International Human Rights Course Listings
HRTS 1100 Introduction to Human Rights (3)
Introduces students to the philosophic and political background of the concept of human rights. Discusses important documents as part of the history of the development of human rights theories. Examines important issues in current political and ethical debates about human rights. Reviews core legal documents and the work of the most important governmental and nongovernmental institutions currently involved in human rights protection and promotion. Examines at least one current problem area in human rights protection.
HRTS 2086 Topics in Human Rights (3)
Study of text or topic in a special area of Human Rights. Contents and methodology at an introductory level. May be repeated for credit if content differs.
HRTS 2500 Current Problems in Human Rights (3)
At any given time, there are approximately 20 million refugees, 30 wars of various sizes, and scores of governments violating citizens' rights with varying degrees of brutality. This course will review current areas of concern to human rights advocates paying special attention to obtaining current information, evaluating sources, and understanding the actions of violators in terms of current human rights standards. Prerequisite: HRTS 1100 Introduction to Human Rights.
HRTS 2800 Methods of Inquiry (3)
A general introduction to the methods and analysis used to examine human rights abuses, as well as a resource for sources, databases, and other material on human rights. Students will learn to analyze and conduct research and to write effective policy briefs and research proposals. Prerequisite: HRTS 2500.
HRTS 3080 Advanced Topics in Human Rights (3)
Upper level study of influential text(s) or topic(s) in a special area of International Human Rights. May be repeated for credit if content differs.
HRTS 3160 Human Rights in Film: Documentaries (3)
We'll look at and talk about films and videos that explore serious human rights concerns. In doing so, along with reading and writing about the films--and the situations or problems depicted in them--we should learn a fair bit about these specific films, documentary films in general, the situations depicted, human rights, and the human condition. Each film will be discussed in terms of the human rights issues raised; relevant international human rights standards; appropriate historical, philosophical, and political background; and the methods used by the filmmakers to get their messages across. Cross-listed with FILM 3160 and PHIL 3110. May be repeated for credit if content differs.
HRTS 3170 Human Rights in Film: Narrative Films (3)
We'll look at and talk about narrative films and videos that explore serious human rights concerns. In doing so, along with reading and writing about the films--and the situations or problems depicted in them--we should learn a fair bit about these specific films, narrative films in general, the situations depicted, human rights, and the human condition. Each film will be discussed in terms of the human rights issues raised; relevant international human rights standards; appropriate historical, philosophical, and political background; and the methods used by the filmmakers to get their message across. Crosslisted with FILM 3160 and PHIL 3110. May be repeated for credit if content differs.
HRTS 3200 Human Rights Area Studies (3)
Examines the conditions in selected countries during a specific time period. (An example might be the conditions in Argentina , Chile , and Uruguay in the 1960s and 1970s that led to the human rights abuses of the 1970s and 1980s.) Investigates the impact of human rights abuses on the politics and society in the countries selected. The approach may vary from semester to semester, ranging from the historical to the literary. May be repeated once for credit, when subject matter varies.
HRTS 3210 Prejudice and Discrimination (3)
Focus of the course will be on the essential features of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Examines inter-group relations as they pertain to such socially defined boundaries as race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, ethnicity, ability, appearance, and socioeconomic status. We will look at how standards regarding international human rights discrimination and violations are handled by the international community. Addresses impact on life in the U.S. and elsewhere, and what measures, if any, can be taken to reduce stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Cross-listed with ANSO 3650 and PSYC 3650.
HRTS 3400 Human Rights and the Environment (3)
A clean environment, safe from human-created hazards, has increasingly been argued to be a human right. This course examines the arguments and the status of environmental rights under the present international framework.
HRTS 3500 International Human Rights Law (3)
Briefly introduces the idea of international law and examines the development of international human rights law from its origins through successive generations of thinking and institutionalization to the present. Examines conventions, monitoring, conformity and violation, attempts at enforcement, and current controversies.
HRTS 3590 Theories of Human Rights (3)
Examines the historical development of theories of human rights and their relation to civil liberties, international law, social organization, and different conceptions of community, individualism, and the state. Also examines the most significant human rights documents in their historical context. May focus on specific cases and questions of current concern. Prerequisite: POLT 1070 or PHIL 2300. Cross-listed with PHIL 3590 and POLT 3590.
