Description History of petroleum geology, the occurrence of petroleum, source rock, migration and accumulation, reservoir rocks, reservoir pore space, reservoir fluids, stratigraphic traps, structural traps, hydrodynamic traps, combination traps, subsurface geology and mapping, and reservoir appraisal. Exploration engineering, gravity surveying, magnetic surveying, seismic data acquisition, seismic data. Introduction to logging and formation testing, hydrocarbon indicators, exploration risk, and analysis.
Description Basic petrophysical properties of reservoir rocks including porosity, permeability, fluid saturation, electrical properties, surface tension, wettability, capillary pressure, relative permeability, compressibility, and Other SCAL properties. Routine and core analysis and SCAL reports. Laboratory measurement of the reservoir rock properties.
Description Lab safety and core plug preparation, measurements of porosity, gas and liquid permeabilities, saturation, electrical properties of the rock, Dean stark and retort, surface tension (Amott Test), wettability, capillary pressure calculation, relative permeability, PVT analysis.
Description Basic concepts of, rig types, rig components, drilling tools, well head equipment, drilling fluids, practices of well drilling operations, drilling techniques and well control equipment. Fundamental concepts of rotary drilling bits, drill string, bottom-hole assembly, casing, cementing operations. Completion concepts, types, equipment, and work-over operations.
Description Basic petroleum fluid properties including petroleum fluid composition, phase behavior, phase envelopes, classification of reservoir fluids, ideal gas and real gas laws, z-factor, dry gas properties, modification for wet gases, black-oil PVT properties definition, PVT properties from correlations, oil formation volume factor and solution gas oil ratio corrections, and formation water properties. Fluid sampling. PVT and other reservoir fluid properties laboratory measurement and reporting.
Description This course covers the main methods to estimate oil-in-place and reserves such as volumetric methods and material balance. It explains the different natural drive mechanisms in reservoirs focusing on saturated, undersaturated, and gas reservoirs. The course covers the basics to understand the differences between steady-state, pseudo-steady state, and unsteady-state flow. Water influx calculations are also introduced. The course also introduces waterflood as a displacement mechanism.
Description The increased Importance of natural gas as an energy resource; The dynamics of Natural Gas Industry and differences from the oil industry; Properties of Natural Gas (wet gases and gas condensates); Estimating gas reserves for wet gases and gas condensates; fluid flow in Gas Reservoirs, p squared approach and Pseudo-Pressure m(p) approach; flow of gas through tubing and production pipes; introduction to gas processing.
Concurrent PENG 3228 Description This course provides the students with the understanding of the modern well logging tools, measurements, and interpretation. It starts with Borehole environment, environmental corrections of each measurement then the petrophysical evaluation of formation properties using the logging measurements. The evaluation part of the course covers the Clay volume and types, formation porosity and types, fluids distributions and types, rock mechanical properties, core to log calibration.
Concurrent PENG 3227 Description This course provides the students with hands-on applications on the material covered in the formation evaluation course. The applications are performed on industry petrophysical software(s). It includes Data Loading and Extracting, Borehole Environmental Corrections of all measurements for all service companies and Petrophysical Evaluation of all formation properties. The evaluation part of the laboratory covers the Clay volume and types, formation porosity and types, fluids distributions and types and core to log calibration.
Description Introduction and definition of well completion and workover, Types of completions and pros and cons of each type (OH, CH, CH cemented, Linear, ….etc), Surface (SWHs) and Downhole components of completions (equipment) (tbg, packers, bridge plugs, SSDs, SSSV, SCSSV, …etc) including the tubing design calculations, Coiled tubing/Wireline and coiled tubing operations, Stimulation (frac, acidizing and acid fracs), carbonate and sandstone acidizing, Perforation, Sand control/gravel pack, Formation damage, Workover fluid, Design completion of directional wells, Well completion economics, Lift systems.
Description The course covers production system components: inflow, outflow, and choke performance. Inflow Performance Relationships (IPR) for oil and gas wells are included. Nodal analysis of the entire production system is reviewed. Formation damage in vertical and horizontal wells and introduction to Well stimulation and artificial lift methods are covered. A review of production problems is covered.
Description The course covers fundamental concepts and definitions, properties of pure substances, the first and the second law of thermodynamics, steam power cycle, principles of phase equilibrium and its applications, and chemical equilibrium.
Description Basic energy calculations; material, mass, and energy balance; reaction rates during chemical transformations in energy systems. Energy storage; Regeneration.
When Offered Offered fall or spring. Notes This course can only be offered to students matriculated before fall 2015.
