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[NOTE: CHANGED AS A RESULT OF HURRICANE ISAAC AND ALSO WITH GUEST LECTURERS ADDED.]
Philosophy 2745, Knowledge and Reality230-0320 M W F 137 Allen
Final Exam time:Sat. Dec. 8 5:30-7:30 PM
Instructor: Jon Cogburn
Instructor's Office: 105 Coates
Instructor's Office Hours: M,F 10:35-11:30
Instructor's e-mail:
Textbooks:
Bertrand Russell The Problems of Philosophy(available free on-line)
Ludwig Wittgenstein, The Blue and Brown Books
Alisdair MacIntyre, Dependent Rational Animals
Wilfrid Sellars, Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind (use the edition with the introduction by Brandom - )
Robert Brandom, Articulating Reasons, and Introduction to Inferentialism
Mark Okrent, Rational Animals: The Teleological Roots of Intentionality
Requirements:
Participation Grade: Students are required to participate constructively in class discussion. Each student will be able to miss three class periods with no effect on the final grade. For each absence after that, one point is deducted from the final grade. Note that no distinction is made between excused or unexcused absences, since this is a participation grade, not an attendence grade.
2 Exams: 30% each There will be two of these in class. Exam help will be distributed one week before each exam.
Short papers: 20% Of the twenty three days we are reading after finishing Russell, students will submit short (one to three page) essays on fifteen of their choice. The essays must make clear the overall conclusion of the reading assignment, explicate some significant argument within the assignment, and then raise an issue for that argument. These are to be turned in at the beginning of class the day in which the assingment is discussed. All must be stapled, double spaced, in 12 point Times or Times-New Roman font, have page numbers at the top right hand side, be such that there is no extra space between paragraphs, and have one inch margins. University of Chicago citational format must be followed (these are available free on line, e.g. here). The grader will subtract substantially (up to 100%) for failure to fulfill these guidelines. Since you are allowed to skip eight of these, barring a university approved accommodation; late papers will not be accepted for any reasons.
Final paper (due at the beginning of the final exam time): 20% Due at the beginning of the final exam time in the classroom. Length and citational guidelines are as given by the journal Analysis ( In addition, writing must be (1) double spaced, (2) left justified, (3) in Times or Times New Roman 12 pt font, (4) have page numbers in the upper right hand corner (not written but inserted by Word), (5) be stapled, and (6) not have extra space between the paragraphs (in Word go to Paragraph and then click box that says “Don’t add space between paragraphs of same style”). All of these formatting guidelines will be explained further in class. If your paper does not follow any of these guidelines I will delete 10 points (which will be four points off your final grade) and have you turn a correct version in late. Finally, I do not accept work over e-mail.
We will have plenty of opportunity to discuss paper topics in class. Please check your choice of article with the professor by around mid-term grade time, and discuss the conclusion you will defend in your response.
Time to Bail if Professor is Not in Class:
If, due to an emergency, the professor does not show up within fifteen minutes of the scheduled beginning of class, then just split. Please do not contact the office staff with questions on that day. You will be e-mailed.
Plagiarism and Cheating:
The Dean of Students office defines plagiarism in this manner.
Plagiarism-plagiarism is defined as the unacknowledged inclusion, in work submitted for credit, of someone else's words, ideas, or data. When a student submits work for credit that includes the words, ideas, or data of others, the source of this information must be acknowledged through complete, accurate, and specific footnote references, and, if verbatim statements are included, through quotation marks as well. Failure to identify any source, published or unpublished, copyrighted or uncopyrighted, from which information, terms, phrases, or concepts have been taken, constitutes plagiarism. Students should also take special note that failure to acknowledge study aids such as Cliff's Notes, encyclopedias, or other common reference books, also constitutes plagiarism. Only universally available facts, e.g., the date of Abraham Lincoln's death or Washington's birthdate, are excluded from such documentation requirements. By placing his or her name on work submitted for credit, the student certifies the originality of all work not otherwise identified by appropriate acknowledgments;
Notes: Cut and pasting off of web sites without proper citation constitutes plagiarism! For guidelines on how to cite material quoted from web pages, go to . Sharing files and changing the wording also constitutes plagiarism.
I will report any suspected instance of it to the Dean of Student's office. Anyone I suspect of cheating on in-class or at-home assignements will be reported to the Dean of Student's office.
Tentative Schedule:
Note: This schedule is only tentative. Any changes will be announced in class, and then updated here on the site.
HOMO RUSSELIANUS (students should avail themselves also of some notes the instructor wrote on this material from a previous class).
Week 1......
