PHIL 105OS: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY

Summer 2015, Trinity Western University

Instructor:Dr. Myron A. Penner

Course Duration:June 27- August 5, 2016

Email:

Text:

  • Elliot Sober, Core Questions in Philosophy: A Text with Readings, 6th ed. (Prentice Hall: 2013).

Course Objectives:

  1. Develop tools of analysis that will help you engage some basic philosophical questions with intelligence and clarity.
  2. Digest some writings of a few great thinkers within the history of philosophy.
  3. Examine some of the questions important to western philosophy, including: What, if anything, can we know? Is it rational to believe that God exists? Are human beings physical objects or nonphysical souls?

Requirements:

  • Exam 115%
  • Exam 220%
  • Exam 320%
  • Paper15%
  • Exam 430%

Exams:

This course will have four exams. The first three exams will be based on material covered in the preceding section. The final exam will be cumulative and focus on material covered since the beginning of the course. (Helpful Hint: The “Review Questions” and “Problems for Further Thought” listed for the Sober readings in the course outline may suggest potential exam questions. If you’re able to correctly answer the designated Review Questions and Problems for Further Thought, you’ll be in a position to succeed on the exams.)

Papers:

This course will have one short paper (2000 words, plus or minus 10%). Your paper topic will come from a list of possibilities which I will provide for you. You must submit a one page proposal outlining the argument of your paper on the specified due date of July 31, 2015.The completed term paper is due August 15, 2015. Specific instructions for this course are outlined in the document “Summer 2015, PHIL 105 OS Paper Topics”.

Some Policies to Note:

All exams are to be completed by August 7, 2015. Exam 1 is based on content from the readings and audio material for lectures 1 – 4. Exam 2 is based on content from the readings and audio material for lectures 5 – 12. Exam 3 is based on content from the readings and audio material for lectures 13 – 16. Exam 4 is based on content from the readings and audio material for lectures 1 – 20. All of the exams have time limits and must be completed within two hours of starting the exam. Exams are to be completed independently and without the use of study aids.

“RQ” = Review Questions; “PFT” = Problems for Further Thought

COURSE SCHEDULE:

Lecture # / Topic/Reading
Very Introductory Logic
1 / Chapter 1: What is Philosophy? (3-9)
  • RQ: 1, 2

2 / Chapter 2: Deductive Arguments (11-21)
  • RQ: 1-8
  • PFT: 1, 2

3 / Chapter 3: Inductive and Abductive Arguments (24-37)
  • RQ: 1-4, 6
  • PFT: 1-3

4 / Chapter 3: Cont’d
EXAM ONE
Reason and Belief in God
5 / Chapter 4: Aquinas’ Four Ways (43-56); Aquinas Reading on Mycourses
  • RQ: 1-7

6 / Chapter 5: The Design Argument (59-66)
  • RQ: 1-5
  • PFT: 1, 3

7 / Hume’s Critique of the Design Argument; Hume Reading on MyCourses
8 / Chapter 6: Evolution and Creationism (68-81)
  • RQ: 1, 2, 4
  • PFT: 1

9 / Chapter 7: Can Science Explain Everything? (83-90)
  • RQ: 1-5
  • PFT: 1, 4

10 / Chapter 9: Is the Existence of God Testable? (101-107); Ayer Reading on MyCourses
  • RQ: 1-4
  • PFT: 1, 3, 5

11 / Chapter 10: Pascal and Irrationality (108-116); Pascal Reading on MyCourses
  • RQ: 1-5, 7
  • PFT: 2

12 / Chapter 11: The Argument from Evil (119-126)
  • RQ: 1-6
  • PFT: 1, 2

EXAM TWO
Knowledge and Justified Belief
13 / Chapter 12: What is Knowledge? (137-145)
  • RQ: 1-5
  • PFT: 2

14 / ES Chapter 13: Descartes’s Foundationalism (147-158); Descartes Reading on MyCourses
  • RQ: 1-4, 7
  • PFT: 1, 2

15 / ES Chapter 14: The Reliability Theory of Knowledge (161-171)
  • RQ: 1, 4, 5
  • PFT: 3

16 / Plantinga’s “The Reformed Objection to Natural Theology”; Plantinga Reading on MyCourses
EXAM THREE
Mind-Body Problem
17 / ES Chapter 19: Dualism and the Mind/Body Problem (203-213)
  • RQ: 1-5
  • PFT: 1, 5

18 / Chapter 22: The Mind/Brain Identity Theory (229-234)
  • RQ: 1-4
  • PFT: 1, 4

19 / David Chalmers, “The Puzzle of Conscious Experience”; Chalmers Reading on MyCourses
20 / Alvin Plantinga, “Materialism and Christian Belief”; Plantinga Reading on MyCourses

PHIL 105OS Syllabus1

Myron A. Penner