Honors Introduction to Philosophy (Philosophy H101)
Fall 2009
 
Things of alleged importance
 
 Syllabus
 Some Remarks on Writing Papers
 Jim Pryor's Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper
 First Assignment (Part 1)
 First Assignment (Part 2) 
 Second Assignment
 
Things of alleged interest
 
 Monty Python's Philosophers' Drinking Song (warning: contains profanity)
 Delusions: Capgras, Cotard, Fregoli
 Andrew Bird, "Sweetbreads" (warning: contains whistling)
 Brokeback to the Future
 Shining
 XKCD, "Lego"
 "I am Canadian"
 
Schedule
 
 Week 0 24 September FIRST CLASS: The problem of evil
 
 Week 1 29 September God: the argument from design       
 
 Conee and Sider, Chapter 4 (esp. 70-78)
 
 1 October God: the argument from design (cont.)
 
Del Ratzsch, "Teleological Arguments for God's Existence," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, esp. 4.1-4.2
 
 Week 2 6 October God: the modal ontological argument
 
Peter van Inwagen, Metaphysics, 2nd ed., Dimensions of Philosophy (Cambridge, MA: Westview, 2002), Chapter 6 (esp. 123-135)
 
 FIRST ASSIGNMENT (PART 1 OF 2) HANDED OUT
 
 8 October Dualism: the cogito
 
René Descartes, Meditationes de Prima Philosophia, 1641, trans. by John Cottingham as Meditations on First Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), Second Meditation
 
Gideon Rosen and Cian Dorr, "Composition as Fiction," The Blackwell Guide to Metaphysics, ed. Richard M. Gale (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002), 151-174 (esp. 159-160)
 
 Week 3 13 October Dualism: the dubitability argument
 
 FIRST ASSIGNMENT (PART 1 OF 2) DUE
 
 15 October Dualism: the dubitability argument (cont.), the conceivability argument
 
 Descartes, Sixth Meditation
 
 Background reading: van Inwagen, Chapter 10
 
 Week 4 20 October Dualism: the divisibility argument
 
 22 October Dualism: the argument from corpses
 
 Conee and Sider, Chapter 7 
 
Mads Gilbert et al., "Resuscitation from accidental hypothermia of 13.7°C with circulatory arrest," The Lancet 355.9201 (29 Jan. 2000): 375-376
 
Eelco F.M. Wijdicks, "The Diagnosis of Brain Death," New England Journal of Medicine 344.16 (19 April 2001): 1215-1221
 
Alexander Morgan Capron, "Brain Death—Well Settled Yet Still Unresolved," New England Journal of Medicine 344.16 (19 April 2001): 1244-1246
 
Robert D. Truog and Franklin G. Miller, "The Dead Donor Rule and Organ Transplantation," New England Journal of Medicine 359.7 (14 Aug. 2008): 674-675
 
 Interview with Sanjay Gupta on Fresh Air (12 October 2009)
 
Week 5 27 October Dualism: the argument from corpses (cont.)
 
 FIRST ASSIGNMENT (PART 2 OF 2) HANDED OUT
 
 XKCD, "Lego"
 
 29 October Dualism: the argument from corpses (cont.)
 
Week 6 3 November Dualism: the argument from corpses (cont.)
 
 5 November Dualism: the argument from corpses (cont.)
 
 SECOND ASSIGNMENT HANDED OUT
 
Week 7 10 November Personal identity: the soul theory; the spatiotemporal continuity theory
 
 Conee and Sider, Chapter 1
 
 12 November Personal identity: the spatiotemporal continuity theory (cont.); the psychological continuity theory
 
 SECOND ASSIGNMENT DUE
 
Week 8 17 November Personal identity: the psychological continuity theory (cont.); the non-branching psychological continuity theory
 
 19 November Christopher Nolan appreciation day 
 
Week 9 24 November Personal identity: discussion of The Prestige 
 
 Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, The Prestige (screenplay)
 
 26 November THANKSGIVING—NO CLASS
 
Week 10 1 December Personal identity
 
 3 December LAST CLASS
 The philosophical implications of time travel (a.k.a. James Cameron appreciation day)