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Spring 2022 Course Offerings

Spring 2022 courses are now posted online. We are offering a few new courses and seminars, and detailed information is below. Please note that the following information is subject to change.  

For the most up-to-date and comprehensive course schedule, including meeting times, course additions, cancellations, and room assignments, refer to the Banner Class Schedule on the Registrar’s website. For curriculum information, see the Undergraduate Full-Time Day Programs catalog.

Banner listings go live on October 25. The first day of spring registration is November 15 for continuing undergraduate students (see the Academic Calendar). Students can check their time ticket for registration via myNortheastern (click here for instructions).

New Courses

Professor: Mark Wells (m.wells@northeastern.edu)

Sequence: G (T/F 3:25pm-5:05pm)

This course can be used for the following requirements:

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

Prerequisites: Must have permission of the instructor or Junior, Senior, or Graduate standing to enroll in this course.

Description: Concentrates on ethical and philosophical issues about war and peace. Focuses on the nature and justification of war, moral questions about tactics in war, ideas for avoiding war, concepts of and strategies for attaining peace, and the morality of relations between nations.

Professor: Sheila Winborne (s.winborne@northeastern.edu)

Sequence: M 4:35pm-7:50pm

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

This course can be used for the following requirements:

  • Politics, Philosophy and Economics Major – Racial Justice Concentration
  • Religious Studies Major elective
  • Religious Studies Minor elective
  • Philosophy Major elective
  • Philosophy Minor elective
  • Ethics Minor elective

Description: Explores how relationships between historical and contemporary representations of African Americans, other persons of the African Diaspora, and the continent of Africa have been presented in film in relation to religious themes. Offers an interdisciplinary study in how race and religion are represented in ways that reflect and actively contribute to real-world faith beliefs, experiences, and actions. Critically examines how representations of “the Other” compared to “the chosen” relate to the intersectionality of race, religion, class, national origin, gender, sex, and sexuality. Provides a framework for ethical analysis of how societal institutionalized systems of power influence beliefs about racialized identities and religion.

Professor: Don Fallis (d.fallis@northeastern.edu)

Sequence: 2 (M/W/R  9:15am-10:20am)

Attribute(s): NUpath Analyzing/Using Data, NUpath Formal/Quant Reasoning

This course can be used for the following requirements:

  • Politics, Philosophy and Economics Major – Logic and Game Theory Concentration
  • Information Ethics Minor elective
  • Ethics Minor elective
  • Philosophy Major elective
  • Philosophy Minor elective

Description: In an uncertain world, we can rarely be absolutely sure of anything. But in order to make good decisions, we still need to draw reliable conclusions about things that we can’t observe directly from imperfect (noisy) information. For instance, how can we determine a patient’s disease from their symptoms and test results? How can we keep track of an autonomous vehicle’s location just using sensor readings?

In this course, we’ll explore formal methods, such as Bayes’s Theorem, Shannon’s Information Theory, and Probabilistic Graphical Models, for drawing inferences in an uncertain world. We’ll practice these methods by solving a number of fun and instructive probability puzzles, such as the Monty Hall Problem and the Frog Riddle. And we’ll use the Python programming language as a tool for understanding and implementing these methods. No prior knowledge of programming or Python will be assumed.

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

Sequence: D (T/F 9:50am-11:30am)

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

Prerequisites: Two prior courses in philosophy or instructor permission.

This course can be used for the following requirements:

  • Politics, Philosophy and Economics Major – Core Philosophy Course, Racial Justice Concentration
  • Ethics Minor elective
  • Philosophy Major elective
  • Philosophy Minor elective
  • Information 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.

Professor: Matthew Smith (ma.smith@northeastern.edu)

Sequence: F (T/F 1:35pm-3:15pm)

Attribute(s): NUpath Capstone Experience

Prerequisites: Junior, Senior, or Graduate standing or instructor permission.

This course can be used for the following requirements:

  • Politics, Philosophy and Economics Major – Capstone Course, Law and Justice Concentration, Political Philosophy Concentration, Public and Economic Policy Concentration
  • Philosophy Major elective
  • Philosophy Minor elective
  • Ethics Minor elective
  • Information Ethics Minor elective

Description: Offers students from multiple disciplines an opportunity to obtain training in basic methodology in analytic ethics and political philosophy. Focuses on the intersection of ethical analysis and policy evaluation. Organized around different policy areas, such as energy production and distribution, urban planning, healthcare provision, criminal justice, and artificial intelligence. Engages broad issues involving the relationship between ethics and public policy, as well as the scope and limits of legitimate government authority. Looks at specific policies and policy domains and offers students multiple theoretical frameworks for approaching ethical questions embedded in those policy areas.

