Spring 2025 Upper-Level Course Schedule
Note: all scheduling information is provisional and subject to change due to unforeseeable events. We recommend confirming the information on this page with an advisor before adding a class, especially if the exact schedule or faculty member assigned to the class is especially important to you. You can get up-to-date advising from Cam Batptiste – cambatiste@fullerton.edu. You may also search classes on the CSUF Schedule of Classes webpage.
| Professor | Course | Time |
| Coplan | Greek Philosophy (PHIL 290) | W 4-6:45 |
| Calarco | Medieval Philosophy (PHIL 291) | TTh 1130-1245 |
| Lambeth | Kant & the 19th Century (PHIL 301) | TTh 100-215 |
| Calarco | Environmental Ethics (PHIL 313) | MW 1130-1245 |
| Liu | Ethics, AI, and Robots (PHIL 322) | TTh 100-215 |
| Heiner | Existentialism (PHIL 323) | MW 1000-1115 |
| Coplan | Philosophy of Sex & Love (PHIL 325) | TTh 100-215 |
| Lee | Philosophy of Feminism (PHIL 343) | TTh 1000-1115 |
| Davis | Social & Political Philosophy (PHIL 345) | MW 400-515 |
| Coplan | Philosophy, Literature, & Cinema (PHIL 349) | T 400-645 |
| Liu | Asian Philosophy (PHIL 350) | TTh 230-345 |
| Howat | Symbolic Logic (PHIL 368) | TTh 1000-1115 |
| Lee | Philosophy of Race, Class, & Gender (PHIL 377) | TTh 100-215 |
| Calarco | Marx & Marxism (PHIL 382) | MW 230-345 |
| Heiner | Phenomenology (PHIL 435) | MW 230-345 |
| Nichols | Philosophy of Mind (PHIL 440) | TTh 1130-1245 |
| Howat | Seminar in Contemporary Philosophy (PHIL 490) | TTh 230-345 |
| Directed Study (PHIL 399) | ||
| Independent Study (PHIL 499) |
Spring 2024 Course Descriptions
Calarco: Medieval Philosophy (PHIL 291)
This is a survey course covering the key philosophical figures and schools that emerge during the late ancient period up through the medieval era and ending with the Renaissance. We will briefly examine the central philosophical schools and figures in the Imperial period (Epicurean, Stoic, Skeptic, and Cynic; Plotinus, Plutarch, and Porphyry) before turning to the most influential thinkers and philosophical debates from the early, middle, and late medieval periods (Augustine, Boethius, and Aquinas, and the Franciscans, among others). The course will conclude with an examination of philosophers and themes from the late medieval and Renaissance eras. Here we will take up issues surrounding sexual difference, nonhuman others, religious differences, and the colonial encounter (Christine de Pizan, Montaigne, and las Casas, among others).
Calarco: Environmental Ethics (PHIL 313)
The principal aims of this course are (a) to gain a solid grasp of the main theoretical approaches to environmental ethics, and (b) to critically analyze several of the most ethically pressing environmental issues human societies are currently facing. In the first two parts of the course, we will examine the leading theoretical frameworks in the field, including sentiocentrism, biocentrism, the land ethic, deep ecology, ecofeminism, Continental philosophy, anti-capitalism, the new animism, and indigenism. In the last portion of the course we will turn to an analysis of two leading issues in the field of environmental ethics: climate change and biodiversity loss.
Calarco: Marx and Marxism (PHIL 382)
This course offers a broad overview of the central texts and themes in the work of Karl Marx and subsequent philosophers and activists inspired by his work. In the first half of the course, we will examine a series of key texts from Marx (as well as several texts co-authored with Friedrich Engels), ranging from such early works as “On the Jewish Question” and “Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844” to the late magnum opus Capital. In the second half of the course, we will turn to recent efforts to update Marxist theory in responses to various social, political, and environmental challenges. Among the authors we will discuss here are classical Marxists such as Rosa Luxemburg, Vladimir Lenin, and Antonio Gramsci alongside more recent anti-capitalist voices such as Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Guy Debord, Gilles Deleuze, Giorgio Agamben, Franco Berardi, Alain Badiou, and Glen Coulthard.
Coplan: Greek Philosophy (PHIL 290)
Course description forthcoming.
Coplan: Philosophy of Sex and Love (PHIL 325)
This topic-based course on philosophy of sex and love will examine a variety of philosophical and psychological accounts of love and sex, as well as depictions of romantic love in poetry and film. The first part of the course will concentrate on historically important discussions and accounts of love and sexual desire, including work by Plato, Shakespeare, Augustine, and Freud. The second part will focus on theories of love and desire developed in contemporary psychology, contemporary philosophy, and 20th century existentialist philosophy and will analyze and evaluate representations of love, desire, and gender roles in contemporary popular culture. In the third part of the course, we will closely examine the love relationship at the center of Michel Gondry’s 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, paying special attention to the ways in which the film’s depiction of this relationship challenges and revises standard Western notions of love.
Coplan: Philosophy, Literature, and Cinema (PHIL 349)
Course description forthcoming.
