Course Reading Schedule
Metaphysics
Philosophy 208
Fall 2009
*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: Persons
Week
1:
Introduction and Logic
8/31--Introduction.
No reading.
9/2--Logic.
Reading: Some
Logic (handout).
Week
2:
Ordinary
Objects, Identity and Time
9/7--NO CLASSES--Labor Day.
9/9--Ordinary Objects, Identity and Time. Reading: Chisholm, "Identity
through Time" (on Blackboard);
Ship of
Theseus (handout). Optional Reading: Leibniz's
Law (handout).
Week
3:
Ordinary
Objects and Time, The Soul View
9/14--Ordinary Objects and Time. Reading:
Hinchliff, "Puzzle
of Change"
(JSTOR link).
9/16--The Soul View.
Reading: Perry, A Dialogue on
Personal Identity, First Night (on Blackboard).
Week
4:
Dualism, Person Stages
9/21--The Soul View
(continued). Dualism. Reading: Campbell, Body and Mind, Chapter 3 (on Blackboard).
Optional Reading: Churchland, Matter
and Consciousness , Chapter 2 (on Blackboard)
9/23--Dualism, Person
Stages. Arguments from Knowledge. Reading: Some
Arguments for Dualism (handout). Perry, A Dialogue on Personal Identity,
Second Night (on Blackboard). Optional
Reading: Sider "Time" in Riddles of Existence; Perry, A Dialogue on
Personal Identity,
Third Night (both on Blackboard).
Week
5:
Memory View
9/28--NO
CLASSES—Yom Kippur
9/30--Memory View.
Reading: Shoemaker, "Personal
Identity and Memory". Optional Reading: Perry
on Personal Identity (handout).
Week
6: Memory View (continued), Eliminativism
10/5--Memory View
(continued), Eliminativism.
Reading: Hume, "Our Idea of Identity", "Of Personal Identity", and
"Second Thoughts" in Perry, Personal
Identity (on Blackboard).
10/7--FIRST EXAM/PAPER
Week
7:
Eliminativism (continued), review and catch-up
10/12--Reading:
Unger, "I Do Not Exist" (on Blackboard).
10/14--Review and catch-up day. Reading: "Holes"
by David and Stephanie Lewis, in Australasian
Journal of Philosophy.
Week
8
10/19-23:
NO CLASSES—Fall Recess
Week
9:
Free Will, Libertarianism
10/26--Free Will. Reading: Sider, "Free
Will and Determinism" in Riddles of
Existence, Chapter 6 (on Blackboard).
10/28--Libertarianism.
Chisholm, "Human Freedom and the Self" in Watson (ed.) Free Will (on Blackboard).
Week
10:
Incompatibilism,
Compatibilism
11/2--Incompatibilism.
Reading: van Inwagen, "The
Incompatibility of Free Will and Determinism".
11/4--Compatibilism. Reading: Ayer,
"Freedom and Necessity" (on Blackboard), Frankfurt, "Freedom
of the Will and the Concept of a Person".
Week
11:
Incompatibilism Redux
11/9--Incompatibilism Redux. Reading: Nagel, "Moral Luck" (on Blackboard).
11/11--SECOND EXAM/PAPER
Section
2: Properties
Week
12:
The Problem of Universals, Primitive Natural Classes
11/16--The Problem. Reading: Armstrong, Universals: An Opinionated Introduction,
Chapter 1: The Problem (on Blackboard).
11/18--Primitive
Natural Classes. Reading: Armstrong, Universals: An Opinionated Introduction,
Chapter 2: Primitive Natural Classes (on Blackboard).
Week
13:
Resemblance Nominalism,
Bundle Theory
11/23--Resemblance Nominalism. Reading: Armstrong, Universals: An Opinionated Introduction,
Chapter 3: Resemblance Nominalism (on Blackboard).
11/25--Bundle Threory.
Reading: Armstrong, Universals: An Opinionated Introduction,
Chapter 4: Particulars as Bundles of Universals (on Blackboard).
Week
14:
Universals at Attributes, Tropes.
11/30--Universals as Attributes. Reading:
Armstrong, Universals: An
Opinionated Introduction, Chapter 5: Universals as Attributes
(on Blackboard).
12/2--Tropes. Reading: Armstrong, Universals: An Opinionated Introduction,
Chapter 6: Tropes (on Blackboard).
Week
15:
Overview
12/7--Properties. Reading: Armstrong, Universals: An Opinionated Introduction,
Chapter 7: Summing Up (on Blackboard).
12/9--Course
wrap-up. No reading.
12/?:
FINAL EXAM/PAPER
Page Last Updated: Oct. 5 2009