Course Syllabus

Introduction to Philosophy

Instructor: Charles Wallis	Office Phone: 885-1211 ex

Office: 369 Hagey Hall	E-mail: cwallis @ watarts.uwaterloo.ca

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

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

WK 7	Knowledge and Reality: Introduction

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

WK 8	Second Mini-Test Monday, October 16th

Roll Call October 18th

Mid-Term Pause October 19th -22nd

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

pp. 137-142

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: "Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous " and "Of Scepticism with Regard

to the Senses" pp. 143-188

WK 11 Knowledge and Reality: Classics in Epistemology and Induction

Withdrawal deadline November 7th

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

Induction" pp. 189-214, 228-248

WK 12 Knowledge and Reality: Induction, Causation, and Explanation

Readings: "The Problem of Induction", "The Argument from Analogy for Other Minds", and

"Descartes's Myth" pp. 295-313, 228-248

WK 13 Mind and Body: The Traditional Problem of Mind and Body

Test #3 Monday November 20th

WK 14 Mind and Body: The Traditional Problem of Mind and Body

Readings: "The Nature of Mental States", "Eliminative Materialism", and

"What is it Like to be a Bat?" pp. 322-330, 344-357

WK 15 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

FINAL WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13 2PM

Course Requirements

Tests: I will base eighty-five percent of your grade upon three tests. The first two tests will occur within the first eight weeks of the course. Each of these tests will be worth a possible one hundred points. The final will occur during finals week and will be worth two hundred points. I will base the remainder of the course grade upon fifteen short weekly assignments. These assignments will be handed out on monday and will be due on the following monday . I base these assignments upon your readings and the paradoxes listed at the end of your book. Grades for weekly assignments will be +, x, and -.