INTRODUCTION TO PROBLEMS OF PHILOSOPHY
PHIL 2101 TR11 (T, Th 11 - 12:15)
Spring, 2024
Instructor: Professor Lurz
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 |
Response Papers |
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Jan 25 |
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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30 |
Unit 1: Same as above |
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Feb 1 |
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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6 |
Unit 2: Same as above |
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8 |
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. |
Response paper #1 |
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13 |
Unit 3: Same as above |
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15 |
Unit 3: Read Meditation III (pp. 157-171); Review Power-Point slides on Foundations of Knowledge. |
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20 |
Unit 3: Read excerpt from Meditation VI (p. 191). Review Power-Point slides on Foundations of Knowledge. |
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27 |
Unit 4: Read Rachels’ “Challenge of Cultural Relativism”; Review Power-Point slides on Moral Relativism |
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29 |
Unit 4: Same as above |
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Mar 5 |
Unit 4: Same as above |
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7 |
Unit 4: Same as above |
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12 |
Review for midterm |
Response paper #2 |
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14 |
Midterm exam |
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19 |
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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21 |
Unit 5: Same as above |
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26 |
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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28 |
Unit 5: Same as above |
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Apr 2 |
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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4 |
Unit 6: Same as above |
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9 |
Unit 6: Same as above |
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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 Free Will and Libet Experiment |
Response paper #3 |
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16 |
Unit 6: Same as above |
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18 |
Unit 7: Read First Night in Perry’s A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality (pp. 1-18); Watch video on Survival with Half a Brain; Review Power-Point slides on The Nature of the Self. |
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May 2 |
Unit 7: Same as above |
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7 |
Unit 7: Read Second Night in Perry’s Dialogue (pp. 19-36); Watch video on Dicephalus Conjoined Twins; Review Power-Point slides on The Nature of the Self |
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9 |
Unit 7: Same as above |
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14 |
Review for final |
Response paper #4 Re-written response paper Extra credit assignment |
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21 |
Final exam |
10:30AM – 12:30 PM |
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