Syllabus

Date

Topics

Reading
green=optional
Tuesday, January 12 Introduction to the course none
Thursday, January 14 What is a good argument? (mov) none
Does God exist?
Tuesday, January 19 Aquinas' second way (mov)

Aquinas' 2nd way

Thursday, January 21 Aquinas' third way (mov)

Aquinas' 3rd way

Friday, January 22 1st draft of minipaper due in discussion sections
Tuesday, January 26 Leibniz's cosmological argument (mov)

Leibniz, "On the ultimate origination of things"

Thursday, January 28 The design argument (mov) Aquinas' 5th way
Paley, Natural Theology (excerpt)
Darwin, "Organs of extreme perfection and complication"
Rees, Just Six Numbers (excerpt)
Tuesday, February 2 The argument from miracles (mov)

Hume, "Of miracles"

Thursday, February 4 Pascal's wager (mov)

Pascal, "The wager"

Friday, February 5 Revised analysis & objection due in discussion sections
Tuesday, February 9 The problem of evil (mov) Mackie, "Evil and omnipotence" (excerpt)
Thursday, February 11 The free will defense
(guest lecture: Vince Evans)

Plantinga, "The free will defense" (excerpt)
van Inwagen, "The problem of evil" (excerpt)

Freedom of the will
Tuesday, February 16 Free will and determinism (mov)

van Inwagen, "The powers of rational beings" (excerpt)
Hume, "Of liberty and necessity" (excerpt)
Frankfurt, "Alternate possibilities and moral responsibility" (excerpt)

Thursday, February 18 class canceled
Tuesday, February 23

Free will and determinism, continued (mov)

none
Thursday, February 25 Fate and free will (mov)

Taylor, "Fate"
Chiang, "What's expected of us"

Friday, February 26 1st 5-7 page paper due in discussion sections
Tuesday, March 2 Free will & divine foreknowledge (mov) Edwards, Freedom of the Will (excerpt)
Thursday, March 4 Midterm exam
Spring break
Materialism vs. dualism vs. idealism
Tuesday, March 16 Personal identity and dualism (mov)

Descartes, Meditations (excerpt)
Jackson, "What Mary didn't know"

Thursday, March 18 Challenges for the dualist (mov) van Inwagen, "Dualism and physicalism" (excerpt)
Tuesday, March 23 Materialism & the psychological theory of persons (mov) van Inwagen, "Dualism and personal identity" (excerpt)
Locke, "Of identity and diversity" (excerpt)
Reid, "Of Mr. Locke's account of our personal identity"
Thursday, March 25 The psychological theory & the dissolving self (mov) Williams, "The self and the future" (excerpt)
Parfit, Reasons and Persons (excerpt)
Nagel, "Brain bisection and the unity of consciousness" (excerpt)
Tuesday, March 30

Idealism and perceptual variation (mov)

Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous (excerpt)
Thursday, April 1 Idealism and paradox: Kant on divisibility (mov) Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (excerpt)
Ethics
Tuesday, April 6 Moral absolutism, moral nihilism, moral relativism (mov) MacIntyre, "Moral pluralism without moral relativism"
Thursday, April 8 Moral responsibility & moral luck (mov) Nagel, "Moral luck"
Tuesday, April 13 Egoism (mov)

Bentham, The Principles of Morals and Legislation (excerpt)
Plato, Republic II (excerpt)

Thursday, April 15 Our duties to the poor (html) Singer, "Famine, affluence, and morality"
Tuesday, April 20 Consequentialism (html)

Nozick, "The experience machine"
Thomson, "Killing, letting die, and the trolley problem"

Thursday, April 22 Kant's ethics (html) Kant, Groundwork (selection)
Friday, April 23 2nd 5-7 page paper due in discussion sections
Tuesday, April 27 Divine command theory (html)

Plato, Euthyphro (selection)
Cudworth, A Treatise Concerning Eternal & Immutable Morality (selection)

Thursday, May 6 Final exam (10:30-12:30 in usual classroom)