What do you think of this intro to philosophy syllabus I found on reddit?

Miscellaneous General
1

It was posted by the professor; I have no idea where the guy teaches, but as with virtually every Mises Academy class, all the readings are free and online.

Schedule:

  1. Tues Jan 19 – Introduction I

No readings

  1. Fri Jan 22 – Introduction II

Plato, Euthyphro (http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/euthyfro.html)

Section 1: Religion

  1. Tues Jan 26 – The Cosmological Argument

Aquinas, excerpt from Summa Theologica (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/aquinas3.html)

  1. Fri Jan 29 – The Teleological Argument

Paley, excerpt from Natural Theology

(http://philosophy.lander.edu/intro/articles/paley-a.pdf)

Gould, excerpt from The Panda’s Thumb (http://faculty.washington.edu/lynnhank/Gould.pdf)

  1. Tues Feb 2 – The Ontological Argument

Anselm, excerpt from Proslogion (plus replies)

(http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/anselm.html)

  1. Fri Feb 5 – The Problem of Evil

Mackie, “Evil and omnipotence”

(http://faculty.unlv.edu/jwood/unlv/evilomnipotence.pdf)

  1. Tues Feb 9 – Pascal’s wager

Pascal, excerpt from Pensées

(http://www.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/web%20publishing/Pascal_Wager.htm)

James, excerpt from “The will to believe”

(http://educ.jmu.edu//~omearawm/ph101willtobelieve.html)

Section 2: Knowledge

  1. Fri Feb 12 – Skepticism I

Descartes, Meditation I

(http://www.filepedia.org/meditations-on-first-philosophy)

  1. Tues Feb 16 – Skepticism II

Moore, “Proof of an external world”

(http://web.mac.com/cludwig/Site/Philosophie_de_la_connaissance_files/moore.pdf)

  1. Fri Feb 19 – Skepticism III

Putnam, “Brains in a vat”

(http://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/ph29a/putnam.html)

  1. Tues Feb 23 – Induction I

Hume, excerpt from An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding

(http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/pdfbits/he1.pdf) (Section IV)

  1. Fri Feb 26 - Induction II

Goodman, excerpt from Fact, Fiction and Forecast

(http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/teaching/1702_jnrsnr_seminar/docs/goodman.pdf)

Section 3: Mind and Body

  1. Tues Mar 2 – What is Consciousness?

Nagel, “What is it like to be a bat?”

(http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/nagel_nice.html)

Descartes, Meditation VI, 9-19

(http://www.filepedia.org/meditations-on-first-philosophy)

  1. Fri Mar 5 – The Mind-body Problem I

Jackson, “What Mary didn’t know”

(jorgemlg.googlepages.com/jackson-whatmarydidntknow.pdf)

  1. Tues Mar 9 – The Mind-body Problem II

Smart, “Sensations and brain processes”

(henry.laycock.googlepages.com/sensations.pdf)

Fri Mar 12 – NO CLASS

Tues Mar 16 – SPRING BREAK – NO CLASS
Fri Mar 19 – SPRING BREAK – NO CLASS

  1. Tues Mar 23 – The Mind-body Problem III

Lewis, “Mad pain and Martian pain”

(http://web.missouri.edu/johnsonrn/papers/lewis.pdf)

  1. Fri Mar 26 – Artificial Intelligence

Searle, “Minds, brains, and programs”

(http://web.archive.org/web/20071210043312/http://members.aol.com/NeoNoetics/MindsBrainsPrograms.html)

Section 4: Free Will and Personal Identity

  1. Tues Mar 30 – Personal Identity I

Williams, “The self and the future”

(http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/content/BPL_Images/Content_store/Sample_chapter/9780631234418/001.pdf)

  1. Fri Apr 2 – Personal Identity II

Locke, excerpt from Essay Concerning Human Understanding

(http://ethnicity.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/locke227.html)

Reid, excerpt from Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man

(http://www.philosophy.ucf.edu/pi/reid.html)

  1. Tues Apr 6 – Personal Identity III

Dennett, “Where am I?”

(http://www.newbanner.com/SecHumSCM/WhereAmI.html)

  1. Fri Apr 9 – Free Will I

Holbach, excerpt from The System of Nature

(Available in entirety on Google books. Read first 10-15 pgs. of ch. 11)

  1. Tues Apr 13 – Free Will II

Ayer, “Freedom and necessity”

(http://psych.dbourget.com/readings/Ayer.pdf)

Section 5: Ethics

  1. Fri Apr 16 – Utilitarianism

Mill, excerpt from Utilitarianism

(Available in entirety on Google books. Read Ch. 2)

  1. Tues Apr 20 – Deontological Views

Kant, excerpt from Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals

(http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/pdfbits/kgw1.pdf)

  1. Fri Apr 23 – Cultural Relativism

Rachels, “The challenge of cultural relativism”

(http://www.unc.edu/courses/2005ss1/phil/020/002/Rachels.pdf)

  1. Tues Apr 27 – Applied Ethics I

Thomson, “A defense of abortion”

(http://www.jhu.edu/choice/files/adefenseofabortion.pdf)

  1. Fri Apr 30 – Applied Ethics II

Singer, “Famine, affluence, and morality”

(http://commonsenseatheism.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Singer-Famine-Affluence-and-Morality.pdf)

Reading lists
2

Gracias

3

Sweet, man. Thanks for that. I was very confused until I realized that you said “philosophy” and not “psychology”.

4

Interesting, in my Civil Wars and Revolutions class my professor also has all of the readings be online and free. Interestingly enough, he is a libertarian and our faculty advisor for our campus YAL chapter.

5

Some comments:

About knowledge -no intuitionism or innate ideas? no infalliblism? Also, there’s nothing about deduction.

Second, the use of Singer -this probably will put up another roadblock to ancap but I have no essential argument against singer’s ideas, being that I don’t really know them all that well except that he holds a sort of utilitarian defense of animal rights.

6

At least in this interview with Richard Dawkins, Singer’s defense of animal rights seem deontological to me.

7

Thanks for posting this!