This course is designed to provide you with an introductory grasp of the methods and (a few of the) traditional problems of western philosophy.  The course has four parts, but the main, philosophically "meaty" part is divided into three sections, for which the topics of discussion are:  (I) Arguments for the existence of God; (II) Perception and knowledge of the external world; and (III) Free will and determinism.  Prior to embarking on those three problems, weíll do a couple things during the first few weeks of the course ? between now and, say, the 14th of September or so.  Weíll do a little bit of baby logic, getting clear on the nature of an argument, the distinction between necessary and sufficient conditions, and so on.  Weíll also ease our way into more philosophically substantive territory, by thinking for ourselves about some reflections of Descartes on the putative distinction between mind and body, and some thoughts of Socrates concerning the basis of morality and political obligation.

There is one main text and three smaller (inexpensive) books, available at the local bookstores (University Bookstores and Folletts):  all four are required texts for the course.  If you have not already done so, please purchase the texts yet today, since weíll be leaning heavily on them for our reading, pretty much straightaway.

AUTHOR (PUBLISHER)                                               Required Texts                                                         ABBREV

Cover and Garns (McGraw Hill)         Theories of Knowledge and Reality (Second edition)                               CG
Plato (Hackett)                                   The Trial and Death of Socrates                                                                P
Rene Descartes (Hackett)                    Meditations on First Philosophy (Third edition)                                        D
George Berkeley (Hackett)                 Treatise Concerning Principles of Human Knowledge                               B

Reference to those texts will be abbreviated, as indicated above, in the reading assignments (where relevant numbers alongside CG, P, and D will refer to pages in the texts, and the numbers alongside B refer to sections (§) of Berkeleyís text beginning on p. 23).  The full lineup of reading assignments appears in the tentative schedule for the course, attached below.  If you have questions about locating the right material to read, do be sure to ask for help.

Course Requirements

Attendance both at lectures and Friday discussion sessions is required.  (Quoting from University Senate Document 91-8, part 2, Section VI.A:  "Students are expected to be present for every meeting of classes in which they are enrolled.")  Here is the truth:  if you do not regularly attend lectures and do some careful listening and note-taking, you will perform poorly on written exams.  Likewise for discussion sessions:  too much of consequence happens in them for you to afford missing.  Missed lectures and discussion sessions are..., well, missed:  like a ball game, you canít get them back.  Should it arise that you are absolutely unable to attend a lecture or discussion, it is imperative that you do whatever you can to recover the information treated during that period.  An explicit attendance policy for discussion sessions will be stated below.
 
Alas, youíre responsible for learning something in this course, and so we shall have to make some assessment of what you learn.  Seventy-five percent (75%) of your grade will be determined by three equally-weighted Examinations.  Exams will written during a class lecture period; they will be primarily longer-answer essay Examinations, though I shanít promise that youíll see no short-answer or multiple choice questions.  I will review the nature and content of Exams in advance of their arrival, the dates of which are tentatively indicated on the schedule for the course (attached).  No make-up Examinations will be administered, unless a student has contacted his or her Teaching Assistant in advance and subsequently presents some documentation for the excused absence ? a physicianís or Dean of Students Office excuse, say.  Death certificates (your own) will also be considered as evidence for a legitimate excuse.  Any other excuses are unlikely to be reckoned legitimate:  judgments about the legitimacy of an excuse, and the adequacy of evidence for an excusable absence, rest solely with the Instructor and/or Teaching Assistant.

That leaves one-fourth (25%) of your final grade to be determined by your performance on five (or maybe six, if one of them is unannounced) short Quizzes given at the beginning of various Friday discussion sessions.  As with Exams, make-up Quizzes wonít be administered (again, unless you have contacted the Teaching Assistant leading your discussion section in advance, and present him with what he judges a legitimate excuse).  Some new material ? "new" in the sense that it wonít be covered in lecture and perhaps not even in readings ? will on a few occasions be offered during discussion.  All the more reason not to miss those Friday sessions.  They are very, very important.  Three unexcused absences from Friday discussions will lower that portion of your grade by one-third letter grade; a fourth unexcused absence will lower that portion of your grade by a full letter grade; a fifth unexcused absence will lower it two full letter grades; six or more unexcused absences will result in an automatic F for this discussion-session portion of your final course grade.

