Outside Electives

This is a list of courses that are approved as outside electives for the purposes of the Philosophy major. Courses marked with an asterisk (*) may or may not qualify, depending on the contact: please contact the Undergraduate Advisor with a syllabus. Note that at most one outside elective can be used to satisfy major requirements. For more details, see “How do I count a course in another department as a philosophy elective?” in the FAQs.

African American Studies

• 100. Black Intellectual Thought
• 111. Race, Class, and Gender in the United States
• 121.* Black Political Life in the United States
• 123. Social and Political Thought in the Diaspora
• 124. Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr.
• 138. Black Nationalism
• C156.* Race Space and Inequality

* Contact the Undergraduate Advisor with a syllabus to make sure the current version qualifies.

AGRS

• 163. Topics in Greek Philosophy
• 130S. The God of the Philosophers in Ancient Greece

Anthropology

• 149. Psychological Anthropology
• 155. Modernity
• 156B. Culture and Power
• 158. Anthropology of Religion
• 166. Language, Culture and Society

Arabic

• 108. Islamic Religious and Philosophical Texts in Arabic

Asian-American Studies

• 132AC. Islamophobia and Constructing Otherness
• 151AC.* Asian-American Women: Theory and Experience

* Contact the Undergraduate Advisor with a syllabus to make sure the current version qualifies.

Astronomy

• C161. Relativistic Astrophysics and Cosmology

Bioengineering

• 100. Ethics in Science and Engineering

Buddhist studies

• C113. Buddhist Thought in India
• 114. Tibetan Buddhism
• C115. Japanese Buddhism
• C117.* Mongolian Buddhism
• 128C. Buddhism in Contemporary Society
• C130. Zen Buddhism
• C132. Pure Land Buddhism
• C140. Readings in Chinese Buddhist Texts
• C141. Introductory Readings in Japanese Buddhist Texts
• 190. Moral Philosophy and Action Theory in Indian Buddhism (however, if 190 is taught with a different title, please check with the FUA)

* Contact the Undergraduate Advisor with a syllabus to make sure the current version qualifies.

Celtic Studies

• 168.* Celtic Mythology and Oral Tradition
• 171.* Celtic Romanticism

* Contact the Undergraduate Advisor with a syllabus to make sure the current version qualifies.

Chicano Studies

• 110. Latina/o Philosophy and Religious Thought
• 141.* Chicana Feminist Writers and Discourse

* Contact the Undergraduate Advisor with a syllabus to make sure the current version qualifies.

Chinese

• 130. Topics in Daoism
• C140. Readings in Chinese Buddhist Texts
• C185. Introduction to Chinese Philosophy
• 186. Confucius and His Interpreters

Cognitive Science

• C100. Basic Issues in Cognition
• C101. The Mind and Language
• C102. Scientific Approaches to Consciousness
• C108. The Challenge of Cognitive Science to Western Philosophy
• C110. The Neural Basis of Thought and Language
• C124. Psycholinguistics
• C126. Perception
• C127. Cognitive Neuroscience
• C131. Computational Models of Cognition
• C142. Language and Thought

Comparative Literature

• 151.* The Ancient Mediterranean World
• 152.* The Middle Ages
• 154.* Eighteenth- and 19th-Century Literature

* Contact the Undergraduate Advisor with a syllabus to make sure the current version qualifies.

Computer Science

• 170. Efficient Algorithms and Intractable Problems
• 172. Computability and Complexity
• 188. Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

East Asian Languages and Cultures

• 110. Bio-ethical Issues in East Asian Thought
• C126. Buddhism and the Environment
• C128.* Buddhism in Contemporary Society
• 191.* Tools and Methods in the Study of East Asian Philosophies and Religions

* Contact the Undergraduate Advisor with a syllabus to make sure the current version qualifies.

