Search
77 results found
Spanish and Portuguese
Email: david_laraway@byu.edu
3164 JFSB
Provo, UT 84602
801-422-3807
Email: david_laraway@byu.edu
3164 JFSB
Provo, UT 84602
801-422-3807
Here is the link to this year's application.
Fulfills GE Requirement: Letters
Sec. 1, 2 Angela Wentz Faulconer
This class is an introduction to moral philosophy. All of us have intuitions about right and wrong. Moral philosophy invites us to question and to better understand the positions we take on moral questions. Moral philosophy gives us tools for 1) combating moral relativism and 2) weighing one position on a moral issue against another. We will focus on issues like whether moral judgments are merely matters of personal opinion (they aren’t), whether being just is always in one’s self-interest, what it means to treat others as ends in themselves and why it is wrong to treat someone as a mere means. We will talk about different approaches to moral philosophy from measuring actions by their utility in achieving our goals (happiness or the good, for example) to the difference between asking what are the right actions to take versus asking what sort of person one should be. This will be a heavily participatory, discussion-focused class. You should be prepared to share your thoughts and questions every class period.
Sec. 1, 2 Angela Wentz Faulconer
This class is an introduction to moral philosophy. All of us have intuitions about right and wrong. Moral philosophy invites us to question and to better understand the positions we take on moral questions. Moral philosophy gives us tools for 1) combating moral relativism and 2) weighing one position on a moral issue against another. We will focus on issues like whether moral judgments are merely matters of personal opinion (they aren’t), whether being just is always in one’s self-interest, what it means to treat others as ends in themselves and why it is wrong to treat someone as a mere means. We will talk about different approaches to moral philosophy from measuring actions by their utility in achieving our goals (happiness or the good, for example) to the difference between asking what are the right actions to take versus asking what sort of person one should be. This will be a heavily participatory, discussion-focused class. You should be prepared to share your thoughts and questions every class period.
Fulfills GE Requirement: Civilization 1
Glen Cooper
Phil 210 covers history and philosophy of science from its origins in ancient Mesopotamia, through the Greco-Roman period, the Islamic period, medieval Europe, and finally to the culmination of the ancient cosmology on the eve of the Scientific Revolution. Students acquire a thorough understanding of the ancient “Unified Field Theory”, in which all disciplines of natural philosophy were interconnected—astronomy, biology, physics, medicine, proto-chemistry, astrology, etc. Philosophical questions from epistemology and metaphysics that concern the possibility of scientific knowledge are emphasized. Students learn how the aristocratic Greek disdain for mechanics and craftsmen prevented a technological or industrial revolution in the ancient world—in spite of the fact that they possessed the knowledge to have accomplished this. Islamic contributions to science are underscored, because they are still little known or appreciated in the West. The foregoing represents about 5/6 of the semester.
With the advent of Copernicanism and Vesalianism, as well as the critique of ancient knowledge during the Renaissance, the ancient unified worldview began to crumble, and was replaced (eventually) by the modern perspective. The trajectory of the entire course leads to the final 1/6 of the semester, which is a critique of the ancient cosmology. This takes the form of the final group project, the Trial of Galileo, where students, portraying different historical characters, and bringing their knowledge of the ancient cosmology to bear, debate the manifold issues involved in the confrontation between Galileo and the Church. In this way students acquire a much deeper appreciation of the scientific revolution (which is discussed in detail in Phil 211) than they might have otherwise.
Unusual aspects of Phil 210 include: hands-on projects, including constructing and using astrolabes and natal charts; detailed discussion of science in Islamic civilization and its legacy to the West; and the role-playing in the Trial of Galileo re-enactment.
Glen Cooper
Phil 210 covers history and philosophy of science from its origins in ancient Mesopotamia, through the Greco-Roman period, the Islamic period, medieval Europe, and finally to the culmination of the ancient cosmology on the eve of the Scientific Revolution. Students acquire a thorough understanding of the ancient “Unified Field Theory”, in which all disciplines of natural philosophy were interconnected—astronomy, biology, physics, medicine, proto-chemistry, astrology, etc. Philosophical questions from epistemology and metaphysics that concern the possibility of scientific knowledge are emphasized. Students learn how the aristocratic Greek disdain for mechanics and craftsmen prevented a technological or industrial revolution in the ancient world—in spite of the fact that they possessed the knowledge to have accomplished this. Islamic contributions to science are underscored, because they are still little known or appreciated in the West. The foregoing represents about 5/6 of the semester.
With the advent of Copernicanism and Vesalianism, as well as the critique of ancient knowledge during the Renaissance, the ancient unified worldview began to crumble, and was replaced (eventually) by the modern perspective. The trajectory of the entire course leads to the final 1/6 of the semester, which is a critique of the ancient cosmology. This takes the form of the final group project, the Trial of Galileo, where students, portraying different historical characters, and bringing their knowledge of the ancient cosmology to bear, debate the manifold issues involved in the confrontation between Galileo and the Church. In this way students acquire a much deeper appreciation of the scientific revolution (which is discussed in detail in Phil 211) than they might have otherwise.
Unusual aspects of Phil 210 include: hands-on projects, including constructing and using astrolabes and natal charts; detailed discussion of science in Islamic civilization and its legacy to the West; and the role-playing in the Trial of Galileo re-enactment.