Spring 2015

Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot, Grove, NY, 1954, p. 13.

Details

Instructor

Overview

This course is an introduction to the problems and methods of contemporary philosophy. Our topics are the following:

1. Can belief in the existence of the external world be justified?
2. Can belief in the existence of God be justified?
3. What is the relationship between mind and body?
4. Can we act freely if everything we do is determined by laws of nature?
5. Is there a true theory of how we ought to live?

Objectives

The aim of this course is for students to significantly improve their capacity to:

• Extract, explain and evaluate the arguments contained in philosophical texts.
• Understand the central arguments and theories contained in the assigned readings.
• Contribute to constructive philosophical discussion.
• Write clear, concise, and well organised philosophical essays.

Assessment

Requirements:

• Three 6–8 page papers.
• Attendance and participation.

The final grade will be determined approximately as follows:

Due dates:

Policies

Attendance and Lateness

Students are required to attend all classes on time. An explanation for every absence or late attendance must be submitted in writing to the instructor. Every failure to attend class on time will count against the component of the final grade awarded for attendance and participation, unless an explanation is received and approved at least one day prior to the class in question. Requests for exceptions will be considered on a case by case basis, and typically granted only when related to an illness or other unforeseeable change in life circumstance. Students who have been excessively absent will be considered to have unofficially withdrawn and will be given a final grade of F.

Electronic Devices

Use of all electronic devices is strictly prohibited in class. Requests for exceptions will be considered on a case by case basis, and typically granted only when related to assistance with a disability.

Integrity

It is a condition on passing this course that students read and adhere to the NYU Shanghai policy on academic integrity as described in the current NYU Shanghai Academic Bulletin.

Schedule

Meeting 1: What is Philosophy? (Tuesday 27 January)

Section I: The External World

Meeting 2: Demons and Dreamers I (Thursday 29 January)

• Selections from Descartes, René. [1641] 2006. Meditations, Objections and Replies, Hackett, Indianapolis.

Meeting 3: Demons and Dreamers II (Tuesday 3 February)

• Stroud, Barry. 1984. “The Problem of the External World”, in The Significance of Philosophical Scepticism, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 1–38.

Meeting 4: Is This a Hand I See Before Me? (Thursday 5 February)

• Selections from Moore, G. E. 1939. “Proof of an External World”, in Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol. 25, pp. 273–300.
• Selections from Moore, G. E. [1940] 1959. “Four Forms of Scepticism”, in Philosophical Papers, George Allen & Unwin, London, pp. 193–222.
• Selections from Moore, G. E. 1959. “Certainty”, in Philosophical Papers, George Allen & Unwin, London, pp. 227–251.

Meeting 5: What Does Reality Explain? (Tuesday 10 February)

• Vogel, Jonathan. 1990. “Cartesian Skepticism and Inference to the Best Explanation”, in Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 87, No. 11, November, pp. 658–666.

Film Screening: The Matrix (Tuesday 10 February)

The film The Matrix will be screened in the Auditorium at 6pm.

Meeting 6: How Sceptical are Sceptical Hypotheses? (Thursday 12 February)

• Chalmers, David. [2003] 2005. “The Matrix as Metaphysics”, in Grau (Ed), Philosophers Explore the Matrix, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 132–176.

Spring Festival Holiday: 16–24 February

Section II: God

Meeting 7: The Ontological Argument (Thursday 26 February)

• Selections from Anselm. [1077] 2011. Proslogion: With the Replies of Gaunilo and Anselm, Hackett, Indianapolis.
• Selections from Conee, Earl. 2005. “God”, in Conee and Sider (Ed), Riddles of Existence: A Guided Tour of Metaphysics, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 62–86.

Meeting 8: The Cosmological Argument (Tuesday 3 March)

• Selections from Aquinas, Thomas. [1274] 2006. Summa Theologiae, Questions on God, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
• Selections from Conee, Earl. 2005. “God”, in Conee and Sider (Ed), Riddles of Existence: A Guided Tour of Metaphysics, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 62–86.

Meeting 9: The Design Argument (Thursday 5 March)

• Selections from Paley, William. [1802] 2006. Natural Theology: or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
• Selections from Sober, Elliott. 2008. Evidence and Evolution: The Logic Behind the Science, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Meeting 10: Pascal's Wager (Tuesday 10 March)

• Selections from Pascal, Blaise. [1669] 2004. Pensées, Hackett, Indianapolis.
• Hájek, Alan. 2012. “Pascal’s Wager”, in Zalta (Ed), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, Stanford. URI: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pascal-wager/.

Meeting 11: The Problem of Evil (Thursday 12 March)

• Selections from Hume, David. [1779] 2007. Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion and Other Writings, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
• Selections from Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. [1880] 1990. The Brothers Karamazov, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York.

