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COURSES OF STUDY
Birmingham-Southern College Catalog 2014-2015
PL 207 Human Destiny (1)
An investigation into differing philosophical accounts of human
existence and the idea of destiny. The aim is to discover ways we
might respond to enduring philosophic questions concerning human
destiny within a multicultural context. Topics include the meaning
of life, the relationships between soul and body, death and value,
anthropocentrism and teleology, gnosis and salvation, science and
religion, freedom and prediction.
PL 208 Philosophy of Religion: In Search of Deity (1)
A philosophical examination of the human search for the transcendent/
divine, primarily in the Western tradition. The course considers
topics such as the early roots of the search for deity by looking at the
origins of the Hebrew and Christian religions, the concept of God
in the Middle Ages, the atheistic reaction after the Enlightenment,
existentialism and religion, and neo-classical theology.
PL 241 Logic (1)
A study of semantics, traditional deductive logic, and an introductory
approach to symbolic logic.
PL 246 Asian Philosophies: From Atman to Zen (1)
An introduction to Asian philosophies, focusing on different notions
of the self. Using contemporary scholarship and critical translations
of primary philosophical texts of India, China, and Japan, students
explore traditional problems of the self, from the early Vedic
atman
through developments and transformations in Japanese Zen.
PL 250 Contemporary Philosophy (1)
An examination of the major themes of philosophy in the twentieth
century. Particular emphasis is placed on how skeptical doubts
concerning the idea and attainability of truth have issued in an
increasingly dominant form of cultural relativism in diverse arenas,
such as law and literature, anthropology, the history of science, and
moral and political theory.
PL 251 History of Western Philosophy I (1)
Ancient philosophy from Thales to Plotinus.
PL 252 History of Western Philosophy II (1)
Modern philosophy from Descartes through Kant.
PL 253 Ethical Theory (1)
An examination of the theoretical grounds of ethical reasoning
encompassing such issues as the respective roles of reason and emotion
in ethical judgment, utilitarian and social-contract conceptions of
justice, and the reality of ethical values.
