Phil 20B: Medieval Philosophy
Important Dates
First Lecture: January 9th, 12:30-1:45 PM, GIRV 1004
No class: January 16th
Paper 1 Due: February 1st
Midterm: February 13th
Paper 2 Due: March 1st
Final Exam: March 21st
Sections
Mondays, 9-10 AM, ARTS 1356
Mondays 6-7 PM, GIRV 2115
Office Hours
Monday and Wednesday, 3-4pm, South Hall 5706
Question Submission for Final Review Session:
Week 1
Recommended Goals for the Week:
- Understand how what medieval philosophy (and philosophy more generally) is.
- Understand what sorts of problems were most commonly considered by philosophers of the era.
- Understand Augustine's conception of God and how it differed from the Manichean conception.
Links:
SEP Article on Medieval Philosophy:
Very good discussion between two philosophers on medieval philosophy generally:
SEP Article on Augustine; recommend reading at least the section on Saint Augustine's life, as it's likely quite a bit different than you may expect:
Comic on Augustine:
Good video that explains a bit about the traditional philosophical conception of God:
Week 2
Recommended Goals for the Week:
- Understand Augustine's argument for why evil is not a substance and what it means to say this.
- Understand what it means to say that evil is a privation of good.
- Understand Augustine's distinction between the two kinds of evil.
Week 3
Recommended Goals for the Week:
- Understand Augustine's account of the origin of evil.
- Understand Anselm's ontological argument.
- Understand Gaunilo's objection to Anselm's argument and Anselm's response.
Links:
Good overview of Anselm and his argument for the existence of God:
Short overview of the ontological argument:
Lecture by Daniel Bonevac on ontological arguments generally. First portion is focused on Anselm:
SEP articles on Saint Anselm and ontological arguments respectively. Both are likely a bit too expansive for it to make sense to read them in their entirety. However, reading the relevant sections will be more helpful:
Week 4
Recommended Goals for the Week:
- Understand what Islamic philosophy is, as well as the similarities between it and the philosophy of western Europe during the same period.
- Understand the distinction between possible and necessary existence.
- Understand Avicenna's proof for a necessary existent.
- Understand what features or properties Avicenna takes the necessary existent to possess.
Links:
Good video on Avicenna's proof of a necessary existent:
SEP article on Avicenna:
Comic about Avicenna:
Week 5
Recommended Goals for the Week:
- Study for the midterm exam.
- Understand the ways in which Al-Ghazali's concerns differed from those of Avicenna, as well as his opinion of the philosophy offered by those like Avicenna.
- Understand Al-Ghazali's no necessary connection argument.
- Understand why Al-Ghazali offers this argument and the connection he sees between it and Islamic theology.
Links:
SEP article on Al-Ghazali:
- https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-ghazali/
Comic about Al-Ghazali:
Week 6
Recommended Goals for the Week:
- Understand what Scholasticism is and the manner in which it changed how philosophy was done in western Europe at the time.
- Understand what Thomas Aquinas' Five Ways are and what they are aiming to prove.
- Understand Aquinas' Second Way.
Links:
Good introductory video on Thomas Aquinas:
Good lecture by Daniel Bonevac on the cosmological argument given by Aquinas:
SEP article on Thomas Aquinas:
Somewhat ridiculous comic about Aquinas:
Week 7
Recommended Goals for the Week:
- Understand Aristotle's four causes.
- Understand Aquinas' argument for God's perfection.
Links:
SEP article on Aristotle's four causes:
Video on Aristotle and his four causes:
Week 8
Recommended Goals for the Week:
- Understand Aquinas' account of the soul and the relation between it and the body.
- Understand what differences Aquinas thinks there are between humans and both animals (the brutes) and angels.
- Understand Aquinas' argument for why the soul is subsistent.
- Understand Aquinas' argument for why the soul must be the form of the body.
- Understand what, for Aquinas, human happiness consists of.
- Understand why, for Aquinas, human happiness is only possible in the afterlife.
Links:
Another good introductory level video on Aquinas:
Week 9
Recommended Goals for the Week:
- Understand Aquinas' account of the resurrection of the body.
- Understand his argument for why this is required for the afterlife.
- Understand Descartes' project in the Meditations and how the method of doubt factors into that project.
- Understand Descartes' cogito, and why it is beyond doubt that one's self exists.
- Understand the purpose of Descartes' wax passage.
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 an listen if you're interested in this sort of thing:
Week 10
Recommended Goals for the Week:
- Study for the final.
- Understand Descartes' epistemological principle.
- Understand the role of God in Descartes' project.
- Understand Descartes' cosmological argument.
- Understand Descartes' ontological argument.
- Understand the Cartesian circle problem.
- Understand what Descartes takes to be the nature of both mind and body respectively.
- Understand Descartes' real distinction argument.
Links:
Good lecture on Cartesian dualism:
Interesting interview with Bernard Williams on the philosohy of Descartes: