May 01, 2024  
2017-2018 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
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2017-2018 Undergraduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Course Descriptions

Course Description Notes

Northern Kentucky University has established abbreviations for its various disciplines. These abbreviations, which are printed next to the name of each discipline in the following course descriptions, should be used in preparing course schedules and at other times when referring to specific courses.

Following course titles in parenthesis is the number of semester hours of credit in the course. Listed below the course title are the number of classroom and lab/studio hours in the course, course prerequisites and co-requisites, and the semesters in which the course is taught.

Many courses satisfy NKU general education requirements under guidelines of the Kentucky Transfer Policy. If a particular course is approved for general education credit, a two-letter general education category designation follows the course title. The category for which the course is approved is listed in full beneath the course description. The general education category designations are:

OC – Oral Communication
WC – Written Communication
AH – Arts and Humanities
QR – Quantitative Reasoning
NS – Natural Sciences
SB – Social and Behavioral Sciences

Please refer to the General Education section of this catalog for complete information.

The university reserves the right to withdraw or modify courses of instruction at any time.
 

Philosophy
  

  • PHI 110 Philosophy, Individuals and Society - SB (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Taught: Fall and spring
    In Philosophy, Individuals and Society students explore a variety of philosophical views about the nature of individuals, social structures and the relationships between them. Students will critically examine different philosophical perspectives and theories that arise from questions about human nature, personal identity, free will and moral responsibility, the nature of mind, and the ethical, social and political dimensions of human existence.
    Repeatable: No
    General Education Credit: Individual and Society
  

  • PHI 110H Philosophy, Individuals and Society (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Taught: Spring only
    In Philosophy, Individuals and Society students explore a variety of philosophical views about the nature of individuals, social structures and the relationships between them. Students will critically examine different philosophical perspectives and theories that arise from questions about human nature, personal identity, free will and moral responsibility, the nature of mind, and the ethical, social and political dimensions of human existence.
    Repeatable: No
    General Education Credit: Individual and Society
  

  • PHI 165 Introduction to Logic (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    Methods and principles used to distinguish valid from invalid forms of argumentation in deductive and inductive reasoning; syllogisms, dilemmas, truth tables, and the scientific method.
    Repeatable: No
  

  • PHI 181 Philosophers, Cultures and Creativity - AH (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Taught: Fall and spring
    Exploration of significant philosophers, their methods of inquiry and philosophical texts and their impact on various cultures in terms of science, ethics, politics, art and theology as well as how these areas influenced and shaped philosophical thinking, other individuals and cultures as well.
    Repeatable: No
    General Education Credit: Culture and Creativity
  

  • PHI 200 Ethics - AH (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Taught: Fall and spring
    This course is a philosophical examination of pluralistic viewpoints on individual and social ethical responsibilities in the global world. The development of a rational approach to ethical inquiry; alternative ethical systems may be evaluated along with a number of other ethical issues relating to social, political, legal, or religious matters.
    Repeatable: No
    General Education Credit: Global Viewpoints
  

  • PHI 220 Health Care Ethics - AH (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    Ethical decision making and problems of contemporary health care in multicultural perspectives; abortion, euthanasia, population and behavior control; informed consent and counseling; professional codes and personal freedom; mental health and personal autonomy; justice and equality in health care; ethical conflicts in health service work; death and dying.
    Repeatable: No
    General Education Credit: Global Viewpoints
  

  • PHI 265 Logic - QR (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): C- or better in MAHD 092  or MAHD 095  or MAHD 099  or placement.
    Taught: Fall and spring
    An introduction to the methods of formal deductive logic, with an examination of its relationship to areas such as mathematics, computer science, and legal reasoning. Students will learn the language and rules of formal logic, as well as techniques of formal proof.
    Repeatable: No
    General Education Credit: Mathematics
    ♦
  

  • PHI 280 History of Classical and Medieval Philosophy (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Taught: Fall only
    Western philosophical tradition from the Greeks to the 15th century; birth of scientific explanations; the role of reason; impact of Christianity; influence of seminal thinkers such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Atomists, Augustine, and Aquinas on political, ethical, religious, and other ideas.
    Repeatable: No
  

  • PHI 285 History of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Taught: Spring only
    Western philosophical tradition from the 15th to the 20th century; rise of rationalism, dualism, empiricism, idealism, skepticism, and utilitarianism, and the modern reactions to them, such as positivism, dialectical materialism, existentialism, and feminism; figures such as Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Leibniz, Spinoza, Hume, Mill, Kant, Hegel, and others.
    Repeatable: No
  