HRTS 3600 Topics in Mass Violence (3)
Examines the nature of evil and its impact on victims and perpetrators; differences between genocide, democide, ethnocide, and other forms of mass violence; the interaction of psychological, sociological, cultural, and/or political roots of evil, human cruelty, mass violence, and genocide; Staub's theory of evil and the application of this theory to the perpetration of genocide and mass violence in Nazi Germany, Turkey, Cambodia, and Argentina; the nature of bystander behavior and the impact of bystander behavior on the perpetration of genocide; the interrelationship between genocide and war; and the question of what can be done to prevent human cruelty, mass violence, and genocide.
HRTS 3700 Human Rights and Business (3)
Human rights standards are often incorporated into the civil law of nations, but not always--and often incompletely. Business practice is generally required to conform to national law, but businesses operating internationally are also under pressure to conform to international human rights standards. The course examines conformity of national and international business with relevant human rights standards and the pressures leading toward greater conformity or increased violation.
HRTS 4500 Human Rights Field Experience (3)
For students undertaking either travel and research into a specific human rights topic or area through direct contact with the material or people studied, outside academic confines, or experience working in an organization whose mission includes work in the area of international human rights. Requires prior and follow-up consultation with an appropriate faculty member approved by the director of the Human Rights program or a site academic director. The student must prepare a portfolio, to include an advance description of the intended field and/ or work experience and, whichever is appropriate, either a projected itinerary; documentation of the travel and experiences; and a summary of and formal reflection on those experiences, or a description of the projected work experience and a summary of and formal reflection on the work experience. Prerequisites: HRTS 1100, HRTS 2800, and approval of the director of the Human Rights program or the site academic director.
HRTS 4600 Overview (3)
A critical examination of a text, a theme, or a current problem in International Human Rights. Each student writes a paper reflecting significant mastery of the methods and content of the chosen area, and an ability to evaluate the evidence and assumptions in light of criteria relevant to Human Rights. Prerequisite: HRTS 2800 and advanced standing.
PHIL 1010 Introduction to Critical Thinking (3)
Emphasizes identifying the techniques of critical analysis and analyzing arguments in a variety of short essays, most of them not by professional philosophers. Gives special attention to educating students to distinguish between their own beliefs as to the truth or falsity of a claim and the validity of the arguments offered in support of that claim.
PHIL 1100 Introduction to Philosophy (3)
Introduces a broad spectrum of topics in philosophy, such as knowledge, reality, freedom, morality, and art. The emphasis is not only on what is contained in these topics, but also on how to think critically about them.
PHIL 2010 Informal Logic (3)
Introduces the study of reasoning, including the nature of argument, deductive and inductive inference, meaning and inference, validity, hypotheticals, syllogisms, and the identification of fallacies. Emphasizes reasoning in a natural language and arguments in practical contexts with minimum use of symbolic notation.
PHIL 2020 Formal Logic (3)
Studies techniques of deductive inference in a symbolic notation, including propositional calculus and some operations with quantifiers. Covers theory of logic, including such topics as axiomatization, rules of inference, the distinctions between use and mention and validity and truth, semantic interpretations, completeness, and consistency. Crosslisted with MATH 1580 and COSC 1580.
PHIL 2050 Philosophy and History of Education (3)
Analyzes the nature of education, especially as this has developed historically in the West, paying special attention to the philosophical aims and aspirations that have motivated (and ought to motivate) Western education.
PHIL 2080 Topics in Philosophy (3)
Study of text or topic in a special area of philosophy. Contents and methodology on an introductory level. May be repeated for credit if content differs.
PHIL 2110 Introduction to Ethics (3)
A topical introduction to ethics. Topics to be covered may include: the nature of ethical reasoning, duty, and obligation; excuses, mitigating circumstances, and personal responsibility; conflicts between obligations and between duty and self-interest; conflict between personal and community moral standards; and the objectivity or subjectivity of values. Replaces BUSN 2110.
PHIL 2300 Social and Political Philosophy (3)
Introduces philosophical issues raised by our social and political existence. Includes social contract, rights and obligations, sovereignty and authority, utopias and political ideas, and the individual and the state. Cross-listed with POLT 1070.
