Steven Hendley

Professor of Philosophy

Steven Hendley Office:

Berte Humanities Building 322

Contact Information:

Birmingham-Southern College
900 Arkadelphia Rd
Birmingham, AL 35254
Office Phone: (205) 226-4793
Office Fax: N/S
E-mail: [email protected]

Brief Career Background:

Professor of Philosophy, Birmingham-Southern College. 1988 - Present.
Visiting Faculty, West Virginia University. Spring 1988.

Educational Background:

Ph.D. Philosophy, Duquesne University. 1987.
M.A. Psychology, Duquesne University. 1981.
M.A. Philosophy, Vanderbilt University. 1980.
University of Colorado at Boulder. Philosophy. 1978-1979.
B.A., Rhodes College. With Distinction. 1978.

Areas of Academic Interest:

Contemporary Continental Philosophy - emphasis in Moral-Political Philosophy, Metaphysics, and Epistemology
Habermas, Levinas, McDowell, Brandom.

Courses Taught:

PL 201 Introduction to Philosophy (1)
Basic problems and forms of inquiry that have shaped the Western philosophical heritage. The course may focus on problems of morality, religion, political philosophy, and theories about the nature and limits of human knowledge. Fall, Spring.

PL 206 Darwinism and Philosophy (1)
An examination of philosophical questions raised by a Darwinian account of the evolution of life such as the creation-evolution debate, evolutionary accounts of altruism, morality, free will, and human behavior generally.

PL 250 Contemporary Philosophy (1)
Philosophy in the twentieth century with particular emphasis on debates regarding free will, the nature of consciousness, and the nature and ethics of belief.Fall.

PL 253 Ethical Theory (1)
An examination of foundational questions in ethics such as the rational and/or emotional basis of our sense of ethics, basic principles of moral reasoning, the nature of justice, the reality (or unreality) of moral values and evolutionary accounts of morality.

PL 302 Existentialism (1)
An examination of major issues and problems arising from the existentialist tradition in philosophy through a treatment of one or two representative figures. Prerequisite: one previous course in PL (except PL 241) or consent.

PL 303 Socialism (1)
An examination of some of the philosophical, political, and economic claims of modern socialists, beginning with and emphasizing Marx, but also moving beyond Marx and Marxism into the work of contemporary socialists who stress the democratic character of socialism and the need for a socialist market economy. Prerequisite: one previous course in PL (except PL 241) or consent.

PL 308 Topics in Metaphysics and Epistemology (1)
PL 308 Free Will and Determinism (1) (Listed in the Catalog as Topics in Metaphysics and Epistemology) A close examination of contemporary debates regarding free will and determinism, focusing on questions regarding the compatibility of free will and determinism (i.e., can we believe ourselves both to be free and a part of a natural world in which every event is causally determined by some prior set of events), whether holding ourselves responsible for our behavior presupposes that we could have done otherwise than we did, the connection between freedom of the will and rationality, and the question of the coherence of our sense of free will and the denial that our behavior is causally determined by other events.

PL 360 Postmodernism and Philosophy (1)
A look at postmodern accounts of language, reason, truth, and ethics (Lyotard and Rorty) and the contrasting ideas of one of their major modernist challengers, Jurgen Habermas.