Saturday, March 21, 2009

A Long Post, but Fun - Intro. to Phil. Syllabus

I had to do an sample syllabus for intro. to philosophy, and I hope to use it one day. I thought some people might enjoy having the reading sample and topic list on the internet for reference. So, at the price of being a long post, I've decided to post it:
The text is Baird's Philosophic Classics: From Plato to Derrida (5th Ed.)

Course Schedule

Week – Date – Readings Topics
1- 01/13/09 Introduction:
  • Syllabus & Course Requirements
  • Texts
  • Outline of Topics Covered
2- 1/15/09

Plato Apology 17a-35d

Plato Republic, Book V: 448e-480a; Book VI-VII, 502c-521b

Plato Phaedo 44a-56a

Origins of Philosophy in Ancient Greece
  • Socrates
  • Death and Trial
  • Plato's Works
  • Philosophy as Way of Life
3- 01/20/09

Aristotle's Metaphysics 1*

Selections from pre-Socratics, Heraclitu,s and Parmenides [online]

*Where title alone is given, or a chapter, read all selections in that work or chapter in the anthology

Introduction to Metaphysics in Ancient Greece
  • Aristotle's Definition of Philosophy – introduction to “metaphysics”
  • Thales and other pre-Socratics
  • Heraclitus
  • Parmenides
  • The Sophists
3- 1/22/09

Plato Crito 6a-13a

Plato Euthypro (selections)

Introduction to Metaphysics in Ancient Greece
  • Socratic and Platonic innovations vs. the Pre-Socratics
  • Platonic response - the Forms
  • Platonic dialectic and the problem of the Good
4- 01/27/09

Plato The Sophist (selections online)

Aristotle Physics II, 192b-193b22, 194b16-195b30, 197a36-199a33

Aristotle and Plato
  • Metaphysics
    • The Common Problem of the One and the Many
    • The Forms/Substantial forms
    • Four Causes
    • Form/Matter composition
    • Substances
4 - 1/29/09

Plato Meno 82-86b

Aristotle Metaphysics, 996a18-997a15, 1003a-1005a18, 1025b3-1027a28

Aristotle On the Soul

Aristotle and Plato
  • Method – Dialectic and Demonstration
    • First principles, strong dialectic, etc.
  • Epistemology
    • Recollection and Passive Intellect
4 – 2/3/09

Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics, Books 1 and 2

Plato Republic (selections online)

Aristotle and Plato
  • Ethics
    • Virtue Ethics in Ancient Greece
    • Happiness/Eudaimonia
    • Will and Choice in Plato and Aristotle
    • Moral/Intellectual virtues
    • Atraxia
5 – 2/5/09

First paper assigned

Epicurus Principal Doctrines

Epictetus the Manual (i-v, xxx-xxxvi)

Later Greek Thought
  • Epicurus' and Epictetus – Stoicism and Epicureanism as ethical theories
  • Metaphysics of Epictetus and Epicurus
    • Eleatic influence
5 2/10/09


Plotinus Enneads(all selections)

Later Greek Thought
  • Plotinus and Neo-Platonism
  • Metaphysics and Epistemology
6 - 2/12/09

Augustine Confessions

Anselm Proslogion

Augustine, Boethius, and Anselm – Early Medieval Philosophy
  • Augustine's adoption of Neo-Platonism – The Church Fathers and Greek philosophy
  • Invention of the “will” - problems with free will and ethics (the problem of evil)
  • Intro to Anselm's Ontological Argument
6 – 2/17/09

Anselm Debate over the Ontological Argument

Boethius Consolation of Philosophy

Augustine, Boethius, and Anselm – Early Medieval Philosophy
  • (cont.) Anselm's Ontological Argument
  • Boethius' translations – transition to university as center of learning in High Mid. Ages
7 - 2/19/09

Maimonides Guide for the Perplexed

Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, selections – PP, q. 2, 13, 49

Aquinas, De Ente et Essentia (selections online)

Thomas Aquinas, Occham, and Moses Maimonides - High Medieval Philosophy
  • Distinctive Problems in Medieval Thought
    • Faith/Reason
      • Natural theology in Summa Theologiae, Summa Contra Gentiles
      • Apophantic theology in Maimonides
      • Analogy of names in Aquinas
      • Islamic thought
      • Fideism
    • Metaphysics (essence/existence, subject of, transcendentals/categories, universal hylomorphism, nominalism)
7 – 2/24/09

First Paper Due – one of three prompts

Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, PP, q. 75-83; PPS, q. 3, 9-10, 90-94; SS, q. 23 a 6-8.

