PH 102-02 and -03 Dr. M. Adams
Fall 2004 Course Schedule and Assignments
The readings and lectures of the course are
organized around the five areas of philosophy:
1) logic, 2)
metaphysics or the study of being, 3)
epistemology or the study of knowledge,
4) questions about God, and 5) ethics using the text by Ed. L. Miller Readings related to these areas follow a
historical pattern using texts of Plato's Dialogues, Aristotle's Nicomachean
Ethics, and on line sources.
Assigned readings are accompanied by focus
questions. Use them as a guide to
central points.
You will be expected to know the meaning of all underlined
words or terms and to be able to identify all proper names.
Homework is due on the date under which it is listed. Plan to study readings before and after we
class lecture and discussion.
1. Wed. September 1.
Introduction to Philosophy.
Focus Questions:
1)
What is philosophy? 2) When and where
did philosophy begin?
2) What are
the three main areas or questions in philosophy? 3) How are these three questions
interrelated?
2. Thur.
September 2. Read Miller, Introduction
and Chapter 1: 1-24.
Reading Questions:
1)
How do philosophical questions arise in everyday life? 2) Name four major methods that have generated different conceptions of
what philosophy is. 3) How does Miller
define philosophy? (20) 4) Explain
Miller's four principles (21-22).
Writing: Prepare a
written list (by hand or typed) of five
questions for each of your assigned examples in Miller, pp. 12-13. Hand in papers at end of class.
3. Wed.
September 8. Read Miller, Chapter 2:
25-34 and Review Chapter 1
Reading Questions:
1) What are the three laws of thought? 2)
What is an argument in logic? 3)
Name some premise-signals or indicators and some conclusion indicators.
4) What is an informal fallacy?
4. Thur.
September 9. Quiz. Work on Arguments.
Writing: Find three examples of
informal fallacies in Letters to the Editor, political speech, ads, or everyday
conversation, or make up your own. State
each fallacious argument in writing and label it with the name of the fallacy
your example illustrates.
5. Mon.
September 13. Pre-Socratic
Philosophy. Read Miller, "The Question of Reality," 37-38. and two sources (Encyclopedia of Philosophy, on line, or texts on class
reserve)
on 1) The Milesian Philosophers: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximines, and 2)
the Pythagoreans.
Reading Questions:
1)
What was the main question that each philosopher was trying to answer? 2) What was new in the history of thought
about this question? 3) How did each
thinker answer the central questions? 4)
Compare and contrast the answers.
5) What do you make of the questions and answers?
Writing: Bring to
class in writing (to hand in) your answers to the above questions.
Number your answers and leave space between
sections.
6. Wed. September 15:
The Milesian Philosophers – continued.
7. Thur. September 16. The Pythagoreans
8. Mon. September 20.
Heraclitus. Read two
sources.
Reading
Questions: 1) What is the central questions H. is trying to
answer? 2) What
symbol does H. use to
explain nature and why? 3) Explain what
H. means by the term
logos (λόγος). 4) Explain the significance of calling the
universe a cosmos (κόσμος).
5) What is the difference
between the appearance of the world to our senses and the
reality? 6)How can we really know anything about the
world if it is constantly changing?
9. Wed.
September 22. Parmenides of Elea. Read two sources and his poem "On
Nature."
Print out
copy of "On Nature" and bring to class.
Reading
Questions: 1) Name one similarity
between Heraclitus and Parmenides on
appearance and reality. 2) Name the major difference between
Heraclitus and P.
3) Name three main characteristics
of Being according to P. 4) What point
does P. want
to make in comparing Being
to a "well-rounded sphere"? 5)
How does P. use an indirect
argument, or the
"argumentum ad absurdum" to conclude that change is an illusion?
6) Name the three transcendentals
characteristic of Being as Being.
10. Thur. September 23. The Pluralists: Read a source on
Democritus.
Lecture
on Aristotle's definition of nature and his four causes.
Reading
Questions: 1) What problem did the
philosophers of nature inherit from
Parmenides? 2) How did Democritus's principles of nature
solve this problem?
Aristotle: 3)
Explain Aristotle's definition of nature. 4) Name Aristotle's four causes.
5) Explain which of the causes each of the
Pre-Socratics used.
11. Mon.
September 27. Test 1.
12. Wed.
September 29. Read. Plato,
Euthyphro in Five Dialogues, pp. 1-22. Video:
"Empire
of the Mind."
Reading Questions: 1) Who is Euthyphro and why is he bringing an
indictment against
his father at the king-archon's
court? 2) To what extent is his father
guilty? 3) Name the
three charges on Socrates'
indictment. (2c-3b). 3) Why does
Socrates ask
Euthyphro to tell him what
piety and impiety ("the pious" and "the impious") are?
13. Thur.
September 30. Euthyphro continued.