  • PHI 300 Ethics and Social Responsibility (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or consent of the instructor.
    Taught: Fall only
    Examines the scope and complexity of responsibility in personal, social and professional contexts. An intensive exploration of ethical principles that guide responsible decision-making in human interaction. Topics include the nature of goodness, the rational thing to do, moral obligations, rational resolution of moral conflicts and disagreements.
    Repeatable: No
    ♦
  

  • PHI 302 Ethics and Scientific Research (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or consent of the instructor.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    Ethical, legal, and public policy issues stemming from scientific research, including medical, psychological, and sociological; topics may include animal and human experimentation, informed consent, privacy, confidentiality, government regulations, freedom of inquiry and censorship, the moral responsibility of scientists, and research integrity.
    Repeatable: No
    ♦
  

  • PHI 305 Existentialism (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or consent of the instructor.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    Meaning, freedom, responsibility, communication, creativity, and value in the works of thinkers such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Camus, DeBeauvoir, and others; critique of traditional notions of mind versus body, reason, truth, self-identity, language, and time.
    Repeatable: No
    ♦
  

  • PHI 306 Philosophy and Science (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or consent of the instructor.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    Philosophical issues in science; the nature of scientific explanation; science and pseudoscience; growth of scientific knowledge; Kuhn, Popper, Feyerabend, and others.
    Repeatable: No
    ♦
  

  • PHI 308 Professional Ethics (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or consent of the instructor.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    Exploration of unique ethical issues and obligations attached to professional roles. Topics include definition of a “profession”; special roles and ethical responsibilities of professionals; theories and processes of ethical decision-making; approaches to ethical dilemmas in professional fields; professional codes; corporate personhood; the rights and responsibilities of employers, employees, and consumers.
    Repeatable: No
    ♦
  

  • PHI 309 Global Ethics (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or consent of the instructor.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    This course is designed to introduce college students to a variety of approaches to building a more ethical world. We will see how ethicists from many cultures do ethics from their unique cultural perspective. These cultures will include: African, Islamic, Feminist, Buddhist, Native American, Chinese, and Indian Hindu. We will explore most of the following issues: Human Rights, Environmental Responsibility, Hunger and Poverty, War and Violence, Sexism, Racism, AIDS, Abortion, and Euthanasia.
    Repeatable: No
    ♦
  

  • PHI 310 Information Ethics (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore status or consent of instructor.
    Taught: Fall and spring
    Ethical issues faced by computing professionals including those related to computing in the workplace, security, crime, privacy, property rights, risk, liability, and the internet.
    Repeatable: Yes
    If Repeatable, Max. Credits: No Limit
  

  • PHI 311 Philosophy of Woman (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or consent of the instructor.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    Ideas of and about women in the history of philosophy; perennial issues that have emerged from classical times to the present.
    Repeatable: No
    ♦
  

  • PHI 312 Eastern Philosophy (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or consent of the instructor.
    Taught: Fall only
    Philosophical foundations of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Hinduism, including perspectives on self, reality, community, language, truth, enlightenment, embodiment, reason, emotion, and art; contrast with western perspectives; meditation and applied meditative practices.
    Repeatable: No
    ♦
  

  • PHI 315 Knowledge and Reality (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or consent of the instructor.
    Taught: Spring only
    Differing views on the nature of knowledge and reality, e.g., analytic, idealist, realist, materialist, existentialist, mystical, intuitionist, and emotivist; relevance of these theories to one’s personal philosophy of life and actions; nature of language, perception, intellection, time, matter, mind, God, freedom, truth, reason, emotion.
    Repeatable: No
    ♦
  

  • PHI 320 Social and Political Philosophy (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or consent of the instructor.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    Nature and purposes of the state, grounds of political obligation, freedom and its limitations, human rights, social justice, and selected contemporary issues.
    Repeatable: No
    ♦
  

  • PHI 323 Peace and War (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or consent of the instructor.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    Philosophical study of main issues related to the ideas and realities of war and peace. Topics will include beliefs and theories about peace and war, the causes of violence and war, war and morality, alternatives to violence and war, peace ideas and proposals, applications to current world conditions.
    Repeatable: No
    ♦
  

  • PHI 324 Africana Philosophy (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or consent of the instructor.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    Examination of philosophical ideas in relation to people of African descent. Topics include Africana conceptions of reality, time and space; Africana epistemological and logical systems of reasoning; Africa morality. Contrast will be made with Western philosophy. Other topics may include Africana-centered social, political and cultural issues such as slavery, colonialism, racialism and Africana identity.
    Repeatable: No
    ♦
  