Description Principles of electrochemical conversion; Hydrogen production; Chemical and physical storage; Multicomponent storage systems; Efficiency of hydrogen energy; Principles of fuel cell technology; Fuel Reforming; types and design of fuel cells; fuel cell materials; efficiency and emissions.
When Offered Offered fall or spring. Notes This course can only be offered to students matriculated before fall 2015.
Description Fundamentals and basic understanding of Health, Safety, Quality and Environment (HSE). Identification of different types of hazards, control systems, and environmental impact assessments for petroleum projects. Students are also introduced to professional ethics, various moral issues and codes of ethics.
Description Fundamental seismic principles and its exploration methods, oil exploration and sub-surface imaging. the elastic wave equation, the acquisition and processing of seismic reflection data and seismic, tomography data. Introduction to seismic stratigraphy, seismic inversion and attribute analysis, role of seismic in reservoir properties and facies modeling. Data acquisition, processing, and interpretation of gravity data, Data acquisition, processing, and interpretation of magnetic data. Introduction to electromagnetics and their applications in petroleum industry.
Description Rig systems; advanced drilling tools; well control and BOP equipment and calculations; casing design; cementing calculations and operations; bits design; well drilling operations techniques and process optimization for directional drilling, horizontal drilling, multilateral drilling; predicting and over-coming drilling problems (e.g. hole stability, lost circulation, swelling, kicks, etc.); controlled drilling, geo-steering; offshore drilling; well survey; MWD and LWD tools; well trajectory calculations.
Description Definition and functions of drilling fluids, drilling fluid chemistry and rheology, drilling fluid design for carbonates, sandstone and shales, drilling fluid additives and chemicals, clay structure and shale problems, loss control material for complete loss circulation, types of mud systems and their characteristics, mud behavior at HPHT wells, calculation related to drilling fluid, hydraulics, mud surface equipment’s, and contaminations, hole problem in related to drilling fluid, formation damage and hole instability, mud design, mud selection, completion and workover fluid, air drilling in correlation with drilling fluid, smart fluid and nano-technology.
Description Advanced well planning; rig selections; well cost estimation; advanced well design of horizontal and multi-lateral wells; deep water drilling techniques; HPHT wells; drilling operations optimizations; well control predictions and solutions (e.g. relief wells); cement evaluation; advanced geo-steering design and operations; drilling software.
Description Reservoir simulation fundamentals, input and output for reservoir simulation, understanding reservoir simulation, simulation equations, IMPES method, introduction to reservoir simulation matrix solvers, history matching, reservoir simulation prediction, types of simulators, static models, grid models, exercise on the use of a commercial simulator in single well and full field applications.
Description Diffusivity equation, skin factor, radius of investigation, types of well tests, semi-log analysis for drawdown and build up tests, gas well testing, dimensionless variables, type curve analysis, derivative plots, hydraulically fractured wells, DST, well test design. Data Analysis and Modeling Exercises using the state of the art well testing software.
Description The course presents all aspects of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes of chemical, miscible, and thermal. It covers secondary recovery by water flooding and calculations of reservoir heterogeneity using V-number and Lorenz techniques. It also presents how to use mobility ratio and capillary number to maximize oil recovery for mature oil fields under development.
The course also presents principles, application, and screening depleted oil reservoir for application of different EOR processes. More materials will be assigned as technical report for updating the participants with edge technology and EOR actual field cases.
Description The Dynamics of Oil Prices; Demand and Supply for Oil versus other Energy Commodities; Overview of Structure of Oil Companies (Public, Private, and National); Time value of money; Cash Flow Analysis, Inflation, and Interest Rate; Investments Choices & Performance Metrics (Yardsticks); Reserves and resources classification; Reserves estimation methods; Decline Curve Analysis; International contracts; Risk Estimation in the Upstream Petroleum Industry.
Description This course provides the students with the methodologies and basics of the reservoir description and characterization for both clastics and carbonates. The course integrates geology, reservoir rock properties and formation evaluation to better characterize the reservoir. The in depth understanding of core description, depositional environment from both core and logs and the comparison between core and logging calculations are the core of this course. The geo-statistics part of this course concentrates on building and analyzing the histograms and the variograms and their roles in the reservoir characterization.
Description This course provides the students with the understanding of the unconventional reservoirs from definitions to evaluation and production. The course includes classifications of unconventional reservoirs, signature of unconventional reservoirs on logging measurements, evaluation of hydrocarbon potential. Total organic carbon (TOC) evaluation and determination, pyrolysis analysis of S1, S2, S3 for evaluation of hydrocarbon saturation are covered. The course also covers evaluation of rock mechanical properties including brittleness, drilling unconventional reservoirs.
