. In the first part of the course, students will be introduced to the syntax and semantics of propositional logic and to derivations in propositional logic. In the latter part of the course, there will be a brief introduction to quantifiers and predicate logic, which will be followed by an introduction to some informal fallacies and non-deductive argument forms.
PHI 2630 Contemporary Moral Issues — C. Becker
Do non-human animals have moral standing, comparable to that of human beings? Is it ever morally permissible to eat animals? Given the persistence of vast global poverty in our world, what moral duties do those of us in wealthy nations have to persons in impoverished states? Is private gun ownership morally permissible or impermissible? All things considered, does social media produce more harms than benefits? Is abortion morally permissible or impermissible?
These are examples of moral questions about which many of us have strong and often opposing opinions. In this course, we will examine opposing philosophical arguments and points of view on these urgent moral questions. In our course, we will come to grips with and critically reflect on the underlying justifications for the various sides of these different debates. In addition, we will look at various normative ethical theories including Deontology, Consequentialism, and Virtue Ethics. This course counts towards the Humanities (H) general education requirement and the Writing (W) requirement (4000 words).
PHI 3700 Philosophy of Religion — J. Gillespie
This course explores some of the most interesting and important questions in the philosophy of religion: Does God, or something deserving of the name “God”, exist? What kind of evidence—if any—is there for or against the existence of God? What is faith, and can it be rational? We will closely examine these three, interrelated questions throughout the course, engaging with both classic and contemporary readings in the philosophy religion.
While investigating different answers to these questions, we encounter specific topics, including: arguments concerning whether God is necessary for morality; classic teleological arguments from design; contemporary fine-tuning arguments; cosmological arguments (about the initial cause of the universe); ontological arguments (that God must exist given how he is understood or defined); arguments from the problem of evil; connections between religious experiences, miracles, and evidence of God’s existence; concerns about the nature and rationality of faith. At the end of this investigation, students should have significant understanding of these topics as well as an increased ability to think and write critically about the existence of God.
Summer B
PHI 2010 Introduction to Philosophy — M. Davis
This course will introduce you to some of the main topics of philosophy. Philosophy addresses some of the most fundamental questions in life. The main tool by which Philosophy addresses these questions is the human capacity to reason. You will find that philosophical answers are based on reasoned arguments, which analyze and seek to justify beliefs. Philosophy, therefore, is a sort of self-examination, in which you discover what you think, and then reflect on whether your opinions are really worth holding. To look critically at your own ideas is the essence of the life of reason.
During this course you will examine your views on several core philosophical topics such as what makes a good argument, and the nature of morality. You will read philosophical texts, analyze their arguments and evaluate their answers to the questions of the course, see how philosophical concepts can help you understand practical dilemmas, and express your ideas through arguments – both verbal and written – which present your reasons for holding your beliefs.
PHI 2010 Introduction to Philosophy — D. Ortiz
‘Philosophy’ derives from the Greek ‘philia‘ and ‘sophia‘, ‘love’ and ‘wisdom’, respectively. However, this does not give us a robust account of what philosophy is about or what kinds of questions philosophers ask. Philosophy is perhaps best understood in terms of theory building. Philosophy is concerned with the application of logical principles to a particular question. For that reason, philosophers are concerned with a broad range of topics, ranging from the nature of mathematical objects to the permissibility – both legal and moral – of abortion. Our course will be an introduction to some popular areas of philosophy. We will engage with a variety of texts, ranging from antiquity to the last five years. In this course, we will first address some basic rules of reasoning and argumentation. Then, we will apply those rules to four central questions: 1) what makes actions right or wrong? 2) what constitutes the just state? 3) what makes a human life go well? 4) is our own death bad for us? In examining these four questions, we will interact with a variety of positions, some of which will be opposed to one another. It is not the aim of this course to persuade you of a particular view. Rather, it is the aim of this course to introduce you to the academic discussion regarding these questions. You are encouraged to formulate your own beliefs regarding these questions, and to have differing beliefs.