Monday Aug. 20
Introduction to class
d
Wednesday, Aug. 22
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter 1 “Appearance and Reality”
Friday, Aug. 24
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter 2, “The Existence of Matter”
Week 2......
Monday Aug. 27
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter 3, “The Nature of Matter”
Wednesday, Aug. 29
NO CLASS- HURRICANE ISAAC
Friday, Aug. 31
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter 4, “Idealism”
Week 3......
Monday, Sept. 3
Labor Day Holiday; no class
Wednesday,Sept. 5
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter 5, “Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description”
Friday, Sept. 7
Review for exam 1 (TEST HELP HERE)
Week 4......
Monday, Sept. 10
EXAM 1
Wednesday, Sept. 12
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter 6, “On Induction”
Friday, Sept. 14
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter 7, “On Our Knowledge of General Principles””
Week 5......
Monday, Sept. 17
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter 8, “How a priori Knowledge is Possible
Wednesday, Sept. 19,
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter 9, “The World of Universals”
Jon Cogburn, Handout on Theory of Forms
Jon Cogburn, Problems with the Theory of Forms
Friday, Sept. 21
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter 10, “On Our Knowledge of Universals”
Week 6......
Monday, Sept. 24
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter 11, “On Intuitive Knowledge”
Wednesday, Sept. 26
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter 12, “Truth and Falsehood”
Friday, Sept. 28
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter 13, “Knowledge, Error, and Probable Opinion”
Week 7......
Monday, Oct. 1
Review for Exam 2 (Test help HERE)
Wednesday, Oct. 3
EXAM 2
SOME PROBLEMS FOR HOMO RUSSELLIANUS
THE WEAK MYTH OF THE GIVEN
Friday, Oct. 5
Guest lecture by Mark Ohm
Ludwig Wittgenstein, The Blue and Brown Books, first third of the blue one
Week 8......
Monday, Oct. 8
Ludwig Wittgenstein, The Blue and Brown Books, second third of the blue one
Wednesday, Oct. 10
Ludwig Wittgenstein, The Blue and Brown Books, third third of the blue one.
THE PROBLEM OF ANIMAL MINDS
Friday, Oct. 12
Alisdair MacIntyre, Dependent Rational Animals, Chapters 1 and 2
Week 9......
T Oct. 16 Mid-semester grades due, 9:00 a.m.
Monday, Oct. 15
Alisdair MacIntyre, Dependent Rational Animals Chapters 3 and 4
Wednesday, Oct. 17
Alisdair MacIntyre, Dependent Rational Animals Chapters 5 and 6
THE STRONG MYTH OF THE GIVEN
Friday, Oct. 19
Guest Lecture by Mark Ohm
Sellars, Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind; focus strongly on Brandom’s overview
Week 10......
Monday, Oct. 22
Guest Lecture by Neal Hebert
Thomas Nagel, What is it Like to Be a Bat.
INFERENTIALIST ALTERNATIVES
Wednesday, Oct. 24
Brandom, Articulating Reasons, Introduction
Friday, Oct. 26
Brandom, “Unsuccessful Semantics”
Week 11......
Monday, Oct. 29
“Heidegger’s Categories in Sein und Zeit”
Wednesday, Oct. 31
Guest Lecture by Graham Bounds
Brandom, “Dasein, the Being That Thematizes”
Friday, Nov. 2
Guest Lecture by Graham Bounds
Okrent “On Layer Cakes”
Week 12......
Monday, Nov. 5
Brandom, Articulating Reasons, Chapter One, “Semantic Inferentialism and Logical Expressivism”
Wednesday, Nov. 7
Brandom, Articulating Reasons, Chapter Two, “Action, Norms, and Practical Reasoning”
Friday, Nov. 9
No Class; Instructor at conference.
Week 13......
Monday, Nov. 12
Okrent, Rational Animals, Chapter 1
Wednesday, Nov. 14
Okrent, Rational Animals, Chapter 2
Friday, Nov. 16
Okrent, Rational Animals, Chapter 3
Week 14......
Monday, Nov. 19
Okrent, Rational Animals, Chapter 4
Wednesday, Nov. 21Friday, Nov. 23
Thanksgiving Holiday; no class
Week 15......
Monday, Nov. 26
Okrent, Rational Animals, Chapter 5
Wednesday, Nov. 28
Okrent, Rational Animals, Chapter 6
Friday, Apr. Nov. 30
Okrent, Rational Animals, Chapter 7
Week 16......
FINAL EXAM Th Dec 6 12:30‐2:30 PM