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Philosophy 111.
Basic Problems of Philosophy. (3h) An
examination of the basic concepts of several representative
philosophers, including their accounts of the nature of knowledge,
persons, God, mind, and matter.
All sections of Philosophy 111 should conform
reasonably well to the description above (quoted from the college
bulletin), though there are important differences from section
to section. Please click the links below to see how individual
professors describe the sections of Philosophy 111 they will
be teaching this semester.
Adrian Bardon
MWF
11-11:50 am & 1-1:50 pm - Tribble Hall A306
In this course we shall survey a number of core issues in classical,
early modern, and contemporary philosophy through reading, writing,
and discussion. Our topics will include: skepticism concerning
knowledge and science, rationalist approaches to religion, free
will and determinism, personal identity and immortality, the
nature of consciousness and intelligence, and some contemporary
moral problems in the context of philosophical moral theory.
Development of critical reasoning skills through class discussion
and structured writing will be emphasized. There will be several
essay assignments and short-answer exams.
George
Graham
TR 8-9:15
am - Tribble Hall A307
This is intended to be the first college philosophy course that
a student has ever had. First philosophy? That may sound daunting.
But there should be nothing truly daunting about it. In some
ways, philosophy is a familiar subject. Philosophy, the subject,
grows out of the thinking and questioning that we all do as
persons. We all have some views about God, the meaning of life,
about morality and its demands, about personal freedom and the
difficulties involved in being true to oneself as a person.
What the study of philosophy does is make these views explicit,
reflective, and make alternative views available. It contributes
to our being thoughtful, “filled with thoughts”,
literally.
Thoughts influence emotions and actions, and one of the main
themes of this course is that the study of philosophy may influence
not just how we think, but how we feel and act or behave. It
may produce personal emotional insight as well as intelligence
in behavior – or at least that is a hope or aspiration.
We will look at four philosophical problems.
* The problem of how to construct a personal
philosophy of life.
* The problem of justifying belief in God
in the face of the world’s evils.
* The problem of justifying ethical standards.
* The problem of freedom and determinism.
Required reading will consist of assigned parts of 2 books.
Thomas Morris, If Aristotle Ran General Motors, Henry
Holt & Company, paperback (pb) 1998.
Steven M. Cahn, ed., Exploring Philosophy: An Introductory
Anthology, Oxford University Press, paperback (pb) 1999.
Hannah
Hardgrave
TR 3-4:15
pm - Tribble Hall A306
From the Greeks of classical antiquity to the present day, philosophy
constitutes a Critical Tradition. It is the examination of our
beliefs about: (1) how we ought to live, (2) the world of our
experience and (3) the nature of God. Philosophy is not simply
a history of ideas but is a critical examination of beliefs
in two senses: (1) are the beliefs justified – are there
reasons for supposing them to be true, and (2) are there reasons
to reject the beliefs in question. In this course skeptical
arguments, both by classic philosophers and contemporaries,
about all three domains will be critically analyzed, as will
positive philosophical claims. The students will join this critical
tradition both in class discussion of the readings and in writing
four papers. To facilitate student thought, the writing assignments
will use the views presented in selected feature films. The
text for the course will be Reason and Responsibility
(11th edition) Joel Feinberg & Russ Shafer-Landau, ed.
Marcus Hester
MWF
9-9:50 am - Tribble Hall A306
In the first couple of weeks, we work on translating arguments
from English to logic and determining whether these arguments
are valid. Logic is an important tool of the course. I have
written a text for this part of the course. Then the course
consists of three problems:
1) The Nature of Morality, with two
subparts:
A) Subjective Relativism
and Objectivism. We read some secondary material on the Sophists,
who thought every opinion is as true as any other. Then we read
two texts by Plato (the Apology and the Crito)
about Socrates. Socrates rejected the Sophists view and thought
moral opinions could be improved by critical questioning. Last
we read some early views of Plato in the Meno. Plato thought
that moral matters such as what is justice could be rationally
aroused in persons by questioning in a way parallel to questions
in math. This problem is whether expressions of a moral judgment
such as “abortion is wrong” are mere expressions
of taste or personal preference or whether such a judgments
can be defended objectively by rational means. This question
is about morality.
B) Substantial Moral Codes.
Instead of being merely about morality, substantial moral codes
are like the Ten Commandments in telling us how to actually
make moral decisions. J.S. Mill argues that the moral good is
doing that possible action which maximizes happiness among all
those affected by the action. Kant argues to the contrary that
the best action is done solely from duty defined by moral imperatives
such as “you should not make false promises.”