Reading Questions: Euthyphro makes five attempts to define
piety. Note these
attempted definitions in the
following passages and explain the limitation of each.
6) 5e.
7) 7a.
8) 12e.
9) 14b.
10) 14d.
11) Explain the key question in 10a, and
the difference it would make in one's personal
spirituality depending on
one's answer.
14. Mon. October 4. Read.
Plato, Apology, in Five Dialogues, pp. 23-44.
Reading
Questions: 1) Who are Socrates'
"old accusers" and why does he fear them?
(18a-19) 2) What did Socrates' friend ask the oracle
at Delphi and what answer did he
get?
(21a) 3) What did Socrates
discover when he tried to find a wise person by asking questions? 4) In
what respect is Socrates wise? (23a-b) 5) How does Socrates refute Meletus's
charge that Socrates corrupts the young? (24b-26b) 6) How does Socrates refute the charge of
atheism? (26c-27e) 7)What should a
person fear more than death according to Socrates? (28b-29b) 8) Why does
Socrates refuse to give up philosophy and asking questions? (29 b-30b) 9) Is Socrates correct in saying that a
better man cannot be
harmed by a worse? (30d) 10) What special mission
does Socrates believe that the god gave him in the city? (30e-31c) 11) Why is
it difficult for a man who opposes injustice to survive in society?
(32a-e) 12) Why won't Socrates make an
appeal to pity in his defense? (34c-35b) 13) After his conviction, what penalty
does Socrates suggest? (36b-e)
14) Why won't Socrates chose exile instead of death?
(37c-e) 15) What is the greatest
good for a person? (38a) 16) Explain what Socrates means by his "divine sign" (daimon)
(40a-c; 41d-e).
15. Wed. October 6. Read Plato, Crito, pp. 45-56;
Phaedo (the death of Socrates),
pp. 149-155 (110a-118).
Reading
Questions: 1) Name the four arguments
that Crito gives as to why Socrates
should escape
death. 2) Explain the four reasons by which Socrates refutes these
arguments. 3) In 50a-54d, the Laws of the City
personified speak to Socrates and give
arguments as to why he
should not in conscience escape his sentence of death.
Do you think Socrates and
Crito are right in finding these arguments convincing?
16. Thur. October 7. Read Miller, Chapter 3: 39-53, Plato's Theory of Forms.
Reading
Questions: 1) Explain Protagoras' quotation (p. 43) and how
it leads to
relativism or subjectivism. 2) Why is an objective reality necessary for
being, truth, and
goodness? 3) To
what do the terms being and becoming refer in Plato's thought?
4) What are the characteristics of Plato's Ideas
or Forms? (49-50) 5) How does
Plato explain the function of the Forms in terms of copies or imitations and of participation?
Columbus Holiday: Mon -Tues.
October 11-12.
17. Wed.
October 13. Read Miller, Chapter 3, 53-61,
Plato's Divided Line and the Form of the Good, Republic, Book VI.
Reading
Questions: 1) Study the relationship between the four
levels of Being and Knowing
(metaphysics and epistemology) in Plato's Divided Line. See chart, p. 57.
2) How is the Form of the
Good related to Being and knowledge? (60, read this text
very carefully). 3) Explain the analogy between the Form of
the Good and the sun in
the natural/visible world.
18. Thur.
October 14. PAPER #1 due. Read:
Miller, Chapter 3, 57-64, and Republic,
Book VII, 514a-521a, the Allegory of the Cave (library copy or on
line):
<http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/GREECE
/ALLEGORY.HTM>
Reading
Questions: The Allegory of the Cave. 1) What is the meaning of
the cave
and the prisoners in terms
of education and enlightenment? 2) What
stages does the
prisoner who would be
released pass through in relation to the four levels of the Divided
Line? 3) Why does the enlightened prisoner have to
return to the cave? 4) How does this
journey apply to those who
should govern in society? 5) How might
you apply this
Allegory to your own
experience?
19. Mon. October 18. Read Miller, 65-76: Aristotle's Criticism of Plato; and
Aristotle's On the Soul (De Anima), Book II, Part 1: <
http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/soul.2.ii.html>
Reading
Questions: Miller. 1) What is the "Third-man Argument"
against Plato's theory
of the Forms? 2) If
the Forms are in a transcendent world, how can they cause things in
the natural world? 3) What is Aristotle's theory of immanent
form? 4) What is meant by
Aristotle's theory of hylomorphism
(68) 5) Why must God be considered as
"Pure Form"?
6) How is teleology
present in natural beings? 7) Explain
Aristotle's four causes by
applying to a natural
being. 8) What is the difference between
"substantial" and
"accidental"
form? (71) On the Soul. 8) What
are the two definitions of soul that Aristotle
gives in Book II, 1?
9) What is the distinctive contribution of each.
