Philosophy - Spring 1998

• Section 01A: Friday 2:00-3:10 p.m. Cowell 216
• Section 01B: Friday 11:00-12:10 p.m. Cowell 223
• Section 01C: Thursday 8:00-9:10 a.m. Cowell 216
• Section 01D: Friday 11:00-12:10 p.m. Stevenson 152
• Section 01E: Friday 8:00-9:10 a.m. Cowell 216
• Section 01F: Thursday 8:00-9:10 a.m. Cowell 223

Philosophy is what philosophers do. However, unlike dentists or criminal lawyers, not all philosophers do the same thing in the same way. In fact, the only thing all philosophers seem to do in common is to debate what philosophers ought to do and how to go about doing it. The most reasonable introduction to philosophy is therefore to study a few classic books written by people most philosophers consider interesting and relevant philosophers.

Obviously, to philosophize is not identical with learning what other philosophers have said or written. Some individual geniuses in the history of philosophy were admittedly not at all versed in the philosophical tradition. But this class is not meant for those rare minds who dare to take upon themselves the immense task of beginning philosophical questioning from scratch, but rather for those who are commonsensical enough to accept that their own intellectual quest can be clarified, guided and enlivened by the thought of some recognized masters.

The books chosen for this class listed below are without question classic masterpieces in the history of philosophy; they are neither too long nor too technical; they belong to different historical environments; they display both the continuity of philosophical concerns and the variations in style and metaphor which make the study of philosophy a fascinating lifelong project. They are presented in a chronological sequence because their timeless problems are tackled by time-conditioned approaches which tell us something about the growth of the human mind and shed some light on our own perplexities and questions. The books are supposed to give some knowledge of what philosophers do, the questions they ask, the methods they use, some of the answers they provide.

The purpose of this class is not to persuade the students to become philosophy majors, but rather to make philosophy a major concern for life, whatever career or discipline they choose.

Lecture on Monday and Wednesday will be complemented by a general discussion on Friday. The class will also be divided into small discussion sections, as many as possible.

Requirements for the course will be three take-home exams.

Required readings:

• Plato, SYMPOSIUM;
• Descartes, DISCOURSE ON METHOD;
• Hume, INQUIRY INTO HUMAN UNDERSTANDING;
• Kant, ON HISTORY;
• Searle, MINDS, BRAINS AND SCIENCE.

• Section 01A: Tuesday 4:00-5:10 p.m. Cowell 113
• Section 01B: Wednesday 3:30-4:40 p.m. Cowell 223
• Section 01C: Monday 2:00-3:10 p.m. Cowell 223
• Section 01D: Thursday 4:00-5:10 p.m. Cowell 113
• Section 01E: Wednesday 12:30-91:40 p.m. Cowell 223
• Section 01F: Monday 3:30-4:40 p.m. Cowell 223

The primary issues to be examined concern the various moral arguments about how humans ought to behave in their interactions with the rest of the natural environment. This course relates traditional moral theories to recent literature on environmental issues. (General education code IH)

**Please note that this description may change prior to Spring 1998.**

An introduction to Kant's CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON. There will be an emphasis on the metaphysics and epistemology. Some moral theory as time permits.

These are some main topics (however, this is subject to change):

• The Ideality of Space and Time
• The Analytic/Synthetic Distinction
• Synthetic A Priori Knowledge
• Transcendental Idealism
• Concepts and Intuitions
• The Transcendental Deduction of the Categories of the Understanding
• The Refutation of Idealism
• Causation
• Determinism
• Free Will
• The Antinomies

REQUIRED TEXTS (available at the Literary Guillotine: 204 Locust St., downtown, near the public library): Note these texts may change.

• Kant, CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON, translated by Norman Kemp Smith, St. Martin's Press (please obtain this unabridged translation only).
• Kant, PROLEGOMENA TO ANY FUTURE METAPHYSICS the Paul Carus Translation, extensively revised by James W. Ellington, Hackett Publishing Co.
• Guyer, Paul (editor), THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO KANT, Cambridge University Press.
• Recommended readings will be on reserve at McHenry Library, or in a reader compiled by the instructor.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

• regular class attendance and participation
• mid-term examination
• final examination (both take-home)
• Very brief weekly assignments on the readings

Prerequisites:

• one course in the history of philosophy, especially the Rationalists or the Empiricists.

