Week 1: Welcome and Introduction

Aug. 20. : No reading.

    PART 1: PUZZLES OF KNOWLEDGE

Week 2: Logic and Descartes' Meditations; Radical Skepticism

Aug. 25: Logic Handout (html).
Aug. 27: Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, Meditation One and Two; John Pollock, "Brain in a Vat" (pdf).

Helpful handouts: Descartes' Meditations (html).

Week 3: Descartes' Meditations (continued)

Sept. 1: Labor Day. No Class.
Sept. 3: Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, Three, Four, Five, Six (wright.edu).

Week 4: Locke; Causal Theory of Perception; Perceptual Skepticism

Sept. 8: Meditations On First Philosophy, continued.
Sept. 10: Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book II, Chapter VIII, Book IV, Chapter XI (oregonstate.edu).

Week 5: Locke; Causal Theory of Perception; Perceptual Skepticism (continued)

Sept. 15: No Class.
Sept. 17: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book II, Chapter VIII, Book IV, Chapter XI (oregonstate.edu).

Week 6: Berkeley; Idealism; Material World Skepticism

Sept. 22: Berkeley, selections from Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, (books.google.com), The First Dialogue, The Second Dialogue (Bartleby.com).
Sept. 24: Berkeley, selections from Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, (books.google.com), The Third Dialogue (Bartleby.com).

Week 7: Hume; The Problem of Induction; Inductive Skepticism

Sept. 29: Hume, An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding (books.google.com), Sections II, IV, V, VI, VII (ebooks.adelaide.edu.au)
Oct. 1: Wesley C. Salmon, "An Encounter with David Hume" (on Blackboard).

   
Week 8: Problem of Induction Continued; Paradoxes of Confirmation

Oct. 6: Hume continued.
Oct. 8: Sainsbury, Ch. 4: Believing Rationally, in Paradoxes (on Blackboard under "Course Documents").


    PART 2: PUZZLES OF TIME

Week 9: Introduction of Philosophy of Time
Oct. 13: Mark Hinchliff "The Puzzle of Change" (jstor.org) Note: You may need to be on campus or be using a university proxy server to access this article through     jstor. If you cannot access it, a pdf of this article can also be found on Blackboard under "Course Documents".
Oct. 15: Fall Break Begins; No Class


Week 10: A-Theory vs. B-Theory

Oct. 20: McTaggart, "The Unreality of Time" (on Blackboard under "Course Documents").
Oct. 22: Dean Zimmerman, "The Privileged Present: Defending an 'A-Theory' of Time"; Smart, "The Tenseless Theory of Time" (Both on Blackboard under "Course Documents").

Week 11: A-Theory vs. B-Theory Continued; Temporal Parts; 4Dism vs. 3Dism

Oct. 27: CLASS CANCELED.
Oct. 29: Sider, "Temporal Pats" in Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics (on Blackboard under "Course Documents")

Week 12: Paradoxes of Time Travel

Nov. 3: Hawthorne, "Three-Dimensionalism vs. Four-Dimensionalism" in Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics (on Blackboard under "Course Documents")
Nov. 5: Hawthorne, continued.

Week 13: Time Travel, Zeno's Paradox of Time and Motion

Nov. 10: David Lewis, "The Paradoxes of Time Travel" (on Blackboard under "Course Documents"); Keller and Nelson, "Presentists Should Believe in Time Travel".
Nov. 12: Time Travel, continued. Robert A. Heinlein, "By His Bootstraps," (pdf) "All you Zombies," Casti and Varzi, "The Poet as A Young Man". (All of these are also on Blackboard under "Course Documents").

Week 14: The Problem of Future Contingents


Nov. 17: Stephen M. Cahn, "A Modern Misinterpretation of Fatalism" (Also on Blackboard)
Nov. 19: Stephen M. Cahn, "Aristotle and Problem of Furture Contingents" (Also on Blackboard)

Week 15: The Problem of Free Will

Nov. 24: TBA
Nov. 26: Thanksgiving Break. No Class.


Week 16: Wrapping Up

Dec. 1: Sainsbury, Ch. 1 in Paradoxes (on Blackboard under "Course Documents").
Dec. 3: Last Day of Class. Course Wrap-up. No readings.

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