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
TR 9:30-10:45 & 3-4:15 - Tribble Hall A306
Philosophy is not so much a body of knowledge as an activity: it is the activity of thinking critically about issues fundamental to human existence, aided by techniques developed by rigorous thinkers over the last 2500+ years. Any field of human endeavor can be the subject of philosophical investigation: mathematics, biology, psychology, art, medicine, etc. Some inquiries, however, have come to be seen as particular to the discipline of philosophy itself, and these are often considered the “core” areas of philosophy. In this course we shall sample several core issues in early modern and contemporary Western philosophy through reading, writing, and discussion. Topics we shall focus on include: moral obligation, consciousness and intelligence, skepticism concerning knowledge and science, rationalist approaches to religion, free will and determinism, and personal identity and immortality.

Stavroula Glezakos
TR 12:00-1:15 – Tribble A306
Though you may have yet to take a philosophy class, you have almost certainly engaged in philosophical activity. If you have considered whether you can know anything for certain, whether your will is free, whether God exists, or whether morality is relative, then you have already begun to grapple with philosophical questions.

In this class, we will read and discuss how various authors (contemporary and long-dead) have addressed these and other questions. Students will: develop their ability to discern sound reasoning in argumentation, improve the clarity of their writing, and gain a better understanding of important philosophical issues and of their own views and commitments.

Hannah Hardgrave
MW 3:00-4:15 p.m. – Tribble A306
It has been said that the history of philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato. In this course Plato’s Republic will introduce students to many of the basic problems of philosophy as well as early steps in the Critical Tradition of Western thought. Readings will include responses to Plato’s ideas by classical philosophers including Descartes, Kant, and Mill as well as the ideas of selected contemporary philosophers. Contemporary films will also be used to illustrate some of the philosophical problems and will be the subject of paper assignments. Through student-led discussions the class will participate in the tradition of critical thinking which had its first flowering with Plato.

Marcus Hester
MWF 9:00 - 09:50 - 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
MWF 10-10:50 & 12-12:50 – Tribble A306 & A307
You’ll need to buy two books for the course, both by James Rachels: The Truth about the World (a collection of readings) and Problems from Philosophy (a textbook). Both are from McGraw-Hill and were published in 2004.
Our topics will correspond to the chapter titles in Problems from Philosophy, which are: God, evil, immortality, personal identity, minds and bodies, machine intelligence, free will, limits to what we can know, why we should be moral, and what does it all mean?

Charles Lewis
MWF 12-12:50 p.m. – Tribble 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.

Christian Miller
MWF 11-11:50 & 1-1:50 – Tribble A306
This course will be concerned with some of the most challenging and interesting questions in all of human experience. For example, we will consider whether there are any good arguments for the existence of God, whether God would allow evil to exist, whether faith is compatible with reason, whether we have genuine freedom, whether there is an objective morality, whether we should be moral, whether the death penalty is morally permissible, and whether animals have rights. In each case, we will examine particular questions not only with an aim at arriving at the truth, but also with an aim at determining what relevance these questions have to our ordinary lives. The text will be Louis Pojman’s anthology, Philosophy: The Quest for Truth ( Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), and our readings will be drawn from both classic and contemporary sources.

Clark Thompson
TR 12-1:15 & 1:30-2:45 – Tribble A307& A306
We shall study the following questions in political and moral philosophy, and in the philosophy of religion. Do we have an obligation to obey the law? What is the extent of the legitimate authority of government? Is it reasonable to believe someone who says he witnessed a miracle? Can God's existence and attributes be established by an 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? We shall read works by Plato, Locke, Hume, and Mill.