20. Wed. October 20. Discussion and Review
21. Thur. October 21. Test 2.
22. Mon.
October 25. Read Miller, Chapter 4:
77-92, on René Descartes' Meditations
on
First
Philosophy.
Reading
Questions: 1)
What was Descartes' goal in his Meditations?
2) Explain his use
of systematic doubt (80).
3) What was the one thing Descartes could not doubt?
4) Explain his
conclusion: I am a thinking thing. 5) What are D's two arguments for the
existence of God?
(85-89). 6) How does Descartes prove
that matter exists and that he is
also an extended thing? 7) What is meant by metaphysical dualism?
(see glossary)
23. Wed. October 27. Read Miller, Chapter 4: 93-103.
Reading
Questions: 1) What is the mind-body
problem? 2) Explain the four aspects of
of mind that John Searle
points out. (94-5) 3) What does interactionism
mean in
Descartes' explanation of
mind and body? 4) What does Gilbert Ryle
mean by saying
that the mind-body problem
is a "category mistake"? (97-100) 5) How is the idea of
functionalism used to explain the
mind-body problem? (100-01)
24. Thur. October 28. Read Miller, Chapter 5: 105-125.
Reading
Questions: 1) What is the technical meaning of "materialism"? 106-07
2) What is the theory of "mechanistic
materialism" and how is this applied to human
beings? 3) How does mechanistic materialism lead to
a theory of determinism? (See
Glossary) 4)Can the human being be accurately
understood as a computer? Explain.
5) How does quantum
mechanics challenge the theory of
determinism? (115-17).
6) Name one application of
J. J. C. Smart's argument for a "physicalistic theory of mind
(the Identy Thesis)? (117-120). 7) Name one objection to the Identity Thesis.
(120-25).
25.
Mon. November 1. Read Miller,
Chapter 5: 125-136 on B. F. Skinner and Determinism.
Reading
Questions: 1) What is behaviorism?
2) Distinguish between hard and soft
behaviorism. (125) 3) How might
Skinner's "technology of behavior" be applied as a
social program? (126) 4)
What is the principle of universal causality? (133) 5) What is the principle of universal determinism?
(133) 4) What is the effect of the determinist
view on morality and the
idea of free will? 5) "Is cognitive
experience [thinking,
judging] compatible with
universal causal determinism"
(135)?
26. Wed. November 3. Read Miller, Chapter 6: 141-159.
Reading
Questions: 1) What is rationalism?
(142) 2) What is empiricism? 3)
According to Plato, what problem does the body
pose in terms of obtaining knowledge?
(145-148) 4) What is Plato's theory of recollection
or innate ideas? (148-52) 5) What is
meant by Descartes' geometrical
method for philosophy? (154-55). 6).
What are some
examples of clear and
distinct intuitions that Descartes gives? (158) 7) What is meant by
deduction? (158) 8) What
does Noam Chomsky mean by innate intellectual structures in
terms of learning language?
(159-162)
27. Thur. November 4. Read Miller, Chapter 7: 168-184;
Aristotle, Metaphysics I,1:
<http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.1.i.html>
Reading
Questions: Miller. 1) What is the general
definition of empiricism?
2) How do we
obtain universal concepts from our experience of particular
things?
3) What does St.
Thomas mean by abstraction? (171)
Locke. 4) What are the two
sources of knowledge
according to Locke? (178-79) 5) What is the main problem in L's
explanation of knowledge?
(184).
28. Mon. November 8. Read Miller, Chapter 7: 184-195 on Hume.
Reading
Questions: 1) Distinguish what Hume
means by a) sense impressions, and b)
ideas. (185). 2) What is H's critique of our idea of self?
(186-189) 3) What is H's
critique of our idea of
causality or necessary connection? (189-91on contiguity, temporal
priority, and constant
conjunction). 4) Distinguish between propositions that are a)
relations of ideas, or b)
matters of fact (192-3). 5) Why is Hume
a skeptic? (See Glossary)
29. Wed. November 10. Read Miller, Chapter 8, 198-215 on Kant and
Hume.
Reading
Questions: 1) What is the difference
between a priori and a
posteriori
knowledge? (200) 2) What is
Kant's "Copernican revolution"? (202) 3) What is the
limitation on our knowledge
according to Kant's theory? (210) 4)
What is the literary
theory of structuralism?
(212) 5) What is the theory of deconstruction?
6) What are some
key claims of the postmodern
philosophers? (212-14) 7) Name some analogies between
the TV series: "Star
Trek, The Next Generation " and postmodern thought.