• Section 01A: Friday 2:00-3:10 p.m. Oakes 103
• Section 01B: Wednesday 3:30-4:40 p.m. Cowell 216

At the beginning of the quarter we will survey some important ideas in the philosophies of Schopenhauer, as the important predecessor to Nietzsche, and Hegel, especially his famous Master-Slave passage. The rest of the quarter we will spend on Nietzsche, concentrating on ON THE GENEALOGY OF MORALS, and sections of THE BIRTHYF OF TRAGEDY, BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL and The Gay Science.

Written work will tentatively consist of short papers on Schopenhauer and Hegel; and two papers on Nietzsche.

Texts:

BASIC WRITINGS OF NIETZSCHE (Modern Library); and a class reader containing works by Schopenhauer, Hegel and Nietzsche. Required and recommended texts will be available at The Literary Guillotine, 204 Locust Street, downtown Santa Cruz. The class reader will be available at the Communications Center on campus.

This course will explore selected issues in philosophical psychology centering on:

1. personal identity,
2. self-deception,
3. self-knowledge.

In each of these areas, we will be searching for a middle way between Cartesian dualism (a radical mind-body split) and psychological behaviorism (a reduction of the mental to observable behavior and dispositions to behavior). The effort will be to understand how we know our own minds, how we know about the minds of others, how we are liable to go wrong, and how these problems of knowledge connect with the nature of the object of knowledge, that is, the nature of mental states. Peculiarities of reflexive knowledge (knowledge of our own minds) will be emphasized.

Readings will be mainly in modern and contemporary philosophy (Descartes, Hume, Sartre, Ryle, Wittgenstein, et al.) and psychology (Freud, Laing), but will include a couple of plays (Ibsen's The Wild Duck, O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh). Many of the philosophical readings will be found in The Philosophy of Mind, Glover, and a duplicated Supplement. The course requirements will include a midterm and a final exam. (With pre-approval, a paper may be substituted for the final exam.)

Short presentations in class will also be expected.

* indicates in Supplement available at Campus Copy Center

Other texts (Descartes, Ryle, Laing, Ibsen, O'Neill) referred to by title--at Literary Guillotine.

SELF-IDENTITY

I. DESCARTES: DOUBT AND THE COGITO

Descartes, Meditations, I, II, and VI

II. MINDS AND BRAINS

Nagel, "Brain Bisection and the Unity of Consciousness"*

III. DISEMBODIED MINDS

Laing, The Divided Self, Chs. 4, 5, and 9

Ryle, "'Descartes' Myth" (Ch. 1 in The Concept of Mind)

IV. HUME: REIDENTIFYING THE SELF THROUGH CHANGE

Hume, "Of Personal Identity"*

Penelhum, "Hume on Personal Identity"*

V. LOCKE: THE SELF AND THE PAST

Locke, "Of Identity and Diversity"*

Williams, "Personal Identity and Individuation"*

VI. THE SELF AND THE FUTURE (MINDS AND BRAINS AGAIN)

Dennett, "Where Am I?"*

Williams, "The Self and the Future"*

VII. UNITY AND CONTINUITY

Strawson, "Self, Mind and Body"*

Sacks, "Excesses"*

Parfit, "Personal Identity"*

Wollheim, "On Persons and Their Lives"*

SELF-DECEPTION

VIII. KNOWING AND NOT KNOWING

Fingarette, "To Believe and Not to Believe"*

Price, "Belief and Will"*

Gardiner, "Error, Faith and Self-Deception"*

IX. LIFE-LIES AND PIPE-DREAMS

Ibsen, The Wild Duck.

O'Neill, The Iceman Cometh.

X. UNCONSCIOUS KNOWLEDGE: WHO GETS DECEIVED BY WHOM?

Freud, "The Unconscious"*

Freud, "The Dissection of the Psychical Personality"*

Freud, Therapy and Technique, Chs. III, V, VIII, XII, XIII*

XI. 'BAD FAITH' AND ROLE PLAYING

Sartre, "Bad Faith"*

Laing, The Divided Self, Ch. 6.

