Introduction to Philosophy

Transcription

1 Instructor: Karen Brown Office: Clearihue B 314 Office Hours: Wednesdays 2:20-3:00 and by appointment Course Description PHIL 100 Fall 2014/Spring 2015 The aim of this course is to get you involved in the activity of philosophy. We will spend our time thinking about some of life s big questions, working to understand how some great thinkers have tried to answer them and critically examining our own answers to them. What is the nature of reality? Is it something we can have knowledge of? Does God exist? Can we justify our beliefs? What are minds? What is consciousness? What makes something morally right or wrong? How ought we to live? What (if anything) makes it true that you are the same person today that you were yesterday? Do human beings have free will? What makes a life meaningful? Is life absurd? We will approach all of these questions philosophically. That means we will remain open to reason, articulating the questions and the answers as clearly and carefully as we can and critically assessing the answers we have with an eye to finding more satisfying responses. Texts Available in the campus book store: Daniel C. Dennett. Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting. MIT Press E.D. Klemke and Steven M. Cahn. The Meaning of Life: A Reader. Oxford University Press John Perry. A Dialogue On Personal Identity And Immortality. Hackett Publishing Available in the campus bookstore but also available on-line through the Course Spaces page: George Berkeley. Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous in Opposition to Sceptics and Atheists. René Descartes. Meditations on First Philosophy. David Hume. Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. Plato. Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo. Bertrand Russell. The Problems of Philosophy. All other course readings are available through Course Spaces. Course Spaces To access the course materials on Course Spaces go to coursespaces.uvic.ca and log in with your regular network ID. The Course Spaces page contains all sorts of information you will need for the course. It contains many of the course readings, details about how much of particular texts you need to read, a calendar of assignments, a class list with photos and addresses and various supplementary materials. Any changes that need to be made to the course schedule during the term will appear on the Course Spaces page. Phil 100 A03: Introduction to Philosophy Fall 2014/Spring

2 Course Work Reaction Papers Six Reaction Papers 5% each Exam One 10% Exam Two 10% Exam Three 15% Exam Four 10% Exam Five 15% Exam Six 10% The reaction papers are short ( words) responses to a question about the reading for that day. The questions and some further instructions are posted on the Course Spaces page. It is best to answer the question on the basis of your own reading of the text and our class discussion of related ideas. I prefer that you refrain from consulting secondary sources on the reading before writing your paper. If you do consult any other sources and use any quotations, phrases or ideas that you did not come up with on your own, you must cite your sources. Committing plagiarism on a reaction paper will result in a grade of F for the entire course, so it is worth reviewing the the information about plagiarism available on the Course Spaces page. These are very short papers, but they must still be typed, correctly spelled, grammatically correct and clear. Reaction papers are due at the start of class. Late reaction papers will not be accepted. If you have a legitimate reason for missing a reaction paper, check with me and I can give you an alternate assignment. Each reaction paper must be submitted on a single sheet of paper with your name and Reaction Paper 1 (or 2, etc.) in the upper right hand corner. Exams These will be in-class exams covering material from the readings and class discussion. They will be a combination of short answer questions and essay questions. Missed Course Work If you miss an exam or reaction paper due to a documented illness or accident, contact me immediately to schedule a make-up. Missed Classes If you miss class you should contact another student in the class to find out what you missed. Student addresses are available in the Participants section of the Course Spaces page. Grading Grades for the course will be assigned using the standard university scheme: Failure to write one or more of the exams will result in a grade of N. Information regarding accommodation of religious observance can be located in the UVIC Calendar at Percentage Grade A A A B B B C C D Below 50 F PHIL 100 A03: Introduction to Philosophy Fall 2014/Spring

