A readings schedule for an 11-week summer philosophy class that meets once a week for 2 hours.
These readings bundled into a single file packet in PDF here.
Obviously, so many more readings could (and should!) be included, but we can only cover so much: other topics will surely come up in discussion!
Week 1: What is philosophy? What are good arguments? What’s the meaning of Rene Descartes’ famous phrase, “I think, therefore I am” from his Meditations?
- What is Philosophy? by Thomas Metcalf
- Arguments: Why Do You Believe What You Believe? by Thomas Metcalf
- Critical Thinking: What is it to be a Critical Thinker? by Carolina Flores
- Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am” by Charles Miceli
Week 2: What is Descartes’ Meditations all about? What is knowledge? What are we, what’s our essence? What are our minds? Is there a God?
- Descartes’ Meditations 1-3 and Descartes’ Meditations 4-6 by Marc Bobro
Week 3: What is knowledge? What are reasonable, justified beliefs? Is there an “ethics of belief”?
- Epistemology, or Theory of Knowledge by Thomas Metcalf
- Is it Wrong to Believe Without Sufficient Evidence? W.K. Clifford’s “The Ethics of Belief” by Spencer Case.
Week 4: What are we? When do we begin? When might we end (if ever)? What (again) are our minds? How do we exist over time? Do we ever have free will (and what is “free will” anyway?)?
- Personal Identity by Chad Vance
- Psychological Approaches to Personal Identity: Do Memories and Consciousness Make Us Who We Are? by Kristin Seemuth Whaley
- The Mind-Body Problem: What Are Minds? by Jacob Berger
- Free Will and Free Choice by Jonah Nagashima
Week 5: What does “God” mean? Is there a God? Should we believe there’s a God? What religious beliefs should we have (if any)?
- Attributes of God by Bailie Peterson
- Design Arguments for the Existence of God by Thomas Metcalf
- The Problem of Evil by Thomas Metcalf
- Pascal’s Wager: A Pragmatic Argument for Belief in God by Liz Jackson
Week 6: What makes wrong actions wrong? What makes right actions right? Utilitarianism and Kant’s ethics.
- Deontology: Kantian Ethics by Andrew Chapman
- Consequentialism by Shane Gronholz
- Cultural Relativism: Do Cultural Norms Make Actions Right and Wrong? by Nathan Nobis
- Because God Says So: On Divine Command Theory by Spencer Case
Week 7: Why do we have government? What form of government would be ideal? What is justice? Does government have to make up for its wrongs? Social contract theories and reparations.
- Social Contract Theory by David Antonini
- John Rawls’ ‘A Theory of Justice’ by Ben Davies
- Reparations for Historic Injustice by Joseph Frigault
Week 8: Ethical issues concerning the ends and beginnings of life. Abortion and euthanasia, or mercy killing.
- The Ethics of Abortion by Nathan Nobis
- Euthanasia, or Mercy Killing by Nathan Nobis
Week 9: Ethical issues concerning discrimination: racism, sexism, speciesism, and more.
- What Is Misogyny? by Odelia Zuckerman and Clair Morrissey
- Philosophy and Race: An Introduction to Philosophy of Race by Thomas Metcalf
- Speciesism by Dan Lowe
Week 10: Ethical issue(s): students’ choices! To be determined!
Week 11: What is a meaningful life? What makes life more meaningful?
- Existentialism by Addison Ellis
- African American Existentialism: DuBois, Locke, Thurman, and King by Anthony Sean Neal
- Meaning in Life: What Makes Our Lives Meaningful? by Matthew Pianalto
- The Meaning of Life: What’s the Point? by Matthew Pianalto