A necessary condition for passing this course is completion of each Exam.  A sufficient condition for failing this course is our discovering academic dishonesty on your part.  In connection with these two conditions, here is your first assignment:

Read pages 40-55 of CG at least twice. Re-write each of those first two (italicized) sentences of the previous paragraph (immediately above) in the form of conditionals.

Thatís an "unofficial" assignment only in the sense that Iím not now asking that you prepare something to hand in for grading.  But I am officially assigning this as something you are to do.  Weíll talk about conditionals, and about necessary and sufficient conditions, in lecture and in your first discussion session, but do attempt the assignment straightaway, so you wonít be in the cold when those topics arise.  I wouldnít be surprised if sometime after the second week, a question looking very like that unofficial assignment shows up on a Quiz.
 

Course Objectives

One of the goals of this course is to help students become familiar with some longstanding philosophical problems that continue to attract the attention of contemporary thinkers.  Does God exist?  What is the source of political obligation, and is one ever morally justified in breaking the law?  Iím a human person:  but am I a hunk of material stuff, not much different in kind from other organisms like bunnies and baboons, or is there an immaterial spirit or soul or the like which is essential to me?  Since our senses can sometimes deceive us, are we justified in believing that there are external physical objects?  Science seems to tell us that everything occurs according to determinate laws of nature:  but since my bodily movements are subject to these laws no less than are the movements of (say) that leaf blowing across the lawn, the movements of my body, like the movements of the leaf, are determined to occur exactly as they do by laws and external conditions; and yet it seems like I am free to act, in many cases, as I please, moving my body this way if I want, or that way instead if I choose.

It is no surprise that problems like these are still with us:  they are really difficult problems.  Most good philosophers realize how difficult they are, and are primarily concerned to show students how to think about them for themselves, rather than to recommend this or that answer as the final and correct solution.  And so, despite what many students new to philosophy might think, a course like this wonít purport to give you very much of the final and considered truth about matters such as these.  Indeed, good philosophers don't think they know most of the final and considered truths about such matters ? not because there are no facts-of-the matter to be known, but because those facts are very deep and very difficult to get at.  What good philosophers do think is that important progress can be made in discovering the most fruitful questions to ask about those traditionally difficult problems:  by looking closely at proposed solutions and plausible criticisms of them, we can at least avoid the blind alleys and subtle mistakes of some earlier thinkers, and in so doing narrow the field a bit.*  And so a second objective of this course is to make you a better thinker, by showing you how good critical assessment of difficult problems is to be conducted.  There are good and bad (sloppy and tidy) ways of thinking:  weíll try to get better at spotting the bad and engaging in the good.

Doing philosophy can be lots of fun, but it is also hard work.  It is hard not only because the problems we discuss are difficult, but because we do not naturally and easily engage in those reliably good ways of thinking.  Breaking bad habits isnít easy.  Sometimes, learning to think carefully is downright maddening.  And so, this isnít an easy course.  It is a hard one.  But it can be a wonderfully rewarding, enlightening course if you're willing to think hard and participate.  Many students come out of the course saying that it is one of the hardest classes they've ever had, but that it is also one of their favorites.  Please believe that I want everyone to become a better student.  If at times it seems like we are being hard on you, please trust our methods if you can:  we are doing what the really good thinkers agree works best:  pointing out mistakes, being a bit intolerant with repeated sloppiness, and nurturing careful, disciplined thought.  The payoffs are too valuable to let you go without.
 

A Few Suggestions

1.  Attend lectures and discussion sessions regularly.  The work we expect you to produce on exams will involve, to a larger degree than you might suspect, things actually said in class.  So, you will need to take good notes.  Please force yourself not to be lazy during class sessions.

2.  One way to avoid laziness in class is to participate, particularly in your discussion sessions.  Ask questions if you donít understand something, or if you disagree with something I say or your Teaching Assistant or a classmate says.  Discussion and honest criticism are important when doing good philosophy.  (It is not easy to conduct much class discussion and dialogue between students and teacher in a large lecture setting.  If something is bugging you ? either because what Iíve said is unclear or because you have a philosophical point or question to offer ? donít be afraid to raise your hand and get my attention.  But please donít feel put off, either, if at that point we cannot pause to get as clear on your particular concern as weíd like.  If I had my way, class enrollments would be limited to ten students or so.  But I canít have my way, and unfortunately, sometimes you canít either.  Youíre welcome to catch me after class to ask your question, or during my office hours; youíll likely have a chance to ask your Teaching Assistant either after class, during her office hours, or preferably during a Friday discussion session.)

