Syllabus

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)