Philosophy and Religious Studies

PHIL 100 C Introduction to Philosophy 3 Units

Advisory: Eligibility for ENGL 100 C or ENGL 101 C or ESL 110 C.

Term hours: 54 lecture. This course introduces the student to a variety of philosophical issues in metaphysics, theory of knowledge, and ethics, as well as the methodology used by philosophers to address those issues. The origins of Western philosophy as well as its impact on Western civilization will be emphasized. The course systematically explores and evaluates the concepts of reality, value, knowledge, reason, truth, language, definition, beauty, justice, human nature, personal identity, religion, meaning, and freedom. Analysis and synthesis will be stressed for these and other topics of interest to students and/or the instructor. Duplicate credit not granted for PHIL 100HC. (UC/CSU, AA GE, CSU GE, IGETC/C-ID: PHIL 100)

PHIL 100HC  Honors Introduction to Philosophy 3 Units

Advisory: Eligibility for ENGL 100 C or ENGL 101 C or ESL 110 C.

Term hours: 54 lecture. This Honors-enhanced course introduces the student to a variety of philosophical issues in metaphysics, theory of knowledge, and ethics, as well as the methodology used by philosophers to address those issues. The origins of Western philosophy as well as its impact on Western civilization will be emphasized. The course systematically explores and evaluates the concepts of reality, value, knowledge, reason, religion, meaning, and freedom. Analysis and synthesis will be stressed for these and other topics of interest to students and/or the instructor. Duplicate credit not granted for PHIL 100 C. (UC/CSU, AA GE, CSU GE, IGETC/C-ID: PHIL 100)

PHIL 101 C Intro to Religious Studies 3 Units

Advisory: Eligibility for ENGL 100 C or ENGL 101 C or ESL 110 C.

Term hours: 54 lecture. This course is an introductory study of religion with emphasis on the origins and functions of religion, religious experience, and religious and theological modes of expression. Course content will be drawn from Eastern and Western traditions, ancient, medieval and modern times.(UC/CSU, AA GE, CSU GE, IGETC)

PHIL 101HC Honors Intro. to Religion 3 Units

Advisory: Eligibility for ENGL 100 C or ENGL 101 C or ESL 110 C.

Term hours: 54 lecture. This course is an enhanced introductory study of religion with emphasis on the origins and functions of religion, religious experience, and religious and theological modes of expression. Course content will be drawn from Eastern and Western traditions, ancient, medieval and modern times. Duplicate credit not granted for PHIL 101 C. (UC/CSU)

PHIL 105 C World Religions 3 Units

Advisory: Eligibility for ENGL 100 C or ENGL 101 C or ESL 110 C.

Term hours: 54 lecture. This course provides an overview of the world's religions, with major emphasis upon Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. (UC/CSU, AA GE, CSU GE, IGETC)

PHIL 110 C Religions of the East 3 Units

Advisory: Eligibility for ENGL 100 C or ENGL 101 C or ESL 110 C.

Term hours: 54 lecture. This course systematically introduces and analyzes the intellectual and religious histories of India, China, and Japan. Primary focus will be on the ways in which Eastern traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and Zen conceive of the cosmos, meaningful human existence and life's ultimate goals. Jainism, Sikhism, and Shinto may also be covered. While the main emphasis will be on basic teachings, this course will also investigate religious practices, cultural settings, social impact, and the historical contexts in which these religions arose. Rituals and religious literature may be used to compare and contrast Asian and Occidental belief systems. A field trip may be required by the instructor. (UC/CSU, AA GE, CSU GE, IGETC)

PHIL 120 C Religions of the West 3 Units

Advisory: Eligibility for ENGL 100 C or ENGL 101 C or ESL 110 C.

Term hours: 54 lecture. This course is an introduction to Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as the religions of ancient Mesopotamia, Canaan, and Egypt. The history, beliefs, rituals, literature, and art of each religion will be examined with a goal to discovering its conception of God, man, the cosmos, meaningful human existence, and life's ultimate goals. Skills in objective, scholarly analysis of the scripture of each religion will be developed. Religious trends in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries and contemporary secular and religious humanism will be discussed. A field trip may be required by the instructor. (UC/CSU, AA GE, CSU GE, IGETC)

PHIL 135 C  Social and Political Philosophy 3 Units

Advisory: Eligibility for ENGL 100 C or ENGL 101 C or ESL 110 C.

Term hours: 54 lecture. This course is an introduction to social and political thought, especially the central concepts (e.g. democracy, justice, rights, liberty, political authority, political morality, etc.) and issues that arise in classic and contemporary readings. The course involves an examination of the relationship between morality, politics and social justice, from a multi-cultural perspective. Topics include: the sources of legitimate political authority, the meaning of democracy, obligations of citizenship, the nature of the state, the justifications for universal human rights, the foundations of a just society, and how political culture is related to social and political institutions. (UC/CSU, AA GE, CSU GE, IGETC)

PHIL 160 C Introduction to Ethics 3 Units

Advisory: Eligibility for ENGL 100 C or ENGL 101 C or ESL 110 C.

Term hours: 54 lecture. This course is an introduction to metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics. Fundamental ethical concepts, theories, and arguments in classical, medieval, modern, and contemporary ethical thought are presented, analyzed, and critically evaluated. (UC/CSU, AA GE, CSU GE, IGETC/C-ID: PHIL 120)

PHIL 162 C Contemporary Moral Issues 3 Units

Advisory: Eligibility for ENGL 100 C or ENGL 101 C or ESL 110 C.

Term hours: 54 lecture. This course is a philosophic examination of major ethical debates in contemporary American society. Topics may include capital punishment, abortion, poverty including hunger and humanitarian aid, euthanasia and assisted suicide, war including terrorism and torture, civil disobedience, racial and sexual equality, affirmative action, sexual morality, reproductive technologies including genetic engineering and cloning, pornography and free speech, “victimless crimes,” bio-medical research, drug laws, vegetarianism and non-human animal rights, economic justice and global obligations, and environmental duties. Preparatory to those investigations, time is devoted to studying some of the most important moral theories and various types of moral reasoning. (UC/CSU, AA GE, CSU GE, IGETC)

PHIL 165 C Business Ethics 3 Units

Advisory: Eligibility for ENGL 100 C or ENGL 101 C or ESL 110 C.

This course examines the major ethical issues that arise in contemporary business practices, e.g., preferential treatment for underrepresented groups, responsibility to the environment, codes of conduct for professional persons, sexual harassment, and the morality of strikes by public service personnel. The course considers leading normative ethical theories and the ways they have been applied by ethicists to provide solutions to the ethical problems that arise in business. It also emphasizes the development of logical skills necessary for critically evaluating arguments that have been given for and against the solutions proposed to ethical problems that arise in business. Pass/No Pass/Letter Grade Option. (UC/CSU)

PHIL 170 C Logic and Critical Thinking 3 Units

Advisory: Eligibility for ENGL 100 C or ENGL 101 C or ESL 110 C.

Term hours: 54 lecture. This course focuses on elements of clear, straight, orderly and valid thought, including deductive an inductive reasoning and the accurate use of language. This course explores practical applications of logic. Duplicate credit not granted for PHIL 170HC. (UC/CSU, AA GE, CSU GE)

PHIL 170HC Honors Logic and Crit Thinking 3 Units

Advisory: Eligibility for ENGL 100 C or ENGL 101 C or ESL 110 C.

Term hours: 54 lecture. This Honors-enhanced course focuses on elements of clear, straight, orderly and valid thought, including deductive and inductive reasoning and the accurate use of language. This course explores practical applications of logic. Duplicate credit not granted for PHIL 170 C. (CSU/UC, AA GE, CSU GE)

PHIL 172 C Critical Thinking and Writing 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): ENGL 100 C with a grade of C or better.

Term hours: 54 lecture. This course is an introduction to the techniques of argument analysis, evaluation, and construction as applied to essay writing. The course includes such topics as standard form and argument patterns; deduction, validity, and soundness; truth-functional arguments, truth-tables, and natural deduction; quantificational arguments; categorical syllogisms and Venn Diagrams; truth; induction, strength, and cogency; sampling arguments, causal arguments, statistical syllogisms, analogical arguments, and explanatory arguments; the probability calculus; formal and informal fallacies; and definition, language, and meaning; thesis statements, the writing of coherent, well-developed essays, and grammar, punctuation, and orthography. (UC/CSU, AA GE, CSU GE, IGETC)

PHIL 175 C Symbolic Logic 3 Units

Advisory: Eligibility for ENGL 100 C or ENGL 101 C or ESL 110 C.

Term hours: 54 lecture. This is a course in elementary, truth-functional, propositional logic and first-order quantificational predicate logic, up through identity and definite descriptions. The course covers the techniques for the translation of English statements and arguments into formal logical languages and the methods for determining whether these arguments are valid. (UC/CSU, AA GE, CSU GE/C-ID: PHIL 210)

PHIL 201 C History of Ancient Philosophy 3 Units

Advisory: Eligibility for ENGL 100 C or ENGL 101 C or ESL 110 C.