Description Pipe line transport, pipe line design, calculation of the pressure drop through the pipes, fittings, valves, and bends, pipe line construction, pumping and boosting stations, gas transmission lines, metering, pipe line automation, tanker and railroad transportation, pipeline safety, regulations, specifications of the pipeline for onshore and offshore networks, examples of international pipelines, pipeline operations and maintenance, crude oil storage type, temporary storage of crude oil, crude oil stock calculations.
Description Artificial Lift (AL) methods theory. Artificial lift applicability, screening criteria, operation, design, and field applications. Well stimulation methods which involve matrix acidizing, hydraulic fracturing, and acid fracturing. Software applications for production system modeling and artificial lift design are introduced.
Description Overview of the artificial lifting methods screening criteria and their applicability, description of each method components, operation, design and field applications including Electric Submersible Pump (ESP), Gas Lift, Rod Pumping, Hydraulic Jet Pump and Progressive Cavity Pump. Problem solving sessions include full design calculations for ESP, Rod Pumping, Gas Lift, and Hydraulic Jet Pump applications. State of the art software application will be used in sessions for simulating gas lift and ESP. Modeling their performance and conducting full design and trouble shooting of each system.
Description Natural gas business chain, gas processing and conditioning, properties of natural gas, gas separation, dehydration, sweetening, measuring, and transportation. Plant and equipment design and operation will be addressed using exercises that will allow students to participate actively in the identification of key variables to optimize plant and equipment design and operation.
Description Type and evaluation of crude, petroleum processing, material and energy balance, physical separation, distillation, absorption, cracking, reforming, chemical refining, sweetening, processing of petroleum gases, lubricating oil, refining schemes, refining equipment’s.
Notes This course can only be offered to students matriculated before fall 2015.
Description The course reviews oil and gas flash calculations and covers separation systems, the mechanical design of pressure vessels/separators, crude emulsion treatment, desalting of crude oil, produced water treatment, sour gas treating, and gas dehydration.
Description Well stimulation involves matrix acidizing, hydraulic fracturing proppant, and acid fracturing in vertical and horizontal wells. New applications in the multistage frac, unconventional frac, Candidate selection, treatment design and execution of acidizing and hydraulic fracturing treatments. selection of acid additives, lab testing, QA/QC, and treatment evaluation
Description The building blocks of the refining process systems, equipment and economics, refining process unit operation fundamentals such as refining industry, refinery products and feedstocks, thermo-physical properties of crude oil and petroleum fractions, atmospheric and vacuum distillations, coking and thermal processes, catalytic cracking and hydrocracking, hydro and residual processing, catalytic reforming and isomerization, alkylation and product blending.
Description Principles of Renewable and Alternative Energy Systems: Wind, Solar, Biogas, Geothermal, Fuel Cells, and Hydrogen Technologies. Economic Aspects; Efficiency; Introduction to Nuclear Energy. Connection to Grid, Smart Grids and intermittency, Market liberalization.
When Offered Offered in fall or spring. Notes This course can only be offered to students matriculated before fall 2015.
Description Conversion of fossil, nuclear, biomass to fuel; Electrochemical conversion in fuel cells and photovoltaics; Criteria determining efficiency of energy conversions; Materials for energy applications including membranes, catalysis, electrodes, supercapacitors, and semi conductors.
When Offered Offered fall or spring. Notes This course can only be offered to students matriculated before fall 2015.
Description Energy use and energy patterns in modern society; Resource estimates; Engineering analysis of energy systems; Managing carbon emissions; Environmental impact and protection, Environmental remediation technologies. Supply and Demand of energy; Energy Scenarios and modeling; Energy Policy and Auditing; Sustainable development.
When Offered Offered in fall or spring. Notes This course can only be offered to students matriculated before fall 2015.
Description Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Chemical Pollution, Combustion Emissions; Toxicity, and Poisoning; Environmental Management; Environmental Hazards; Industrial Pollution; Safety; Regional and Global Regulations and Certifications. Biologica Oxygen Demand, Health and Safety, Oil spills and disasters, selected Case Studies.
When Offered Offered every other semester. Notes This course can only be offered to students matriculated before fall 2015.
Description Underground Hydrologic Cycle; Aquifers; Ground Water Movements; Flow Lines and Flow Nets; Steady and Unsteady State Flow; Flow Problems; Oil Field Waters; Corrosion and Microbiological Problems; Scales and Sludge; Water Treatment and Disposal; Well Injection.