Section III: Mind and Body

Meeting 12: Dualism (Tuesday 17 March)

• Selections from Descartes, René. [1641] 2006. Meditations, Objections and Replies, Hackett, Indianapolis.
• Selections from Descartes, René. [1649] 1985. “The Passions of The Soul”, in Cottingham, Stoothoff and Murdoch (Ed), The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Vol. 1, pp. 328–404.
• Selections from Shapiro, Lisa. 2007. The Correspondence between Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia and René Descartes, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Meeting 13: Behaviourism (Thursday 19 March)

• Selections from Ryle, Gilbert. 1949. The Concept of Mind, Hutchinson, London.
• Putnam, Hilary. 1962. “Brains and Behavior”, in Butler (Ed), Analytical Philosophy, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 1–19.

Meeting 14: Identity Theory and Functionalism (Tuesday 24 March)

• Smart, J. J. C. 1959. “Sensations and Brain Processes”, in The Philosophical Review, Vol. 68, No. 2, April, pp. 141–156. URI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2182164.
• Putnam, Hilary. 1967. “Psychological Predicates”, in Capitan and Merrill (Ed), Art, Mind, and Religion, University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, pp. 37–48.

Meeting 15: The Chinese Room (Thursday 26 March)

• Searle, John R. 1980. “Minds, Brains, and Programs”, in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol. 3, No. 3, September, pp. 417–424. URI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00005756.

Meeting 16: The Black and White Room (Tuesday 31 March)

• Nida-Rümelin, Martine. 1996. “Pseudonormal Vision: An Actual Case of Qualia Inversion?”, in Philosophical Studies, Vol. 82, No. 2, May, pp. 145–157. URI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00364773.
• Jackson, Frank. 1982. “Epiphenomenal Qualia”, in The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 127, April, pp. 127–136. URI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2960077.

Spring Recess: 1–6 April

Section IV: Freedom

Meeting 17: First-Order Compatibilism (Tuesday 7 April)

• Ayer, Alfred Jules. 1954. “Freedom and Necessity”, in Philosophical Essays, Macmillan, London, pp. 271–284.
• Selections from Hume, David. [1748] 2007. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding and Other Writings, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Meeting 18: Second-Order Compatibilism (Thursday 9 April)

• Frankfurt, Harry G. 1971. “Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person”, in The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 68, No. 1, January, pp. 5–20.
• Wolf, Susan. 1987. “Sanity and the Metaphysics of Responsibility”, in Schoeman (Ed), Responsibility, Character, and the Emotions: New Essays in Moral Psychology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 46–62.

Meeting 19: Incompatibilism (Tuesday 14 April)

• van Inwagen, Peter. 1975. “The Incompatibility of Free Will and Determinism”, in Philosophical Studies, Vol. 27, No. 3, March, pp. 185–199.
• Lewis, David. 1981. “Are We Free to Break the Laws?”, in Theoria, Vol. 47, No. 3, December, pp. 113–121.

Meeting 20: Libertarianism (Thursday 16 April)

• Chisholm, Roderick M. 1964. Human Freedom and The Self, University of Kansas, Lawrence.

Meeting 21: The Principle of Alternative Possibilities (Tuesday 21 April)

• Frankfurt, Harry G. 1969. “Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility”, in The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 66, No. 23, December, pp. 829–839. URI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2023833.

Meeting 22: The Reactive Attitudes (Thursday 23 April)

• Strawson, Peter. 1962. “Freedom and Resentment”, in Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol. 48, No. 1, pp. 187–211.

Section V: How to Live

Meeting 23: Utilitarianism (Tuesday 28 April)

• Smart, J. J. C. 1956. “Extreme and Restricted Utilitarianism”, in The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 6, No. 25, October, pp. 344–354.
• Selections from Williams, Bernard. 1973. “A Critique of Utilitarianism”, in Utilitarianism: For and Against, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 77–150.

Meeting 24: Kantianism (Thursday 30 April)

• Selections from Kant, Immanuel. [1785] 2011. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
• Velleman, J. David. 2006. “A Brief Introduction to Kantian Ethics”, in Self to Self: Selected Essays, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 16–44.

Meeting 25: Virtue Ethics (Tuesday 5 May)

• Selections from Crisp, Roger. 2000. Nicomachean Ethics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
• Hursthouse, Rosalind. 1996. “Normative Virtue Ethics”, in Crisp (Ed), How Should One Live?: Essays on the Virtues, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 19–36.

Meeting 26: Moral Luck (Thursday 7 May)

• Nagel, Thomas. 1979. “Moral Luck”, in Mortal Questions, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 24–38.

Meeting 27: Moral Saints Tuesday 12 May

• Wolf, Susan. 1982. “Moral Saints”, in Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 79, No. 8, August, pp. 419–439. URI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2026228.

Meeting 28: Love and Death (Thursday 14 May)

• Setiya, Kieran. 2014. “Love and the Value of a Life”, in The Philosophical Review, Vol. 123, No. 3, July, pp. 251–280. URI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00318108-2683522.
• Moller, Dan. 2007. “Love and Death”, in The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 104, No. 6, June, pp. 301–316.

Updated: 12 June 2015