Department of Philosophy
Minor in Philosophy
Students on Summer 2020, Fall 2020, or Spring 2021 requirements PHILMIN
Requirements
The minor requires at least 15 credit hours, including the requirements listed below.
- Areas of Study. At least four (4) courses selected from at least three (3) different areas of study. At least two (2) courses must be taken in one area.
- Logic.
- PHIL-P 250 Introductory Symbolic Logic
- PHIL-P 251 Intermediate Symbolic Logic
- PHIL-P 350 Logic of Sets
- PHIL-P 352 Logic and Philosophy
PHIL-P 250 Introductory Symbolic Logic
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Propositional logic and first-order quantificational logic.
- Repeatability
- No credit for PHIL-P 150 if PHIL-P 250 taken first or concurrently.
- Spring 2025CASE NMcourseFall 2024CASE NMcourse
PHIL-P 251 Intermediate Symbolic Logic
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- PHIL-P 250 or consent of instructor
- Description
- Identity, definite descriptions, properties of formal theories, elementary set theory.
- Spring 2025CASE NMcourseFall 2024CASE NMcourse
PHIL-P 350 Logic of Sets
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- PHIL-P 250 or consent of instructor
- Description
- Elementary operations on sets, relations, functions, orderings, introduction to ordinal and cardinal numbers.
PHIL-P 352 Logic and Philosophy
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- PHIL-P 250 or consent of instructor
- Description
- Relation of logic to other areas of philosophy. Selected topics from among the following: logic and ontology; logic and language; logic, reasoning, and belief; intentionality and intentional logic; tense and modal logic; individuation, reference, identity.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Ethics and Value Theory.
- PHIL-P 242 Applied Ethics
- PHIL-P 246 Introduction to Philosophy and Art
- PHIL-P 332 Feminism and Value
- PHIL-P 340 Classics in Ethics
- PHIL-P 342 Problems of Ethics
- PHIL-P 343 Classics in Social and Political Philosophy
- PHIL-P 345 Problems in Social and Political Philosophy
- PHIL-P 346 Classics in Philosophy of Art
- PHIL-P 347
- PHIL-P 375 Philosophy of Law
- PHIL-P 393 Biomedical Ethics
PHIL-P 242 Applied Ethics
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Application of moral theory to a variety of personal, social, and political contexts, such as world hunger, nuclear weapons, social justice, life-and-death decisions, and problems in medical ethics.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 246 Introduction to Philosophy and Art
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Introduction to the philosophical study of art and the relationship between art and philosophy. Topics include the nature of a work of art, the role of emotions in art, the interpretation and appreciation of art, and the way philosophy is expressed in art.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 332 Feminism and Value
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours in philosophy or advanced work in a field related to the course topic. Students without this background should take PHIL-P 103
- Description
- Selected topics from philosophical feminism. Topics may include gender and its relationship to sex; the relationship among sexism, feminism and sexuality; theories of the institutions through which sexist norms are perpetuated and reified and of the intersections and interactions amongst sexism, classism, racism and heterosexism. Focus is on philosophical frameworks underlying feminist theorizing.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 340 Classics in Ethics
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours in philosophy or 300-level work in a related field such as religious studies, political theory, or intellectual history. Students without this background should take PHIL-P 140
- Description
- Readings from Plato and Aristotle to Kant, Mill, and Nietzsche. Topics include virtue and human nature, pleasure and the good, the role of reason in ethics, the objectivity of moral principles, and the relation of religion to ethics.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 342 Problems of Ethics
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours in Philosophy or 300-level work in a related field such as religious studies or political theory. Students without this background should take PHIL-P 140
- Description
- May concentrate on a single large issue (e.g., whether utilitarianism is an adequate ethical theory), or several more or less independent issues (e.g., the nature of goodness, the relation of good to ought, the objectivity of moral judgments, moral responsibility, moral emotions, concepts of virtue, cultural conflicts of value, the nature of moral discourse).
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 343 Classics in Social and Political Philosophy
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours in philosophy
- Description
- Readings from Plato and Aristotle to Hobbes, Locke, Hegel, and Marx. Topics include the ideal state, the nature and proper ends of the state, natural law and natural right, social contract theory, and the notion of community.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 345 Problems in Social and Political Philosophy
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours in Philosophy or in a field related to the course. Students without this background should take PHIL-P 145
- Description
- Problems of contemporary relevance: civil disobedience, participatory democracy, conscience and authority, law and morality.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 346 Classics in Philosophy of Art
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours in philosophy
- Description
- Readings from Plato and Aristotle to Nietzsche and Dewey. Topics include the definition of art, the nature of beauty, and art and society.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 375 Philosophy of Law
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours of philosophy
- Description
- Selective survey of philosophical problems concerning law and the legal system. Topics include nature and validity of law, morality and law, legal obligation, judicial decision, rights, justice, responsibility, and punishment.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 393 Biomedical Ethics
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- A philosophical consideration of ethical problems that arise in current biomedical practice, e.g., with regard to abortion, euthanasia, determination of death, consent to treatment, and professional responsibilities in connection with research, experimentation, and health care delivery.
- History of philosophy.
- PHIL-P 201 Ancient Greek Philosophy
- PHIL-P 205
- PHIL-P 211 Early Modern Philosophy
- PHIL-P 301 Medieval Philosophy
- PHIL-P 304 19th Century Philosophy
- PHIL-P 305 Topics in the Philosophy of Judaism
- PHIL-P 319 American Pragmatism
- PHIL-P 328 Philosophies of India
- PHIL-P 330 Marxist Philosophy
- PHIL-P 335 Phenomenology and Existentialism
- PHIL-P 374 Early Chinese Philosophy
PHIL-P 201 Ancient Greek Philosophy
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours of philosophy
- Description
- Selective survey of ancient Greek philosophy (pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle).
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE GCCcourseFall 2024CASE GCCcourse
PHIL-P 211 Early Modern Philosophy
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours in Philosophy
- Description
- Selective survey of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century philosophy, including some or all of the following: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 301 Medieval Philosophy
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours in philosophy
- Description
- A selective survey of Western philosophy from the turn of the Christian era to the end of the Middle Ages. Readings from some or all of Augustine, Boethius, Anselm, Abelard, Bonaventure, Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and Ockham.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE GCCcourseFall 2024CASE GCCcourse
PHIL-P 304 19th Century Philosophy
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours in philosophy
- Description
- Selective survey of post-Kantian philosophy. Readings from some or all of Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, Mill, and Nietzsche.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 305 Topics in the Philosophy of Judaism
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours of philosophy
- Description
- Comparative analysis of two or more Jewish philosophers; or selected topics in the philosophical treatment of contemporary Jewish experience; or topics in the history of Jewish philosophy.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated once with different topic.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 319 American Pragmatism
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours of philosophy
- Description
- Examination of the central doctrines of Peirce, James, Dewey, Mead.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 328 Philosophies of India
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Historical and critical-analytic survey of the major traditions of Indian philosophy. Attention to early philosophizing and the emergence of the classical schools in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions. Attention also to contemporary thought in India including critical theory and subaltern theorizing.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of PHIL-P 328 or REL-R 368.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 330 Marxist Philosophy
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours of philosophy
- Description
- An examination of major philosophical issues in the light of Marxist theory. Historical materialism and the critique of idealism in metaphysics, the theory of knowledge, ethics, and social science. Discussion of both classical and contemporary sources.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 335 Phenomenology and Existentialism
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours in philosophy or advanced work in a related field
- Description
- An overview of the main problems, themes, and foundational texts of Phenomenology and Existentialism, as well as intensive study of the writings of several of the most prominent thinkers in these movements. Selected readings from Buber, Camus, de Beauvoir, Heidegger, Husserl, Jaspers, Kierkegaard, Marcel, Merleau-Ponty, Nietzsche, Sartre, and others.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 374 Early Chinese Philosophy
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Origins of Chinese philosophical traditions in the classical schools of Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, and Legalism. Explores contrasting agendas of early Chinese and Western traditions.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of EALC-E 374, PHIL-P 374, REL-B 374, or REL-R 368.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Epistemology and Metaphysics.
- PHIL-P 310 Topics in Metaphysics
- PHIL-P 312 Topics in the Theory of Knowledge
- PHIL-P 320 Philosophy of Language
- PHIL-P 360 Philosophy of Mind
- PHIL-P 366 Philosophy of Action
PHIL-P 310 Topics in Metaphysics
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours in philosophy
- Description
- Topics such as existence, individuation, contingency, universals and particulars, causality, determinism, space, time, events and change, relation of mental and physical.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 312 Topics in the Theory of Knowledge
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours in philosophy
- Description
- Topics such as various theories of perceptual realism, sense-datum theories, theories of appearing, phenomenalism, the nature of knowledge, the relation between knowledge and belief, relation between knowledge and evidence, and the problem of skepticism.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 320 Philosophy of Language
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: PHIL-P 250 (or another logic course involving formal languages and methods, such as COGS-Q 350 or MATH-M 384) and at least one other course in Philosophy. Students who have not successfully completed a course in logic may find this course difficult
- Description
- A study of selected philosophical problems concerning language and their bearing on traditional problems in philosophy.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 360 Philosophy of Mind
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours of philosophy or coursework in cognitive science or brain and psychological science
- Description
- Selected topics from among the following: the nature of mental phenomena (e.g., thinking, volition, perception, emotion); the mind-body problem (e.g., dualism, behaviorism, functionalism); connections to cognitive science issues in psychology, linguistics, and artificial intelligence; computational theories of mind.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 366 Philosophy of Action
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours of philosophy
- Description
- The nature of human and rational action: the structure of intentions and practical consciousness; the role of the self in action; volitions; the connections of desires, needs, and purposes to intentions and doings; causation and motivation; freedom; the structure of deliberation; rational actions and duties, whether moral or institutional.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Special Topics.