Seminars

Professor: Jacob Stump (jacob.stump@northeastern.edu)

Sequence: M 4:35pm-7:35pm

Attribute(s): NUpath Capstone Experience, NUpath Writing Intensive, NU Core Experiential Learning

Prerequisites: Prior completion of three philosophy or religion courses, or instructor permission.

This course can be used for the following requirements:

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

Description: This course is an investigation of ancient Stoicism, a school of Hellenistic philosophy that considered the best life to be the virtuous life. The main question of the course is whether that is true. We will try to answer it by careful analysis of Stoic arguments in the fields of physics, psychology, and ethics. We will try to answer it also by practicing philosophy in the manner of the ancient Stoics, i.e., by practicing it as a way of life. Students should thus expect a combination of close reading, argument analysis, and experiments in living. The main assignment is a final project whose form will be decided in consultation with the professor.

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

Sequence: T 4:30pm-7:30pm

NU Path: Capstone Experience (CE) and Writing Intensive (WI)

Prerequisites: Prior completion of three philosophy or religion courses, or instructor permission.

This course can be used for the following requirements:

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

Description: This seminar explores in depth the philosophical traditions of the Warring States Period (479-221 BCE) in China, focusing on the lineages of Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism, Yangism, and Legalism. The class will examine the intellectual landscape of ancient China and consider the social and historic factors that led to the emergence of thinkers like Confucius, Zhuangzi, and Han Feizi. In addition to studying the primary texts of each school, the class will also review the commentarial tradition as well as contemporary accounts in the secondary literature to understand how these schools have historically been interpreted and which philosophical themes continue to animate discussions. To that end, the course will explore notions of virtue, community, the self, the social order, knowledge, and human flourishing among others. Most of all, we will be studying how these traditions imagined the good life, or how they engaged in disputations of the Way.

Global Philosophy and Religion

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

Sequence: M/W 2:50pm-4:30pm

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

This course can be used for the following requirements:

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

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.

Professor: Whitney Kelting (m.kelting@northeastern.edu)

Sequence: M/W/R 10:30am-11:35am

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

This course can be used for the following requirements:

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

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.

Professor: Whitney Kelting (m.kelting@northeastern.edu)

Sequence: M/R 11:45am-1:25pm

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

This course can be used for the following requirements:

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

Description: Explores Islam through its foundations narrative, rituals, doctrines, and ethical teachings. Presents Islam in terms of its diversity by focusing on a series of key debates in Islamic thought and practice from its early history to the present day in cross-cultural perspectives.

Professor: N. Fadeke Castor (n.castor@northeastern.edu)

Sequence: T/F 9:50am-11:30am

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

This course can be used for the following requirements:

  • Religious Studies Major elective
  • Religious Studies Minor elective

Description: Examines religious thought and rituals and its Diaspora in a comparative context. Topics include traditional religions, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism in Africa, and the Diaspora. Emphasizes the transformation of religions practiced in Africa when African captives were forced into the three slave trades affecting the continent of Africa: trans-Saharan, Indian Ocean, and transatlantic.

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

Sequence: T 4:30pm-7:30pm

NU Path: Capstone Experience (CE) and Writing Intensive (WI)

Prerequisites: Prior completion of three philosophy or religion courses, or instructor permission.

This course can be used for the following requirements:

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

Description: This seminar explores in depth the philosophical traditions of the Warring States Period (479-221 BCE) in China, focusing on the lineages of Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism, Yangism, and Legalism. The class will examine the intellectual landscape of ancient China and consider the social and historic factors that led to the emergence of thinkers like Confucius, Zhuangzi, and Han Feizi. In addition to studying the primary texts of each school, the class will also review the commentarial tradition as well as contemporary accounts in the secondary literature to understand how these schools have historically been interpreted and which philosophical themes continue to animate discussions. To that end, the course will explore notions of virtue, community, the self, the social order, knowledge, and human flourishing among others. Most of all, we will be studying how these traditions imagined the good life, or how they engaged in disputations of the Way.