Course Title: PHIL
211 - Introduction to Metaphysics and Epistemology
Class Time/Place: Wednesday 7-9:30 pm / Busch Hall 110
Texts: Taylor, Richard (1992). Metaphysics. 4th
ed. Prentice-Hall.
Steup, Matthias (1996). An Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology.
Prentice-Hall.
Instructor: Chris Eliasmith
Office: Busch Hall, Room 10
Office Hours: By appointment.
Email: chris@twinearth.wustl.edu
Web Site: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~celiasmi/Phil211/course.html
Course Description: This course is intended for students who have already had one or two introductory level philosophy courses. The students will be introduced to the logical and conceptual tools needed to understand the central historical and contemporary problems of both metaphysics and epistemology. Areas of study include justification, the debate over foundationalism and coherentism, reliablism, naturalistic and nonnaturalistic epistemology, problem of universals, the problem of individuation, the nature of modality, identity through time, and the realism/antirealism debate. The metaphysical and epistemological sections of the course will be brought together through a discussion of skepticism.
Schedule:
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Intro, 1 | Introduction to Metaphysics | 1/13 |
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2 | Persons and Bodies | 1/20 |
| 3 | Interactionism | ||
| 4 | Mind as a Function of the Body | ||
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5 | Freedom and Determinism | 1/27 |
| 6 | Fate | ||
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7 | Space and Time | 2/3 |
| 8 | Relativity | ||
| 9 | Temporal Passage | ||
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10 | Causation | 2/10 |
| 11 | God | ||
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5 | Polarity | 2/17 |
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8 | Metaphysics and Meaning | 2/24 |
| First Paper Due (30%) | |||
| Mid-Term (15%) | |||
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none | Introduction Historical Overview | 3/10 |
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1 | Gettier, Justification, Truth and Belief | 3/17 |
| pp. 21-30 | Concepts and Necessity | ||
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pp. 30-46 | Supervenience | 3/24 |
| 3 | A Priori Knowledge | ||
| Final Paper Topic Due | |||
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4 | The Concept of Epistemic Justification | 3/31 |
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5 | Foundationalism | 4/7 |
| pp. 114-125 | Coherentism | ||
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pp. 125-140 | Coherentism (cont.) | 4/14 |
| 7 | The Debate | ||
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8 | Reliabilism | 4/21 |
| 9 | Naturalized Epistemology | ||
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10 | Skepticism | 4/28 |
| Final Paper (30%) | |||
| Final Exam (15%) | |||
Grading: The course requires the writing of three 5-7 page papers each worth 30% of the final grade. The remaining 10% of the course grade will be based on class participation. Class participation will be based on the quality of questions raised by the student and their skill or improvement at participating in philosophical discussions.
Policies: Late papers will lose a partial letter grade (i.e. B- will become C+) per day late.