When Offered Offered occasionally. Notes This course can only be offered to students matriculated before fall 2015.
Description Technologies employed to reduce CO2, CH4, and soot emissions from energy utilization; Advantages and limitations of technologies applied to reduce energy emissions; Efficient use of energy; Catalytic conversion; Greenhouse challenges; Emerging greener technologies; Capture and storage of CO2 ; Emissions from nuclear power; Reforming; Sulphur and sulphur scrubbers; Climate changes and green house gases; Energy efficiency in combating emissions NOFA (non fossil fuel agreements) Kyoto and beyond.
When Offered Offered fall or spring. Notes This course can only be offered to students matriculated before fall 2015.
Description Introduction to nuclear engineering; Global and nationals energy requirements; Radioactivity; Atomic models; Fission and fusion reactor concepts; Neutron diffusion theory; Radiation protection and safety.
When Offered Offered fall or spring. Notes This course can only be offered to students matriculated before fall 2015.
Description Ethylene and propylene production, petrochemical products, thermoplastics, thermosetting resins, fertilizers from natural gas, gas to liquid processes, equipment design and calculations.
Notes This course can only be offered to PENG students matriculated before fall 2015 or to CHEM students.
PENG 480/4920 - Independent Studies in Petroleum and Energy Engineering (1-3 cr.)
Prerequisites Consent of instructor and department chair on the basis of a well-defined proposal.
Description Independent study in various problem areas of Petroleum and Energy Engineering may be assigned to individual students or groups. May be repeated for credit if content changes. Readings assigned and frequent consultations held.
PENG 494/4930 - Selected Topics in Petroleum and Energy Engineering (1 - 3 cr.)
Prerequisites Senior standing.
Description Petroleum Topics chosen from: Petroleum or Gas exploration, drilling production, simulation, recovery, and gas liquefaction. Field study including assessment, evaluation, feasibility and economic studies will be required.
Energy Topics chosen from: Alternative Energy resources including solar, wind, biomass, fuel cells, nuclear or geothermal energy. Field study including assessment, evaluation, feasibility and economic studies will be required.
Prerequisites A minimum of 12 credits of PENG courses
Description Each student is required to spend a minimum of eight weeks of industrial training in Egypt or abroad. A detailed report is presented and evaluated.
Description In the capstone projects, students are required to work with field data that cover the life cycle of a petroleum reservoir. Students perform several analyses and design different system components in the areas of geology, formation evaluation, and drilling. Report submission and oral presentation are required.
Description Senior Project II is a continuation of the capstone project. Students perform analyses and integrate the results of Senior Project I to design different system components in the areas of reservoir engineering, production engineering, and surface facilities. Report submission and oral presentation are required.
Description The course covers the basics of well control such as causes of kick, well pressure control importance and strategies, well blow out and its consequences, well control methods and equipment, and some relevant case studies are presented. The course also covers the kill mud calculations, and problems & solutions related to well control system.
PENG 000/5131 - Applied PVT and EOS Modelling (3 cr.)
Prerequisites consent of instructor
Description Review of principles of PVT data in petroleum reservoirs. Classification of reservoir fluids and PVT data models. PVT laboratory experiments and quality control. Deriving PVT data from correlations and ANN models. Deriving PVT data form laboratory reports. Advanced PVT experiments for gas injection processes and EOR. Introduction to flow assurance. PVT experiments for flow assurance. Principles of cubic EOS. Fluid characterization and plus fraction modeling. Flash calculations. EOS tuning. Compositional gradients. Separator optimization.
Description Definitions of reservoir management. Elements of reservoir management. Reservoir management processes. Economic evaluation of reservoirs. Technologies enabling reservoir management. Static and dynamic reservoir models. Field Development Plans (FDP) and redevelopment. Integration between subsurface and surface components. Digital oil field. Case histories.
Description Classification of reservoir simulators. Chemical reservoir simulators to handle polymers and surfactants. Applications of chemical reservoir simulation in simulating EOR processes. Compositional simulators and their applications. Thermal simulators and their applications. Dual porosity/dual permeability simulators. Applications of dual porosity simulators. Assisted history matching concepts. Specific data inputs required for different simulator types.
Description Review of basic formation evaluation using triple and quad combo. Review of basic interpretation techniques; clay volume, porosity, saturation and permeability. Fracture identification and quantification using both resistivity and acoustic imaging tools. Porosity, Pore sizes, fluid, and permeability evaluations using NMR tools. A direct measurement of water saturation using a combined dielectric tool and NMR. Integration of core description, routine core analysis and SCAL in all aspects of the course and the evaluation techniques.
