PHILOSOPHY 425 - METAPHYSICS
Fall 2005 Professor M.A. Bergmann
Office
Hours: TTH
Texts: Essay on Free Will, Peter van Inwagen
(Von’s)
Course
Packet (CopyMat)
Requirements: 20% -
Participation
40%
- Final Paper (2400-3200 words)
40%
- Take-home final exam
Course
Objectives:
1. To introduce you to some of the traditional and
contemporary problems in metaphysics.
2. To help you develop some of the skills necessary
for thinking clearly and critically about these and other problems.
Participation: This is a reading-based course. It will depend for its success on your reading
carefully the assigned readings and discussing them intelligently with the
rest of us in class. In order to discuss
the reading intelligently with the rest of us, you must prepare. The way to prepare
is to read each selection just prior to
the time we discuss it in class, working hard at understanding it. Because
many of the assigned readings are rather difficult, you may have to read parts
of them more than once and you should make notes while you’re reading. These
notes will highlight important points, summarize things you understand, inquire
about things you don't understand, and outline the overall argument of the
selection. Be careful to check whether
you are to skip any portion of the assigned reading for the day.
Three
things will affect your participation grade: (i) attendance; (ii) contributing to
the class discussion in a way that demonstrates intelligent engagement with the
readings; (iii) handing in questions about or partial summaries of the
readings. Regarding the first, I may
start taking attendance if I notice excessive absences. Regarding the second, you don’t need to be a
know-it-all to do well here. But you
need to show you’ve thought hard about the reading material. A good question can boost your participation
grade as much as a good answer. I
realize that some of you will find it easier than others to speak out in
class. But I’d like you all to have at
least something to say in class
during the semester.
The
third contributor to your participation grade will be given the most weight. There are
26 reading selections on the schedule on the other side of this sheet (13 on
free will, 7 on modality, 6 on persistence). The first one is due on the second day of
class. For 20 of the 26 readings, you
are to hand in either a good question you have about the reading or
a brief 2-3 sentence summary of an important point made in the reading. You get to choose which 6 you want to skip;
and you get to choose each time whether to hand in a question or a summary (you
can do some of each throughout the semester). You goal, in writing the question or summary,
is to hand in something that demonstrates intelligent engagement with the
reading. You can feel free to ask your
written questions in class discussion (after you hand it in).
You must hand in the question
or summary at the beginning of class on the day the reading is scheduled
to be discussed. I will not accept any
handed in late, not even after class on the day they are due, since we’ll be
discussing the paper in class on the due date.
I will assign a grade to each of ‘Satisfactory’ or ‘Unsatisfactory’ and
these grades will count toward your participation grade.
Paper: Your paper will have
four sections. In the first section (500-700
words) you will clearly and succinctly state and explain the position of one of
our authors (or some other author referred to in our readings) on the topic of free will (the subject of the first half
of the course). In the second section (700-900
words) you will present the strongest objection you can think of to the
position presented in section I. You can
use the ideas of other authors as an aid in this section but there should be
something original here; the more (intelligent) originality the better. In the third section (500-700 words) you will
present, on behalf of the author of the position described in section I, the strongest
response you can think of to your critical remarks in section II. Then in section IV (700-900 words) you will
defend your objection of section II against the response to it in section III.
On October
18 you will hand in on a sheet of paper a very brief summary (a few
sentences) of the position you will describe in section I. I will let you know if the position you've
selected is an acceptable focus for your paper.
On November 8 you will hand in sections I and II of your
paper. I will hand these back with
advice on how they can be improved. On November
22 you will hand in sections I and II (rewritten) along with section
III. I will had these back with further
comments on how they can be improved. On
December 8 (the last day of class), you will hand in sections I through
III (rewritten) together with section IV.
Only the final paper will receive a grade (although your final paper grade
will be reduced if you miss the earlier deadlines without an acceptable excuse).
The earlier submissions will be returned
with only the comments already alluded to and an indication of whether your
work so far is acceptable, borderline or unacceptable. Late papers are unacceptable.
Take-Home
Exam: I don't really like exams because they tend
to test your memorization abilities more than anything else. But I do want to test your general
understanding of the material we've covered in the course. I will hand out a take-home exam, probably on
the last day of class. Your work for the participation grade will help you to
prepare for this exam.
Quality
of Written Work Expected: I expect that
all written work (the paper, the take-home exam and the reading
questions/summaries) will be in proper English, free of grammatical and
spelling errors, neatly typed, with no freshman-style fluff. This is a 400-level course; 200-level work
will receive a low grade.
Tentative Schedule
8/23 Intro
I. FREE WILL
8/25 EFW, 1.1-1.4
A. Fatalism
8/30 CP, Taylor
9/1 EFW, 2.1-2.3
9/6 EFW, 2.4-2.5
B. Argument for Incompatibilist
Freedom
9/8 EFW, 3.10-3.11
9/13 EFW, 5.3-5.5 (skip 167m-170m)
9/15 EFW, 5.6-5.7
9/20 EFW, 190-209b (skip 193t-197m &
202t-204m)
9/22 EFW, 209b-221
C. Replies: Beta Problems, Altered-Past, Altered-Laws
9/27 CP, McKay/Johnson
9/29 CP, Lewis, “Free to Break Laws?”
D. Argument Against
Incompatibilist Freedom
10/4 EFW, 4.4-4.5 (skip 129m-142m)
E. Reply: Agent Causation
10/6 CP, Rowe 425-38
10/11 Fall
Break
10/13 CP, Rowe 425-38
II. MODALITY
A. De Dicto Modality
10/18 CP, NN ch. I Brief Summary of Paper Due
10/20 CP, NN ch. IV: 1-5, 8
B. De Re Modality
10/25 CP, NN ch. II
C. What are Possible Worlds?
10/27 CP, Lewis, CF 4.1
11/1 CP, PVI, “Two Concepts”, sections I-III
11/3 CP, Plantinga, “Two Concepts”, section
II (skip II.C-II.D)
D. Possible But Unactual
Objects
11/8 CP, NN ch. VII: 6-7; ch.VIII: 1-2 Sections I-II Handed in
11/10 CP, NN ch. VII: 6-7; ch.VIII: 1-2
III. PERSISTENCE THROUGH TIME
A. The Problem of Material
Constitution
11/15 CP, Heller
11/17 CP, Chisholm (skip section VII)
11/22 CP, PVI, “DAUP” Sections I-III Handed in
11/24 Thanksgiving
B. The Problem of Temporary
Intrinsics
11/29 CP, Lewis, OPW excerpt and PVI,
“4D Objects”
12/1 CP, PVI, “4D Objects”
12/6 CP, Zimmerman
12/8 CP, Zimmerman Final Draft of Paper Due