Introduction to Philosophy

proseminars

Classroom

The course is based on John Hospers' Introduction to Philosophical Analysis. The book offers a comprehensive view of philosophy in the 20th century. It has eight chapters that cover numerous problems in eight fundamental branches of philosophy. The chapters are dedicated to: 1. The relationship between language and the world; 2. Knowledge, or the question, what we can know; 3. The perception of the world; 4. Scientific knowledge; 5. Freedom and necessity; 6. Mind and body; 7. Religion, 8. Ethics. The book is easily accessible, exhaustive and problem oriented. Each chapter contains a description of essential issues in the field under discussion, offers some philosophical dialogues and ends with exercises. This arrangement makes it possible to divide the time given to the book into two parts, one dedicated to the study of essential problems, and the other to the discussion of puzzling issues and doing exercises.

Each chapter will be discussed over two consecutive meetings.

Week 1: When is it appropriate to ask the question ‘why?’, and when is the question inapplicable?

Week 2: How to make a definition? The difference between descriptive and projective definitions.

Week 3: Paradoxes of truth.

Week 4: How does evidence differs from observation, proof, argument and assumption?

Week 5: Illusions and hallucinations.

Week 6: Phenomenalism, reliability of senses, solipsism.

Week 7: The myth of the given.

Week 8: Hypotheses and theories.

Week 9: Determinism and indeterminism

Week 10: Necessity in the causal connection.

Week 11: Personal identity.

Week 12: Artificial Intelligence.

Week 13: Religious experience.

Week 14: Arguments for the existence of God

Week 15: Deriving Ought from Is.

Week 16: Ethical theories.

John Hospers, "Introduction to Philosophical Analysis"

A. Knowledge:

1. Student will acquire basic information about leading philosophers in the history of Europe.

2. He/she will develop an opinion about the relationship between philosophy, arts and sciences.

3. He/she will acquire basic philosophical vocabulary.

4. He/she will learn to see individual philosophical issues against the background of leading philosophical opinions.

5. He/she will be able to identify major philosophical topics.

B. Skills:

1. Student will learn how to use the Internet to find answers to philosophical questions.

2. He/she will attempt to participate in philosophical discussion in a rational manner.

3. He/she will be able to detect logical connections between different theoretical claims.

4. He/she will learn the methods of fair criticism.

5. He/she will be able to compare the rationality of different philosophical arguments.

C. Social Competence

1. Student will cherish the chance to use a library.

2. He/she will understand the competing impacts of frankness and of unanimity.

3. Her/she will be able to rely on other fields than philosophy to better interpret philosophical issues.

4. He/she will learn not to be gullible, stubborn, verbally arrogant, repetitive and boring.

5. He/she will acquire the ability to work collectively with his/her peers.

Students will be evaluated for their knowledge of each chapter and for their participation in discussions (50%). They will write a semester paper on a chapter of their choice (50%).

Number of absences: 2