Syllabus
Date |
Topics |
Reading green=optional |
Handouts & assignments |
| Tuesday, August 26 | Philosophy & arguments | none | Valid or invalid? |
| Minds, bodies, and persons | |||
| Thursday, August 28 | The case for dualism | Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy (excerpt) | First (mini-)paper assignment due |
| Tuesday, September 2 | Consciousness, understanding, and the brain | Jackson, "What Mary didn't know" (excerpt) |
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| Thursday, September 4 | Class replaced by Tom Kelly, "Common Sense as Evidence for Philosophy", 3:00 in 217 DeBartolo |
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| Tuesday, September 9 | Problems for dualism and the psychological view of persons | Perry, Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality (excerpt) |
Second draft of mini-paper due |
| Thursday, September 11 | The psychological view & the dissolving self | ||
| Tuesday, September 16 | A materialist view of persons | van Inwagen, ch 10 & 11: "Dualism and physicalism" and "Dualism and personal identity" | |
| The existence of God | |||
| Thursday, September 18 | The ontological argument | Plantinga, "The ontological argument" |
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| Tuesday, September 23 | Aquinas's 5 ways & the cosmological argument | Aquinas, "Whether God exists?" Taylor, "God" (from Metaphysics) |
Final draft of mini-paper due |
| Thursday, September 25 | The cosmological argument | van Inwagen, ch 7: "The cosmological argument" | |
| Tuesday, September 30 | The teleological argument | van Inwagen,ch 8 & 9: "What rational beings are there?" & "The place of rational beings in the world: design and purpose" |
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| Thursday, October 2 | The teleological argument and multiple universes | Primer on probability | |
| Tuesday, October 7 | The problem of evil | Mackie, "Evil and omnipotence" | |
| Thursday, October 9 | The free will defense | van Inwagen, "The global argument from evil" |
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| Tuesday, October 14 | Free will and determinism | van Inwagen, ch. 12: "The powers of rational beings: freedom of the will" Sider, "Free will and determinism" |
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| Thursday, October 16 | Free will and divine foreknowledge | Edwards, Freedom of the Will (selection) |
First 5-7 page paper due |
| October 21 & 23: fall break | |||
| Tuesday, October 28 | The metaphysics of objects | van Inwagen, Material Beings (excerpt) | |
| Thursday, October 30 | Is time real? | McTaggart, "Time" | |
| Knowledge | |||
| Tuesday, November 4 | Doubt, skepticism, and the problem of other minds | Nagel, What Does It All Mean (excerpt) | |
| Thursday, November 6 | Common sense and knowledge | ||
| Tuesday, November 11 | Knowledge by induction | Hume, "Sceptical doubts concerning the operations of the understanding" | |
| Thursday, November 13 | The new riddle of induction | ||
| Tuesday, November 18 | Rationality and practical reasons | Pascal, "The wager" James, "The will to believe" |
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| Ethics | |||
| Thursday, November 20 | Moral responsibility and luck | Nagel, "Moral luck" | Second 5-7 page paper due |
| Tuesday, November 25 | The challenge of third world poverty | Singer, "Poverty, affluence, and morality" |
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| November 27 THANKSGIVING |
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| Tuesday, December 2 | Consequences and right action | Nozick, "The experience machine" |
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| Thursday, December 4 | Kantian ethics | Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (excerpt) | |
| Tuesday, December 9 | Morality and divine commands | Quinn, "God and morality" | |
| Thursday, December 11 | Concluding discussion | none | |
| Third 5-7 page paper due on 12/19. | |||