*NOTE:
all of the listed readings can be found linked on blackboard, if they
aren't directly linked here.
Also, the schedule is tentative. I will notify everyone via email if
there are any changes.
Section
1: Knowledge and Skepticism
Week
1:
Logic and Knowledge
2/9--Introduction.
No reading.
Logic.
Reading: Some
Logic (handout).
2/11--Logic.
Intro to sckepticism. Reading: Some
Logic (handout),
Descartes, Meditation
on First Philosophy, Meditation
I and Meditation
II.
Week
2:
Radical Skepticism and Perception
2/16--Radical
Skepticism. Reading: Descartes, Meditations
on First Philosophy, Meditation
I and II
(continued),
Pollock “Brain
in a Vat” (also on Blackboard).
2/18--Perception.
Reading: Locke, An
Essay Concerning Human
Understanding, Book II
Chapter VIII, Book
IV Chapter XI.
Week
3:
Perception (continued), Idealism, Material World Skepticism
2/23--Perception
(continued). Reading: Locke, An
Essay Concerning Human Understanding,
Book II
Chapter VIII, Book IV
Chapter XI
(continued).
2/25--Idealism.
Reading: Berkeley, Three Dialogues
Between Hylas and Philonous, The
First, The
Second and Third Dialogue
(selections).
Week
4:
The
Problem of Induction, Old and New
3/2--The
Problem of Induction, Old. Reading: Hume, An
Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding, sections
II,
IV,
V,
VI,
and VII.
3/4--The
Problem of Induction, Old (continued). The
Problem of Induction, New. Reading: Salmon, “An Encounter
with David Hume.”
(on Blackboard).
Week
5:
Review
3/9--Section
1 Review. No reading.
3/11--FIRST EXAM/PAPER
Section
2: God
Week
6: Concepts
of God, Cosmological Argument
3/16--Introduction,
Concepts of God. Cosmological
Argument. Reading: Aquinas, Summa
Theologica, Question
2: The Existence of God.
3/18--Cosmological
Argument (continued). Reading: Cosmological
Argument (handout).
Week
7:
Teleological Argument, Ontological Argument
3/23--Teleological
Argument. Reading: Hume, Dialogues
Concerning Natural Religion, Part II
(the rest is optional),
Teleological
Argument (handout).
3/25--Ontological
Argument. Reading: Anselm, Proslogium,
Chapter
II and III.
Week
8
3/29-4/4:
NO CLASSES—Spring Break
Week
9:
Ontological Argument (continued), Pascal’s Wager
4/6--Ontological
Argument (continued). Reading: Ontological
Argument (handout).
4/8--Pascal’s
Wager. Reading: Pascal, Pensees
(#233).
Week
10:
Pragmatic
Considerations for Belief in God, Problem of Evil
4/13--Pascal’s
Wager (continued). Reading: Pragmatic
Considerations (handout).
4/15--The
Problem of Evil. Reading: Mackie, “Evil
and Omnipotence” (JSTOR
link), The
Problem
of Evil (handout).
Week
11:
Evil
and Free Will
4/20--The Problem of Free Will. Reading: Sider, "Free Will and
Determinism", in Riddles of Existence,
Conee and Sider (on Blackboard),
and review.
4/22--SECOND EXAM/PAPER
Section
3: Personal Identity, and Identity Over Time
Week
12:
Personal Identity
4/26--The Soul View. Reading: The Soul
View.
Reading: Perry, A Dialogue on
Personal Identity, First Night and second Night (on Blackboard), Some
Arguments
for Dualism (handout), Perry's
Dialogues
(handout).
4/28--The
Person-Stages View. Reading: Sider, "Time", in Riddles of Existence,
Conee and Sider (on Blackboard).
OPTIONAL reading: Perry, A Dialogue
on Personal Identity, Third Night (on
Blackboard.
Week
13:
Personal Identity
5/4-- Eliminativism. Reading: Perry, continued.
5/6--
Eliminativism (continued). Reading: Unger, "I Do Not Exist" (on Blackboard)
Week
14:
Identity Over Time
5/11--Puzzle of Change. Reading:
Hinchliff, "Puzzle
of Change"
(JSTOR link).
5/13--Statue and the Clay. Reading: Wiggins "On Being at the Same Place
at the Same Time" (on Blackboard), Body
and Body-Minus. "The Doctrine of Arbitrary Undetached Parts"
(on
Blackboard).
5/? (TBA):
FINAL EXAM/PAPER
Page Last Updated: May 03 2010