INTRODUCTION TO PROBLEMS OF PHILOSOPHY
PHIL 2101 FYS
First Year Seminar
Fall, 2024
(M & W: 9:30—10:45 AM)
Room: 3408 Boylan Hall
Instructor: Professor Lurz
Office: 3307 Boylan Hall
Drop-in Office Hours: Monday & Wednesday.: 1—2 PM
Email: rlurz@brooklyn.cuny.edu
By the end of the semester, students are expected to be able to clearly express (in writing and speech) a few perennial philosophical issues (e.g., freedom of the will, the question of personal identity, the possibility and scope of knowledge, the objective status of moral values) and philosophical theories (e.g., determinism, compatibilism, skepticism, idealism, realism, relativism, and dualism). Students are expected to be familiar with a number of important philosophical figures (e.g., Descartes, Kant, and Mill), and be able to interpret and analyze key selections from the writings of these figures. Finally, students are expected to be able to identify, explain, and evaluate philosophical arguments.
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Dates |
Readings & Assignments |
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Aug. 28th |
Intro to course – How to read a syllabus |
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Sept 4 |
Note taking skills; watch videos on mapping method and outlining method |
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Sep 4-9 |
Unit 1: Read except from Nagel’s What Does It All Mean?; Watch videos on What is Philosophy? and on Deductive Arguments; Review Power-Point slides on What is Philosophy? |
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11-18 |
Unit 2: Read Meditation 1 (pp. 144-149); Watch video on John Cottingham on Descartes; Review Power-Point slides on Knowledge & Certainty. |
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25 |
Written response # 1 due |
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23-25 |
Unit 3: Read Meditation II (pp. 149-157); Watch video on René Descartes “I think therefore I am”; Review Power-Point slides on Foundations of Knowledge. |
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30-Oct 9 |
Unit 3: Read Meditation III (pp. 157-171); Review Power-Point slides on Foundations of Knowledge. |
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15-16 |
Unit 3: Read excerpt from Meditation VI (p. 191); Review Power-Point slides on Foundations of Knowledge. |
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21 |
response paper #2 due & review for the midterm |
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23 |
Midterm exam |
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28-30 |
Unit 5: Read chapter 2 of Mill’s Utilitarianism; Watch the videos on Peter Singer on Utilitarianism and on The Trolley Problem; Review Power-Point slides on Ethical Theories. |
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Nov 4- 18 |
Unit 5: Read excerpts from Kant’s Groundwork (pp. 88-91; 95-98); Watch video on Right and Wrong: Kant’s Axe; Review Power-Point slides on Ethical Theories |
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20 |
Written response #3 due |
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18-25 |
Unit 6: Read Taylor’s “Freedom and Determinism”; Watch the video on Sam Harris on Free Will; Review Power-Point slides on Two Concepts of Free Will. |
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2 - 11 |
Unit 6: Watch video on Haggard, Free Will and Libet Experiment; Watch video on Mele, Does Free Will Exist? Review Power-Point slides on Two Concepts of Free Will |
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11 |
Written response #4 due; re-written response paper due; extra credit assignment due; review for final exam |
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TBA |
Final Exam |
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