  • PHI 330 Philosophy and Law (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    Major philosophical issues in law; theories of the nature and purposes of law, legal enforcement of community standards, strict liability, human rights, civil disobedience, theories of punishment, and legal ethics.
    Repeatable: No
    ♦
  

  • PHI 335 Great Traditions in Ethics (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or consent of the instructor.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    In-depth study of the major sources of western moral philosophy; representative selections from philosophers of classical times to the present (e.g., Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Kant, Bentham, Mill, Marx, Dewey, and Sartre).
    Repeatable: No
    ♦
  

  • PHI 340 Neuroethics (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or consent of the instructor.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    Explores the relationship between neuroscience (and possibly other social and cognitive sciences) and the philosophical study of morality. Topics could include the implications of neuroscience for understanding moral judgment, moral emotions, free will and moral responsibility, the concept of a person, and moral character. Other topics might include ethical issues surrounding the practice and application of neuroscience in social, legal and clinical contexts.
    Repeatable: No
    ♦
  

  • PHI 345 Philosophy of Mind (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or consent of the instructor.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    This course is designed to examine issues and themes in contemporary philosophy of mind; the relationships among the mind, brain and world; problems concerning intentionality, subjectivity, consciousness, qualia, mental representation, mental causation; and the intersection of psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence with philosophy.
    Repeatable: No
    ♦
  

  • PHI 350 Philosophy of Religion (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or consent of instructor.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    Issues in religious philosophy, including the relation between faith and reason, the nature of religious experience, arguments for the existence of God, the problem of evil, and immortality.
    Repeatable: No
    ♦
  

  • PHI 355 Socrates and Plato (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or consent of the instructor.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    Study of two major formative persons in the development of Western thought and culture. Socrates’ life, trial, death, thought, and significance. Plato on the good, justice, education, knowledge, and reality; the Platonic tradition.
    Repeatable: No
    ♦
  

  • PHI 357 Kant and Nineteenth-Century Philosophy (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or consent of the instructor.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    Study of the work of Immanuel Kant and some of the subsequent philosophical views he influenced, including possibly the contributions of Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. Critical examination of ideas regarding knowledge, reality and value through careful readings of both primary and secondary texts.
    Repeatable: No
    ♦
  

  • PHI 360 Environmental Philosophy (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or consent of the instructor.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    In-depth examination of epistemological, ethical, and social questions concerning humanity’s relationship with nature. Selected topics include ecofeminism, religion and ecology, the rights of animals and ecosystems, global warming, obligations to future generations, anthropocentrism and biocentrism, sustainable development, technology and human nature.
    Repeatable: No
    ♦
  

  • PHI 394 Topics: Philosophy (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or consent of the instructor.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    In-depth examination of a major figure, issue, or school in philosophy. Topic will be announced in Schedule of Classes. May be repeated as topics vary.
    Repeatable: Yes
    If Repeatable, Max. Credits: No Limit

    ♦
  

  • PHI 396 Internship: Applied Philosophy (3 credits)

    Hours: 2 classroom + 5 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): 6 semester hours in philosophy and consent of instructor.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    Supervised readings and research carried out in conjunction with practicum, internship, or job in student’s primary area of interest; focus upon philosophical and ethical issues of the work experience.
    Repeatable: Yes
    If Repeatable, Max. Credits: 12

    ♦
  

  • PHI 494 Seminar: Philosophy (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): 6 semester hours in philosophy.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    Examination of a selected problem or tradition in philosophy. Offered according to demand and interest of students at discretion of philosophy faculty. May be repeated when topics vary.
    Repeatable: Yes
    If Repeatable, Max. Credits: No Limit

    ♦
  

  • PHI 499 Independent Study in Philosophy (1-3 credits)

    Hours: 1-3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): 6 semester hours in philosophy and consent of instructor.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    Individually supervised readings and study of some philosophical work, problem, or tradition. May be repeated as topics vary, but no more than twice.
    Repeatable: Yes
    If Repeatable, Max. Credits: 9

    ♦
  

  • PHI 594 Topics: Philosophy (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): 6 semester hours in philosophy or consent of instructor.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    In-depth examination of a selected topic in philosophy. May be repeated as topics vary.
    Repeatable: Yes
    If Repeatable, Max. Credits: No Limit

    ♦
  

  • PHI 599 Independent Study: Philosophy (3 credits)

    Hours: 3 classroom + 0 lab/studio
    Prerequisite(s): 6 semester hours of philosophy or consent of instructor.
    Taught: Variable, check with department
    Individually supervised readings and study of a selected study in philosophy. May be repeated as topics vary.
    Repeatable: Yes
    If Repeatable, Max. Credits: No Limit

    ♦