Syllabus Introduction to Philosophy

Transcription

1 Syllabus Introduction to Philosophy University of Pennsylvania, Summer Course Details Instructor: T. Ben Baker Office Hours: Wednesdays 11:30am 1:30pm (and by appointment) When: Monday, Wednesday, Friday; 9:00am 11:30am Where: TBD 2. Course Description This course is meant to introduce students to many of the central issues that philosophers discuss, and to help develop precise and thorough reasoning skills. We will examine a variety of approaches to some of the simplest questions we can ask, which turn out to be some of the most difficult to answer. Some of these questions are as follows: What are the most general principles that govern changes in the world, and how can we know? What is it to be a person or have a mind? What makes an action morally right or wrong? How should societies be structured, and why? We will attempt to understand the ways some prominent thinkers have tried to address these questions and others, we will critically assess their views, and we will try to formulate and refine our own ideas regarding these philosophical puzzles. Each class period we will walk through the central points in the readings and have open discussion on the broad issues. Laptops are strongly discouraged, but allowed. Some of the reasons I discourage laptops can be found here: and here:

2 3. Evaluation There are five (+1) components to grading in this course, weighted as follows: 1) Participation 15% 2) Argument Reconstruction and Response (x2) 20% (10% each) 3) Quizzes (x3) 15% (5% each) 4) Paper Draft (4-6 pages) 20% 5) Final Paper (5-7 pages) 30% Extra Credit Response (1-2 pages) 5% Participation (15%) The grade for participation depends on the student attending class, and on the extent to which they contribute to discussion in a respectful manner that genuinely attempts to better grasp or further explore the topic at hand. Argument Reconstruction and Response (20%) These (2) assignments present a selected passage from one of the readings and ask the student to distill its main argument into a set of major premises and conclusion. Once the argument has been schematically reconstructed in this way, the student must identify a possible objection to the argument, specifying how it logically relates to the premises they have delineated. Then the student must either develop that objection in a short, critical response to the passage, or defend the author s view against the objection they identified in a short, complementary response. These assignments should be no more than two pages each. Quizzes (15%) There will be three short quizzes on basic content from recent class periods and readings they will be easy for students who have been engaging in class and doing the reading.

3 Paper Draft (20%) Students will be allowed to choose their paper topics from a list that includes at least one prompt from each of the first nine readings (through Virtue Ethics on 7/20). The papers will need to engage with one or two of the readings in depth and carefully defend a thesis that is responsive to the views therein. The draft should be a complete one formatting and typo issues will be overlooked, but outlines and to be written sections are not permitted. We will discuss the requirements for the paper at length, and students will have a chance to discuss their drafts with a classmate during one class period. Final Paper (30%) Students will have received detailed feedback on their drafts in order to guide the revision process, and will be free to make whatever changes they think necessary to produce the strongest final paper. Of course, the kind and extent of important revisions will vary from student to student, but all will be expected to make significant improvements on their drafts. Extra Credit Response (5%) Students have the options of writing a 1-2 page response to a bonus readings (see below), relating some claim(s) of the author s to the issues we discuss that week. 4. Reading The readings will be excerpts from articles and books by contemporary philosophers, works from the 17 th -19 th centuries that highly influenced modern thought, and original texts from ancient philosophical traditions. They will be available online students will not be required to purchase any reading materials.

4 The assigned readings in this course are short compared to typical humanities classes, but most of them will be quite dense, involve content with which students will be unfamiliar, and have key claims that will not be easy to grasp. It is important to read carefully, reread parts that seem important or confusing, and pause to reflect when one is uncertain about the claims and when one has a significant reaction. Skimming will be mostly useless for engaging with discussion in class, and for developing ideas to write on, and for building reasoning abilities and an understanding of the issues that can be of benefit beyond the course. Most weeks will include a bonus reading that will not appear in any quizzes or argument reconstructions, and which we may not have time to discuss in class. These readings will involve some of the same central ideas of the other readings for that week, but take a significantly differing approach or have a slightly different focus. Students can choose any one of these on which to do the extra credit assignment. They are included so as to offer students a chance to delve further into any of the issues that especially interest them of course, I am happy to provide further reading suggestions for anyone who would like them. 5. Academic Integrity This should go without saying, but I am saying it anyway: do not cheat. Students are encouraged to discuss their ideas with each other outside of class, and even to share and discuss writing they have not handed in yet bouncing works-in-progress off of other people is a crucial part of the academic practice. That said, the written work should be the student s own: do not take (or minimally tweak) a passage someone else has written and present it as an original viewpoint. If a student s writing is incongruous with what else I know about their work, I will look on the web for possible sources of the writing, and I may ask to meet with the student to discuss the relevant ideas in person. There are serious consequences for violating the University s code of academic integrity (link below), and

