Summer 2008 Session D

Undergraduate courses

3  Nature of Mind. Parrott. MTuWTh 12-2, 209 Dwinelle.

This course serves as an introduction to philosophical thinking by focusing in particular on philosophical questions concerning minds. We will attempt to better understand what it is involved in being an animal with mental states. Some of the questions we will be thinking about include the following: What are mental states? In what way do we know about the minds of other people? How do we know what we are thinking? What are unconscious mental states? We will also consider some philosophical questions about specific kinds of mental states including wanting, believing, feeling pain, and loving.

4  Knowledge and its Limits. Barnes. MTuWTh 2-4, 209 Dwinelle.

Some of the beliefs people have are more rational than others. But which? And why? In this class we’ll explore these central epistemological questions by discussing readings on three topics: Socrates’ claim that no-one knowingly does wrong, the rationality of religious belief, and skepticism. The class is intended as an introduction to philosophy, so no prior philosophical experience is necessary.

12A  Introduction to Logic. Klempner. TuWTh 10-12:30, 130 Wheeler.

Logic is about reasoning. People reason well or reason poorly; peopleís arguments are good or bad. Logic is concerned with telling the difference; specifically, we will look at formal systems for characterizing and evaluating the structure of a particular kind of argument, deductive arguments. A good, or valid, deductive argument is one in which the conclusion follows from the premisesóone in which true premises would guarantee a true conclusion. Our study of formal systems will yield methods for figuring out when arguments are valid.

This class is in many ways like a math class: the work will primarily involve doing logic problems. It should, however, give you a greater appreciation for the structure of arguments in ordinary English.

25A  Ancient Philosophy. Gelber. MTuWTh 10-12, 209 Dwinelle.

This course is an introduction to some of the main figures and problems in Ancient Greek Philosophy. Through close reading of primary texts we will try to understand not only what the views the philosophers held were, but why they held them and how they argued for them.

25B  Modern Philosophy. Bezsylko. MTuWTh 2-4, 223 Dwinelle.

The purpose of this course is to provide an introduction to modern philosophy, roughly the period of philosophical work spanning from 1550-1850. One of our primary aims will be to learn about the kind of understanding of the world, human beings, and their place in it that some of the great philosophers of the period aspired to in light of the scientific developments of their time. In particular, we will focus on philosophical views about knowledge, thought, and self. We will begin by looking at some medieval thinkers, Avicenna and Aquinas, and continue on into the modern period proper with Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Hume, and Rousseau

188  Phenomenology. Moural. TuWTh 10-12:30, 109 Dwinelle.