Term hours: 54 lecture. This historical introduction course to philosophy traces the development of Western philosophy with a focus on the early Greeks, emphasizing those ideas which have most influenced the development of Western culture. This course will explore the birth of European thought with the Pre-Socratics, such as the Milesian philosophers and Greek atomists, then move to Athens with Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and continue with some philosophers from the Hellenistic and Medieval periods. This course surveys the development, transformation, and influence of Greek metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics within the context of their historical and cultural setting. Particular focus will be placed on the philosophical issues still facing us now, including the perennial search for values. (UC/CSU, AA GE, CSU GE, IGETC/C-ID: PHIL 130)

PHIL 202 C History of Modern Philosophy 3 Units

Advisory: Eligibility for ENGL 100 C or ENGL 101 C or ESL 110 C.

Term hours: 54 lecture. This is a survey of Western philosophical thought since the Renaissance with emphasis on the Modern period. The course introduces students to some of the most important and influential philosophical themes as they found expression in its most central figures. It emphasizes metaphysics and epistemology, but may also include the development of views in ethics, political philosophy, God’s existence, skepticism, causality, logic, semantics, and philosophical foundations of modern science. The course also examines the influence of past philosophical movements on modern life, including the growth of science and social and cultural changes. (UC/CSU, AA GE, CSU GE, IGETC/C-ID: PHIL 140)

PHIL 225 C The American Religious Exp 3 Units

Advisory: Eligibility for ENGL 100 C or ENGL 101 C or ESL 110 C.

Term hours: 54 lecture. This course is an introduction to religious diversity in the United States from the colonial encounter to the present. It emphasizes cultural and religious interaction and exchange. This course will examine how the American experience shaped, and was shaped by, the religions of Africa, Europe, and Asia, as well as Indigenous American religions and new American religious movements. (CSU/UC, AA GE, SOC JUST)

PHIL 230 C Philosophy of Religion 3 Units

Advisory: Eligibility for ENGL 100 C or ENGL 101 C or ESL 110 C.

Term hours: 54 lecture. This course critically examines the central arguments for and against the existence of God, the historicity of miracles, and the possibility of life after death. (UC/CSU, AA GE, CSU GE, IGETC)

PHIL 240 C Jesus and His Interpreters 3 Units

Advisory: Eligibility for ENGL 100 C or ENGL 101 C or ESL 110 C.

Term hours: 54 lecture. This course examines what we know about the historical Jesus, how He is depicted in the Gospels and how He has been critically reconstructed in New Testament scholarship. The course also examines interpretations of Jesus in popular culture from the first-century period to the present-day United States. (UC/CSU, CSU GE, IGETC)

PHIL 298 C Philosophy Seminar 0.5-12 Units

Prerequisite(s): May be required.

Corequisite(s): May be required.

Advisory: May be required.

Term hours: 0-216 lecture and/or 0-432 laboratory depending on units attempted. This is a lecture/discussion type course developed on a particular limited problem or topic of interest to students. It is designed for able students who wish to increase their knowledge of a particular topic concerning which no other regular class is offered. A paper or group activity may be requested. Credit may range from 1/2 unit to 12 units. Consult class schedule for the offerings a particular semester. Pass/No Pass/Letter Grade option. Fees may be required-Payable at Registration. (UC Credit Limitation/CSU)

PHIL 299 C Philosophy Independent Study 1 Unit

Prerequisite(s): Approved Independent Study Learning Contract

Term hours: Varying hours of scheduled conferences per week according to instructor. This independent study course is for able students who wish to extend their knowledge of a particular area through individual research and study. It is thought that topics might develop out of a curiosity stimulated in a regular class. The student would then contact the supervising instructor to develop a contract for his/her particular interest so that they could learn more regarding their special topic. May be taken for credit 3 times. (UC Credit Limitation/CSU)

PHIL 400 C Business Ethics 3 Units

Prerequisite(s): ENGL 100 C or ENGL 100HC or ENGL 101 C or ESL 110 C with a grade of C or better.

Advisory: Completion of PHIL 160 C.

Term hours: 54 lecture. This is an upper division intensive writing course intended for students enrolled in an approved Baccalaureate Degree Pilot Program. This course is a critical and reflective exploration of ethical priorities and moral issues in the business world. It is designed to enable students to become more aware of, and skilled at, managing the many ethical dilemmas that they will face while being employed in a business organization (as well as in other types of organizations). Emphasis on issues surrounding the concepts of duty, rights, autonomy, justice, and regulation of business, as well as the potential conflict between personal moral values and business priorities, corporate social responsibility and the public good, together with extended reflections on the relationship between moral responsibility and the professions (drawing from specific fields). This course is intended strictly as a part of the Bachelor in Science degree program.