100 Readings Schedule (Maple Woods)

The Nature and Purpose of Philosophy

For January 14:

  • Read “The Value of Philosophy” by Bertrand Russell (also available pp.37-42)

 

For January 16:

  • Read “Allegory of the Cave” by Plato

 

Epistemology: Knowledge from the Senses

For January 21:

  • Read “Meditations on First Philosophy (Meditation I)” by Rene Descartes (also available pp. 46-49 or for a modern language translation, see A1-A3 in the back of the book)

 

For January 23:

  • Read from “Essay Concerning Human Understanding” by John Locke
  • Read Chapter I (65-66), Chapter VIII (67-68), Chapter IV (71), and Chapter XI (71-73)

 

For January 26:

  • Read from “The Problems of Philosophy” by Bertrand Russell (chapter 1 only, through page 13 of the linked file)

 

Epistemology: Induction and Science

 

For January 28:

  • Read from “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding” by David Hume
  • Read Part I (124-126)

 

For January 30:

  • Read from “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding” by David Hume
  • Read Part II (126-129)

 

For February 2:

  • Read from “The Problems of Philosophy” by Bertrand Russell (Chapter 6 (VI) only)

 

For February 4:

  • Read “Goodman’s New Riddle of Induction”

 

For February 6:

  • Read “Science as Falsification” by Karl Popper (A29-A34)

 

For February 9:

  • Read “The Revenge of Historicism” by Robert Klee

 

For February 11:

  • Read from “The Importance of Philosophical Scepticism” by Barry Stroud

 

For February 13:

  • Come prepared with questions for review (See Exam 1 Preview)

 

For February 16:

  • Exam #1

Argument and Proof

 

For February 18:

  • NO CLASS MEETING

 

For February 20:

  • Read from “A demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God” by Samuel Clarke (521-523)
  • Read from “Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion” by David Hume (524-526)

 

For February 23:

  • Read from “Proslogion” by St. Anselm (554-555)
  • Read from “Gaunilo’s reply to Anselm” (A21-A22)

 

For February 25:

  • Read “The Impossibility of an Ontological Proof of the Existence of God” by Immanuel Kant (558-560)

 

For February 27:

  • Read from “Natural Theology” by William Paley (527-534)

 

For March 2:

  • Read from “Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion” by David Hume (538-550)

 

For March 4:

  • Read from “Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion” by David Hume (561-569)
  • Paper Assigned

 

For March 6:

  • Read from “Philosophy of Religion” by John Hick (576-580)

 

Metaphysics: Identity

 

For March 16:

  • Paper Due
  • Read “Paradox of Identity”

 

For March 18:

  • Read “The Case of Old Bentley Number One”

 

For March 20:

  • Read from “A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality” by John Perry, First Night (312-319)

 

For March 23:

  • Read from “A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality” (linked above) by John Perry, Second Night (319-326)

 

For March 25:

  • Read from “Where Am I?” by Daniel Dennett (read from the beginning to when “Hamlet” “dies”)

 

For March 27:

  • Read from “Where Am I?” (linked above) by Daniel Dennett (read from the “death” of “Hamlet” to the end)

 

For March 30:

  • Read “To Beam or Not to Beam?” by Richard Hanley (124-139)

 

For April 1:

  • Read “To Beam or Not to Beam?” by Richard Hanley (139-162)

 

For April 3:

  • Prepare questions for review

 

For April 6:

  • Exam 2

 

Values: Justice and the Foundations of Government

 

For April 8

  • No reading, material presented in class.

 

For April 10:

  • Read “Dialog with Thrasymachus” from “The Republic” by Plato (Edited by Brandon Gillette)

 

For April 13:

  • Read from “Leviathan” by Thomas Hobbes (450-457)
  • Watch Steven Pinker apply Hobbesian reasoning to explain empirical data. (HERE)

 

For April 15:

  • Read from “Second Treatise on Government” by John Locke (459-469)

 

For April 17:

  • Read “Of the Original Contract” by David Hume (470-474)

 

Values: Distributive Justice

For April 20:

  • Read from “Anarchy, State, and Utopia” by Robert Nozick (476-482)

 

For April 22:

  • Read from “A Theory of Justice” by John Rawls (484-495)

 

For April 24:

  • Read from “Rawls’ Theory of Justice” by T. M. Scanlon
  • Read “What’s Really Wrong with the Wilt Chamberlain Example?” by Julian Sanchez

 

For April 27:

  • Read “Moral Luck” by Thomas Nagel

 

For April 29:

  • Read “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor” by Garrett Hardin
  • Read from “Development as Freedom” by Amartya Sen

 

For May 1:

  • Read “The Hunger Trap“
  • Read from “Poor Economics” by Abhijit Bannerjee and Esther Duflo

 

For May 4:

  • Prepare questions for review