30. Thur.
November 11. Read Miller, Part
III, Chapter 9: 219-237; St. Thomas Aquinas,
Summa Theologica,
Ia, q. 2, articles 1-3. Print out. (First Part, second question on the Existence
of God) <http://www.newadvent.org/summa/100200.htm>
Reading
Questions: 1) What is the difference
between natural theology and revealed
theology? (223) Thomas Aquinas, q. 2, article 1: 2) What are the two ways in which
something can be
obvious? 3) What is Thomas's conclusion
on whether
the existence of God is obvious? q. 2. article 2: 4) What are the two
types of proof ? 5) Which of the two types of proof can we have for the
existence of God?
Q. 2. article 3: 6) What are the five proofs Thomas gives for
the existence of God?
7) Why are the first three proofs called
"cosmological" proofs?
31. Mon. November 15. Read Miller, Chapter 9: 237-255. PAPER
#2 DUE
Reading
Questions: 1) Why is Thomas's fifth
argument a teleological argument?
2) According to
Paley how does the "watch analogy" of the universe point to the
existence of an intelligent
cause? (237-241) 3) Can a teleological argument for the
existence of God be
reconciled or compatible with Darwin's theory of evolution?
(241-245). 4) How do Native American traditions see the
relationship between human
beings and nature? 5) What is Hume's critique of the proofs for
God's existence?
(248-52) 6) What is Kant's critique of the
Cosmological Argument? (252-523).
32. Wed. November 17. Discussion and Review
33. Thur. November 18. Test 3.
34. Mon. November 22. Read in Hippocrates G. Apostle, Aristotle, Nicomachean
Ethics,
Preface, Introduction, Book 1
(Book A): 1-20. Skim Table of
Contents. Note
Commentary on Book A: 205-224.
Reading
Questions: 1) What is the aim of all
our actions? 2) Why is politics the
chief
science of human
actions? 3) What is needed for the
student of ethics? (1095b) 4) What
are the three kinds of life
that people seem to choose? (I,3) 5) What characteristics does
the good we seek have to
possess? (1097a 30) 6) How does Aristotle argue to the main
function of man? (I,6)
7) What is the formal definition of happiness? (I,6:1098a 15-19)
8) Can a person be
"happy" according to Aristotle even with misfortunes in life? (I,11)
9) Is happiness among the
things praised or among those that are honored? (I,12)
10) Explain the three parts
of soul in I,13.
35. Wed. November 24. Read Nicomachean Ethics, Book II (B):
21-34.
Reading
Questions: 1) What are the two classes
of virtue? (II,1) 2) Why are there two
classes? 3) How do we obtain
the ethical (moral) virtues? 3) What three points does A.
make about the ethical
virtues in II, 2? 4) How does one acquire any ethical virtue? (II, 3)
5) What is the definition of
ethical (moral)virtue in II,6: 1107a? 6) Explain each part of
this definition (II, 7-9).
November 25: Thanksgiving Holiday
36. Mon.
November 29. Read NE, Book
III (Γ): 35-56.
Reading
Questions: 1) How can we distinguish
between voluntary, involuntary, and
not-voluntary actions? (III,1-3). 2) Why is intention distinct from volition/choice? (III,4)
3) What kind of things do we
deliberate about? (III,5) 4) How does Aristotle explain
Socrates' principle that
"No one is willingly wicked . . . ?" (III,7) 5) The virtue of bravery
or courage (III,9-12). 6) The virtue of temperance (III, 13-15).
37. Wed. December 1. Read NE, Book IV (Δ): 57-77.
Reading
Questions: This Book discusses eight
different virtues. Be able to define
each virtue, name their
corresponding vices, and give an example from your
experience of self or
another.
38. Thur. December 2. Read NE, Book V (E), 1 to 6; 13-15:
78-83, 96-100.
Reading
Questions: 1) Note different senses of
"justice" and "injustice" (V,2)
2) Why is
justice thought to be the best of virtues? (V,3) 3) Why is it not as easy to act
justly as to act injustly?
(V, 13) 4) Why is being "equitable" the better part of justice? (
(V,14). 5) Can someone act "unjustly"
towards oneself? (V15)
39. Mon. December 6. Read NE, Book VIII (Θ),1-10:
140-151; Book IX (I), 10-12: 177-180.
Reading
Questions: 1) Name the three types of
friendship (VIII, 3) 2) What,
specifically is the object
loved in each of these three types? 3) Which of these
types are permanent or
impermanent and why? 4) What are the characteristics
of perfect friendship (VIII,
4-5) 5) Can bad people be
"friends"? Explain. (VIII,6)
6) Why is it
"impossible to be a friend to many men in a perfect friendship"?
VIII,7; IX
10) 7) Do we need friends more it good times or
bad? (IX, 11) 8)What is the difference
between the friendship of
good people and that of bad people? (IX 12)
40. Wed. December 8. Read NE, Book X (K), 6-10: 191-202.
41. Thur. December 9. Discussion and Review. PAPER # 3 DUE
Final Exam: 9:00 AM, Room 1003. Wed. Dec. 15 for PH 102-02 /Th. Dec. 16
for