Course Syllabus

Introduction to Philosophy

Instructor: Charles Wallis	Office Phone: 885-1211 ex. 2778

Office: 329 Hagey Hall	E-mail: cwallis @ watarts.uwaterloo.ca

Office Hours: 2-3 TW and by appointment	wallis @ netacc.net

Newsgroup : uw.phil.phil100

Reading and Other Assignments

WK 1	General Introduction to Course

WK 2	What is Philosophy?

Readings: "The Value of Philosophy", "The Province of Philosophy", "The Absurd" pp. 2-21

WK 3	Reason and Religion: Good and Evil

Deadline to drop with 100% tuition refund Jan. 23rd

Readings: Introduction, "The Ontological Argument"(pp.39-40), "The Existence of God Proven"

(pp.41-2), "God, Evil, and the Best of all Possible Worlds" (pp.29-30), "Must God Create the Best?"

(pp. 31-38)

WK 4	Reason and Religion: Good and Evil

Readings: "Why I am not a Theist" (pp. 25-28), "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion" (pp. 43-77)

WK 5	First Test

Reason and Religion: Faith and Subjectivity

Readings: "The Wager" (pp.78-81), "Pascal's Wager" (handout)

WK 6	Reason and Religion: Faith and Subjectivity

Readings: "Against Objectivity in Religion", " Kierkegaard 's Arguments Against Objective

Reasoning in Religion" pp. 82-106

Winter Study Period Feb. 16th -20th

Deadline for drop with 50% tuition refund Feb.20th

WK 7	Knowledge and Reality: Introduction

Readings: "Meditations on First Philosophy" pp.112-136

WK 8	Second Test

Knowledge and Reality: Classics in Epistemology

Readings: "Some Further Considerations Concerning Our Simple Ideas of Sensation",

"Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous " pp. 137-173

WK 9	Knowledge and Reality: Classics in Epistemology

Readings: "Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous " pp. 143-173

WK 10 Knowledge and Reality: Classics in Epistemology and Induction

Readings: and "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding" and "The Problem of

Induction" pp. 189-214, 228-248

WK 11 Mind and Body: Freedom and Determinism

Readings: "Has the Self 'Free Will'"?, "Of Liberty and Necessity,"

and "I Could Not Have Done Otherwise--So What?" pp.436-456, 480-488

WK 12 Catch-up or further assignment

Possible Readings: "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" and "Minds, Brains, and Programs"

pp. 358-383

WK 13 Test #3

Course Requirements

Tests: I will base seventy-five percent of your grade upon three tests (twenty-five percent for each test). The first two tests will occur within the first eight weeks of the course. The third test will occur during the last class meeting (April 7th). I will base the remaining twenty-five percent of the course grade upon twelve short weekly assignments. These assignments will be handed out on the class previous to their due date. I base these assignments upon your readings and the paradoxes listed at the end of your book. Grades for weekly assignments will be on a scale of 1-10.