Spring 2024 Course Offerings

Instructor: Jung Lee (ju.lee@northeastern.edu)

Meeting time: M/W 2:50pm-4:30pm

NUpath Attribute(s):Engaging Difference and Diversity, Employing Ethical Reasoning

This course can be used for the following requirements:

• Philosophy Major elective
• Philosophy Minor elective
• Religious Studies Major elective
• Religious Studies Minor elective
• Ethics Minor elective
• Information Ethics Minor elective
• Mindfulness Studies Minor 

Description: Focuses on how traditions imagine the moral life in cross-cultural contexts. Topics may include ideals of human flourishing, notions of virtue and vice, and conceptions of self and community. Offers students an opportunity to learn methods of philosophical analysis and argumentation in cross-cultural contexts.

Instructor: Liz Bucar (e.bucar@northeastern.edu)

Meeting time: Monday/Wednesday/Thursday 10:30am-11:35am

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Interpreting Culture

This course can be used for the following requirements:

• Philosophy Major elective
• Philosophy Minor elective
• Religious Studies Major elective
• Religious Studies Minor elective
• Ethics Minor elective
• Mindfulness Studies Minor 

Description: Focuses on two popular practices—yoga and mindfulness—to explore the ethics of the commodification of East and South Asian spiritual practices. Topics include whether cultural appropriation applies to spiritual/religious borrowings; debates over whether yoga or meditation are properly understood as religious, philosophical, or something else; and how and to whom these practices are marketed. Includes readings, informal and formal research and writing assignments, and experiential mindfulness learning assignments.

Instructor: Whitney Kelting (M.Kelting@northeastern.edu)

Sequence: MWTh. 10:30am-11:35am

NUpath Attribute(s): Interpreting Culture,
Employing Ethical Reasoning

This course can be used for the following requirements:

• Philosophy Major elective
• Philosophy Minor elective
• Religious Studies Major elective
• Religious Studies Minor elective
• Ethics Minor elective
• Information Ethics Minor elective
• Mindfulness Studies Minor 

Description: Examines Hinduism, Jainism, Theravada Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and Shinto within South Asia (India) and east Asia (China and Japan). Combines readings in primary source materials (the religious texts of these traditions) with secondary examinations of the historical and doctrinal developments within each tradition and region. This course intends to give students a context in which to examine the ways in which religions develop in interlocking sociocultural and political contexts and to provide a grounding in the lived experiences of these religious traditions.

This course is cross-listed with JWSS 1285. 

Instructor: Simon Rabinovitch (s.rabinovitch@northeastern.edu)

Meeting time: Monday/Thursday 11:45am-1:25pm

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture, NUpath Societies/Institutions

Description: Explores some of the rich variety of Jewish cultural expressions and interpretive traditions, including the Jewish life cycle (birth through death) and the calendar cycle (holidays and daily rituals). Judaism is an ancient, living religious civilization that has evolved continuously over the millennia and around the globe. Offers students an opportunity to become familiar with the major periods of Jewish history and study exemplary formative Jewish texts (from the Bible and its interpreters through rabbinic, legal, and later literatures). Studies the global diversity of Jewish traditions, cultures, and identities, including how Jewish religion and culture have been influenced by the communities in which Jews have lived and live. No prior knowledge of Judaism is necessary or assumed.

Instructor: Mark Wells

Sequence: Tuesday/Friday 1:35-3:15pm

NUpath Attribute(s): Interpreting Culture,
Employing Ethical Reasoning

This course can be used for the following requirements:

• Philosophy Major elective
• Philosophy Minor elective
• Religious Studies Major elective
• Religious Studies Minor elective
• Ethics Minor elective
• Information Ethics Minor elective
• Mindfulness Studies Minor 

Description: Surveys the origins and development of the indigenous religious traditions of China, from the oracle bone divinations of the Shang Dynasty to the philosophical and religious traditions of Confucianism, Mohism, Yangism, Daoism, and Legalism. Identifies and elucidates those elements of ancient Chinese thought that have had the most lasting influence on the Chinese ethos and worldview. Studies the foundational texts of ancient China and also examines the relevant practices that helped to define the various traditions of thought. Focuses on how religious and philosophical ideas influenced the larger culture of Chinese life in regard to the arts, medicine, the social order, and government.

