Summer 2008 Session A

Undergraduate courses

3  Nature of Mind. Stazicker. MTuWTh 10-12, 209 Dwinelle.

This course is an introduction to philosophical problems about the mind. In the first three weeks, we will focus on the relationship between the mind and the physical world. We will pursue the following questions:

What is a mind? What are mental states such as beliefs, desires, feelings and experiences? Are they states of the brain? Are they a matter of how one behaves? Could a computer have a mind?

In the second three weeks, we will look in detail at some more specific issues raised by our discussion of the questions above:

What is the connection between consciousness and the capacity to represent the world around us (to have mental states which are /about /the world)? Are mental states in the head? In what ways do they depend on the world around us? How do we know about other people?s minds?

We will read work by philosophers including Hilary Putnam, John Searle and Thomas Nagel. Students taking the course will be expected to read this work closely and carefully. They will also be required to write two papers and sit a final exam.

12A  Introduction to Logic. Fitelson. TuWTh 10-12:30, 160 Dwinelle.

25A  Ancient Philosophy. Karbowski. MTuWTh 2-4, 209 Dwinelle.

25B  Modern Philosophy. Beattie. MTuWTh 12-2, 209 Dwinelle.

This course will survey some of the major works of modern western philosophy, i.e. philosophy from Europe during roughly the 17^th and 18^th centuries. The Scientific Revolution had only recently kicked off and was developing rapidly during this time, and the philosophy we will be looking at was hugely affected by this phenomenon. We will be examining the two primary philosophical approaches – now known as Rationalism and Empiricism – that arose to deal with the pressing issues of the time; two questions, in particular, will be the focus of the course, one metaphysical and the other epistemological. The first asks about the basic structure of reality (about the nature of God, of mind, of material things, etc.) while the second asks how we as thinkers/perceivers relate to the world around us (do we know it’s out there as all? If so, how?)

153  Chinese Philosophy. Loy. TuWTh 1-3:30, 200 Wheeler.

This course offers an introduction to philosophical debate in the Warring States period of ancient China. This was the Classical Age of Chinese Philosophy and the seedbed from which grew all of the native currents of thought that survived from traditional China. The course will look primarily at Confucius, Mozi, Yang Zhu, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi and Hanfeizi, and consider their various and competing conceptions of the Dao—the way for the individual to best live his life or for the community to conduct its affairs. The approach of the course will be both historical and critical, and will attempt to both situate Classical Chinese philosophical discourse in its intellectual-historical context and to bring out its continuing relevance.

Philip J. Ivanhoe and Bryan W. Van Norden, Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy, 2nd Edition (Hackett, 2005) D. C. Lau, Confucius: The Analects (Penguin, 1979, 1998)

176  Hume. Moural. TuWTh 10-12:30, 229 Dwinelle.