5 anyway I think most students will find it easier to do a decent job on the assignments themselves than to find relevant work by someone else and disguise it as their own Schedule The following schedule may undergo slight changes during the course. The readings will be (often quite short) excerpts from the listed sources the exact page numbers can be found on the more detailed scheduled (to be distributed), and the required excerpts will be made available online. Each week is labeled with a broad question or two that roughly characterizes the topic of discussion. Friday 6/29 What is doing philosophy? Plato, Apology J.J.C. Smart, The Province of Philosophy Monday 7/2 What is the basic nature of the world? Has it a Maker? David Hume; Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion David Hume; Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding Gautama s Nyāyasūtras and commentaries Nyāya Kusumāñjali and commentaries Hymn of Creation from The Vedas Majjhimanikāya [Buddhist text on illformed questions] [Bonus: Roy Wood Sellars; Why Naturalism and not Materialism?] Wesnesday 7/4 What is the basic makeup of stuff in the world? Aristotle; Metaphysics Background on ancient atomism (Democritus, Epicurus) Taote Ching of Laozi, commentary by Wang Bi George Berkeley; Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous [Bonus: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on grounding]

6 Friday 7/6 What is knowledge? What can we know? Plato; Theatetus Edmund Gettier; Is Justified True Belief Knowledge? Linda Zagzebski; The Inescapability of Gettier Problems [Bonus: Karl Popper; Science: Conjecture and Refutation] Monday 7/9 What is self? What is a mind? What is a person? René Descartes; Meditations Correspondence between Descartes and Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia Katha Upanisad Background on Vedanta and Dualism/NonDualism Thomas NortonSmith; The Dance of Person & Place [Bonus: SEP article on Akan Philosophy of the Person] [Bonus: Gilbert Ryle; The Concept of Mind ch.1] Wednesday 7/11 Where and when is a Mind? Thomas Nagel; What Is It Like to Be a Bat? John Locke; An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Daniel Dennett; Where am I? Derek Parfit; Reasons and Persons [Bonus: Marya Schechtman; Personal Identity and the Past] Friday 7/13 What might make us free, responsible agents? Thomas Hobbes; Leviathan David Hume; Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding Harry Frankfurt; Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility Susan Wolf; Sanity and the Metaphysics of Responsibility [Bonus: SEP article on Compatibilism] Monday 7/16 How should one act what produces good? John Stuart Mill; Utilitarianism Peter Singer; Famine, Affluence, and Morality Peter Railton; Alienation, Consequentialism, and Demands of Morality

7 Wednesday 7/18 How should one act what is one s moral duty? Immanuel Kant; Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals Christine Korsgaard; Kant s Formula of Universal Law The Bhagavad Gita [Bonus: Thomas Nagel; Autonomy and Deontology] Friday 7/20 How should one act what is being virtuous? Aristotle; Nicomachean Ethics Confucius; Analects Julia Annas; Being Virtuous and Doing the Right Thing Rosalind Hursthouse; On Virtue Ethics [Bonus: Plato; Laws] Monday 7/23 What might normative truths be based on? Sharon Street; A Darwinian Dilemma for Realist Theories of Value James Rachels; The Challenge of Cultural Relativism T.M. Scanlon; Contractualism and Utilitarianism Wednesday 7/25 What justifies government, and which kinds? Thomas Hobbes; Leviathan John Rawls; A Theory of Justice Edna UllmanMargalit; The Emergence of Norms [Bonus: Plato; The Republic] Friday 7/27 Why is free expression important? And legal equality? John Stuart Mill; On Liberty Bradenburg v. Ohio Wisconsin v. Yoder Monday 7/30 When might killing not be wrong, and why? Phillipa Foot; Euthanasia Matt Stichter; The Structure of Death Penalty Arguments Judith Thomson; A Defense of Abortion

8 Wednesday 8/1 What is language and linguistic meaning? Gottlob Frege; On Sense and Reference David Lewis; Scorekeeping in a Language Game Merlin Donald; Origins of the Modern Mind Friday 8/3 Are minds computers? Are computers minds? Alan Turing; Computing Machinery and Intelligence Daniel Dennett; Cognitive Wheels: The Frame Problem of AI Susan Hurley; Alternative Views of Perception and Action Tim Van Gelder; What Might Cognition Be, If Not Computation?