Davis: Social & Political Philosophy (PHIL 345)
This is an upper-division survey course. We will read historical and contemporary authors on what (if anything) justifies state power over individuals, what makes a government truly democratic, what rights we have against the state, what justice requires when distributing benefits and burdens within a society, the nature of rights, and the nature of equality among persons. My teaching combines lecture and discussion. Prerequisite: three units of philosophy, or permission of the teacher.
Howat: Seminar in Contemporary Philosophy (PHIL 490)
New forms of media give rise to new forms of deception and shift norms of permissible speech. The cultural and technological transition from traditional to social media vividly illustrates this idea. Social media was often pitched as ‘democratizing’ political and other forms of discourse, bypassing the elite (and often elitist) gatekeepers of traditional media. The main result, however, has been an unprecedented flood of misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda, coupled with a significant weakening of moral and epistemic norms around racist and other forms of toxic speech. Many philosophers believe this has produced an epistemic ‘post-truth’ crisis in the US and other Western nations, including a profound collapse of trust in our institutions (government, the healthcare industry, academia, etc.). This crisis is manifest in the rise of populism and in several unprecedented political outcomes, especially the economically self-harming Brexit vote and the twin election victories of convicted felon, sexual abuser, and serial liar and bullshitter Donald J. Trump. This class seeks to understand the many and varied shifts in political discourse that have powered and are still emerging from this epistemic crisis, focusing on novel forms of deception and how they shift norms and foster distrust.
Lambeth: Kant and the 19th Century (PHIL 301)
This course will focus on the revolutionary moral theory offered by Immanuel Kant, and the critical reception of this theory by 19th century philosophers Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche. After reviewing Kant’s arguments that there are universal moral laws that all humans are obligated to follow, we will ask, with Kierkegaard: is there something to which we can aspire that is higher than following a universal moral law? With Nietzsche, we will ask: is Kant offering an ahistorical moral law, or one that arose at a certain moment in history? If the latter, is Kant’s moral system still apt for our historical moment? Throughout the course, students will learn how to read complex philosophical texts, and how to write and discuss philosophy.
Lee: Philosophy of Feminisms (PHIL 343)
We live at a time when women have equal rights, equal access, and are finally recognized as equal citizens in the United States, so is feminist philosophy still needed today? This class definitely argues—yes, even without the #Metoo movement. Feminist philosophy does not begin and end by solving a problem about rights and politics but by understanding how the difference of gender and sex is relevant to every area of human life. We shall begin with speculations as to what does it mean to be a woman, to be the gender and the embodiment of female. How are we different from men? How are we the same and different from other women? The class then turns to the question of knowledge specific to women, feminist epistemology: can women claim specific knowledge as women? We turn to the condition of pleasure and fear of sexuality for women, including the force of compulsory heterosexuality.
Lee: Philosophy of Race, Class, and Gender (PHIL 377)
Despite the history of analyzing race, class, and gender as separate phenomena, the three are integrally connected. Perhaps because our present analysis predominantly treats them as three wholly separate entities, we have yet to achieve an encompassing understanding of them. This class will focus on the interstitial connections among the three. Beginning from the Latin American and Asian American philosophy before considering the usual binary that defines studies of race—the black-white binary—we shall continue to ask how class and sexuality disrupt and force the dialogue to change and expand its parameters.
Liu: Ethics, AI, and Robots (PHIL 322)
This interdisciplinary course explores the philosophical and ethical dimensions of AI and robotics in the wake of the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence. Will large language models such as ChatGPT one day replace human thinking? Will AI continue to displace human jobs? How do we safeguard personal privacy in the face of widespread AI web-tracking? Can we place our trust in AI systems that lack transparency and explainability? How do we deal with the implicit biases present in AI training and outcomes? How do we ensure that AI operations align with huma values? This course also probes issues within robot ethics: Can robots be moral agents? What ethical guidelines should we set for a robot’s moral reasoning? Should robots be permitted to lie or deceive? How do we entrust robots to care for the elderly and children? Is it ethically permissible to develop love/sex relationships with robots? What legal and moral restraints should we set for military robots? What ethical models are best for social robots?
Liu: Asian Philosophy (PHIL 350)
This course will teach Asian philosophies with heavy emphasis on Chinese philosophy such as Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism (especially Zen), and Neo-Confucianism. We will study the different worldviews, conceptions of human nature and the good life from these philosophical perspectives, and where suitable, make comparisons with Western philosophies, religions and values. The course will be conducted in the lecture/discussion format.
Nichols: Philosophy of Mind (PHIL 440)
In a recent, provocative book, Eduoard Machery has argued that Philosophy has strayed from its 'proper bounds' by use of what he calls the 'method of cases'--roughly speaking, thought experiments untethered to fact. He is dead right. We will be learning about philosophy of mind by structuring course content as much as possible in light of scientific discoveries pertinent to the mind. As a result, the course will have a larger does of evolutionary theory than normal, is likely to consider in addition to standard a priori philosophy a body of experimental or empirical papers in the field, and will aim to develop in students a synthetic, holistic understanding of the embodied mind as a wondrous product of evolution.
