M, W 5:30-6:20 p.m
TSH 120
This site was last modified on December 3rd, 2003
Phil 1E03 . . . . . . . Problems of Philosophy . . . . . . . . Fall 2003
Personnel | Course Description | Required Texts | Requirements | Syllabus | BACK to TOP
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Lecture Notes: |
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Lecture Notes: |
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[Section I: 36% Section II 63%] --includes previous exam in pdf!
in order for your grade to be recorded!
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Above, a scene described in Plato's Phaedo: Socrates, on his death bed, takes the hemlock... and gives his disciples the finger?!* |
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Course Director: R. T. W. Arthur
Office Hours: MW 2-3 p.m. ... UH/305; x-23470
Teaching Assistants: Mark Capustin <mark.capustin@sympatico.ca>, Joe L'Espérance <lesperj@mcmaster.ca>, Terence Kinsella <terencekinsella@aol.com>, Jing Long <jinglong63@yahoo.ca>, Teresa Segal <segaltm@mcmaster.ca>, Bryce Ferrie <ferrieb@mcmaster.ca>, Michael Potter <pottermk@hotmail.com>, Alia Ahmed-Osman <ahmedoa@univmail.cis.mcmaster.ca>.
Head TA: Mark Capustin
Personnel | Course Description | Required Texts | Requirements | Syllabus | BACK to TOP
This is a first course in philosophy, centered on some central philosophical concerns. Among the issues we will be examining are: whether belief in gods is necessary for the good life, whether God's existence can or should be proved, what science is, how the mind is related to the body, how we know what we know, to what extent thought is shaped by language, what constitutes personal identity, whether humans are inherently egoistic or altruistic, what it is to be moral, whether we have free will, and what constitutes art. These topics correspond (approximately) to eleven of the twenty chapters of our main text (1-3, 5-8, 13, 15, 17, 18), and the lectures each week will illuminate and be illuminated by these readings.
Bowie, Michaels and Solomon, Twenty Questions: An Introduction to Philosophy (5th ed. Wadsworth 2004).
This book is available in the university bookstore.
- Attendance: You are required to be present at all the lectures and all your tutorial sessions. Tests and examinations may include questions based on the lectures. Absences will be excused only for medical or similar reasons. (5%)
- Two short papers (1000-1250 words) to be submitted in person to your T.A.; due in class Monday, Oct 6, and Monday, Nov 17. Topics posted on web. (25% each)
- In-class test; Wed, Oct 29th. (20%)
- Final Exam (2 hours; as scheduled in the exam period, Dec 3-16). (25%)
Week 10 Nov 10, 12
Week 11 Nov 17, 19
Week 12 Nov 24, 26
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Topic for Week 11: Do we have free will? |
Week 12: What constitutes art? |
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Readings: Sophocles, Aristotle, Grimshaw, d'Holbach, Skinner, Sartre, Kane, Nietzsche (from chapter 18, Twenty Questions.) |
Readings: Aristotle, Hume, Tolstoy, Adorno and Horkheimer, Wolfe, and Higgins (from chapter 17, Twenty Questions.) |
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Optional: the other pieces in the chapter. |
.Optional: the other pieces in the chapter. |
Personnel | Course Description | Required Texts | Requirements | Syllabus | BACK to TOP