- PHIL-P 270 Introductory Topics in Philosophy
- PHIL-P 300
- PHIL-P 348 Philosophy and Literature
- PHIL-P 363 Philosophy and Psychoanalysis
- PHIL-P 370 Topics in Philosophy
- PHIL-P 371 Philosophy of Religion
- PHIL-P 376 Leadership and Philosophy
- PHIL-P 401 History of Philosophy: Special Topics
- PHIL-P 470
- PHIL-X 490 Readings in Philosophy
PHIL-P 270 Introductory Topics in Philosophy
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Topics vary.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 348 Philosophy and Literature
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- A study of philosophical issues raised by and in literature. Special emphasis on reading works of literature as texts of philosophical interest.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 363 Philosophy and Psychoanalysis
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours in Philosophy
- Description
- A critical study of the basis and philosophical implications of psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice. Topics may include psychodynamic models of the mind, arguments for the dynamic unconscious, unconscious motivation and rational action, emotion, gender, sexuality, autonomy, self-knowledge.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 370 Topics in Philosophy
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours of philosophy
- Description
- A survey of selected topics or figures in an area of philosophy (areas vary).
- Repeatability
- May be repeated with different topics for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 371 Philosophy of Religion
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours of philosophy or religious studies
- Description
- Topics such as the nature of religion, religious experience, the status of claims of religious knowledge, the nature and existence of God.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-P 376 Leadership and Philosophy
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Allegiance to a philosophical vision of "the right" and "the good" seems to be an important foundation for successful leadership. This course aims to study the connections between leadership and philosophy, by focusing on diverse and illuminating case studies of philosophically-informed leaders such as George Washington, Mahatma Gandhi, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
PHIL-P 401 History of Philosophy: Special Topics
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 6 credit hours of philosophy. This course will be difficult for students who have not taken a 300-level philosophy course
- Description
- A focused look at a particular thinker, movement, period, or set of ideas in the history of philosophy.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
PHIL-X 490 Readings in Philosophy
- Credits
- 1–3 credit hours
- Prerequisites
- Consent of instructor.
- Notes
- R: 9 credit hours philosophy
- Description
- Intensive study of selected authors, topics, and problems.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated for a maximum of 9 credit hours in PHIL-P 490 and PHIL-X 490.
- Logic.
- Elective. Additional courses, as needed, to complete remaining requirements:
- Any PHIL-P 100–199
- Any PHIL-P 200–299
- Any PHIL-P 300–399
- Any PHIL-P 400–499 except PHIL-P 497
- Any PHIL-X 400–499
- Minor GPA, Hours, and Minimum Grade Requirements.
- Minor GPA. A GPA of at least 2.000 for all courses taken in the minor—including those where a grade lower than C- is earned—is required.
- Minor Minimum Grade. Except for the GPA requirement, a grade of C- or higher is required for a course to count toward a requirement in the minor.
- Minor Upper Division Credit Hours. At least 9 credit hours in the minor must be completed at the 300–499 level.
- Minor Residency. At least 9 credit hours in the minor must be completed in courses taken through the Indiana University Bloomington campus or an IU-administered or IU co-sponsored Overseas Study program.
Minor Area Courses
-
Unless otherwise noted below, the following courses are considered in the academic program and will count toward academic program requirements as appropriate:
- Any course at the 100–499 level with the
PHIL
subject area prefix—as well as any other subject areas that are deemed functionally equivalent - Any course contained on the course lists for the academic program requirements at the time the course is taken—as well as any other courses that are deemed functionally equivalent—except for those listed only under Addenda Requirements
- Any course directed to a non-Addenda requirement through an approved exception
- Any course at the 100–499 level with the
Exclusions
The following courses cannot be applied toward minor requirements:
Restrictions
The following restrictions apply to the minimum credit hours required in the minor:
- No more than one (1) PHIL-P 100–199 level course may count toward the minor.
This program of study cannot be combined with the following:
- Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy (PHILBA)
- Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Political Science (PHILPOLSBA)
- Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Religious Studies (PHILRELBA)
- Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Philosophy (POLSPHILBA)
- Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies and Philosophy (RELPHILBA)
- Minor in Philosophy of Mind and Cognition (PHILMCMIN)
- Minor in Philosophy of the Arts (PHILARMIN)
Exceptions to and substitutions for minor requirements may be made with the approval of the unit's Director of Undergraduate Studies, subject to final approval by the College of Arts and Sciences.