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PHIL 150
Philosophical Perspectives on the Individual
General Information
Instructor: Uriah Kriegel
TA: Benjamin Kozuch
Place: Modern Languages 311
Time: M, W 8-8:50 AM, plus section Fridays
Office hours: W 3-6 (Social Sciences 318d)
Email hours: M 9-12, W 3-6, F 2-5 (subject line: 150)
Topics
Four topics will be covered in the course: knowledge, mind, free will, and self. First, do we know anything and whats knowledge anyway? For example, do we know and if so how that there is a real world out there and were not just living in the matrix? Secondly, how is our mind related to our body, in particular the brain? For example, are we just slabs of meat that somehow move around and produce sounds as though they have a soul or is there really something more to us? Thirdly, we are often free to do what we want, but are we free to want what we want? For example, I am free to get ice cream when I feel like it, but is it really up to me when I feel like having an ice cream? Finally, whats the deal with the self? For example, are you the same person you were in kindergarten or are you basically a separate person, and what counts as being the same person anyway?
Requirements
There will be four examinations during the course, all four being combinations multiple-choice questions and short essays. Each will be worth 25% of the grades. Plagiarism will entail an automatic Fail for the course and recommendation of expulsion to the Dean.
Reading Sources
1. Mark Timmons and David Shoemaker, Knowledge, Nature, and Norms (KNN)
2. Online sources
Schedule of Lectures
1. Organizational - 1/11
A. Knowledge and Reality
2. The problem of skepticism (KNN 28-29) 1/18
3. Realism and skepticism (KNN 30-31) 1/23
4. Realism without certainty (Russell) 1/25
5. The nature of knowledge (Ayer) 1/30
6. The Problem of Skepticism revisited 2/1
7. First exam 2/6
B. Mind and Matter
8. The mind-body problem (KNN 7) 2/8
9. Dualism (KNN 8) 2/13
10. Idealism (Berkeley Sc. 1-24) 2/15
11. Emergentism (KNN 11) 2/20
12. Materialism (Smart, from a campus computer) 2/22
13. Problems for materialism (KNN 12) 2/27
Instructor: Uriah Kriegel
TA: Benjamin Kozuch
Place: Modern Languages 311
Time: M, W 8-8:50 AM, plus section Fridays
Office hours: W 3-6 (Social Sciences 318d)
Email hours: M 9-12, W 3-6, F 2-5 (subject line: 150)
Topics
Four topics will be covered in the course: knowledge, mind, free will, and self. First, do we know anything and whats knowledge anyway? For example, do we know and if so how that there is a real world out there and were not just living in the matrix? Secondly, how is our mind related to our body, in particular the brain? For example, are we just slabs of meat that somehow move around and produce sounds as though they have a soul or is there really something more to us? Thirdly, we are often free to do what we want, but are we free to want what we want? For example, I am free to get ice cream when I feel like it, but is it really up to me when I feel like having an ice cream? Finally, whats the deal with the self? For example, are you the same person you were in kindergarten or are you basically a separate person, and what counts as being the same person anyway?
Requirements
There will be four examinations during the course, all four being combinations multiple-choice questions and short essays. Each will be worth 25% of the grades. Plagiarism will entail an automatic Fail for the course and recommendation of expulsion to the Dean.
Reading Sources
1. Mark Timmons and David Shoemaker, Knowledge, Nature, and Norms (KNN)
2. Online sources
Schedule of Lectures
1. Organizational - 1/11
A. Knowledge and Reality
2. The problem of skepticism (KNN 28-29) 1/18
3. Realism and skepticism (KNN 30-31) 1/23
4. Realism without certainty (Russell) 1/25
5. The nature of knowledge (Ayer) 1/30
6. The Problem of Skepticism revisited 2/1
7. First exam 2/6
B. Mind and Matter
8. The mind-body problem (KNN 7) 2/8
9. Dualism (KNN 8) 2/13
10. Idealism (Berkeley Sc. 1-24) 2/15
11. Emergentism (KNN 11) 2/20
12. Materialism (Smart, from a campus computer) 2/22
13. Problems for materialism (KNN 12) 2/27
14. Animal Minds (Tim Crane podcast from 11/20/11) 2/29
15. The Mind-Body Problem revisited 3/5
16. Second exam 3/7
15. The Mind-Body Problem revisited 3/5
16. Second exam 3/7
C. Personal Identity and the Self
17. The problem of personal identity (Dennett) 3/19
18. Self as memory (KNN 4) 3/21
19. Self as soul (KNN 2-3) 3/26
20. Self as body (KNN 5) 3/28
21. The problem revisited (KNN 6 and/or podcast) 4/2
22. Third exam 4/4
D. Determinism and Free Will
23. The Problem of Free Will (KNN 13, story) 4/9
24. Determinism (KNN 14) 4/11
25. Libertarianism (KNN 15) 4/18
26. Compatibilism (KNN 16) 4/23
27. The Free Will Problem revisited (KNN 17) 4/25
28. Fourth exam 4/30
29. What is philosophy? (Russell) 5/2