2) Free Will, Knowledge and Modern Philosophy.
Aristotle thought that our body parts, and most things in nature,
served a purpose and that you could not really explain them
without referring to these purposes, a view expressed in his
Physics. Descartes in his Meditations on First
Philosophy has no use for this sort of explanation of material
bodies in terms of purpose. Instead, our bodies, and all animal
bodies, are just machines behaving according to laws of nature.
Yet we do not think of ourselves as machines in our thoughts,
actions and art works. Descartes struggles to reconcile this
modern scientific mechanical view with the way we think of ourselves.
Then we read Aristotle’s theory of voluntary actions in
relation to his kind of science in his Nicomachean Ethics.
Last we read Hume’s attempt to reconcile liberty with
his belief that everything we do is causally determined.
3) Rational Grounds for Belief in God.
Some thinkers have thought that one can prove by argument that
God exists. Anselm tries to prove that the very definition of
God, defined as a being than which none greater is conceivable,
implies that God necessarily exists. Aquinas tries to prove
that God exists from things we see in nature such as motion
and degrees of perfections such as justice and goodness. Hume
casts doubt on all such proofs and argues that at best we can
make belief in a powerful and good God consistent with the massive
evils we observe in the world.
In terms of grading, we have short weekly tests on the readings,
and a midterm and final exam. The midterm and final exams consist
of problems in logic and essays on the problems covered in the
course. There is an optional paper on any topic in philosophy.
Ralph Kennedy
TR 9:30-10:45
am - Tribble Hall A306
We
will be considering such questions as: What can we really know?
Is anything absolutely beyond doubt? How does past experience
support beliefs about what hasn't happened yet? Is it true that
nothing exists except physical objects and events (and, possibly,
the spatio-temporal framework that “contains” them)?
If this were true, would there nevertheless be room in the world
for minds, numbers, birthday parties, legal contracts, declarations
of war, gods (or God), and so on? What is a person, or a self?
Do we ever really act freely? What does it mean to say that
we do? How if at all does the idea of beings with “free
will” fit in with the scientific world-view? Would morality
be possible in the absence of free will? What do moral claims
(such as “X is wrong,” “one ought to do Y”)
mean?
We’ll focus on contemporary thinking and writing about
these things, though we will be reading selections from great
philosophers of the past as well.
The textbook for the course is Thinking it through:
an Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy, by Kwame
Anthony Appiah. There will be additional readings distributed
as handouts, posted on the course website, or otherwise made
available.
Win-chiat
Lee
MWF
12-12:50 & 2-2:50 pm - Tribble Hall A306
In this course, we will focus on five classic philosophical
texts and study them in chronological order. We will study a
number of basic philosophical subjects through the careful and
critical examination of the views and arguments presented in
these texts. The goal, however, is not only to study what some
great philosophers think about certain subjects, but also to
help students, through the examination of these texts, develop
skills to philosophize and think critically for themselves.
The philosophers we will study are Plato, Descartes, Berkeley,
Hume and Kant. The topics discussed will include the existence
of God, the relation between the mind and the world, skepticism
and the nature of knowledge, free will and determinism, the
nature of moral and value judgments, the mind-body problem,
and the nature of the self.
Charles Lewis
MWF 10-10:50
am - Tribble Hall A306
This course, after examining the common sense and religious
background of the first scientific thinkers or philosophers,
turns to the study of Plato and Aristotle, the major shapers
of pre-modern scientific, theological, and philosophical thought.
Then the course turns to Descartes, the first great architect
of the modern scientific and philosophical ways of thinking.
The study of this momentous departure from pre-modern belief
in the purposive natures of all things--and thus from classical
moral and political philosophy--is followed by the study of
Hume, one of Descartes' major critics who takes modern skepticism
to a new level. Twentieth-century existential nihilism is introduced
along the way in order to consider its place in modern thought
and its radical critique of conventional assumptions about the
meaning or purpose of human existence. Attention is given throughout
to how an examination of modern and pre-modern ways of thinking
can help us to understand contemporary conceptions of self and
world.
Clark Thompson
MW 3-4:15
& 4:30-5:45 pm - Tribble Hall A306
We will study the following question in political, social, ethical,
and religious thought: Do we have an obligation to obey the
law? What is the extent of the legitimate authority of government
in matters of religion? Have the arts and sciences promoted
moral progress, or have they contributed to moral decline? What
is the relation between morality and religion? Can God's existence
and attributes be established by appeal to the existence of
design in nature? Is the existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing,
and benevolent God consistent with the existence of suffering
and moral evil? What makes an act morally right?
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