Sylabus
Each class meeting will consist of a combination of lecture and discussion; students will be assigned a series of readings to be discussed each week in class. This includes: 1: Overview, Philosophical methodology, historical, analytic, and pragmatic 2: What is Philosophy? Competing views – Sinnott-Armstrong, W. and Gert, B. 3: Historical method in philosophy – Frost, S.E. 4:How do we know stuff? The view of radical empiricism – James, W. 5: How do we know stuff? Competing views – Sellars, W versus Chisolm, R. versus Gettier, E 6: Or do we just make it up? The problem of abductive inference – Peirce, C. and Wirth, U 7: Do we know stuff, or just think we do? The Chinese room – Searle, J. 8: The problem of Zombies, competing views – Crick, F. and Koch, C. 9: The problem of Zombies, What do zombies know? – Chalmers, D. 10: Philosophy as a blood sport, and what that gets us – Pearce, K.
Anotace
This course explores the basic ‘tool-box’ of philosophy. The basic idea is that philosophy is available to anyone - we all, every one of us at some time or other in our lives, seek to clarify our mental map so as to better understand the world around us, and live well within it. Readings will be drawn from texts that focus on practical skills in the construction of philosophical truth claims. Our focus will be on contemporary issues as developed within English speaking communities, specifically, the heritage of analytic and radical empirical argumentation.