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Problems of Philosophy
Introduction to the problems of philosophy- in particular, to problems in ethics, metaphysics, theory of knowledge, and philosophy of logic, language, and science. A systematic rather than historical approach. Readings from classical and contemporary sources, but emphasis is on examination and evaluation of proposed solutions to the problems.
Fall 2019
Topics
- Introductions
- God Exists: Old and New Arguments from Design
- God Does Not Exist: The Problem of Evil
- Faith
- Ethics and God
- Subjectivism
- Objectivism
- Dualist Accounts of How Things Feel
- Materialist Accounts of How Things Feel
- Panpsychism
- Incompatiblism about Free Will and Determinism
- Compatibilist Theories of Free Will
- Free Will and Moral Responsibility
- The Psychological Criterion of Personal Identity over Time
- Personal Fission
- The Bodily Criterion of Personal Identity over Time
- Is There a Self?
- The Meanings of Lives
- The Absurd
- Death and the Afterlife
- Race
- Gender and Social Construction
- Feminist Epistemology
- Time Travel
- The Non-Identity Problem
Readings
- SES #: 1 · TOPICS: Introductions · READINGS: No readings
- Paley, William. “State of the Argument.” Chapter 1 in Natural Theology . Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780199535750.
- ———. “State of the Argument Continued.” Chapter 2 in Natural Theology . Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780199535750.
- Schlesinger, George. “The Problem of Evil and the Problem of Suffering.” American Philosophical Quarterly 1, no. 3 (1964): 244–47.
- SES #: 4 · TOPICS: Faith · READINGS: Buchak, Lara. “When is Faith Rational?” In The Norton Introduction to Philosophy . 2nd ed. Edited by Gideon Rosen, Alex Byrne, Joshua Cohen, et al. W. W. Norton & Company, 2018. ISBN: 9780393624427.
- SES #: 7 · TOPICS: Objectivism · READINGS: Nagel, Thomas. “Ethics.” Chapter 6 in The Last Word . Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780195149838.
- Strawson, P. F. “Freedom and Resentment.” Chapter 1 in Freedom and Resentment and Other Essays . Routledge, 2008. ISBN: 9780415448505.
- SES #: 14 · TOPICS: The Psychological Criterion of Personal Identity over Time · READINGS: Locke, John. “Of Identity and Diversity.” Chapter 27 in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding . Abridged and edited by Kenneth P. Winkler. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1996. ISBN: 9780872202160.
- Lewis, David. “Survival and Identity.” Chapter 5 in Philosophical Papers, Volume I . Oxford University Press, 1983. ISBN: 9780195032048.
- SES #: 18 · TOPICS: The Meanings of Lives · READINGS: Wolf, Susan. “The Meanings of Lives.” Chapter 68 in Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings . 8th ed. Oxford University Press, 2018. ISBN: 9780190698720.
- Spencer, Quayshawn. “Are Folk Races like Dingoes, Dimes or Dodos?” In The Norton Introduction to Philosophy . 2nd ed. Edited by Gideon Rosen, Alex Byrne, Joshua Cohen, et al. W. W. Norton & Company, 2018. ISBN: 9780393624427.
- Barnes, Elizabeth. “The Metaphysics of Gender.” In The Norton Introduction to Philosophy . 2nd ed. Edited by Gideon Rosen, Alex Byrne, Joshua Cohen, et al. W. W. Norton & Company, 2018. ISBN: 9780393624427.
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2019
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.