Paradoxes and Dilemmas

(Cross-listed as CLS 40) Introduction to fundamental themes in logic, epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics. Paradoxes and dilemmas are frequently associated with moments of crisis and groundbreaking developments in the history of philosophy, as they lead to questions about basic presuppositions. Analysis of famous cases in the history of Western thought from Antiquity to the present including Meno’s paradox (knowledge), Zeno’s paradoxes (space, time, motion, and the infinite), the Euthyphro dilemma (justification), the liar paradox (truth), the Heap (vagueness), the Ship of Theseus (identity), Antigone (moral conflict), the voting paradox (choice), and the prisoner’s dilemma (action).