Introduction to Philosophy (100)
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Tom Ryckman
Philosophy Department
Lawrence University

 
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Philosophy100: Introduction to Philosophy

A philosophical examination of both some of the questions, problems, puzzles, and paradoxes that have helped to generate philosophical theories and some of arguments employed in appraising those theories. The selected topics are interesting and important in their own right (I think) and hang together thematically. The course is designed both to inform students of certain of the problems of philosophy and to enable students to consider, develop, and refine certain of the analytical skills that philosophers have developed and refined in their efforts to solve those problems.

Texts:       Introduction to Philosophy (4th edition) edited by Perry and Bratman.
                The Philosopher's Dictionary by Martin.

Requirements:    Mid-term exam (40pts), final exam (40pts), and 4 of 5 quizzes (20pts).

Course outline:

I. Introduction: What kinds of things are there? “On the Study of Philosophy” (Perry and Bratman 1-6)
A. Philosophical systems or Ontologies.
B. Arguments.
II. Are there good philosophical reasons for admitting God into our ontology?
A. The definition of "God" (Intro 43‑44).
B. Theistic Arguments.
1. Cosmological (Aquinas 47‑49, Russell 53).
2. Teleological (Russell 53-55, Hume 57-91).
3. Ontological (Anselm 45-46).
C. Atheistic Arguments.
1. The Paradox of the Stone.
2. The Problem of Evil (Leibniz 91-93, Pike 93-102 Mackie 103-110).
D. A Pragmatic Approach: Pascal's Wager (Pascal 49-52).
III. What is a person? What are thoughts, beliefs and desires?
A. Materialism
1. A Statement of Materialism (Intro 305‑313).
2. Arguments Against (Descartes 119).
B. Cartesian Dualism (Descartes 119, 136-37)
1. A Statement of Cartesian Dualism (Ryle 316‑19).
2. Alleged Advantages of Cartesian Dualism.
3. Problems for Cartesian Dualism.
a. Interactionism (Ryle 319‑23).
b. Other Minds (Russell 314‑16).
C. Mental States (Lewis 331-36, Dennett 337-49, Churchland 349-53).
IV. Ontology and Epistemology: What is the nature and extent of human knowledge? (Intro 107‑11).
A. Analyses of Knowledge.
B. Skeptical Arguments.
C. Rationalism and Empiricism.
D. The Circle of Our Own Ideas.
1. Descartes (116‑18).
2. Locke (139‑44).
3. Berkeley (145‑76).
V. Descartes’s Meditations.
A. Meditation I.
1. Method of Doubt.
2. Dream Hypothesis.
3. Evil Demon Hypothesis.
B. Meditation II.
1. The Cogito Passage.
2. Descartes’s First Certainty.
C. Descartes’s Ontological Argument.
D. The Cartesian Circle.

The Philosopher's Dictionary