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 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 & Ralph Kennedy
MWF 10-10:50 & 12-12:50 – Tribble A306
In this class, we will consider various philosophical issues, including the existence of God, the problem of evil, immortality, personal identity, minds and bodies, machine intelligence, free will, limits to what we can know, and why we should be moral. Students will develop their ability to discern sound reasoning in argumentation, improve the clarity of their writing, and gain a better understanding of their own views and commitments. We will use one book (Problems from Philosophy, by James Rachels); other required readings will be made available either via the web, a course reader, or both. For first-year students only.

Avram Hiller
TR 3-4:15 - Tribble A304 & 1:30-2:45 – Tribble C115
This course will help you think critically about systems of belief, including your own. Readings will suggest that we should doubt all knowledge; that we should doubt the existence of God; that we should question the authority of science; that there is no foundation to any moral system. We will provide means to respond to these doubts, but if this class is successful, it will raise more questions than it answers. The course is designed to develop your ability to read texts and respond critically to them. It is also intended to help you write more clearly and persuasively. While the class will be very challenging, it should be rewarding – as the editors of our textbook write, “those of our values and concepts that survive this process will be more truly our own.

Win-chiat Lee
MWF 12-12:50 – Tribble C115 & 2-2:50 – Tribble A306
Students will be introduced to the subject of philosophy through the careful study of representative writings from three different periods: ancient Greek (Plato), early modern European (Descartes and Hume), and contemporary American (Frankfurt, Nagel and Searle). The goal is not only to study what some great philosophers of the past or influential philosophers of the present think about certain subjects, but also to help students, through the examination of these philosophers’ work, develop skills to philosophize and think critically for themselves. 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, responsibility, the nature of moral and value judgments, the mind-body problem, and the nature of the self.

Charles Lewis
MWF 11-11:50 & 1-1:50 – 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
TR 12-1:15– 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 Joel Feinberg and Russ Shafer-Landau, Reason and Responsibility (Wadsworth Press, 2005) and our readings will be drawn from both classic and contemporary sources. For first-year students only.

Clark Thompson
TR 12-1:15 TBA & 1:30-2:45 – Tribble A306
We shall study the following questions. Do we have an obligation to obey the law? What is the extent of the legitimate authority of government when it comes to religion? Have the advances in the arts and sciences promoted liberty, virtue, and happiness, or have the advances had the opposite effect? 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? We shall read works by Plato, Locke, Rousseau, and Hume.