3 Course Schedule Please note that this schedule is tentative. Any changes will be announced in class and posted on the Course Spaces page. First Term W 9/3 Introduction Logic F 9/5 Introduction to logic (no reading assignment) T 9/9 Logic Café Chapter One, Tutorials 1 and 2 W 9/10 Fallacies F 9/12 Logic Practice Personal Identity W 9/17 REACTION PAPER 1 T 9/16 Perry A Dialogue On Personal Identity And Immortality, The First Night F 9/19 Perry A Dialogue On Personal Identity And Immortality, The Third Night Perry A Dialogue On Personal Identity And Immortality, The Second Night T 9/23 continued W 9/24 EXAM ONE Philosophy of Religion F 9/26 Hume Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Pamphilus to Hermippus, and Parts I and II T 9/30 Hume Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Parts III through IX W 10/1 continued F 10/3 Workshop for Reaction Paper 2 T 10/7 REACTION PAPER 2 Hume Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Parts X through XII W 10/8 Clifford The Ethics of Belief: Part I The Duty of Inquiry T 10/14 continued F 10/10 James The Will to Believe W 10/15 EXAM TWO PHIL 100 A03: Introduction to Philosophy Fall 2014/Spring

4 Knowledge and Reality F 10/17 Plato Meno T 10/21 continued F 10/24 continued W 10/22 Plato Phaedo T 10/28 Russell The World of Universals W 10/29 Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy, Meditation One F 10/31 Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy, Meditation Two T 11/4 continued W 11/5 Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy, Meditations Three through Six F 11/7 continued Reading Break 11/8 11/12 F 11/14 Workshop for Reaction Paper 3 T 11/18 REACTION PAPER 3 Russell Appearance and Reality, The Existence of Matter W 11/19 Locke from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding F 11/21 Berkeley Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, First Dialogue T 11/25 continued W 11/26 Berkeley Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, Third Dialogue F 11/28 Russell Idealism T 12/2 Review W 12/3 EXAM THREE Second Term Free Will (all readings in this section are from Elbow Room) T 1/6 Introduction to free will W 1/7 Dennett Please Don t Feed the Bugbears F 1/9 Dennett Making Reason Practical T 1/13 REACTION PAPER 4 Dennett Control and Self-Control W 1/14 Dennett Self-Made Selves PHIL 100 A03: Introduction to Philosophy Fall 2014/Spring

5 Free Will (continued) F 1/16 Dennett Acting Under the Idea of Freedom T 1/20 Dennett Could Have Done Otherwise W 1/21 Dennett Why do we want free will? F 1/23 EXAM FOUR Ethics W 1/28 Allen Crimes and Misdemeanors (film) T 1/27 Introduction to ethics F 1/30 continued T 2/3 Plato Republic Book II W 2/4 F 2/6 Kant Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Chapter One continued Reading Break 2/9 2/13 (no classes) T 2/17 Epicurus Letter to Menoeceus W 2/18 Bentham An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation Chapters One and Four F 2/20 REACTION PAPER 5 Mill from Utilitarianism, Chapter Two T 2/24 continued W 2/25 Williams from Utilitarianism: For and Against The Trolley Problem (video) T 3/3 Review F 2/27 Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics, Book II W 3/4 EXAM FIVE Philosophy of Mind F 3/6 Introduction to philosophy of mind T 3/10 Ryle Descartes Myth W 3/11 REACTION PAPER 6 Armstrong The Nature of Mind F 3/13 Nagel What is it like to be a bat? T 3/17 Churchland Eliminative Materialism and the Propositional Attitudes, Sections 1 and 2 PHIL 100 A03: Introduction to Philosophy Fall 2014/Spring

6 W 3/18 Tolstoy My Confession The Meaning of Life (all readings in this section are from The Meaning of Life: A Reader) F 3/20 Pojman Religion Gives Meaning to Life T 3/24 Nozick Philosophy and the Meaning of Life W 3/25 Camus The Myth of Sisyphus T 3/31 Wolf Meaning in Life F 3/27 Nagel The Absurd W 4/1 EXAM SIX Cahn Meaningless Lives? PHIL 100 A03: Introduction to Philosophy Fall 2014/Spring