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 2-2:50 - Tribble Hall A306
Philosophy involves critical reflection on 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 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 ancient, early modern, and contemporary Western philosophy through reading, writing, and discussion. Topics we shall focus on include: moral obligation and virtue, knowledge and science, rationalist approaches to religion, free will and determinism, consciousness and intelligence, and personal identity and immortality.

Stavroula Glezakos
MWF 12-12:50 & 1-1:50 – Tribble A306 & B309
If you have ever wondered 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 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.

Avram Hiller
MWF 1-1:50 & 2-2:50 - Tribble A304
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.

Nancy Lawrence
TR 12-1:15 & 1:30-2:45 – Tribble A306
One characterization of 'philosophy' is that it is the rational attempt to formulate, understand, and answer fundamental questions. But some people have claimed that doing philosophy is pointless or a waste of time because it results in no certain answers and sometimes in no answers at all. Bertrand Russell responds to this sort of criticism, saying that “The value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very uncertainty…..Philosophy, though unable to tell us with certainty what is the true answer to the doubts which it raises, is able to suggest many possibilities which enlarge our thoughts and free them from the tyranny of custom. Thus, while diminishing our feeling of certainty as to what things are, it greatly increases our knowledge as to what they may be; it removes the somewhat arrogant dogmatism of those who have never traveled into the region of liberating doubt, and it keeps alive our sense of wonder by showing familiar things in an unfamiliar aspect.” In this course, we will undertake, through both class discussions and written work, an investigation of answers to the following questions, among others: Are you dreaming right now? How do you know if you are or you aren’t? Were you to free to come to this class today? Why or why not? What is a mind? And how do you know you have one? How do you know that 2+2=4? When, if ever, are our beliefs justified? Is a justified belief the same thing as a rational belief? Is it possible to give an argument for the existence of God? What, if any, is the difference between faith and reason? Is there any intrinsic value in questioning what you already know?

Win-chiat Lee
MWF 11-11:50 & 12-12:50 –Tribble A309
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.

Clark Thompson
MWF 1-1:50 & 2-2:50 - Tribble A308 & A309
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.

Partrick Toner
MWF 9-9:50 & 10-10:50 – Tribble A306
This is a historical introduction to philosophy. What makes it historical is that the readings shall, for the most part, be drawn from the works of the great dead philosophers. But what makes it philosophical is that our objectives are to take seriously the questions these great dead philosophers asked, to think carefully about the answers they offered, and to critically analyze the arguments the used in supporting their answers. We will ask whether it can be shown that God exists, or that he doesn’t exist; whether we have a soul; whether we can be certain that there really is an external world; what kind of life we ought to live; what kind of government we ought to have, and other central philosophical questions. Our main readings will be drawn from Plato, St. Thomas Aquinas, Rene Descartes and David Hume, and we will supplement these readings with a contemporary textbook on the philosophy of religion by Fr. Brian Davies.