PHI 2010 Introduction to Philosophy — J. Simpson
This course introduces students to philosophy by engaging with various readings and arguments, both classical and contemporary, in the history of philosophy. This course will have a four-part structure. The first part of the course will cover arguments for and against the existence of God. The second part of the course will cover various topics in epistemology, with specific focus on the Regress Problem, Cartesian skepticism, and the Gettier Problem. The third part of the course will be concerned with metaphysics. In this connection, we’ll mainly concentrate on personal identity, free will & moral responsibility, what objects, if any, exist (e.g., do numbers exist? do chairs exist? do persons exist?, etc), and, at the end of the third part, a little bit of meta-ethics. The fourth part of the course will primarily focus on discussion of the three standard normative ethical theories, which are utilitarianism, Kantian deontology, and Aristotelian virtue theory.
PHI 2010 Introduction to Philosophy — S. Sturm
The study of philosophy requires close analysis of concepts and the ability to write clear and focused papers, and this course will teach those basic philosophical skills. Students will examine papers from a wide range of time periods and a broad range of topics, but always with an eye on teasing apart arguments and identifying key issues. This course fulfills a basic Humanities requirement, and it provides 4000 words towards the UF writing requirement. It should also be fun and interesting!
An introduction to philosophy could focus anywhere, from the discipline’s historical foundations to the issues that excite contemporary philosophers. Instead of focusing on a time period, this course will focus on a theme: personal identity and the experience of being a person. We will address metaphysical questions such as “What sort of a thing is a person?” and “Am I the same person over time?”; we will address epistemological questions such as “How do I know that my experience is real?” and “How do I know that there are other persons?”; and we will address ethical questions such as “How should other persons be treated?” and “What is good for me as a person?” Because we have all at least considered these types of questions at some time in our lives, they should allow for the type of thought-provoking discussion that is at the core of the discipline of philosophy.
Summer C
PHI 2010 Introduction to Philosophy (UFO) — M. Alcantara
Patient and thorough exploration of philosophical questions is an ideal way to develop skills in clear writing and critical thinking. This course introduces the discipline of philosophy with a focus on developing those skills. Most of the semester is devoted three traditional issues: (a) What is knowledge? What can we know? (b) What is free will? Is there reason to think we don’t have any free will? (c) What is morality all about? Are there facts about what is morally right and wrong? At the end of the semester, we will more briefly explore some famous questions about happiness and the meaning of life. The emphasis throughout is on writing clearly about such elusive questions and presenting good reasons to endorse one answer over another.
The course provides 4000 words of credit towards the Writing Requirement at UF as well as satisfying the State Core General Education requirement for Humanities. Assignments include three argumentative essays, four short writing assignments, several short quizzes and tests, and regular activity assignments. For each unit of the class, students are divided into small groups in which they must post their responses to the activity assignments in that unit and select, as a group, the best of those to be submitted for a grade. There are no major exams (no mid-term or final exam). No book purchases are required, as all readings are made available online through the Canvas system.
This is an entirely online course. Because there is no regular meeting time during which we all meet to discuss the material, it is especially important to keep up with all assignments, to participate in discussion boards, and to ask for help when needed. While the structure of assignments is designed to ensure that students challenge themselves, it is also designed so as to minimize the amount of stress placed on any particular assignment. Success requires, instead, regular and serious effort throughout the semester.
PHI 3641 Ethics and Innovation — M. Mitchell
In this course, we will take a topic-driven approach to thinking about some of the fundamental ethical questions that arise in fields such as bioengineering, artificial intelligence, internet technology, and moral psychology. Given the increasing rapidity that new and innovative technology is becoming a central part of our daily lives, it is important that we think about what the implications of developing and implementing those technologies are. To do this kind of thinking, we will consider questions like: Are we morally obligated to use germ-line engineering to enhance traits for non-medical purposes? What kind of moral framework should we use when programming autonomous vehicles? When, if ever, is censorship warranted? Should we be concerned about the fact that technology companies such as Facebook gather large amounts of data about our online activities? Can AI compose great music? Write great novels? Be our companions? Our source materials will be multi-disciplinary, and our methods will be drawn from traditions in the humanities and anchored in philosophical ethics.