Instructor: Rory Smead

Meeting Time: Monday/Thursday 11:45am-1:25pm

This course fulfills the following requirements:

• Philosophy Major elective
• Philosophy Minor elective
• Ethics Minor elective
• Information Ethics Minor elective

Attribute(s): NUpath Ethical Reasoning, NUpath Societies/Institutions

Description: Surveys the basic ideas and principles from evolutionary game theory and how they can be applied to philosophical questions about ethical and social norms. Investigates how cooperation evolves and is maintained; where our sense of fairness comes from and how it affects the way we interact with others; why individuals are altruistic; and whether there is a rational basis for our most basic social norms. Basic ethical norms can involve cooperation, altruism, mutual aid, fairness, coordination, and communication. Evolution and game theory, the formal study of social interaction, have recently been applied to these areas in order to better understand how these norms can arise naturally. Prior completion of PHIL 1115, PHIL 1215, or the NU Core requirement for mathematical/analytical thinking level 1 recommended.

Instructor: Don Fallis

Meeting Time: Monday/Wednesday/Thursday 9:15-10:20am

This course fulfills the following requirements:

• Philosophy Major elective
• Philosophy Minor elective
• Ethics Minor elective
• Information Ethics Minor elective

Attribute(s): NUpath Ethical Reasoning, NUpath Societies/Institutions

Description: Examines lying and other forms of deception in a wide range of modern contexts from advertising to politics, using different theoretical approaches. Offers students an opportunity to use philosophical and economic theories to investigate what lying is, why people lie, when and why it is wrong to lie, how we can learn from other people even though they might be lying, and how social institutions affect—and are affected by—all of this lying. In modern society, we are confronted with lies, spin, fake news, and even “BS” on a daily basis. Since these forms of deception play such a central role in human life, many philosophers—including Plato, Augustine, and Kant—have studied the ontology, ethics, epistemology, economics, and logic of lying and deception.

Instructor: Getty Lustila

Meeting Time: Monday/Wednesday/Thursday 1:35pm-2:40pm

This course fulfills the following requirements:

• Philosophy BA Major  Elective
• Philosophy BS Major Elective

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Interpreting Culture.

Description: Explore Native American and Indigenous philosophical thought. Consider storytelling as a philosophical method, the politics of tribal sovereignty, land-based ethics, attempts to decolonize sex and gender, Indigenous futurisms, and more. Examine the place of Indigenous politics and thought in the modern nation-state and in an increasingly global world. Requires prior completion of one philosophy course.

Instructor: Jacob Stump

Meeting Time: M/W 2:50pm-4:30pm

Attribute(s): NUpath Ethical Reasoning

This course fulfills the following requirements:

• Philosophy Major elective
• Philosophy Minor elective
• Ethics Minor elective
• Information Ethics Minor elective

Description: Explores central philosophical questions about the emotions. Analyzes what an emotion is and if an emotion is more like a feeling, a belief, or a perception. Discusses if it is irrational to have an emotion that you think that you should not have and what it means for an emotion to be rational in the first place. What does it mean for an emotion to be morally good? How can we know when to trust an emotion? Emphasizes moral psychology and the contributions of neuroscience. Requires prior completion of two philosophy courses.

Instructor: William DeAngelis (w.deangelis@northeastern.edu)

Meeting Time: MWR 4:35-5:40pm

This course fulfills the following requirements:

• Philosophy Major elective
• Philosophy Minor elective
• Ethics Minor elective

Description: Provides the student the opportunity to learn to recognize, appreciate, and criticize philosophical themes in literature. Includes readings from acknowledged classics by philosophical authors. Requires prior completion of two philosophy courses.

Instructor: Fadeke Castor

Meeting Time: MW 2:50-4:30pm

This course fulfills the following requirements:

• Philosophy Major elective
• Philosophy Minor elective

Description: Explore the intersection of religion, race, and political power in Rastafari, Black Islam and the Movement for Black Lives. Through a variety of methods, such as cultural history, ethnography, and lived religions, explore the social and cultural categories of our historical and contemporary worlds with particular attention to marginalized histories. Religion is explored as a social category that reproduces existing relations of power while alternatively supporting social revolution and change.

Instructor: Sina Fazelpour

Sequence: Tuesday/Friday 1:35-3:15pm

This course can be used for the following requirements:

• Philosophy Major elective
• Philosophy Minor elective
• Ethics Minor elective
• Information Ethics Minor elective

Description: Examines the societal impact of artificial intelligence technologies and prominent strategies for aligning these impacts with social and ethical values. Offers multidisciplinary readings to provide conceptual lenses for understanding these technologies in their contexts of use.

