SYLLABUS: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY COURSE DESCRIPTION. Philosophy is a very old discipline. The great dialogues of Plato are about 2350 years old.

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1 1 Phil , Spring 2018 Meeting time: Tu & Th 2:10-3:30 Classroom: 201 Hamilton Smith Hall Instructor: Timm Triplett Office: 249H Hamilton Smith Hall Office Hours: Tu & Th 3:40-4:30, or by appointment Contact info: , (Philosopher of the Week) SYLLABUS: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY COURSE DESCRIPTION Philosophy is a very old discipline. The great dialogues of Plato are about 2350 years old. In another sense though, it is the youngest of the academic disciplines. Philosophy concerns the most fundamental questions humans can ask. And yet children can ask them: Dad, if God made the universe because it couldn t come from nothing, how could God come from nothing? Well, I guess because God has always existed. But then why couldn t the universe have always existed? Questions easily asked are not always easily answered. We will explore some of the answers to some of these questions that have emerged from children s and adults natural wonder at the fact and nature of our existence. In a discipline with a legacy of unbroken inquiry for the past 2500 years, we cannot begin to survey all the topics and issues in philosophy, nor all the philosophers who have made significant contributions to philosophy. The topics noted below are thus necessarily selective. This course selects some of the most vital questions that reflective people from Plato s time to our time, from ancient Athens to UNH have wondered deeply about. Relativism and Objectivism: Can there be any objective truths, or is everything we know and believe about the nature of the world, and about right and wrong, inevitably relative to our own perspective? The Existence of God: How strong are the arguments for and against God's existence? If we prove God's existence, do we know which god it is? Body, Mind and Spirit: What is the ultimate nature of the self? Is it only a material thing, or is it a distinct, nonmaterial mind or soul? If the latter, how does my nonmaterial mind or soul interact with my material body? Knowledge, Intuition and Truth: What do I really know, and how do I know it? What are the relations between reason, faith, intuition and experience in my knowing the things I know? What is the value of truth? Free Will, Fate, and Determinism: Is everything that happens fated to happen? When I make an important decision, is it really the free exercise of my will, or is it inevitably the product of subconscious and external factors outside of my control? The Meaning of Life: Why is this all happening? Is there some overarching point or purpose to existence? If so, what is it? If not, then what? This course counts as a HUMA course in the Discovery Program.

2 2 TEXT The required text for this course is Reason and Responsibility, edited by Joel Feinberg and Russ Shafer-Landau. Students may use editions 10 through 14 instead of the current 16 th edition. The current edition and possibly earlier editions are available at both the UNH bookstore ( ) and the Durham Book Exchange ( ). Digital editions of the 16 th edition are available, but if used, please print out the readings for classroom use. Some additional readings will be required. See the table at the end of this syllabus for the list of readings for the semester. COURSE REQUIREMENTS Course requirements include reading response exercises, three quizzes and a final exam. In addition, each student will be assigned to a Philosophy Team. The collaborative reports issued by Philosophy Teams will be graded, and peer assessments of a student by teammates will be scored and included in the student s final grade. Dates for quizzes and the final are as follows (quizzes take place during class time): Quiz 1: Tu Feb 20 Quiz 2: Tu Mar 27 Quiz 3: Th Apr 19 Final Exam: Friday May 11, 3:30 PM These due dates are also noted in the table in the final part of this syllabus. The table also notes dates for Philosophy Team meetings and reading assignments. Reading response exercises are not announced in advance. Please note that scheduled assignment dates are subject to change. Any changes will be noted in advance. Relative weightings of required assignments are as follows: Quizzes: 30% of grade (10% each) Reading Response Exercises: 14% Philosophy Team: 23% Final Exam: 33% Grade scale (expressed as percentages): = A < = B < = C < = D < = A- < = B- < = C- < = D- < = B+ < = C+ < = D+ < 60 = F Make-ups: A student who must be absent on the day of a scheduled quiz or exam should see me in advance. In the case of an emergency illness or accident, a student may make up a quiz or exam without prior notification provided he/she notifies me by the school day after the quiz or exam was scheduled. A message may be left on my voice mail ( ), (tat@unh.edu, or the option on our Canvas website) or with the Philosophy Department secretary (862-

3 3 2060). An absent student who does not adhere to these conditions will receive a score of 0 for that quiz or exam. If a student misses class on a day their Philosophy Team submits a report, the absent student receives a score of 0 as their contribution to the report. No make-ups are possible. However, a student s lowest Philosophy Team report score will be dropped when grades are calculated at the end of the semester. Likewise, no make-ups are possible for reading response exercises. However, the lowest scores will be dropped depending on the number of these exercises given over the course of the semester, as follows: If 7-8 exercises: lowest score dropped If 9-11: lowest two scores dropped If 12 or more: lowest three scores dropped Classroom Behavior and Expectations: To ensure a climate of learning for all, disruptive or inappropriate behavior, including repeated outbursts, disrespect for (as opposed to disagreement with) the ideas of others, distracting conversation with a neighbor that is not relevant to course activities, etc., may result in exclusion (removal) from this class. UNH policy is that cell phone/pda, etc. use, including text messaging, is not permitted in class, by Faculty Senate rule, unless by instructor permission. In this course, smart phone or other digital device use is not permitted during class. Laptops may be used by students provided they get prior approval from the instructor and sit in a designated area of the classroom. I suggest keeping your print-outs of online readings in your course notebook. Plagiarism and Cheating: Plagiarism is using the words of other writers, including those of fellow students, without attribution. Cheating in a course is any use of the work of others, including other students, that is inappropriately represented as your own work. These are serious ethical offenses that I will not tolerate. Students who are caught plagiarizing or cheating will be given an F for the course. I will take steps to see that they are dismissed from the University. Disability Services: The University is committed to providing students with documented disabilities equal access to all university programs and facilities. If you think you have a disability requiring accommodations, you must register with Disability Services for Students (DSS). If you have questions about the process, please contact DSS at (603) or disability.office@unh.edu. If you are registered with DSS, and eligible for accommodations that you would like to utilize in this course, please forward that information to a course instructor in a timely manner so that we can review those accommodations. Emotional or Mental Health Distress: Your academic success at UNH is very important to yourselves as students and to us as faculty. If, during the semester, you find emotional or mental health issues are affecting that success, please contact Psychological and Counseling Services

