PHIL 105 - Philosophical Questions

Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2022/23a: 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 2022/23b: Mind and World. Is the world just someone’s dream? Or is it something that exists independently of human or divine minds, or that contains no non-material stuff at all? Perhaps it is something in between. These wildly opposite ideas have been espoused in many parts of the world in both ancient times and our own. People have also at different times thought that there are incorporeal spirits, magic, action at a distance due to a universal synchrony, and other phenomena. But how do we find out where minds end and the world begins – when we need to know the limits of our mind to be able to answer the question in the first place? In this course we explore this topic at an introductory level from a globally minded reading list, with a focus on class discussion and short writing exercises. Sofia Ortiz-Hinojosa.

Topic for 2022/23b: Life & Death. In this course we study, evaluate, and develop a set of interconnected puzzles, claims, and philosophical arguments about the nature of life and death and their ethical significance. People die. But what, exactly, is death? What is a person? What is it for a person to cease to be? How drastically can a person change without ceasing to be? Why do we value our continued existence? Is death a harm to the person who dies? If so, what does the harm consist in? Should we prefer never to die? Can changing our views about what persons are change our attitudes towards death? These questions lead us from the theoretical domain to the practical. We can and do bring persons into existence. Should we? What considerations are relevant to deciding? Is it permissible to end a person’s life? If so, in what circumstances? Do we owe things to the dead? Do we owe things to persons who are not yet alive? In pursuing answers to these questions, our purpose is also to master the art of philosophical debate: to reconstruct and assess arguments charitably, precisely, and clearly, and to formulate good objections and counterarguments. Work consists in inclass discussion and short essay assignments, with particular attention to the goals and norms of argument-driven writing. Matt Moss.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS