Date |
Topics |
Reading
green=optional
|
| Tuesday, January 12 |
Introduction to the course |
none |
| Thursday, January 14 |
What is a paradox? (mov) |
none |
| Paradoxes of space and time |
| Tuesday, January 19 |
Zeno's paradoxes (mov) |
Sainsbury, Paradoxes, ch. 1 |
| Thursday, January 21 |
McTaggart's proof of the unreality of time (mov) |
McTaggart, "Time" |
| Tuesday, January 26 |
Kant's antinomies (mov) |
Kant, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics (excerpt)
Kant, "The antinomy of pure reason"
van Cleve,"The ideality of matter" |
| Thursday, January 28 |
Paradoxes of special relativity & quantum mechanics (mov) |
Einstein, Relativity (excerpt)
Arntzenius & Maudlin, "Time travel and modern physics"
Albert, "Superposition" |
| Tuesday, February 2 |
The doomsday argument & living in a computer simulation (mov) |
Leslie, The End of the World (excerpt)
Greenberg, "Apocalypse not just now"
Bostrom, "Are you living in a computer simulation?" |
| Metaphysical paradoxes |
| Thursday, February 4 |
Material objects (mov) |
Sider, "Constitution" |
| Tuesday, February 9 |
Personal identity (mov) |
Parfit, "Divided minds and the nature of persons"
Nagel, "Brain bisection and the unity of consciousness"
Zuboff, "The story of a brain"
Weldon, "To be" (a cartoon about teletransportation) |
| Thursday, February 11 |
Free will, determinism, and indeterminism (mov) |
van Inwagen, "The powers of rational beings: freedom of the will" |
| Tuesday, February 16 |
Is meaning possible? (mov) |
Kripke, Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language (excerpt) |
| Thursday, February 18 |
class canceled |
| Theological paradoxes |
| Tuesday, February 23 |
The problem of evil (mov) |
Mackie, "Evil and omnipotence"
Plantinga, "The free will defense"
van Inwagen, "The problem of evil" |
| Thursday, February 25 |
Midterm exam: covers paradoxes of space & time and metaphysical paradoxes
Midterm study guide |
| Tuesday, March 2 |
Free will, fatalism, and divine foreknowledge (mov) |
Edwards, Freedom of the Will (excerpt)
Zagzebski, "Foreknowledge and free will"
Chiang, "What's expected of us"
Taylor, "Fate" |
| Thursday, March 4 |
Free will & foreknowledge, continued (mov) |
none |
| First 5-7 page paper due, in class |
| Spring break |
| Tuesday, March 16 |
Paradoxes of omnipotence & omniscience (mov) |
Aquinas, "The power of God" (Summa Ia q25)
Frankfurt, "The logic of omnipotence"
Plantinga & Grim, "Truth, omniscience, and Cantorian arguments"
|
| Thursday, March 18 |
The paradox of heaven and hell and the problem of the trinity (mov) |
Rea, "The trinity"
Murray, "Does prayer change things?"
Sider, "Hell and vagueness" |
| Paradoxes of rational belief and action |
| Tuesday, March 23 |
Newcomb's problem (mov) |
Sainsbury, pp. 69-81 |
| Thursday, March 25 |
The prisoner's dilemma (mov) |
Sainsbury, pp. 82-87 |
| Tuesday, March 30 |
The St. Petersburg paradox & the 2 envelope paradox (mov) |
Clark, "The St. Petersburg Paradox"
Arntzenius & McCarthy, "The two envelope paradox and infinite expectations"
Hajek, "The cable guy paradox" |
| Thursday, April 1 |
Paradoxes of confirmation: grue and the ravens (mov) |
Sainsbury, pp. 90-106 |
| Tuesday, April 6 |
The surprise exam (mov) |
Sainsbury, pp. 107-114 |
| Thursday, April 8 |
The knower, the believer, & the paradox of knowability (mov) |
Sainsbury, pp. 115-120 |
| Tuesday, April 13 |
Sleeping beauty (pdf) |
Elga, "Self-locating belief and the sleeping beauty problem"
Lewis, "Reply to Elga"
Dorr, "Sleeping beauty: in defense of Elga"
White, "The generalized sleeping beauty problem" |
| Thursday, April 15 |
The lottery paradox (pdf) |
Hawthorne, Knowledge and Lotteries (excerpt) |
| Mathematical and logical paradoxes |
| Tuesday, April 20 |
The sorites (pdf) |
Sainsbury, ch. 3 |
| Thursday, April 22 |
class canceled |
| Tuesday, April 27 |
The liar paradox (pdf) |
Sainsbury, ch. 6
Russell, Principles of Mathematics (excerpt from Appendix B)
Tarski, "The semantic conception of truth" |
| Second 5-7 page paper due, in class |
| Tuesday, May 4 |
Final exam: covers theological paradoxes, paradoxes of belief & action, and mathematical & logical paradoxes
(10:30-12:30 in usual classroom) |