PHIL 2310 Introduction to Scientific Understanding (3)
Offers an examination/analysis of scientific concepts in their historical, philosophical, and cultural contexts. The aim is to enable the students to gain insight into the development of scientific ideas in view of the interactions between science, technology, philosophy, and society.
PHIL 2320 Contemporary Moral Problems (3)
Examines the opposing positions typically taken in discussions of contemporary moral problems, such as euthanasia, the death penalty, pornography, animal rights, and world hunger. The focus is on developing and critically analyzing reasons used to support a moral position.
PHIL 2330 Philosophy and Technology (3)
Philosophical consideration of technology, including such issues as how technologies embody values, technological determinism, consequences of technological choices, and how technologies can be helpful or hurtful. Typically focuses on one or a related group of technologies.
PHIL 2340 Bioethics (3)
This course explores the ethical issues that arise with changes in medical technologies and health care policies. Students explore the philosophical concepts of autonomy, duty, justice, and care as they apply to patients and physicians. Topics covered may include stem cell research and cloning technologies, organ transplantation, experimentation on animals, prenatal diagnosis and abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide, access to experimental treatments and allocation of scarce resources.
PHIL 2360 Environmental Ethics (3)
An introductory exploration of issues in environmental policy and the value presuppositions to different approaches to environmental problems, including economic, judicial, political, and ecological. Discusses specific environmental problems, focusing on their moral dimensions, e.g., wilderness preservation, animal rights, property rights, values of biodiversity, corporate responsibility, varieties of activism, ecofeminism, resource exploitation, and technological advancement, global environmental politics, and obligations to future generations.
PHIL 2390 Philosophy of Sex and Love (3)
An introductory study of sexual philosophy including historical traditions as well as a variety of alternative belief systems. Critical analysis of topics such as marriage and adultery, sex with and without love, perversion, and pornography.
PHIL 2510 Philosophic Classics: Ancient Greece and Rome (3)
The great philosophic texts of ancient Greece and Rome are rich in insight and powerful in their influence on Western culture. This course reviews selected classics, familiarizing students with famous thinkers, their thoughts, and their methods.
PHIL 2520 Philosophic Classics: Early Modern Europe (3)
Early modern Europe, an era of profound intellectual, scientific, religious, and philosophic change, produced philosophic works with enduring influence on Western culture. This course reviews selected classics, familiarizing students with famous thinkers, their thoughts, and their methods. Prerequisite: PHIL 2510 is recommended.
PHIL 2540 American Philosophy (3)
Each civilization contributes a unique intellectual culture that characterizes the values and aspirations of its people. This course explores some intellectual impacts and influences of the unique contributions of American philosophers. An introductory study that combines the historical and cultural setting of inquiry into the nature of experience, truth, goodness, and society by nineteenth-and twentieth-century American philosophers, including Emerson, Thoreau, James, Peirce, and Dewey, and their influences on later philosophies in the United States.
PHIL 2610 Intermediate Reading (2-4)
Designed for students who have little background in philosophy but who have demonstrated an ability to do independent work and have an interest in exploring some philosophical or non-philosophical texts philosophically. Prerequisites: permission of the instructor and filing of official form.
PHIL 3080 Current Topics in Philosophy (3)
Upper level study of influential texts or topics in a special area of philosophy, such as epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, philosophy of science, philosophy of social sciences, political philosophy, or logic. May be repeated for credit if content differs.
PHIL 3100 Literature and Philosophy (3)
Philosophical treatments of selected stories, novels, poems, plays, or films. Emphasizes the discovery of philosophical commitments in such works and the critical examination of their intelligibility, defensibility, and truth value. The question of the ineluctability of form is also raised.
PHIL 3110 Philosophy and Film (3)
Philosophic problems will be approached through their presentation in selected films. Emphasizes the discovery of philosophic commitments and claims in the works studied; the defensibility of those commitments and claims; and film as a mode of presentation for philosophic ideas. May be repeated for credit if content differs.
PHIL 3120 Philosophy and Art (3)
Raises philosophical issues surrounding the activities of producing and appreciating works of art. Sample topics: the theory of art, the relationship between art and other human institutions, standards of judgment in art, how works of art are meaningful and true, and the relationship between judgments of value in art and judgments of moral worth.
