Philosophy 123 -- Introduction to Philosophy

Fall 2009 Instructor: Dr. Jeffrey Koperski Office: Brown 315

Homepage: http://www.svsu.edu/~koperski E-mail: koperski@svsu.edu

Description: This course will explore some of the key philosophical questions concerning the place of human beings in the world: the existence of God, freewill, the existence of a mind-independent external world, and ethics. Contributions from pivotal figures in the history of philosophy will be introduced in the context of these questions.

Text: Pojman and Vaughn, Philosophy: The Quest for Truth, 7th ed (Oxford University Press, 2009)

Assignments:

15% Test 1 15% Test 2 25% Paper

15% Test 3 15% Final Exam 15% Reading Quizzes & In-class assignments

Reading quizzes are unannounced and may be given at any time. There are no make-ups.

Paper topics will be given later in the semester. Follow this link for grading criteria and format. Late papers will be penalized one letter grade per calendar day. An electronic version of your paper must be uploaded to Turnitin.com and will be checked by computer against a database of past papers and Internet websites. If the software detects similar wording and phrases in another paper that is not properly cited, you will receive a zero on that assignment. Do your own work! Papers not submitting to this service will not be graded.

Scale:	92-100 A	78-79 C+
	90-91 A-	70-77 C
	88-89 B+	61-69 D
	82-87 B	60 F
	80-81 B-

Course Schedule

I Why Philosophy?

A. Plato, “Socratic Wisdom” [1]

II God and Religious Belief

A. Flew, Hare, and Mitchell, “A Debate on the Rationality of Religious Belief” [17]

B. Intelligent Design

§ Video clip: Stephen Meyer

§ Dembski, “Science and Design” {Vspace}

§ Video: “Unlocking the Mystery of Life” chapters 4, 9-11

C. The Problem of Evil

1 Johnson, “Why Doesn’t God Intervene?” [12]

2 Hick, “There is a Reason Why God Allows Evil” [13]

III The Mind/Body Problem

A. Materialism vs. Dualism {Vspace}

B. Searle, “Minds, Brains, and Computers” [39]

§ Star Trek NG, “The Measure of Man”

IV Knowledge, Skepticism, and Truth

A. C. Abbott, Flatland {Vspace}

B. Descartes, “The Method of Doubt” [22] [Clip from Matrix]

C. Russell, “The Correspondence Theory of Truth” [27]

D. Rorty, “Dismantling Truth” [30]

V Freedom and Determinism

A. Introduction: The opposing camps [pages 378-383]

B. D’Holbach, “We are Completely Determined” [46]

VI Philosophical Ethics

A. Relativism

1 Ruth Benedict, “Morality is Relative” [54]

2 James Rachels, “Morality is not Relative” [55]

B. Why Be Ethical?

1 Plato, “The Ring of Gyges” [56]

C. Star Trek Voyager, “Tuvix”

D. The Abortion Debate

1 Introduction: Abortion and Rights

2 English, “The Moderate Position: Beyond the Personhood Argument” [77, section II only]

VII Some Logic

A. Informal Fallacies [38-42]

Slides available on Vspace.