Occham, Summa Logicae (Part I, Chapters 14-16)

Thomas Aquinas, Occham, and Moses Maimonides - High Medieval Philosophy
    • (cont.) Metaphysics
    • Natural Law Ethics
    • Epistemology/Logic (nominalism as well as first/second operation of the intellect)
8 - 2/26/09

Catch-up day/Review

In Class Midterm Exam – Ancient and Medieval thought


8 - 3/3/09

Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy I, II, III

Introduction to Modern Philosophy – Humanism, the Reformation, and Epistemological “Metaphysics”
    • Doubt as Method
    • Epistemology
8 – 3/05/09

Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy IV-VI

Gilson Unity of Philosophical Experience (selections online)

Introduction to Modern Philosophy – Humanism, the Reformation, and Epistemological “Metaphysics”
  • Transformation of Metaphysics or Elimination?
9 - 3/10-12 Spring Break
10 - 3/17/09

Pascal Pensees

Spinoza Ethics 1

Interlude
  • Philosophy of Religion
    • Reformation fideism
    • Rationalism
    • Pietism
  • Metaphysics in Spinoza and Leibniz
10 – 3/19/09

Spinoza Ethics 2

Leibniz Monadology

Leibniz Discourse on Metaphysics

Interlude
  • (cont.) Metaphysics in Spinoza and Leibniz
11- 3/24/09

Locke Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (selections to be announced)

Locke Second Treatise (excerpts online)

Modern Epistemology, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion
  • Epistemology of John Locke
    • Empiricism
  • Ethics
    • Natural rights
  • Philosophy of Religion
    • Rationalism and Deism
11 – 3/26/09

Second paper assigned

Berkeley Three Dialogues

Hume Dialogue on Natural Theology (selections online)

Modern Epistemology, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion
  • Idealism
    • Berkeley's idealism
  • Hume's response to idealism foreshadowed
  • Natural Theology
    • Hume's rejection
12 – 3/31/09

Hume Enquiry (excerpts)

Kant Critique of Pure Reason (Introduction, online)

Hume and Kant – Empiricism to Critique
  • Hume's Critique of Empirical Sensations
    • Philosophy of Mind
  • Kant's Response
    • Critique and Transcendental Method
    • Antimonies of Pure Reason
12 – 4/02/09

Kant Prolegomena

Kant Foundation for the Metaphysics of Morals

“Kant” in Copleston

Kantian Thought
  • Kant's Metaphysics
  • Kant's Ethics
    • Deontological ethical theory
13 – 4/07/09

Hegel Phenomenology of Spirit

“Hegel” in Copleston

Hegel and German Idealism
  • Metaphysics and Epistemology Become One
    • the Absolute
    • Dialectic and Hegelian “Phenomenology”
13 – 4/09/09

Kierkegaard Concluding Unscientific Postscript

Nietzsche Twilight of the Idols (selections TBA)

Later German Thought
  • Rise of Existential Thought and Ethics
    • Kierkegaard's Inward Turn
  • Nietzsche's Destruction of the Tradition
    • Ethics
    • Rejection of metaphysics
14 – 4/14/09

Second paper due – one of three prompts

Sokolowski Introduction to Phenomenology (selections online)

“Husserl” in Copleston (online)

Heidegger Introduction to Metaphysics (part 1)

The Phenomenological Tradition
  • Phenomenological Method
    • The aim of Husserl's project
    • Transcendental ego
    • “epoche”
  • Heidegger and Metaphysics in phenomenology
14 – 4/16/09

Heidegger Introduction to Metaphysics (part 2)

Sartre Being and Nothingness

Sartre Existentialism is a Humanism

Simone De Beauvoir The Second Sex (Introduction)

Existentialism
  • Metaphysics
    • Heidegger and Sein zum Tode
    • Being and Time
    • Dasein
  • Ethics
    • Bad faith and Freedom
    • Sexuality and gender
15 – 4/21/09

“Gottleib Frege” in Copleston (online)

Wittgenstein Tractatus

Wittgenstein Philosophical Investigations (selections)

Logical Positivism” in Copleston (online)

Contemporary Analytic Philosophy
  • Frege and Logical Method
  • Wittgenstein
    • Metaphysics
      • Substance
      • Language
      • Reflection of the world
      • Transformations in later Wittgenstein to language games
    • Ethics
      • Transcendent and mystical
15 – 4/23/09

Quine Two Dogmas of Empiricism (selections)

Derrida Signature, Event, Context (selections)

MacIntyre After Virtue (selections)

MacIntyre First Principles, etc. (selections)

Contemporary Philosophical Problems and Positions
  • Analytic Metaphysics
    • Quine's Ontological Problematic
    • Nominalism
  • Continental Metaphysics
    • Temporality and Truth
    • Derrida
  • Other Issues
    • Virtue ethics?
    • Ontological first principles?
16 – 4/28/09

Catch-up day/Review


Final Exam: May 5, 4-6 pm

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