Economics

• 105. History of Economic Thought
• C110. Game Theory in the Social Sciences
• 119. Psychology and Economics

Education

• 184. Philosophical Foundations of Education

Engineering

• 125. Ethics, Engineering, and Society

English

• 166/4. Special Topics: Marxism and Literature
• 177. Literature and Philosophy: Surveillance, Paranoia, and State Power

Environmental Science, Policy, and Management

• 151. Society, Environment, and Culture
• 161. Environmental Philosophy and Ethics
• 162. Bioethics and Society

Ethnic Studies

• 173AC.* Indigenous Peoples in Global Inequality
• 182AC.* Race, Rights and Citizenship
• C126. Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality

* Contact the Undergraduate Advisor with a syllabus to make sure the current version qualifies.

French

• 116A,B.* Sixteenth-Century Literature: Marot to Montaigne
• 117A,B.* Seventeenth-Century Literature
• 118A,B.* Eighteenth-Century Literature
• 119A,B.* Nineteenth-Century Literature
• 120A,B.* Twentieth-Century Literature

* Contact the Undergraduate Advisor with a syllabus to make sure the current version qualifies.

Gender and Women’s Studies

• 102. Transnational Feminisms
• 103. Identities Across Difference
• 104. Feminist Theory
• 129. Bodies and Boundaries
• 131. Gender and Science
• 140. Feminist Cultural Studies
• C138. Gender and Capitalism

Geography

• 110.* Economic Geography of the Industrial World
• 123.* Postcolonial Geographies
• 125.* The American City
• C155.* Race, Space, and Inequality

* Contact the Undergraduate Advisor with a syllabus to make sure the current version qualifies.

German

• C113.* Western Mysticism: Religion, Art, and Literature
• 140.* Romanticism
• 157. German Intellectual History in a European Context: Historical Figures and Contemporary Reflections

* Contact the Undergraduate Advisor with a syllabus to make sure the current version qualifies.

Global Studies

• 173. International Human Rights

Greek

• 100. Plato and Attic Prose
• 123. Plato and Aristotle

Health and Medical Sciences

• C133.* Death, Dying, and Modern Medicine: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

* Contact the Undergraduate Advisor with a syllabus to make sure the current version qualifies.

History

• C157. The Renaissance and the Reformation
• 164. Modern European Intellectual History
• 164C. European Intellectual History 1870 to the Present
• 172. Russian Intellectual History
• 180. The Life Sciences since 1750
• 181. Topics in the History of the Physical Sciences
• 185. History of Christianity.
• 185A. History of Christianity to 1250.
• 185B. History of Christianity from 1250.
• C187. The History and Practice of Human Rights.

Industrial Engineering

• 166. Decision Analysis

Integrative Biology

• 160. Evolution

Interdisciplinary Studies

• 100B: Interdisciplinary Theories of the Self
• 100E. The Globalization of Rights, Values, and Laws in the 21st Century
• 100F. Theorizing Modern Capitalism: Controversies and Interpretations
• 100G. Introduction to Science, Society, and Ethics

Latin

• 100.* Republican Prose
• 116.* Lucretius, Vergil’s Georgics
• 120.* Latin Prose to AD 14
• 122.* Post-Augustan Prose
• 140.* Medieval Latin
• 155A.* Readings in Medieval Latin

* Contact the Undergraduate Advisor with a syllabus to make sure the current version qualifies.

Legal Studies

• 103. Theories of Law and Society
• 105. Theoretical Foundations of Criminal Law
• 106. Philosophy of Law
• 107. Theories of Justice
• 116. Legal Discourse 1500–1700
• 119. Philosophy and Law in Ancient Athens
• 120. Philosophies of Punishment: Ancient to Modern
• 140. Property and Liberty
• 151. Law, Self, and Society
• 152AC. Human Rights and Technology
• 154. International Human Rights
• 181. Psychology and the Law
• 182. Law, Politics and Society
• 189. Feminist Jurisprudence