Instructor: Branden Fitelson (b.fitelson@northeastern.edu)

Meeting Time: Tuesday/Friday 3:25-5:05pm

This course can be used for the following requirements:

• Philosophy Major elective
• Philosophy Minor elective
• Ethics Minor elective
• Information Ethics Minor elective

Description: Studies the major results in the metatheory of first-order logic. Examines consistency, completeness, and decidability. Discusses the general notion of an effectively computable process, Church’s thesis, and the existence of unsolvable problems.

Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1115 with a minimum grade of D-

Instructor: Serena Parekh (s.parekh@northeastern.edu)

Sequence: Thursday 4:35p-7:35pm

Attribute(s): NUpath Capstone Experience, NUpath Ethical Reasoning, NUpath Societies/Institutions, NUpath Writing Intensive

This course can be used for the following requirements:

• PPE Major capstone
• Philosophy Major elective
• Philosophy Minor elective
• Religious Studies Major elective
• Religious Studies Minor elective
• Ethics Minor elective
• Information Ethics Minor elective

Description: Explores the theoretical, political, and philosophical foundations of the obligations that underlie global justice. Theoretical approaches include human rights, human capabilities, cosmopolitanism, particularism, and universalism. Examines nationalism and the particular set of obligations that it generates. Following the theoretical component, the course considers social issues that arise in a global context: (1) the duties to the distant poor, (2) global philanthropy and problems of donee accountability, (3) global health and essential medicines and issues in environmental justice, and (4) issues in international law.

Instructor: Kay Mathiesen

Sequence: Online

This course can be used for the following requirements:

• Philosophy Major elective
• Philosophy Minor elective
• Ethics Minor elective
• Information Ethics Minor elective

Description: Covers issues of justice and the public good in relation to the creation, collection, storage, analysis, processing, dissemination, and use of information. Discusses theories of justice and human rights, as well as ethical theories such as utilitarianism and principlism. Topics include intellectual and cultural property, freedom of expression, access to information, fair representation, and information privacy. Discusses how to create and use information technologies that promote individual flourishing and the public good while avoiding bias, exploitation, and manipulation.

Prerequisite(s): PHIL 1145 with a minimum grade of D- or PHIL 1300 with a minimum grade of D- or IS 1300 with a minimum grade of D- or graduate program admission

This course is cross-listed with WGSS 1271. 

Instructor: Elizabeth Bucar (e.bucar@northeastern.edu)

Meeting time: MWR 9:15am-10:20am

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Ethical Reasoning

This course fulfills the following requirements:

• Philosophy Major elective
• Philosophy Minor elective
• Religious Studies Major elective
• Religious Studies Minor elective
• Ethics Minor elective

Description: Explores approaches to gender, social organization of sexuality and gender, sexual ethics, and marriage in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Explores various sources within each tradition that serve as normative foundations, contemporary cultural and sociological dynamics that challenge those foundations, and psychological/existential considerations for understanding the general nature of human sexuality. Addresses how these traditions understand gender and gender roles, seek to shape and control interactions between men and women, regulate sexual relations outside of and within marriage, view sexuality education, regard homosexuality, and examine historical and contemporary approaches to marriage, divorce, and parenting. PHIL 1271 and WMNS 1271 are cross-listed.

Instructors: Adam Hosein (a.hosein@northeastern.edu) and Patricia Williams (p.williams@northeastern.edu)

Meeting time: Monday/Thursday 11:45am-1:25pm

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Societies/Institutions

This course can be used for the following requirements:

• PPE Major elective
• Philosophy Major elective
• Philosophy Minor elective
• Religious Studies Major elective
• Religious Studies Minor elective
• Ethics Minor elective

Description: Considers how philosophical tools can help us to understand the issues of race and racism. Controversies about these issues continue to play a crucial role in the public domain. Explores questions such as what is meant by the term race as a biological category; how has the meaning of “race” shifted with time and culture; what is racism (as well as racial injustice and racial discrimination and how should we understand its persistence in areas such as housing and policing); and what steps should be taken to end racism. Examines related phenomena, including xenophobia, ethnocentrism, and imperialism, as well as intersecting forms of oppression, such as sexism. Readings draw on both historical and contemporary sources. Requires two prior courses in philosophy or department permission to register.