Trilling, "The Authentic Unconscious"*

SELF-KNOWLEDGE

XII. SELF-KNOWLEDGE AND FREEDOM

Sartre, "Existentialism is a Humanism"*

Hampshire, "Sincerity and Single-Mindedness"*

Berlin, "From Hope and Fear Set Free"*

Frankfurt, "Identification and Wholeheartedness"*

XIII. KNOWING ONE'S OWN MIND

Ryle, "Knowing How and Knowing That" (Ch. 2 in The Concept of Mind).

Ryle, "Self-Knowledge" (Ch. 6 in The Concept of Mind).

XIV. KNOWING OTHER MINDS

Hampshire, "Feeling and Expression"*

Solomon, "Emotions and Anthropology"*

Neu, "A Tear Is an Intellectual Thing"*

XV. HAVING A MIND (MINDS AND MACHINES)

Turing, "Computing Machinery and Intelligence"*

Searle, "Minds, Brains, and Programs"*

Nagel, "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?"*

• There will be a mid-term (after topic VII) and a final exam. A paper (10-12 pages) may be substituted for the final exam by pre-arrangement. The topic must be approved in advance and the paper is due before the start of the final exam. If the completed paper is not submitted on time, the final exam must be taken.
• Presentations in class in relation to particular topics will also be required.

This course will consider Friedrich Nietzsche's THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA (Also sprach Zarathustra) and Robert Musil's THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES (Mann Ohne Eigenschaften) as works which question and realign the possibilities of philosophy and literature. The works will be discussed in their uses of poetry, aphorism, dialogue and parody to break philosophical ground and also in their deployment of philosophical terms in unexpectedly illuminating--comic, ironic, narrative, dramatic--circumstances. The course will also discuss the implications for ethics of Nietzsche's and Musil's assessments of moral and religious values.

Depending upon a successful grant application, this course may be taken concurrently with German 154L (2 units extra) which will meet at the same time with the same instructors: Robert Goff and Judith Harris-Frisk. The supplement will add German intensive readings and assignments. (Consult the instructors about the availability of German 154L.)

Requirements:

• consistent attendance
• participation in discussion
• substantial reading
• reading journal
• two or three papers

Books will be at the Literary Guillotine, Locust Street, Santa Cruz. Further inquiries: Robert_Goff@MacMail.ucsc.edu.

This course will be an intensive examination of James's philosophy. Topics include James's theories of the nature of mind, pragmatic meaning, and his influential and controversial pragmatic theory of truth. We will also study James's unusual conception of rationality, his justification of faith, ethics of character and philosophy of religion.

There will be a number of papers required, as well as class presentations. All members of the class will be expected to participate energetically in seminar discussions.

PREREQUISITES:

Three courses in philosophy or consent of instructor.

REQUIRED TEXTS:

• James, PRAGMATISM AND THE MEANING OF TRUTH
• James, THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
• James, THE WILL TO BELIEVE;
• James, TALKS TO TEACHERS ON PSYCHOLOGY AND TO STUDENTS ON SOME OF LIFE'S IDEALS;
• Suckiel, THE PRAGMATIC PHILOSOPHY OF WILLIAM JAMES.

Recommended Books:

• James, THE PRINCIPLES OF PSCYHOLOGY (2 vols.);
• James, ESSAYS IN RADICAL EMPIRICISM AND A PLURALISTIC UNIVERSE.

This seminar will investigate four topics in contemporary analytic philosophy of religion. Although the topics are quite different, they are related in that they all involve epistemological issues. The first topic will be religious challenges to naturalism. In this section we will discuss responses to Plantinga's argument that evolutionary naturalism is self-defeating, and thus irrational. The second topic we will discuss is that of miracles. We will look at various responses to Hume's argument that it is irrational to accept a miracle on the basis of testimony. We will also discuss the relation between miracles and natural laws. The third section will involve the topic of religious experience. In this section we will discuss Alston's argument that religious experience can justify various religious beliefs. The fourth section of this course will be on religious diversity. We will look at John Hick's arguments about religious pluralism and responses to them. Evaluations will be based on a long paper, six short papers, a class presentation, and the quality of class participation.

Revised 7/13/04.