Fall 2004 Advance Course Information

This information effective for Fall 2004. Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.

Philosophy

[PHIL-011]

11. Introduction to Philosophical Problems

Instructor: J. Neu

I. Socrates and Plato

Plato: Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito (in The Trial and Death of Socrates, trans. Grube, Hackett)
Dworkin, "Civil Disobedience" (in Reader)

II. Descartes

Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy (trans. Cress, Hackett)
Austin, Sense and Sensibilia, Chapter VII (in Reader)
Nagel, "Brain Bisection and the Unity of Consciousness" (in Reader)

III. Hume

Hume: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Hackett)
Goodman, "The New Riddle of Induction" (in Reader)

IV. Kant

Kant: Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals (trans. Ellington, Hackett)
O'Neill, "Kantian Approaches to Some Famine Problems" (in Reader)

V. Sartre and Wittgenstein

Sartre, "Existentialism and Humanism" (in Reader)
Wittgenstein: The Blue Book (pp. 1-43, Harper and Row)

Course Description:

• The reading for this course will consist of seminal works by major philosophers, along with contemporary articles on related issues. You will be expected to participate in discussion sections and to write four brief papers (2-3 typed pages each) in connection with different major works and a longer final paper (4-6 typed pages) relating Sartre or Wittgenstein to some of the earlier themes. All of the papers must be rooted in the texts and call for critical analysis (rather than outside research in other sources).
• There will be a midterm and a final exam.
• The course books will be available at The Literary Guillotine (on Locust St.).
  The Reader materials will be available on Eres.
  A printed version can be purchased from the Bay Tree Bookstore.
  
• Attendance at lectures and sections is mandatory.