Philosophy 110: Perennial Questions

Fall 2007

Instructor: Dr. Patrick A. Goold. Office: Blocker 222. Te;ephone: 455-3357.

E-mail: goold@vwc.edu.

Office hours: 11:30 - 12:30 MW, 1:30 - 2:30 TTh and by appointment.

Dates to remember:

Holidays: September 3, October 12, November 21-23.

Tests:

Monday, September 10 Monday, September 24

Monday, October 8 Friday, October 26

Friday, November 9 Wednesday, December 5

Final examination times:

Section 01 (9:30 - 10:20) Monday, December 10, 8 - 10:30

Section 02 (10:30 - 11:20) Wednesday, December 12, 11:30-2:00

Last day to drop: October 29

Catalog description: A critical examination of several great issues which confront us in modern philosophical thought, including the question of the existence of God, the nature of ultimate reality, the sources of human knowledge, the principles of moral values, and the problem of aesthetic judgments.

Goals. I hope that by the end of this course you will have attained all of the following:

• Acquaintance with some of the central problems that traditionally have occupied philosophers.

• Familiarity with the vocabulary that has evolved to describe these problems and some of the most important techniques philosophers use to tackle them.

• Practice in actually doing philosophy.

•Appreciation of the difficulty of thinking clearly about anything but especially about those framing issues that structure our sense of the meaning and value of our lives.

•Acceptance of the special demands of intellectual integrity such as consistency, humility and openness to new possibilities.

Required text:

Doing Philosophy: An Introduction Through Thought Experiments (3rd Edition).

Theodore Schick, Jr. and Lewis Vaughn.

McGraw Hill, 2006.

Estimated Work load: six hours per week for reading assigned texts.

Attendance policy: Attendance is required. Anyone missing more than five classes automatically fails the course. Absences will be excused only for good reason. The instructor is the final judge of what constitutes a good reason.

Grading: provided that one has met the attendance requirement, one's course grade is based on six in-class tests and a final examination. Each test is worth a possible 100 points, the final 200.

Grading Scale:

Less than 60%/F 60-69%/D 70-79%/C 80-89%/B 90-100%/A

Accommodations for students with special needs: The standard procedures for meeting the responsibilities associated with this course can be modified for students with certain disabilities. To qualify for such accommodations, a student must provide the college with appropriate professional documentation that confirms the presence of the disability. To begin the confirmation process or for further information about it, contact our coordinator of disability services, Fayne Pearson, at 455-3246.  

Schedule of readings:

Aug. 27 Introduction to the course. What is philosophy?

29 Topic: Socrates and the Socratic method. Reading: pages 1-26.

31 Topic: Logical preliminaries. Reading: pages 26-41.

Sept. 3 HOLIDAY

5 Thought Experiments. Reading: pages 42-54.

7 Reading: pages 55-63. Three moderns on the nature and value of philosophy.

10 EXAM over Chapter One.

12 Topic: What sort of thing is a mind? Reading, pages 66-72 and Section 2.1.

14 Reading, Section 2.2 and "Materialism vs. Dualism," pages 164-170.

17 Reading, Section 2.3.

19 Reading, Section 2.4.

21 Reading, Sections 2.5. and "The Puzzle of Conscious Experience," pages 171-175.

24 EXAM over Chapter Two.

26 Topic: Can one ever act freely? Reading: pages 179-202.

28 Reading: "The Delusion of Free Will," pages 228-233.

Oct. 1 Reading: Section 3.2 and "The Problem of Free Will," pages 233-237.

3 Reading: Section 3.3.

5 Reading: "Freedom of Choice"

8 EXAM over Chapter Three .

10 Topic: Who am I? Reading: pages 247-272.

12 FALL BREAK

15 "Of Identity and Diversity" and "On Mr. Locke's Account of Personal Identity," 305-314.

17 Reading: Section 4.2.

19 Reading: "Live Forever," pages 320-323.

22 Reading, Section 4.3

24 Reading: "Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons," 315-319.

26 EXAM over Chapter Four.

. 29 Topic: Is morality about anything real? Reading: pages 326-328 and Section 5.1

31 Topic: Consequentialism. Reading: Section 5.2. and 'The Ones Who Walk Awa;y from Omelas," pages 429-432.

Nov. 2 Topic: Kantian duties. Reading: pages 368-379 and 417-421.

5 Topic: Rawlsian justice. Reading: 379-395 and 422-424.

7 Topic: Virtue Ethics. Reading: Section 5.4 and pages 425-428.

9 EXAM over Chapter Five.

12 Topic: Is there a god? The argument from design. Reading: pages 433-459.

14 Reading: pages 509-517.

16 Topic: Some other arguments for theism. Reading: pages 464-477.

19 Topic: The problem of evil. Reading: Section 6.2. and pages 518-521.

21 THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

23 THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

26 Topic: How do you know? Reading: pages 529-546.

28 Reading: pages 546-559.

30 Reading: Section 7.2.

Dec. 3 Topic: What is knowledge? Reading: Section 7.3.

5 EXAM over Chapter Seven.

7 Topic: So what?

How to use this schedule:

(1) Page references are to Schick and Vaughn (3^rd Edition), the required text for this course.

(2) Come to class having read the reading listed on that class date. So, for example, the well-prepared student will come to class on October 1 having read Schick and Vaugh section 3.3.

(3) Read actively. Mark your book as you read. Make careful notes. For a good account of the nature of active reading, of the why and how of marking your book, and of the things involved in good note-taking see How To Read A Book by Mortimer Adler and Charles van Doren (Revised and Updated Version, 1972), especially pages 45-58.

(4) Bring both the book and your reading journal to class. The class time will often involve discussion of specific passages in the text. You need to have your text with you.

Instructor reserves the right to change this syllabus.