Philosophy (PHI)
Introduction to Philosophy - PHI 100
https://courses.vccs.edu/courses/PHI100-IntroductiontoPhilosophy
Effective: 2023-01-01
Course Description
Presents an introduction to philosophical problems and perspectives with emphasis on the systematic questioning of basic assumptions about meaning, knowledge, reality, and values. The assignments in the course require college-level reading fluency and coherent communication through written reports. This is a Passport and UCGS transfer course.
Lecture 3 hours. Total 3 hours per week.
3 credits
The course outline below was developed as part of a statewide standardization process.
General Course Purpose
PHI100 introduces a broad spectrum of philosophical problems and perspectives with an emphasis on the systematic questioning of basic assumptions about meaning, knowledge, reality, and values.
Course Objectives
- Interpret philosophical texts,
- Recognize philosophical arguments,
- Identify philosophical theories and locate them in terms of a methodical approach to philosophy, and
- Evaluate intelligently the foundations of Philosophy and the importance of that foundation for our way of life today.
- Critical Thinking
- Apply critical thinking skills to develop and evaluate philosophical questions and arguments.
- Identify unexamined (or under-examined) assumptions in one?s thinking.
- Implement effective and efficient search strategies to locate information that is relevant and appropriate for addressing complex issues.
- Evaluate information sources, arguments, or ideas for credibility and bias within the context of the learning task.
- Interpret information to reach well-reasoned conclusions.
- Combine and use information from multiple relevant perspectives to make sense of complex issues or solve complex problems.
- Communication
- Identify central themes in the history of philosophy and demonstrate understanding of philosophical texts in speaking and in writing.
- Civic Engagement
- Engage in discussion and debate with those who hold differing views and identities and understand the value of debate in sustaining a civil society and democracy
- Reflect on how contemporary thinkers interrupt, engage and further philosophical thought, particularly in feminist and critical philosophical interjections on race.
Major Topics to be Included
- What is philosophy?
- Define philosophy and explain the discipline.
- Distinguish philosophy from other methods such as myth, religion and science.
- Define and distinguish the difference between the branches of philosophy.
- Determine how concepts can be systematically clarified through philosophical analysis.
- Distinguish between rhetoric and reason.
- Examine and explain the key concepts which could include the Platonic dialogues.
- Ethics
- Summarize and analyze some of the views of historically important moral philosophers.
- Analyze and apply concepts and theories of ethics such as metaethics, normative ethical theory, and applied ethics, which could include exploring egoism, altruism, rights, duties, utilitarianism, Kantianism, virtue ethics.
- Apply moral concepts and theories to case studies and contemporary moral issues.
- Describe various logical fallacies and provide examples of them.
- Present effectively in writing a supported argument on a topic of ethical importance.
- Logic
- Define logic and distinguish between logically consistent and inconsistent statements.
- Examine the role of specific definitions in logic and distinguish between sufficient and necessary conditions.
- Distinguish between deductive and inductive arguments
- Analyze and assess the validity and soundness of deductive arguments
- Identify common valid forms of deductive arguments.
- Distinguish between formal and informal fallacies.
- Epistemology
- Distinguish the difference between knowledge and belief. Define knowledge as justified true belief.
- Distinguish the difference between skepticism, rationalism, and empiricism as foundation for justification.
- Discuss famous thinkers and their ideas in Epistemology
- The Mind and Body Problem and Personal Identity
- Distinguish and analyze the main theories such as dualism, idealism, and physicalism/materialism.
- Explain the importance of identity and the problem of illusion.
- Distinguish and examine the major theories of personal identity
- Examine the counter arguments to major theories.
- Free Will and Determinism
- Explore the importance of free will and the role of responsibility in ethics.
- Distinguish and examine the major theories of free will and determinism.
- Identify counter arguments to each theory.
- Philosophy and Theology
- Explore the role of religion in past and contemporary society.
- Distinguish between the different ideas of God or gods.
- Distinguish between the terms theism, atheism, and agnosticism.
- Analyze and assess arguments concerning the existence of God
- Explore the role of faith and reason
Logic - PHI 111
https://courses.vccs.edu/courses/PHI111-Logic
Effective: 2023-01-01
Course Description
Introduces inductive and deductive reasoning, with an emphasis on common errors and fallacies. The assignments in the course require college-level reading fluency and coherent communication through written reports. This is a Passport and UCGS transfer course.
Lecture 3 hours. Total 3 hours per week.
3 credits
The course outline below was developed as part of a statewide standardization process.
General Course Purpose
PHI 111 identifies and assesses inductive and deductive arguments in formal and informal language and to identify common fallacies. It fulfills a general education humanities requirement and meets some major requirements.
Course Objectives
- Critical Thinking
- Construct, identify, analyze, and assess deductive and inductive arguments.
- Apply standards of rational discourse to identify good reasoning.
- Identify unexamined (or under-examined) assumptions in one?s thinking.
- Identify and avoid common fallacies.
- Identify reliable information that is relevant and appropriate for addressing complex issues.
- Communication
- Through written, visual, and/or oral communication construct and evaluate arguments, justify reasoning, and identify and respond to objections.
- Civic Engagement
- Engage in discussion rationally, and understand the value of debate in sustaining a civil society and democracy and for the pursuit of truth through inclusive participation.
Major Topics to be Included
- Introduction to Logic
- Identify and distinguish between types of sentences, inferential and non-inferential passages, and deductive and inductive arguments.
- Recognize and construct counterexamples and counterarguments.
- Define and identify necessary and sufficient conditions.
- Induction
- Identify and assess analogical reasoning; construct analogous arguments.
- Identify and assess causal reasoning or scientific reasoning.
- Fallacies
- Define and identify common informal fallacies.
- Define and identify common formal fallacies, in informal and/or formal language.
- Propositional Logic and Natural Deduction
- Translate statements from informal language to well-formed formulae and vice versa.
- Identify and apply symbols and truth tables for conjunction, negation, disjunction, conditionals and biconditionals.
- Evaluate propositional statements, sets of statements, and arguments using truth tables directly and indirectly and/or using truth trees.
- Define, identify and construct proper substitution instances of statement forms and rules of inference and rules of replacement.
- Construct proofs using rules of inference and rules of replacement to demonstrate the validity of arguments and the truth of tautologies, with each step correctly justified.
- Construct proofs using Indirect Proofs and/or Conditional Proofs to demonstrate the validity of arguments and the truth of theorems, with subproof(s) properly structured and each step correctly justified.
- Categorical Reasoning
- Translate categorical propositions and syllogisms from informal language to standard form.
- Identify and apply the logical relationships among categorical propositions to deduce the validity or invalidity of immediate inferences, using both the traditional and modern interpretations.
- Construct and identify Venn diagrams for four main types of categorical propositions, using both the modern and traditional interpretations.
- Identify whether a categorical syllogism is valid or invalid, using the rule-based method, by constructing Venn diagrams and/or by applying the medieval mnemonic method, using both the modern and traditional interpretations.
The History of Western Philosophy - PHI 200
https://courses.vccs.edu/courses/PHI200-TheHistoryofWesternPhilosophy
Effective: 2023-01-01
Course Description
Offers a historical survey of major philosophers from the ancient Greeks to the modern era. The assignments in this course require the ability to write at the college level, read college-level philosophical texts, and understand and apply philosophical concepts with complex meanings.
Lecture 3 hours. Total 3 hours per week.
3 credits
The course outline below was developed as part of a statewide standardization process.
General Course Purpose
To expose the student to the development of metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical ideas in the Western philosophical tradition. The course traces the development of Western thought from ancient Greek philosophy through 20th-century Anglo-American and Continental developments.
Course Objectives
- Critical Thinking
- Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of historical solutions to philosophical problems within Western philosophy.
- Locate, evaluate, and effectively analyze research information from books, periodicals, and Internet data that directly relates to historical periods or topics in philosophy.
- Communication
- Recognize and articulate philosophical problems regarding being, knowledge, morality, and meaning
- Articulate historical solutions to philosophical problems within Western philosophy.
- Explain the development of philosophical themes over time and make connections among different historical periods.
Major Topics to be Included
- Ancient Greek Philosophy (Minimum: Plato, Aristotle)
- Identify and articulate philosophical problems raised by ancient Greek philosophers as found in primary and secondary source material.
- Articulate and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of historical solutions to philosophical problems.
- Describe the development of philosophical themes among the ancient Greeks and make connections among contemporaneous philosophers and schools of thought and those of other time periods.
- Medieval Philosophy (Minimum: Augustine, Aquinas)
- Identify and articulate philosophical problems raised by medieval philosophers as found in primary and secondary source material.
- Articulate and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of historical solutions to philosophical problems.
- Describe the development of philosophical themes during the medieval period and make connections among contemporaneous philosophers and schools of thought and those of other time periods.
- Modern Philosophy (Minimum: Descartes, Hume, Kant)
- Identify and articulate philosophical problems raised by modern philosophers as found in primary and secondary source material.
- Articulate and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of historical solutions to philosophical problems.
- Describe the development of philosophical themes during the modern period and make connections among contemporaneous philosophers and schools of thought and those of other time periods.
Ethics and Society - PHI 220
https://courses.vccs.edu/courses/PHI220-EthicsandSociety
Effective: 2023-01-01
Course Description
Provides a systematic study of representative ethical concepts and theories and discusses their application to concrete moral dilemmas and social issues and problems. This is a Passport and UCGS transfer course.
Lecture 3 hours. Total 3 hours per week.
3 credits
The course outline below was developed as part of a statewide standardization process.
General Course Purpose
To recognize the role of philosophical concepts and theories regarding morality and apply them to concrete moral dilemmas. To analyze and discuss significant social issues and problems. Applies to general education in humanities requirement; fulfills the Ethics requirement or major requirements for many applied science and transfer programs.
Course Objectives
- Critical Thinking
- Analyze and assess the strengths and weaknesses of ethical theories and of competing solutions to concrete moral dilemmas.
- Demonstrate an understanding of major historical theories of ethics that impact culture and society.
- Apply ethical theories to concrete moral dilemmas that impact culture and society.
- Communication
- Through written, visual, and/or oral communication identify and articulate concrete moral dilemmas and philosophical problems regarding morality.
- Through written, visual, and/or oral communication construct arguments to offer solutions to ethical problems, defend those solutions, and identify and respond to objections to those solutions.
Major Topics to be Included
- The Discipline of Ethics
- Explain the discipline of philosophy and the place of ethics within that discipline.
- Distinguish the concept of moral value from other types of value.
- Explain the role of moral values in everyday life and identify concrete moral dilemmas.
- Distinguish among branches of ethics, such as metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics.
- Moral Reasoning
- Explain the role of logic in ethics.
- Distinguish between deductive and inductive arguments.
- Evaluate the quality of deductive and inductive arguments and identify fallacious reasoning.
- Distinguish between moral and nonmoral claims and discuss the role that each plays in moral reasoning.
- Metaethics
- Explain the philosophical problem of relativism in ethics.
- Examine and compare major historical theories of metaethics, such as objectivism, subjectivism, and cultural relativism.
- Analyze and assess arguments for and against competing metaethical theories and theories? strengths and weaknesses.
- Normative Ethics
- Explain the need for theories of moral value.
- Examine and compare major historical normative theories, such as virtue ethics, Kantian deontology, and utilitarianism.
- Analyze and assess arguments for and against competing normative theories and theories? strengths and weaknesses.
- Applied Ethics
- Identify and discuss moral dilemmas, and significant contemporary social ethical issues and problems.
- Apply moral concepts and theories to social issues.
- Evaluate and argue for one's own position on social issues.