Mar 29, 2024  
Catalogue 2021-2022 
    
Catalogue 2021-2022 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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PHIL 105 - Philosophical Questions

Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
Topic for 2021/22a: Life, Death, and Justice. In this course, we study some of the hidden or unquestioned philosophical assumptions that underlie much of our lives and social practices, particularly those surrounding justice and injustice. We begin with the early dialogues of Plato discussing the philosophical themes surrounding the trial and death of Socrates. From Plato, we turn to a contemporary dialogue on the nature of personhood. We then turn to the role that mortality plays in bringing meaning to our lives. In the second half of the course, we investigate the philosophical assumptions surrounding our practices of crime and punishment. The issues include whether humans have free will, whether moral and criminal responsibility depends on freedom of the will, and whether it is possible to create a social world in which wrongdoing is not punished morally or legally. The central goal of the course is to teach you to a) think about issues clearly and methodically, b) formulate and challenge a philosophical idea and argument, and c) submit your ideas to extensive critique. This course is multimedia, including readings, podcasts, and film. Barry Lam.

Topic for 2021/22a: Self & Meaning. This course examines philosophical approaches to self, meaning, and the relationship between the two. Who are you, what is it to be you, and how does that shape what you know? The first part of this course seeks to answer these questions. We start by asking questions such as: What is the relationship between your body and your mind? How is your body related to who you are? What do social roles or positions have to do with who you are? Then, we turn our attention exploring what it is for life to have meaning, how we should live, and what all of this means for questions about justice. How might the way you think about who you are shape what you do? What about the ways other people think about you? What does any of this mean about how you should make choices about what to do? What makes a life meaningful? What does any of this tell us about what makes for a just society? The central goals of the course are to help you work your way through complex ideas, develop your understanding through class discussion, and clearly communicate your views and arguments in your writing. Kate Pendoley.

Topic for 2021/22b: Being & Belief. This is an argument-driven course about fundamental philosophical problems, how to go about solving them, and how to critically evaluate proposed solutions to them. We begin by asking: What is real? Does Santa Claus exist? Does God exist? Do I exist? Is everything that exists physical? We then turn from puzzles about existence to puzzles about belief and knowledge. What should I believe? Do we know anything? If so, what is required for knowledge? Last, we turn to problems about existence and knowledge as they pertain specifically to ethics. Are there facts about what is right and wrong? How could we know? If there exist no such facts, what does this mean for ethics? Work consists of in-class discussion and short writing assignments, with particular attention to the goals and norms of argument-driven prose. Matt Moss.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS



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