Letters and Science

• 160B. Effective Personal Ethics for the 21st Century

Linguistics

• 100. Introduction to Linguistic Science
• C105. The Mind and Language
• 106. Metaphor
• C108. The Challenge of Cognitive Science to Western Philosophy
• C109. The Neural Basis of Thought and Language
• 120. Introduction to Syntax and Semantics
• 121. Logical Semantics
• 122. Language Typology and Linguistic Universals
• 123. Pragmatics

Mathematics

• 125A. Mathematical Logic
• 135. Introduction to the Theory of Sets
• 136. Incompleteness and Undecidability
• 160. History of Mathematics
• 189. Mathematical Methods in Classical and Quantum Mechanics

Media Studies

• 104A. The First Amendment and the Press

Music

• 129. Music and Meaning

Native American Studies

• 151. Native American Philosophy

Near Eastern Studies

• 140. Topics in Islamic Thought and Institutions
• 144. Sufism
• 146A,B. Islam
• 160. Religions of Ancient Iran

Peace and Conflict Studies

• 126. International Human Rights
• 127. Human Rights and Global Politics

Physics

• 137A,B. Quantum Mechanics
• 139. Special Relativity and General Relativity

Political Economy

• 100. Classical Theories of Political Economy
• N101. Contemporary Theories of Political Economy

Political Science

• 112B. History of Political Theory
• 112C. History of Political Theory
• 112D. History of European Political Theory: The 20th Century
• 113A,B. American Political Theory
• 114A. Theories of Governance: Late 20th Century
• 124C. Ethics and Justice in International Affairs
• 157A,B. Constitutional Law of the United States

Psychology (see also Cognitive Science)

• 114. Biology of Learning
• 122. Introduction to Human Learning and Memory
• 140. Developmental Psychology
• 143. Language Acquisition
• 150. Psychology of Personality
• 156. Human Emotion
• 160. Social Psychology
• 162. Human Happiness
• 164. Social Cognition
• 166AC. Cultural Psychology.

Public Health

• 116. Seminar on Social, Political and Ethical Issues in Health and Medicine

Public Policy

• C103. Wealth and Poverty
• 117AC. Race, Ethnicity, and Public Policy

Religious Studies

• C124. The Renaissance and the Reformation
• 130. Introduction to Judaism
• C132. Jewish Civilization I: The Biblical Period
• C133. Judaism in Late Antiquity
• C135. Jewish Civilization: Modern Period
• C161. Religion in Early India
• 173AC. Gandhi and the Civil Rights Movement in America

Rhetoric

• 103A. Approaches and Paradigms in the History of Rhetorical Theory.
• 103B. Approaches and Paradigms in the History of Rhetorical Theory II
• 104: On the Soul: Psychic Life from Plato to Freud
• 106: Ethics without Morals: Nietzsche and Adorno
• 107: Rhetoric of Scientific Discourse
• 108. Rhetoric of Philosophical Discourse
• 117. Language, Truth and Dialogue
• 136. Theory of the Copy
• 152. Rhetoric of Constitutional Discourse
• 155. Discourses of Colonialism and Postcoloniality
• 157A. Rhetoric of Modern Political Theory
• 157B. Rhetoric of Contemporary Political Theory
• 158. Advanced Problems in the Rhetoric of Political Theory
• 159A. Great Theorists in the Rhetoric of Political and Legal Theory
• 159B. Great Themes in the Rhetoric of Contemporary Political and Legal Theory
• 165. Rhetoric of Legal Philosophy
• 167. Advanced Themes in Legal Theory, Philosophy, Argumentation

Scandinavian

• 116.* Studies in Prose
• 180. Section 1. The Works, Context, and Legacy of Søren Kierkegaard

* Contact the Undergraduate Advisor with a syllabus to make sure the current version qualifies.

Sociology

• 140. Politics and Social Change

South Asian Studies

• 140. Hindu Mythology

Statistics

• 155. Game Theory

Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Studies

• 110. Introduction to Disability Studies