3.  Take advantage of office hours if you are having trouble.  Your Teaching Assistant knows the material just as well as I do, and will be available an hour or so each week, outside of discussion sessions, to help you with specific difficulties you might encounter.  To make office hours worthwhile for you and the teaching staff alike, please get as clear as you can, ahead of time, on what you're having difficulty with, and then bring it to your teaching assistant for help.  If your difficulty persists, he may recommend coming to see me, and you should by all means do that.
 

A Proposed Schedule for the Course

Here is a tentative syllabus outlining the dates, topics and reading assignments for the semester.  Please be sure to do the readings in advance--i.e. by the day for which those pages are listed.  Most of the time weíll be discussing that material that day, although sometimes youíll be reading in advance for material covered very soon thereafter, and weíre getting you on a running start.  Again, recall that the abbreviations for reading sources are:  CG =  Cover & Garns; B = Berkeley; D = Descartes; and P = Plato.  All numbers refer to pages, except in the Berkeley selections, where they refer to Sections (§), beginning on p. 23 of that text.

Introduction:  Methods and Historical Application
August          24 Introduction: Truth                                                                          CG 58-63
                     26 Application I: Euthyphro and Definition                                         P 3-14; CG 47-55
                     27 Definition / Conceptual Analysis, contíd.                                        Begin P 21-39 for Tues. 31st
                     31 Appl. II: Apology and Crito; Duty, and Arguments                        Continue P 43-52
September    2 Arguments: Validity                                                                          CG 13-26
                    3 (contíd.)
                    7 Appl. III: Meditation Six; Argument for Dualism                              D 47-59; CG 186-194
                    9 (contíd.)                                                                                            CG 194-200
                   10 QUIZ; Review

SECTION I: ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
                   14 Introduction; The Causal Argument                                                 CG 76-83; 94-100
                   16 Continued: Criticism                                                                        CG 100-106
                   17 QUIZ; Review
                   21 Descartesí Causal Argument (Meditation Three)                              D 24-35
                   23 Ontological Arguments (incl. Meditation Five)                                CG 119-124; D 42-47
                   24 QUIZ; Review
                   28 Anselmís Ontological Argument                                                     CG 124-128
                   30 Criticism of Ontological Arguments                                                CG 128-137
October      1 Review for Exam I
                   5  EXAM I
 
SECTION II: PERCEPTION AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE EXTERNAL WORLD
                 7 Introduction; Perceptual Knowledge CG 48; 278-280
                 8 Unannounced quiz
                12 Octoberbreak: no lecture
                14 Realism and Direct Realism                                                                CG 281-285
                15 Review
                19 Criticism of D. R.; Intro. to Representative Realism                            CG 285-294
                21 Representative Realism (contíd.)                                                        CG 294-299
                22 Review
                26 Primary/Secondary Qualities; Indirect Knowledge                              CG 300-308
                28 Berkeleyís Criticisms of R. R.                                                            CG 308-317; B §8-10,14,19
                29 QUIZ; Review
Nov.       2 Finish Berkeley's Critique; Intro. to Idealism                                          CG 318-322; B §1-2
               4 Idealism: Objects and Ideas                                                                   CG 323-329; B §3-7, 23
               5 Review
               9 Idealism: Knowledge of What There Is                                                  CG 331-341; B §25-33,45,48
               11 Finish Idealism                                                                                    CG 342-353
               12 Review for Exam II
               16 EXAM II

SECTION III:  FREEDOM AND DETERMINISM
              18 Introduction; Free Will                                                                        CG 355-365
              19 Review
              23 Determinism                                                                                       CG 365-372
              25 Thanksgiving Vacation
              26 Thanksgiving Vacation
              30 Incompatibilism and Indeterminism                                                    CG 372-377
Dec.      2 The Dilemma and Compatibilism                                                           CG 377-379; 382-384
             3 QUIZ; Review
             7 Critique of Compatibilism                                                                      CG 384-389
             9 Finish Critique of Compatibilism; Agency Theory                                 CG 389-395
            10 Review
           [    ] EXAM III