4 4 (PACS), 3 rd fl, Smith Hall /TTY: 7-1-1, which provides counseling appointments and other mental health services. COURSE TOPICS AND READINGS Readings for the semester are given in the table below. Changes may be made in this reading schedule. Any such changes will be announced in class and noted on our course website. Students are responsible for adhering to any such announced changes. Our course textbook, Reason and Responsibility is abbreviated RR in the table below. The page numbers refer to the current 16 th edition of the book (if just a single page number is given for RR readings, read the whole article starting on that page; otherwise read the range of pages noted sometimes only those pages from part of an article are to be read). Students using an earlier edition of Reason and Responsibility should use that edition s table of contents to find the appropriate reading. In those cases where an RR reading is not included in earlier editions, a copy will be posted on our course website. Additional readings not included in the textbook will also be posted on the website. Date Topics and ASSIGNMENT DATES Reading (RR = course text) Tu Jan 23 Th Jan 25 Tu Jan 30 Relativism and Objectivism Moral and Metaphysical Relativisms; The Windows Analogy Logic; The Existence of God The Cosmological Argument Syllabus; Mary Midgley, Trying Out One s New Sword, RR p. 610 Aquinas The Five Ways, RR p. 47; Samuel Clarke A Modern Formulation of the Cosmological Argument, RR p. 49 Th Feb 1 The Cosmological Argument William Rowe The Cosmological Argument, RR p. 50 Tu Feb 6 PHILOSOPHY TEAMS 1; The Problem of Evil Th Feb 8 The Problem of Evil Peter Van Inwagen The Argument from Evil, RR p. 126 Tu Feb 13 The Argument from Design Michael Ruse The Argument from Design, RR p. 65

5 5 Date Topics and ASSIGNMENT DATES Reading (RR = course text) Th Feb 15 PHILOSOPHY TEAMS 2; Fine-Tuning and the Argument from Design Alan Lightman What Came Before the Big Bang? Website Tu Feb 20 QUIZ #1 Th Feb 22 Body, Mind and Spirit Editors introduction to Part IV, Mind and Its Place in Nature, RR pp Tu Feb 27 Dualism Brie Gertler In Defense of Mind-Body Dualism, RR p. 359 Th Mar 1 PHILOSOPHY TEAMS 3; Materialism Paul Churchland Functionalism and Eliminative Materialism, RR p. 382 Tu Mar 6 The Problem of Sensory Experience Frank Jackson The Qualia Problem, RR p. 372 Th Mar 8 Natural and Artificial Minds John Searle Minds, Brains, and Programs, RR p. 400 Tu Mar 20 Knowledge, Intuition and Truth Editor s introduction to Part III, Human Knowledge: Its Grounds and Limits, RR pp Th Mar 22 PHILOSOPHY TEAMS 4; Rationalism Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy, RR pp Tu Mar 27 QUIZ #2 Descartes Meditations, RR pp Th Mar 29 Empiricism David Hume An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding, RR pp

6 6 Date Topics and ASSIGNMENT DATES Reading (RR = course text) Tu Apr 3 PHILOSOPHY TEAMS 5 Wesley Salmon An Encounter with David Hume, RR p. 320 Th Apr 5 Faith and Reason William James, The Will to Believe, RR p. 155 Tu Apr 10 The Value of Truth Linda Zagzebski, Epistemic Good and the Good Life, RR p. 224 Th Apr 12 Free Will, Fate, and Determinism Editor s introduction to Part V, Determinism, Free Will, and Responsibility, RR pp Tu Apr 17 PHILOSOPHY TEAMS 6; Hard Determinism James Rachels, The Case Against Free Will, RR p. 481 Th Apr 19 QUIZ #3; Libertarianism Roderick Chisholm Human Freedom and the Self, RR p. 459 Tu Apr 24 Existentialist Freedom Jean-Paul Sartre Existentialism, Website Th Apr 26 The Meaning of Life a Thin View Richard Taylor, The Meaning of Life, RR p. 705 Tu May 1 PHILOSOPHY TEAMS 7; a Thick View Susan Wolf, from Meaning in Life and Why It Matters, Website Th May 3 The Astonishment Perspective Thomas Nagel Birth, Death, and the Meaning of Life, Website F May 11 FINAL EXAM, 3:30