Instructor: Jonathan Cohen (joncohenREMOVETHIS@aardvark.ucsd.edu (omit text in caps, which reduces automated spam))
office: (732) 445 6163
home: (718) 499 1213
Office hours: Tuesday, 12:30 to 2:00, in
Psychology A132, on Busch Campus.
Class meets Tuesday and Friday, 9:50 to 11:10; in
Scott
207 on the College Avenue Campus.
This course is an honors introduction to philosophy. It has no prerequisites, and assumes nothing in the way of previous philosophical exposure.
Organization -- Books -- Discussions -- Written Work -- Grading -- Overview -- Schedule
Organization -- Books -- Discussions -- Written Work -- Grading -- Overview -- Schedule
Organization -- Books -- Discussions -- Written Work -- Grading -- Overview -- Schedule
Therefore, on days designated below as discussion days, we'll spend the class period considering your questions, objections, and arguments. On these days, you must pass in at the beginning of class a short (1 to 2 paragraphs, typed) assignment in which you raise some point about the week's reading. You may comment on anything which grabs you --- anything exciting, boring, right, wrong, fun, stupid, puzzling, or anything else. In short, just show that you've thoughtfully engaged some aspect of the reading. We'll spend the class period sharing these reflections with each other, and then discussing them as a class.
To pass the course, you must hand in six of these discussion pieces on the day on which they are due. They will not be given letter grades.
Organization -- Books -- Discussions -- Written Work -- Grading -- Overview -- Schedule
However, you only need to complete two of the five writing assignments. If you hand in more than two of them, I'll use your best two in determining your grade.
Although philosophical writing is an essential part of your introduction to philosophy, it is a skill which can be quite difficult to master. I'll be giving extensive feedback on your written work, and you may find it useful to consult some of these tips on philosophical writing.
On the days when assignments are due, I will collect them at the beginning of class. Anything handed in after the beginning of the class -- be it 5 minutes or 5 days after the beginning of the class -- is late. I don't accept late assignments unless I have given an extension. I only give extensions in advance and only in cases of real need. Of course, do not cause or allow your work to resemble that of anyone else in the class, lest I suspect plagiarism is involved.
Organization -- Books -- Discussions -- Written Work -- Grading -- Overview -- Schedule
Organization -- Books -- Discussions -- Written Work -- Grading -- Overview -- Schedule
However, the most important connection between these materials in my eyes (and the reason I have chosen them) is that they all reflect, in different ways and to different extents, a rejection of prior philosophical work in favor of a new and stronger conception of philosophy. This is directly apparent in Descartes's rejection of the Scholastic tradition and in his choice of radical doubt as the proper starting place for his philosophy. It is found again in the attempt of both Hume and the logical empiricists to restore philosophy to a proper course by rejecting anything which falls afoul of their methodological prescriptions. The sense of reform in the face of crisis comes up in different ways in the last two segments of the course. Here, the realization that innocuous premises apparently lead, by valid reasoning, to shocking conclusions has indicated to many that quite drastic changes are in order. In both of these cases, such realizations have led to radical reformulations in the way we think about what might initially have appeared to be quite simple concepts.
I hope that these sweeping reformations will be intellectually exhilarating to you. By setting up the backgrounds to the problems we shall consider, and then examining the problems and some proposed solutions in detail, I hope to give you a feel for these issues and, thereby, to introduce you to philosophy.
Organization -- Books -- Discussions -- Written Work -- Grading -- Overview -- Schedule
3 September --- Organizational meeting; no reading due.
7 September -- Historical background to Descartes.
Reading: (From Descartes's Meditations) Preface to the Reader,
Synopsis of the following six Meditations.
10 September -- Cartesian scepticism, nature of mind.
Reading: Meditations 1-2.
14 September -- Discussion day.
Reading: None.
Writing: Short discussion assignment due.
17 September -- Class canceled due to flooding!
21 September -- God, truth and falsity.
Reading: Meditations 3-4.
24 September -- God again, mind and body.
Reading: Meditations 5-6.
28 September -- Discussion day.
Reading: None.
Writing: Short discussion assignment due.
1 October -- Comments on Descartes's system.
Reading: None.
Writing: Descartes assignment due.
5 October -- Background to Hume, Hume's psychology.
Reading: Hume, sections 1-2.
8 October -- Hume's psychology part 2, Hume on causation.
Reading: Hume, sections 3-5.
12 October -- Hume on probability and necessary connection.
Reading: Hume, sections 6-7.
15 October -- Discussion day.
Reading: None.
Writing: Short discussion assignment due.
19 October -- Liberty and necessity, free will, evil.
Reading: Hume, section 8.
Writing: Hume assignment due.
22 October -- Intro to logical empiricism, meaningfulness criterion.
Reading: Ayer, pp. 33-45.
26 October -- Problem of unobservables, confirmation paradoxes.
Reading: Ayer, pp. 46-71.
29 October -- Auxiliary statements, dispositional terms.
Reading: Ayer pp. 71-87.
2 November -- Discussion day.
Reading: None.
Writing: Short discussion assignment due.
5 November -- Quine and analyticity, part I.
Reading: Quine, ``Two Dogmas of Empiricism'' (this is a difficult
piece, and is worth reading at least twice).
9 November -- Quine and analyticity, part II.
Reading: Carnap, ``Quine on Analyticity''.
Writing: Logical empiricism assignment due.
12 November -- Discussion day.
Reading: None.
Writing: Short discussion assignment due.
16 November -- Paradoxes, the heap, epistemic solution,
supervaluational solution.
Reading: Sainsbury, pp 1-3, 23-36.
19 November -- Objections to supervaluations.
Reading: Sainsbury, pp 36-40.
23 November -- Degrees of truth solution, questions about degrees of
truth, vague objects.
Reading: Sainsbury, pp 36-51.
Writing: Heap/vagueness assignment due.
24 November -- Discussion day (NOTE: class meets on Wednesday, not Friday).
Reading: None.
Writing: Short discussion assignment due.
30 November -- Confirmation and its paradoxes.
Reading: Sainsbury, pp 73-81.
3 December -- Goodman's grue.
Reading: Sainsbury, pp 81-91.
7 December -- Gettier on knowledge.
Reading: Gettier, ``Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?''.
Writing: Belief and knowledge assignment due.
10 December -- Discussion day.
Reading: None.
Writing: Short discussion assignment due.
14 December -- Review period.
Reading: None.
21 December (12:00 noon - 3:00 PM) -- Final exam.
Organization -- Books -- Discussions -- Written Work -- Grading -- Overview -- Schedule