*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
8/31--Introduction.
No reading.
9/2--Logic.
Reading: Some
Logic (handout).
9/4--Logic;
Intro to Skepticism. Reading: Descartes, Meditation
on First Philosophy, Meditation
I and Meditation
II.
Week
2:
Radical Skepticism and Perception
9/7--No Classes--Labor Day.
9/9--Radical
Skepticism. Reading: Descartes, Meditations
on First Philosophy, Meditation
I and II
(continued),
Pollock “Brain
in a Vat” (also on Blackboard).
9/11--Perception.
Reading: Locke, An
Essay Concerning Human
Understanding, Book II
Chapter VIII, Book
IV Chapter XI.
Week
3:
Perception (continued), Idealism, Material World Skepticism
9/14--Perception
(continued). Reading: Locke, An
Essay Concerning Human Understanding,
Book II
Chapter VIII, Book IV
Chapter XI
(continued).
9/16--Idealism.
Reading: Berkeley, Three Dialogues
Between Hylas and Philonous, The
First Dialogue.
9/18--Idealism
(continued). Reading: Berkeley, Three
Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous, The
Second and Third Dialogue
(selections).
Week
4:
The
Problem of Induction, Old and New
9/21--The
Problem of Induction, Old. Reading: Hume, An
Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding, sections
II,
IV,
V,
VI,
and VII.
9/23--The
Problem of Induction, Old (continued). Reading: Hume, An
Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding,
sections II,
IV,
V,
VI,
and VII
(continued).
9/25--The Problem of Induction, New. Reading: Salmon, “An Encounter
with David Hume.”
(on Blackboard).
Week
5:
Review
9/28--NO
CLASSES—Yom Kippur
9/30--Section
1 Review. No reading.
10/2--FIRST EXAM/PAPER
Section
2: God
Week
6: Concepts
of God, Cosmological Argument
10/5--Introduction,
Concepts of God. Reading: TBA
10/7--Cosmological
Argument. Reading: Aquinas, Summa
Theologica, Question
2: The Existence of God.
10/9--Cosmological
Argument (continued). Reading: Cosmological
Argument (handout).
Week
7:
Teleological Argument, Ontological Argument
10/12--Teleological
Argument. Reading: Hume, Dialogues
Concerning Natural Religion, Part II
(the rest is optional).
10/14--Teleological
Argument (continued). Reading: Teleological
Argument (handout).
10/16--Ontological
Argument. Reading: Anselm, Proslogium,
Chapter
II and III.
Week
8
10/19-23:
NO CLASSES—Fall Recess
Week
9:
Ontological Argument (continued), Pascal’s Wager
10/26--Ontological
Argument (continued). Reading: Ontological
Argument (handout).
10/28--Ontological
Argument (continued). Reading: Aquinas and handout (continued).
10/30--Pascal’s
Wager. Reading: Pascal, Pensees
(#233).
Week
10:
Pragmatic
Considerations for Belief in God, Problem of Evil
11/2--Pascal’s
Wager (continued). Reading: Pragmatic
Considerations (handout).
11/4--The
Problem of Evil. Reading: Mackie, “Evil
and Omnipotence” (JSTOR
link).
11/6--The
Problem of Evil (continued). Reading: The
Problem
of Evil (handout).
Week
11:
Evil
and Free Will
11/9--The Problem of Free Will. Reading: Sider, "Free Will and
Determinism", in Riddles of Existence,
Conee and Sider (on Blackboard).
11/11--Section 2 Review. No Reading.
11/13--SECOND EXAM/PAPER
Section
3: Personal Identity, and Identity Over Time
Week
12:
Personal Identity
11/16--The Soul View. Reading: The Soul
View.
Reading: Perry, A Dialogue on
Personal Identity, First Night (on Blackboard), Some
Arguments
for Dualism (handout).
11/18--Soul View (continued), The Person-Stages View. Reading: Perry, A Dialogue on
Personal Identity, Second Night (on Blackboard), Perry's
Dialogues (handout).
11/20--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
11/23--The
Memory View. Reading: Shoemaker, "Personal
Identity and Memory" (JSTOR link).
11/25-- Eliminativism. Reading: Hume, "Our Idea of
Identity", "Of Personal Identity", and
"Second Thoughts" in Perry, Personal
Identity (on Blackboard).
11/27--NO CLASSES—Thanksgiving Break
Week
14:
Identity Over Time
11/30--Eliminativism (continued). Reading: Unger, "I Do Not Exist" (on Blackboard)
12/2--Puzzle of Change. Reading:
Hinchliff, "Puzzle
of Change"
(JSTOR link).
12/4--Statue and the Clay. Reading: Wiggins "On Being at the Same Place
at the Same Time" (on Blackboard).
Week
15:
Identity Over Time
12/7--Body and Body-Minus. "The Doctrine of Arbitrary Undetached Parts"
(on Blackboard).
12/9--Identity over Time Continued. Reading: TBA
12/11--Course wrap-up. No reading.
12/?:
FINAL EXAM/PAPER
Page Last Updated: Aug. 28 2009