Date |
Topic |
Reading green=optional |
Handouts & assignments |
| Tuesday, August 28 | Introductory discussion | none | Valid or invalid? |
| Thursday, August 30 | Calling our knowledge into doubt | Descartes, Meditations 1 & 2 | First (mini-)paper assignment due |
| Tuesday, September 4 | A reply to skepticism | Moore, "Proof of an external world" | |
| Thursday, September 6 | Skepticism about induction | Hume, "Sceptical doubts concerning the operations of the understanding" |
Notes on Descartes argument reconstructions |
| Tuesday, September 11 | Descartes on knowledge of God | Descartes, Meditations 3-5 | Second draft of mini-paper due |
| Thursday, September 13 | The ontological argument | van Inwagen, "The ontological argument" Anselm, Proslogion (selection) |
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| Tuesday, September 18 | The cosmological argument | Aquinas, "Whether God exists?" Taylor, "God" (from Metaphysics) |
Comments on 2nd drafts of Descartes papers |
| Thursday, September 20 | The cosmological argument, pt. 2 | van Inwagen, "The cosmological argument" | A simple version of the cosmological argument |
| Tuesday, September 25 | The teleological argument | van Inwagen, "What rational beings are there?" & "The place of rational beings in the world: design and purpose" Rees, "Just six numbers" |
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| Thursday, September 27 | The teleological argument, pt. 2 | White, "Fine-tuning and multiple universes" | Primer on claims about probability |
| Tuesday, October 2 | The problem of evil | Hume, Dialogues on Natural Religion X & XI | |
| Thursday, October 4 | The free will defense | Plantinga, "The free will defense" | Final draft of mini-paper due |
| Tuesday, October 9 | "Design inferences in an infinite universe" | attend talk by Brad Monton, 4:00 in 208 DeBartolo | |
| Thursday, October 11 | Descartes on the nature of persons | Descartes, Meditation 6 | |
| Tuesday, October 16 | Psychology and persons | Perry, Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality (excerpt) Locke, "Of identity and diversity" |
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| Thursday, October 18 | Materialism and personhood | van Inwagen, Chapters 10 & 11 | First 5-7 page paper due |
| October 23 & 25: fall break | |||
| Tuesday, October 30 | The reality of persons | Parfit, "Divided minds and the nature of persons" | |
| Thursday, November 1 | Free will and determinism | van Inwagen, "The powers of rational beings: freedom of the will" | |
| Tuesday, November 6 | Free will and determinism, pt. 2 | Sider, "Free will and determinism" | |
| Thursday, November 8 | The rule-following paradox | Kripke, Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language (excerpt) | |
| Tuesday, November 13 | Consciousness and the brain | Nagel, "What is it like to be a bat?" Jackson, "Epiphenomenal qualia" |
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| Thursday, November 15 | Zeno's paradoxes of motion | Sainsbury, "Zeno's paradoxes" Aristotle, Physics Book VI |
Zeno's four paradoxes of motion |
| Tuesday, November 20 | The metaphysics of quantum mechanics | Maudlin, "Distilling metaphysics from quantum physics" |
Puzzles of quantum mechanics |
| November 22 THANKSGIVING |
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| Tuesday, November 27 | The challenge of third world poverty | Singer, "Poverty, affluence, and morality" | Second 5-7 page paper due |
| Thursday, November 29 | World poverty, pt. 2 | McGinn, "Our duties to animals and the poor" | |
| Tuesday, December 4 | The problem of moral luck | Nagel, "Moral luck" | |
| Thursday, December 6 | The challenge of relativism | Pascal, "The wager" James, "The will to believe" |
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| Tuesday, December 11 | Concluding discussion | none | |
| Wednesday, December 19 | Scheduled day of final exam. Third 5-7 page paper due by 5 pm. | ||