Description Cased-hole logging environment. Effect of casing and cement on cased-hole measurements and their environmental correction. Measurements of porosity through casing. Resistivity through casing. Saturation through casing using the SIGMA and the Carbon/Oxygen measurements. Evaluation methodology of water saturation behind casing. Borehole fluids evaluation using production logging. Three phase flow measurements and analysis.
Description Statistics, data analysis and transformation. Spatial variables. Variograms and variogram modeling. Uncertainty. Deterministic and stochastic models. Estimation and simulation. Kriging. Co-Kriging. Simulation methods. Using trends in geological modeling. Static model construction. Upscaling of static models.
Description This course provides students with a thorough understanding of the drilling operations and the various factors affecting them. Topics covered include advanced drilling techniques such as under-balanced drilling, mud cap drilling, etc. It covers surge and swab pressure, situational problems, smart wells, and real-time monitoring and adaptive control. Finally, the course introduces the wellbore stability, optimization of drilling operations and penetration rate.
PENG 000/5221 - Advanced Production Engineering (3 cr.)
Prerequisites consent of instructor
Description The course covers petroleum production system, production from oil and gas reservoir, vertical lift performance, multiphase flow, surface gathering system, nodal analysis, well completion and formation damage, well stimulation techniques, artificial lift, and production related problem. In addition, a detailed study is offered on inflow performance relationships, horizontal, vertical and inclined multiphase flow correlations and mechanistic models. These are then used to determine the current and future performance of the well and the optimum size of the tubing and flow line as well as the optimum production strategy for the whole life of the well.
Description This course discusses concepts related to economic valuation of petroleum projects.
The fundamentals of discounted cash-flow analysis are covered in class with focus on petroleum projects. The course highlights the notion of risk quantification and its relationship to economic valuation. It discusses capital budgeting and project ranking process as well as sensitivity analysis of different factors on both the revenue side and the cost side (such as oil prices, cost of services, …. etc.). Relationships of subsurface reserves estimates to the economic valuation of a project is discussed, as well as the importance of subsurface reserves as a financial asset for the future existence of a petroleum company. The main types and elements of fiscal regimes are emphasized in the class with examples of cash flows for concessionary systems, production sharing contracts, as well as service agreements.
Description Theoretical background of pressure transient testing. Diffusivity equation. Solutions of diffusivity equation. Laplace solutions principles. Superposition in space and time. Phase redistribution. Deconvolution. Pressure transient test types. Applications of pressure transient tests. Multiphase well test analysis methods. Numerical well testing. DST analysis. Slug and impulse tests analysis. Repeat formation testers.
Description The course introduces principles, mechanisms, and theories related to enhanced oil recovery, either as improved secondary recovery or some form of tertiary oil recovery techniques. The fundamental concepts of steam injection, CO2 injection, chemical flooding, polymer flooding, microbial recovery, and miscible and immiscible flooding techniques are covered.
Description Differences between black oil, modified black oil, and compositional simulators. Principles of composition simulation. Solution vectors and compositional simulation solution schemes. Construction of PVT models using EOS. Miscibility concepts. Treatment of compositional gradients. Problems with compositional simulation. Application of compositional simulation in CO2 injection.
PENG 000/5243 - Applied Techniques in Unconventional Reservoirs (3 cr.)
Prerequisites consent of instructor
Description Review of the basics of unconventional reservoirs. Identifications of unconventional potential and source rocks. Pyrolysis analysis and unconventional reservoir quality determination. Unconventional reservoirs evaluation; porosity, adsorption, saturation and permeability. Calculations of hydrocarbon in place using pyrolysis and wireline logging techniques. Drilling unconventional reservoirs. Completion and Production methods of unconventional reservoirs using different multi-stages fracturing techniques.
PENG 000/5251 - Selected Topics in Fundamentals of Petroleum Engineering (1 - 3 cr.)
Description Course Description: Selected topics in fundamentals of petroleum engineering from geology, formation evaluation, drilling, production and reservoir engineering topics. The course is specifically designed to cover the missing fundamentals that some MS and MEng students may lack. This course will not be counted towards the credits required for MS or MEng degrees in Petroleum Engineering.
Description Selected advanced topics in petroleum engineering from geology, formation evaluation, drilling, production and reservoir engineering topics. The course is designed to introduce advanced topics and new technologies in the petroleum industry.
Description Students with faculty/department approval may arrange to study topics beyond the regular course offerings. It can include guided reading for research and discussions based on a subject of mutual interest to the student and the responsible faculty member. The student demonstrates his/her achievement by submitting a report and/or by passing a subsequent examination.
Description This course serves as thesis consultation for qualified students. Each student must submit a thesis topic that has been approved by a faculty supervisor, normally after acquiring 12 credit hours of course work and completing ENGR 5940 “Graduate Thesis Seminar” before registering for thesis credits. Two semesters are required for the registration of this course with 3 Credit hours each. After that, the course may be taken for one credit hour each semester until completion of the program requirements.
All Ph.D. students should attend a common class. This class will be a series of general lectures having a broad interdisciplinary nature.
Each student should give a presentation in this series on a topic that shows how his/her capability of dealing with more than one discipline.
The student will be evaluated based on:
Reports submitted at the end of each class.
The quality of the presentation and the extent of diversity.
The first four lectures Will be given by faculty members or renowned researchers conducting diverse interdisciplinary research. This will give the students guidance on how to select their topics and how to link to other disciplines.
The maximum number of students who can register in the Ph.D. seminar must not exceed 10.
The Ph.D. seminar will be offered only once every academic year.
Description Learn how to plan, design and conduct experiments efficiently and effectively, and analyze the resulting data to obtain objective conclusions. Both design and statistical analysis issues are discussed. This course is intended for practical researchers and scientists from a variety of fields such as engineering, physics, chemistry, biotechnology, and biology. Applications from various fields of engineering, physics, chemistry, and biotechnology will be illustrated throughout the course. Computer software packages (Design-Expert, Minitab) to implement the methods presented will be illustrated extensively, and you will have opportunities to use it for homework assignments and the term project.
All Ph.D. students should attend a common class. This class will be a series of general lectures having a broad interdisciplinary nature.
Each student should give a presentation in this series on a topic that shows how his/her capability of dealing with more than one discipline.
The student will be evaluated based on:
Reports submitted at the end of each class.
The quality of the presentation and the extent of diversity.
The first four lectures Will be given by faculty members or renowned researchers conducting diverse interdisciplinary research. This will give the students guidance on how to select their topics and how to link to other disciplines.
The maximum number of students who can register in the Ph.D. seminar must not exceed 10.
The Ph.D. seminar will be offered only once every academic year.
PHIL 221/2010 - Truth, Lies, and Logical Reasoning (3 cr.)
Description Truth, Lies, and Logical Reasoning aims to analyze and improve argumentation and reasoning as they occur in everyday life, to identify logical fallacies, and to critically examine common techniques of persuasion. The course examines logically valid forms and rules of inference, introduces deductive and inductive methods in ancient and modern logic, and elaborates the nature of definitions, categories and judgments. Students will mine their everyday lives, media, and various forms of public discourse for real-world examples of good and bad reasoning.
Description This course concerns the human desire to know. It is, therefore, a course in learning how to understand and how to be understood. It teaches students to listen to what others say, interpret what others have written, and take responsibility for one’s own words. This is accomplished through reading texts of great intellectual distinction, patiently practising the art of interpretation without easy answers, and carrying out a sustained effort to write thoughtfully. This course encourages students to think independently, responsibly, and critically.
Description Many religions include an intellectual and theoretical component that can be investigated independently of the religion itself. This course examines and clarifies some themes that arise from the rational investigation of the intellectual component of religion. Topics may include: reason and religious belief, proofs of the existence of God, the nature of religious language, the problem of evil, mysticism as a form of knowledge, and theological paradoxes (omnipotence, omniscience and free will, etc.)
Description This course introduces moral philosophy, the attempt to provide systematic explanations of standards for human conduct. Can we determine what the right thing is for us to do? How does society set its normative rules? How is a normative discourse possible? Selected texts provide the relevant context in which these questions will be examined.
Description This course is an introduction to the history of political philosophy and addresses dominant issues central to political thinking in the Western tradition. Themes may include the question of justice, the exercise of power, the meaning of democracy, the freedom and rights of the individual, the circumstances of revolution, the roots of authority, and the role of violence. Course readings are drawn from figures such as Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Mill, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Marx.
PHIL 000/2200 - Philosophy and Globalization (3 cr.)
Description This course introduces the student to the phenomenon known as Globalization. The course will highlight a historical as well as systematic perspective. The approach is based on an interdisciplinary methodology that emphasizes the economic, political, social, religious, and moral aspects of globalization since 1492 (the discovery of America and the expulsion from Al Andalusia) up until the present wave of the globalization process. The course is designed for students from all majors, in order that they may gain a general view of globalization - but especially one from a philosophical perspective.
Description The course introduces the theme of beauty and issues of aesthetic value. Examples are drawn from areas such as literature, music, the plastic arts, and architecture.
Description The course concentrates on the intersection of the literary mode with the philosophical quest in Eastern and Western writing. Students are trained to analyze philosophical myths, tales, poems and dialogues as well as grasp the symbolic structures and expository techniques of philosophers.
Description A survey of the rational and spiritual dimensions of Arab-Islamic civilization as shown in the thought and ideas of major theologians, philosophers, and mystics.
Description The course examines philosophy in North America, focusing on the central themes of democracy and pragmatism. A guiding question of the course will be: How is the democratic process embedded in the philosophic enterprise? The views of major thinkers such as Peirce, James, Royce, Santayana, Dewey, Quine, and Hartshorne will be examined.
PHIL 382/3017 - Philosophy of Science and Technology (3 cr.)
Description The relationship between science and technology has become a serious topic of debate. Is technology applied science or is science itself techno-science? Both have become pervasive facts which have altered human abilities and experiences of the world. This increase in power brings with it new responsibilities for the creators and users of science and technology. This course will explore these new powers and attendant obligations upon humanity, other cultures and the environment.
Description This course is a survey of the history of philosophy from its beginnings in Greece through the revival of Aristotelian learning in thirteenth century Europe. This is a long period of time, and philosophers had interesting and important things to say about all manner of topics, including science, logic, ethics, politics, religion, and art. Our goal in this course will be to explore some of the most important things that some of the most important philosophers from this era had to say. Authors to be discussed may include Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Anselm, Averroes, Avicenna, and Aquinas. Topics to be discussed may include the nature of knowledge, the relationship between faith and reason, the theory of Forms, the nature of the good life, and the existence of God.
Description Philosophical progress played an essential role in the historical changes of the Enlightenment and the development of industrial society. This course focuses on some of the major schools and figures of Modern thought, which include Rationalists such as Descartes and Leibniz, Empiricists such as Locke and Hume, and/or pivotal thinkers such as Bacon, Rousseau, Hegel, Kant, and Marx.
PHIL 000/3104 - Metaphysics and Epistemology (3 cr.)
Description What is the fundamental structure of reality? What is reality really like? Why is there something rather than nothing? Is there a God? Do human beings have free will? Metaphysics is the study of questions like these. Epistemology is the study of the nature of knowledge. What is knowledge? Do we know anything? If so, how can we acquire more of it? In this class we will examine questions like these by reading classic texts both historical and contemporary. Students will be expected to read these texts carefully and charitably, while simultaneously being encouraged to think about them critically so as to draw their own conclusions.
Description Philosophies of History offer a broad range of reflections on the historic dimension of our existence, i.e. on the fact that we understand ourselves in a temporal horizon of being-with-others. These reflections might prompt us to reflect on the genesis of notions such as ‘universal history’ or ‘progress’, or they might aim at clarifying what we mean when we ascribe causality to individuals, groups or any other kind of ‘historical force’. Finally, we might even feel the need to analyze and evaluate which ways of conceiving of a maximal horizon of action are rationally justifiable in the situation we find ourselves in.
PHIL 000/5100 - Independent Study in Philosophy (1-3 cr.)
Description In exceptional circumstances, some students may arrange for independent research projects in specific topics in Philosophy that are not covered by the course offerings for that academic year.
PHIL 500/5101 - Advanced Seminar in Classical Philosophy (3 cr.)
Description This course will deal with issues in Ancient Greek and Medieval Philosophy that are relevant for an appreciation of Egypt’s philosophical tradition, as well as for an understanding of the philosophical debates that contributed to the development of Islamic Philosophy. Special emphasis will accordingly be placed upon the following: Some of the great philosophers who lived and worked in Egypt (such as Philo Judaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen and Moses Maimonides); the history of Platonism (Plato, Plotinus and the Ancient commentators on Plato and Aristotle working in the schools of Athens and Alexandria); and the Aristotelian tradition (Aristotle, Alexander of Aphrodisias and Themistius).
PHIL 000/5104 - Selected Topics in Contemporary Philosophy (3 cr.)
Description Contemporary philosophy is pluralistic. This trait expresses itself in different conceptions of the task of philosophy and its methods. The motives of this pluralism often reflect differing - scientistic, liberalistic, modernist, posthumanist - attitudes towards the unprecedented dynamics with which historical processes originating in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries are seen to continue to determine our articulation of the human condition. Along these lines this course explores thematic strands which are constitutive of both the unity in the questioning outlook and the plurality of the answers proposed in contemporary philosophy. Such explorations might concern the discourse on language as an unsurmountable horizon of our capacity to understand (Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Davidson, Derrida); they might delineate different conceptions of the status and role of philosophy vis-à-vis the natural sciences as developed in the analytic, neo-Kantian, pragmatic or phenomenological-hermeneutic tradition; finally such explorations could aim at a comparison of the various incarnations of the contemporary interest in the concepts of praxis and agency, which animates the discourse no less in critical theory and post-structuralism than it does in analytical theories of action and neo-pragmatist accounts of the grounding of sapience and agency in discursive practices.
Description This course is an introductory survey of issues in applied ethics. Students will learn how to use philosophical theory and argumentation to provide answers to concrete, real-world ethical problems. Topics may include biomedical ethics, environmental ethics, business ethics, the ethics of technology and engineering, and social justice.
PHIL 410/5112 - Advanced Seminar in Aesthetics (3 cr.)
Prerequisites Prerequisites For Undergraduates: PHIL 3010 or consent of instructor.
Description This course offers in-depth analysis and discussion concerning key texts from the history of aesthetics and/or addressing current debates in aesthetic theory. Issues covered may include the beautiful and the sublime, classicism and romanticism, tragedy and the absurd, modernism and post-modernity.
Description Although the emphasis on the importance of a systematic philosophical reflection of language is a characteristic feature of its development in the 20th century which, thus, has been described as taking a ‘linguistic turn’, the philosophical interest in language is, nonetheless, almost coeval with the ancient origins of the discipline. As a result of this perennial interest, philosophers have studied various dimensions of language and the ways in which it is constitutive of the way we conceive of ourselves, relate to the world, establish and preserve political communities and partake in a shared historical world of meanings and linguistic practices. This course, consequently, aims at a both historically and systematically informed exploration of these dimensions of language in its philosophical reflection.
PHIL 458-558/5119 - Advanced Seminar in Political Philosophy (3 cr.)
Description This advanced seminar will focus on contemporary trends in political philosophy with an emphasis on how classical political texts and problems have served as points of departure for new perspectives. The approaches studied in this course will vary from semester to semester and may include deliberative democracy, theories of recognition, liberalism, secularism/post-secularism, cosmopolitanism, and the relationship between politics and aesthetics. Reading may include the work of Arendt, Schmitt, Agamben, Ranciere, Honneth, Habermas, Rawls, Taylor, Zizek, Fraser, and Foucault.
PHIL 000/5120 - Advanced Seminar in Feminist Philosophy (3 cr.)
Description This advanced seminar will focus on a particular issue in feminist philosophy. Topics will vary and may include an emphasis on sex, gender, class, race, embodiment, power, intersectionality, disability, and other contemporary issues relevant to feminism.
Description Speaking of logic, we do not only mean that science which analyzes the components, forms and grounds of the soundness of reasoning; we do also refer to a human capacity that comes into play whenever we defend our claims and attack those of others. Logic, thus, is both: a theory that can be studied and a know-how, governing our practices of argumentation. With that in mind, philosophers are expected to cultivate their abilities to analyze and critically assess the logical structures of philosophical arguments. This course, therefore, offers an introduction to syllogistic and symbolic logic with a focus on the argumentative exigencies of the discipline.
PHIL 501/5122 - Advanced Seminar in Islamic Philosophy (3 cr.)
Description This course will survey the classical tradition of Islamic Philosophy. It will constitute a close study of the works of figures such as Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, Al-Ghazali, and the Andalusian thinkers such as Ibn Tufayl and Ibn Rushd. Ibn Al-Arabi and the Sufi tradition, as well as selective writings by Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi and Mulla Sadra, may also be studied. Some consideration may also be given to the significant status of Islamic Philosophy within the History of Science. Additionally, towards the end of the course, some contemporary work in the field of Islamic Philosophy may also be considered.
Description This course will focus upon the transformation of philosophy during the late enlightenment period that was enacted by Immanuel Kant and which gave rise to what is now known as ‘Continental Philosophy.’ Kant’s works will be studied alongside either those thinkers by whom he was influenced, such as Leibniz and Hume, or those thinkers upon whom he had an influence, such as Fichte, Schelling, Hegel and Schopenhauer.
PHIL 505/5124 - Advanced Seminar in Phenomenology (3 cr.)
Description This course will begin by investigating the origins of phenomenology by means of a close reading of key selections from the work of Husserl. It shall then move on to consider Heidegger’s transformation of phenomenology. The work of later phenomenologists, such as Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and Edith Stein, may also be discussed.