PHIL 100: Critical Thinking and Writing

Units: 3
Prerequisites: ENGL 100 or ENGL 100H.
Acceptable for Credit: CSU, UC
Lecture 3 hours.
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring, and Summer

This course develops critical thinking skills that can be applied in all areas of life. It emphasizes effectively understanding, evaluating, and constructing written arguments. Topics include inductive and deductive reasoning, cognitive biases, fallacies, credibility, and explanations. Using examples from the news and social media, the Internet, advertising, political speeches, and other real-life examples from a variety of culturally diverse sources, students learn to distinguish between good and bad arguments and practice producing coherent argumentative essays in support of their beliefs.

PHIL 101: Introduction to Philosophy: Knowledge and Reality

Units: 3
Prerequisites: None
Enrollment Limitation: Not open to students with prior credit in PHIL 101H.
Acceptable for Credit: CSU, UC
Lecture 3 hours.
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring, and Summer

This introduction to philosophical inquiry emphasizes problems of knowledge and reality through the analysis of classical and contemporary works on such issues as free will, personhood, knowledge and belief, the existence of God, and the nature of reality. The course encourages students to think independently and formulate their own tentative conclusions. UC CREDIT LIMITATION: Credit for PHIL 101 or PHIL 101H. C-ID PHIL-100.

PHIL 101H: Introduction to Philosophy: Knowledge and Reality (Honors)

Units: 3
Prerequisites: None
Enrollment Limitation: Not open to students with prior credit in PHIL 101.
Acceptable for Credit: CSU, UC
Lecture 3 hours.
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

This course introduces students to the methods and topics of philosophy through the analysis and discussion of classical and contemporary works. It explores metaphysical and epistemological questions, such as free will, personhood, knowledge and belief, the existence of God, and the nature of reality. The course encourages students to think independently and rationally and to formulate their own tentative conclusions after considering several alternatives and objections to their positions. UC CREDIT LIMITATION: Credit for PHIL 101 or PHIL 101H. C-ID PHIL-100.

PHIL 102: Contemporary Moral Problems

Units: 3
Prerequisites: None
Acceptable for Credit: CSU, UC
Lecture 3 hours.
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

This course examines the nature of morality as it applies to a variety of personal and social issues through the reading and analysis of classical and contemporary works. It explores major ethical theories, including utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, natural law theory, social contract theories, and feminist ethics. The course emphasizes the application of ethical theory to contemporary moral issues, such as war, pornography, euthanasia, animal rights, and abortion. C-ID PHIL-120, LPPS-120.

PHIL 110: Introduction to Logic

Units: 3
Prerequisites: None
Enrollment Limitation: Not open to students with prior credit in PHIL 110H.
Acceptable for Credit: CSU, UC
Lecture 3 hours.
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

This course introduces propositional and predicate logic. Topics include deductive and inductive reasoning, validity, truth tables, translations, quantifiers, and proofs. This course is open to any student, but it may be of particular interest to philosophy, math, and computer science majors. UC CREDIT LIMITATION: Credit for PHIL 110 or PHIL 110H. C-ID PHIL-110.

PHIL 110H: Introduction to Logic (Honors)

Units: 3
Prerequisites: None
Enrollment Limitation: Not open to students with prior credit in PHIL 110.
Acceptable for Credit: CSU, UC
Lecture 3 hours.
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

This course introduces propositional and predicate logic and is intended for students who can benefit from greater depth and rigor. Topics include deductive and inductive reasoning, validity, truth tables, translations, quantifiers, and proofs. The course introduces more advanced problems and proof methods, and it may be of particular interest to philosophy, math, and computer science majors. UC CREDIT LIMITATION: Credit for PHIL 110 or PHIL 110H. C-ID PHIL-110.

PHIL 221: Philosophy of Religion

Units: 3
Prerequisites: None
Acceptable for Credit: CSU, UC
Lecture 3 hours.
Course Typically Offered: Spring

This course introduces the philosophical study of both religion and the central concepts found in Eastern and Western religious traditions, as well as traditions that fall outside the boundaries of such classical distinctions (e.g., Indigenous and Africana traditions). It encourages students to think rationally, critically, and independently about the beliefs of religious adherents. Topics include arguments for theism and atheism, the validity of religious experience, the problem(s) of evil, the meaning of karma, concepts of God and Ultimate Reality, the possibility of miracles, and the value of religion.

PHIL 292: Internship Studies

Units: 0.5-14
Prerequisites: None
Corequisite: Complete 54 hours of work per unit, paid or unpaid.
Enrollment Limitation: Instructor, dept chair, and Career Center approval. Fourteen unit maximum in any combination of work experience education and/or internship studies per semester.
Acceptable for Credit: CSU
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring, and Summer

This course provides students the opportunity to apply the theories and techniques of their discipline in an internship position in a professional setting under the instruction of a faculty-mentor and site supervisor. It introduces students to aspects of the roles and responsibilities of professionals employed in the field of study. Topics include goal-setting, employability skills development, and examination of the world of work as it relates to the student's career plans. Students must develop new learning objectives and/or work/intern at a new site upon each enrollment.

PHIL 296: Topics in Philosophy

Units: 1-3
Prerequisites: None
Acceptable for Credit: CSU
Lecture 1 hour.
Lecture 2 hours.
Lecture 3 hours.
Course Typically Offered: To be arranged

This course gives students an opportunity to study topics in Philosophy that are not included in regular course offerings. Each Topics course is announced, described, and given its own title and 296 number designation in the class schedule.

PHIL 302: Bioethics

Units: 3
Prerequisites: None
Enrollment Limitation: Only open to students enrolled in the bachelor's degree program in biomanufacturing at MiraCosta College.
Lecture 3 hours.
Course Typically Offered: Fall or Spring

This course examines the application of ethical theory to issues in biology and medicine through case studies and classical and contemporary readings in ethical theory and applied ethics. It explores major ethical theories, including utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, natural law theory, social contract theories, and feminist ethics, as they apply to contemporary issues in biology and medicine, such as cloning, transplantation, defining life and death, genetic testing and manipulation, the ethical conduct of research and experimentation, and the just distribution of scarce medical resources. This course is open only to students enrolled in the bachelor's degree program in biomanufacturing at MiraCosta College.