philosophy 111: intro

This is an introductory course in contemporary analytic philosophy. We’ll talk about the relationship between the mind and the body, free will, ethics, and God. For the most part, we’ll begin looking at a subject by making some common sense observations. We’ll then find ourselves tangled up in puzzles. To try to get untangled, we’ll use logic, reason, and anything else that might be useful. In the process, we’ll learn interesting things about the subject matter in question. This is a slow and painstaking process, and things can get very detailed and technical. If you don’t like details or technicality, then you won’t like philosophy. Apologies.

Philosophy is an area of active inquiry practiced by philosophers at leading universities around the world. If you’d like an idea of what these philosophers are working on, you might try looking at the faculty pages at a few leading departments: Rutgers, Princeton, Australia National University, Berekely, and, of course, the University of Arizona.

The New York Times has recently published several articles on current philosophical research: one on moral psychology, one on a probability puzzle, and one so-called “experimental philosophy.” I recommend that you read them.

text

We will be using the textbook Doing Philosophy, by Theodore Schick, Jr. and Vince Vaughn (sv from here on on out). I just picked it because I like the title. That’s not true. This was the book used in the intro course I took many years ago and I liked it. I hope you like it. (If you don’t like it, please tell me. If enough people don’t like it, I won’t use it again. And if everyone in this course absolutely hates it right away, then we’ll switch mid-semester. Just because we can.)

course goals

The goal of the course is to teach you to do philosophy. Once you know how to do philosophy, you will be comfortable in any future philosophy class you choose to take. More importantly, you’ll be comfortable doing philosophy as questions arise in your own life (but I should warn you: your friends will be annoyed more than impressed if you try to show off; so don’t be a show-off). So the primary goal is to prepare you for future philosophical endeavors.

To achieve the primary goal, we will need to acheive some secondary goals. You will need to learn to read philosophy. You will need to learn to write philosophy. And you will need to learn to construct and evaluate arguments. That will mean a lot of reading, a lot of writing, and a lot of clear thinking.

Since we can’t do any of this without actual doing some philosophy, you’ll get to learn about four problems of philosophy as a bonus: the mind/body problem, the problem of free will, some issues in ethics, and the existence of God.

requirements

There are four components to this course: reading, writing, participating, and being examined.

Reading

You are required to complete all of the readings listed below in the reading schedule. My way of testing this is the writing assignments and the exams. But if I get the sense that people aren’t doing the reading—it’s easy to tell—I’ll throw a pop quiz at you on material I haven’t covered in lecture.

Writing

Every Friday, I will post a detailed question concerning the readings for the following week. By class on the following Monday, you must turn in a 250–500 word answer. Typed and printed. This means you must complete the reading for the week before the week has begun (excepting the first week, for obvious reasons).

I said you have to do that every week. But that’s not entirely true. You have to do it every week until you have gotten an A on four of these papers. But A writing is difficult, at least by my standards; so many, though not all and maybe not even most, of you will have to do this every week for the whole semester. That’s a lot of work, but I guarantee that you’ll learn to write clearly and succinctly about difficult subject matter.

Participating

You have to ask questions in class. You have to answer questions in class. You have to argue with me and with each other in class. There are a lot of you in this class, so I don’t expect you to speak up every class, but if you don’t speak up at all, or only once or twice, it will lower your grade.

You have to be in class. You can miss three classes, no questions asked. Beyond that, you can’t miss any classes (unless you have a documetned and severe illness or you’re an athlete and you have a game; athletes take note: once you’ve missed three classes for games, you can’t miss any classes for anything else). If coming to class is a problem, don’t take this class.

Being Examined

This course will have four unit exams and one comprehensive final. The unit exams shouldn’t be hard if you’ve been coming to class and doing the reading. The final should be challenging.

Grades

Your grade will be calculated as follows:

readings

Below is the schedule of assigned readings for the course. I didn’t put it into a fancy table because I hate making html tables. This should be plenty readable, though.

Week 1: Intro

Read pp. 5–14 of sv

Week 2: Methodology

Read pp. 27–32, 42–52 of sv and this New York Times article.

Please complete the first writing assignment.

Week 3: Mind/Body Problem

Read pp. 65–88 of sv. Please complete these exercises (due Monday the 28th)

Week 4: Mind/Body Problem

Read pp. 90–113 of sv

Week 5: Mind/Body Problem

Read pp. 115–134 of sv

Week 6: Mind/Body Problem

Read pp. 136–157 of sv

Week 7: Free Will

Read pp. 180–200 of sv

Week 8: Free Will

Read pp. 203–226 of sv

Week 9: Morality

Read pp. 325–344 of sv

Week 10: Spring Break 2008

Week 11: Morality

Read pp. 347–367 and 429–432 of sv

Week 12: Morality

Read pp. 368–378 and 396–406 of sv

Week 13: God

Read pp. 433–458 of sv

Week 14: God

Read pp. 458–475 of sv

Week 15: God

Read pp. 478–490 of sv

Week 16: The Epistemology of Disagreement

Readings TBA

Week 17: Review

No readings.

Final exam on 9 May 2007 from 2:00–4:00 p.m.

boilerplate stuff

Contacting Me

You can contact me by email: ice at email dot arizona dot edu. I guarantee a response within 48 hours, but no quicker. You'll never get an email from me that’s longer than five sentences. If you need more than five sentences, you can come to my office hours: Mondays from 9–10:00 a.m., Wednesdays from 1–2:00 p.m., and Fridays from 11–12:00.

Students with disabilities

Students with physical, psychological, or learning disabilities who anticipate needing accommodations in this course are encouraged to register with the S.A.L.T. Center or the Disability Resource Center. Students with special needs who are registered with the S.A.L.T. Center or the Disability Resource Center are reminded that they must submit appropriate documentation as soon as possible if they are requesting special accommodations. For more information contact the Disability Resource Center (621-3268).

Academic Integrity

All students taking this course are bound under the Code of Academic Integrity. Students should familiarize themselves with this code. I will punish cheaters and plagiarists with the strictest penalties possible under UA policy.

Things I should’t have to say