We will examine both some of the questions, problems, puzzles, and paradoxes that have helped to generate philosophical theories and some of the arguments employed to appraise those theories. The course is designed both to inform you of certain of the problems of philosophy and to help you to consider, develop, and refine certain of the analytical skills that philosophers have developed and refined in their efforts to solve those problems.
Text: Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings, 6th ed., Oxford University Press.
Requirements: Mid‑term exam (40pts) and final exam (40pts), (Exams might have a take-home components.) Four of five pop-quizzes. (Each quiz is worth 5pts.)
Course outline:
I. Introduction: What kinds of things are there?
A. Philosophical systems or Ontologies. (On the Study of Philosophy)
B. Arguments. (Logical Toolkit)
II. Are there good philosophical reasons for admitting God into our ontology?
A. The definition of “God.”
B. Theistic Arguments.
1. Cosmological (Aquinas).
2. Teleological (Paley).
3. Ontological (Anselm).
C. Atheistic Arguments.
1. The Paradox of the Stone.
2. The Problem of Evil (Leibniz).
D. A Pragmatic Approach: Pascal’s Wager (Pascal).
III.MIND AND BODY. What are you?
A. Cartesian Dualism and Materialism.
B. Interactionism
C. Other Minds (Russell and Ryle)
D. Intentional Systems (Dennett)
IV. Ontology and Epistemology: What is the nature and extent of human knowledge?
A. Analyses of Knowledge. (Gettier)
B. Skeptical Arguments.
C. Rationalism and Empiricism.
D. The Circle of Our Own Ideas.
1. Descartes.
2. Locke.
3. Berkeley. (0n Moodle)
V. Descartes’s Meditations.
A. Meditation I.
1. Method of Doubt.
2. Dream Hypothesis.
3. Evil Demon Hypothesis.
B. Meditation II.
1. The Cogito Passage.
2. Descartes’s First Certainty.
C. Descartes’s Ontological Argument.
D. The Cartesian Circle.
Office Hours: M 9:00-11:00 and TT 11:00- 12:00. (I am also available by appointment)