PHIL 3200 Philosophy of Religion (3)
This course explores the philosophical dimensions of religious belief and practice. Topics include: the nature of religion and of religious and spiritual experience; the problem of religious diversity; the nature of the Religious Ultimate, and evidence of its existence; evil and religious belief; scientific rationality and religious belief; religious naturalism; faith and rationality; continental philosophy of religion (God as "the impossible"); and the interrelation between religious, spiritual and moral values. The course draws on writers and texts located within or in relation to various world religious traditions, especially Buddhism, Hinduism, and Abrahamic Monotheism (Judaism, Islam, and Christianity) and Humanism.
PHIL 3300 Epistemology (3)
Exploration of issues in the theory of knowledge, such as the origin, extent, and certainty of knowledge, as well as exploration of such positions as skepticism, relativism, and solipsism. Includes analysis of the concept of knowledge and the justification of belief. Prerequisite: 6 credit hours of history of philosophy or permission of the instructor.
PHIL 3310 Philosophy of Science (3)
An introduction to the main issues in philosophy of science such as: the role of scientific developments in shaping philosophy and philosophy of science; the influence of philosophy and philosophy of science on the development of science; noteworthy philosophical accounts of the scientific enterprise; and characterizations of confirmation, explanation, scientific realism, the nature of theories, and the growth of scientific knowledge.
PHIL 3320 Continental Philosophy (3)
European culture of the last one hundred years has produced philosophical works that have had a profound impact on the way we think and live today. This course reviews selected works from the period, familiarizing students with central thinkers such as Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, and Foucault, as well as some of the more important movements associated with these figures, including Phenomenology, Existentialism, and Post-structuralism.
PHIL 3350 Philosophical Ethics (3)
First course in philosophical reflection on the moral life. Includes the analysis of moral terms, the techniques of moral reasoning, the origin and nature of human values, and the justification of moral judgments. Specific topics and texts vary from year to year. Prerequisite: PHIL 2110, PHIL 2300, PHIL 2320, PHIL 2380, or permission of the instructor.
PHIL 3360 Ethics for Cyberspace (3)
A general introduction to ethical issues created, aggravated, or transformed by computing technology. Addresses such topics as: privacy, hacking, and computer intrusion; software piracy; freedom of expression; campus computing policies; professional ethics; responsibility and risks of relying on computers; ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence; just allocation of computing resources; and social implications of networked computing.
PHIL 3370 Philosophy and Women (3)
Analysis of the concept of oppression and a study of the systematic structures of sexism and sex roles. Specific areas of study include the institution of family/marriage, sex, love, and feminist moral issues such as abortion, pornography, and sexual equality.
PHIL 3380 Ethics in Social Research (3)
An examination of some moral issues that arise in social science research and its applications. Neither a review of recent work in the social sciences nor a "cookbook" for solving ethical problems. Rather, the course focuses on relationships between researchers and human subjects, among researchers as professionals, and between researchers and the broader public. Prerequisite: 6 credit hours of philosophy or social science or permission of instructor.
PHIL 3590 Theories of Human Rights (3)
Examines the historical development of theories of human rights and their relation to civil liberties, international law, social organization, and different conceptions of community, individualism, and the state. Also examines the most significant human rights documents in their historical context. May focus on specific cases and questions of current concern. Prerequisite: POLT 1070, PHIL 2300, or GNST 1600. Cross-listed with POLT 3590.
PHIL 4050 Topics in the History of Philosophy (3)
Advanced undergraduate study of texts or topics from the history of philosophy. Specific topics are decided on in consultation between philosophy majors and faculty prior to offering the course. Prerequisite: 6 credit hours of philosophy or permission of the instructor. May be repeated for credit if content differs.
PHIL 4400 Practicum in Philosophy (1-6)
Places students in a position in business, school, or social service, or similar organization. Placement will be such as to stimulate philosophical and critical reflection. Work is supervised by the faculty advisor, and the work will be the topic of discussion in a philosophy seminar that will reflect on the problems encountered. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
PHIL 4600 Overview (3)
A critical examination of a significant text, with each student preparing an individual paper on some aspect of the text. To be acceptable, the quality of the paper must reflect significant mastery of the methods and content of philosophy and critical thought. Prerequisite: advanced standing and permission of the instructor.
PHIL 4610 Reading Course (1-5)
Prerequisites: permission of the instructor and filing of official form. May be repeated for credit if content differs.
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