Phil 1: Introduction to Philosophy

Important Dates

First Paper Due: Thursday, July 6th

Second Paper Due: Thursday, July 20th

Review Session: Wednesday, August 2nd, 4-6pm, Phelps Hall 2516

Final Due: Saturday, August 5 at 11:59pm

 

Sections

Tuesday 12:30-1:30pm, HSSB 1210

Thursday 11-12:20pm, HSSB 1207

 

Office Hours

Tuesday 11am-12pm, South Hall 5706

Thursday 12:30-1:30pm, South Hall 5706

Week 1

Recommended Goals for the Week: 

  • Get a grasp on how to read philosophy and the manner in which it differs from other fields.
  • Understand Descartes' project in the first two meditations.
  • Understand what role the skeptical scenarios play in this project.
  • Understand why his own existence is, for Descartes, beyond doubt.
  • Understand Locke's distinction between primary and secondary qualities.
  • Understand Locke's arguments for this distinction.

 

Links:

Comics on Descartes, both focusing on the evil demon skeptical scenario:

Good overview of Descartes' philosophy at a pretty introductory level:

An interview with the philosopher Bernard Williams on the philosophy of Descartes. May be a little advanced for this course, but if you're interested in Descartes it may be worth a watch:

A talk by Noam Chomsky on Descartes' more scientific views. Again, may be somewhat advanced, but worth a listen if you're interested in this sort of thing:

Week 2

Recommended Goals for the Week:

  • Understand in what way the empiricism of Locke, Berkeley, and Hume differs from the rationalism of Descartes.
  • Understand Berkeley's idealism and how it differs from our commonsense view of the world.
  • Understand Berkeley's arguments for idealism: the argument from relativity and the pleasure/pain argument.
  • Understand how Berkeley's views connect to those of Locke and what the two, seemingly very different, views have in common with one another.

 

Links:

Fairly good video on some of the views of Locke and Berkeley, as well as empiricism more generally:

Oxford lecture on the primary/secondary quality distinction. This entire lecture series is very good, and I would strongly recommend it to you if you have an interest in the early modern era of philosophy:

Three videos from the same lecture series. The first is on corpuscularianism more generally, while the latter two focus on Locke and Berkeley respectively:

Another good lecture on the primary/secondary quality distinction. Bonevac's lecture are, in general, quite good, and his Youtube channel covers a wide variety of topics:

Interview about Locke and Berkeley. A bit older, but good nonetheless:

Comic (briefly) about Locke and Berkeley. Likely to go over your head if you're not a Monty Python fan:

Week 3

Recommended Goals for the Week:

  • Understand the ways in which Hume is similar to and differs from Locke and Berkeley.
  • Understand what induction is, and the manner in which it differs from deduction.
  • Understand the terminology introduced in lecture: a priori/a posteriori, deduction/induction, proposition, contradiction, negation, etc.
  • Understand the test for apriority.
  • Understand Hume's problem of induction, and why he thinks inductive reasoning is ultimately rationally unjustified.
  • Understand what implications Hume's skepticism about induction has for our understanding of the world, both scientific and otherwise.

 

Questionnaire:

https://goo.gl/forms/5IjzUNX6t64NEMLl2

 

Links:

Three very good Oxford lectures on David Hume:

Good lecture by Daniel Bonevac focused on Hume and induction:

Somewhat long, but quite good, audiobook except by Will Durant on Hume:

Short video on Hume's life and the broad outlines of his thought:

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS52H_CqZLE

Week 4

Recommended Goals for the Week:

  • Finish writing the second paper.
  • Understand the ways in which the medieval era differs from the modern.
  • Understand both the problems that Nietzsche identifies with modernity as well as how these problems arose.
  • Understand Nietzsche's proposed solution to these problems, in particular the manner in which the overman factors.
  • Understand what point Nietzsche is trying to make in the passages given below, as well as how these points connect with one another.
  • Understand Kierkegaard's distinction between objective and subjective truth.
  • Understand Kierkegaard's three stages of life: the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious.
  • Understand the point that Kierkegaard is making by bringing up the story of Abraham.

 

Questionnaire:

https://goo.gl/forms/La4PRc1omA8AiHWz2

 

Main Passages from Nietzsche:

  • God is dead, pg. 64-65
  • Eternal recurrence of the same, pg. 66-67, 75-78
  • Preparatory human beings, pg. 68
  • Overman (Übermensch), pg. 71-73
  • The last man, pg. 73-74
  • The will to power, pg. 93
  • Good/bad vs. good/evil; master vs. slave morality, pg. 93-96

 

Links:

Three very good SEP articles on Nietzsche, the first two focusing on his life and work generally, and the third upon his moral and political views:

Good lecture by Daniel Bonevac on Nietzsche and the historical background to his thought:

Good interview from the 70s on the topic of Nietzsche and his philosophy:

Audiobook except on Nietzsche by Will Durant, one with a slightly more critical take:

Comic about Nietzsche:

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on Kierkegaard; section 2B is particularly relevant to the course:

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on Kierkegaard; has a good summary of his life, and portions of parts 3, 4, and 5 are relevant to the parts of his thought that we've gone over:

Brief video on the life and some of the broader themes of Kierkegaard:

Good introductory video on existentialism:

Comic about Kierkegaard:

Video on Kierkegaard and his three phases of life:

Brief video on the life and thought of Kierkegaard:

SEP articles on Sartre and existentialism respectively; may be a bit too high-level, but may be worth a look regardless:

 

Week 5

Recommended Goals for the Week:

  • Understand Sartre's distinction between being-in-itself and being-for-itself.
  • Understand the key concepts from Sartre: radical freedom, anguish, abandonment, despair, bad faith, and the gaze of the other.
  • Understand the problem of relativism and why it may pose a problem for Sartre.
  • Understand what common problem Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Sartre are all responding to, and how their solutions to the problem differ from one another.
  • Understand what the doctrine of determinism is.
  • Understand what free will is supposed to be.
  • Understand what problem determinism poses for free will.

 

Links:

Good video on the tension between free will and determinism:

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCGtkDzELAI

Video on compatibilism:

Good Oxford lecture on free will and determinism; second video is on different concepts of freedom:

Final video in the Oxford lecture series on free will and determinism:

SEP articles on causal determinism and free will respectively:

 

Week 6

Recommended Goals for the Week:

  • Understand what van Inwagen means when he talks about mysteries.
  • Understand van Inwagen's overall strategy for arguing that libertarianism is true.
  • Understand what the No-Choice Principle is, and what it poses a problem for the compatibilist.
  • Understand what van Inwagen's says about (1) how indeterminism bears on free will and (2) the notion that free will is self-contradictory or incoherent.
  • Understand Hume's constant conjunction account of causality and what role it plays in his compatibilism.
  • Understand why Hume thinks that (1) we are all already, at least implicitly, compatibilists, and (2) why compatibilism is required for moral responsibility.
  • Understand the objections raised to Hume's compatibilism.

 

Links:

 

Video of Peter van Inwagen discussing free will and determinism:

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImvEqnbfdIw

Oxford lecture on Hume's compatibilism:

Greene and Cohen's paper on free will and neuroscience: