|
HU Credits:
2
Degree/Cycle:
1st degree (Bachelor)
Responsible Department:
Philosophy
Semester:
1st Semester
Teaching Languages:
Hebrew
Campus:
Mt. Scopus
Course/Module Coordinator:
David Enoch
Coordinator Office Hours:
Will be updated shortly
Teaching Staff:
Prof David Enoch
Course/Module description:
Philosophy consists in taking usual commonsensical thought a step further. The problems that philosophers discuss are often problems you have already thought about, at least in an initial way, but perhaps you haven't studies them systematically, with the kind of rigor and intellectual responsibility to which we aspire when we do philosophy. This course will ofer a kind of a "teasting menu" of central problems in different philosophical sub-disciplines, and will attempt to give you a feel for what a precise, intellectually responsible (if somewhat introductory) discussion of these problems. Among the questions we will discuss: How (if at all) can we know anything at all? What is the relation between my body, my mind, and me? Do we have a free will, and if so, how can it be made compatible with the way in which the empirical sciences describe the world? Should we always act in ways that will bring about the best consequences? If there an objective moral truth?
Course/Module aims:
Familiarity with central philosophical problems, and mostly with the philosophical way of thinking` preparation for more in-depth discussions in later courses.
Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
I don't believe in stating measurable learning outcomes for this kind of course. Sorry.
Attendance requirements(%):
100 (though I don't intend to check)
Teaching arrangement and method of instruction:
Lecture.
In the course "Critical Writing' some of the issues that will be discussed and written about will be relevant ot this course as well.
Course/Module Content:
Skepticism; The Mind Body problem; inference to the best explanation, is morality relative?; free will; the self-torturer paradox; time; skepticism and the philosophy of language; the meaning of life.
Required Reading:
- תומאס נייגל, מה המשמעות של כל זה?, פרק ראשון "מבוא" ופרק שני "איך אנחנו יודעים משהו?". תל אביב, ידיעות ספרים, 2008/
- Jonathan Dancy, Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology (Blackwell Publishers), chap. 1.
- תומאס נייגל, מה המשמעות של כל זה?, פרק רביעי "בעיית הגוף והנפש".
- David M. Armstrong, “The Nature of Mind”, in his The nature of Mind and Other Essays.
- תומאס נייגל, "איך זה להיות עטלף?", בתוך: שאלות עלמוות. ירושלים, מאגנס, 2010
- Igor Douven, “Abduction” in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, available at: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/abduction/
- David Enoch, “Why I’m an Objectivist about Ethics (And Why You Are, Too)”, forthcoming in The Ethical Life (Shafer-Landau ed., Oxford University Press).
- Rachels, J., “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism”, in his The Elements of Moral Philosophy, 20-36.
- תומאס נייגל, מה המשמעות של כל זה?, פרק שישי "רצון חופשי".
- Galen Strawson, “Free Will”, in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Warren S. Quinn, “the Puzzle of the Self-Torturer”, Philosophical Studies 59 (1990), 79-90.
Ned Markosian, “Time”, in the Stanford encyclopedia of Philosophy, available at: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time/
- תומאס נייגל, מה המשמעות של כל זה?, פרק חמישי "משמעותן של מילים".
Hilary Putnam, “Brains in a Vat”, chapter 1 in his Reason, Truth and History (Cambridge University Press, 1981).
- תומאס נייגל, "האבסורד", בתוך: שאלות עלמוות. ירושלים, מאגנס, 2010.
- Thomas Nagel, “The Absurd”, The Journal of Philosophy 68 (1971), 716-727.
- Bertrand Russell, “What I Have Lived For”, from his autobiography.
Additional Reading Material:
- דקארט, "ההיגיון הראשון", בתוך: רנה דקארט, הגיונות על הפילוסופיה הראשונית, (בתרגום דורי מנור, תל אביב, 2001), עמ' 43-51.
George Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous.
David Lewis, “Mad Pain and Martian Pain”, in his Philosophical Papers vol. 1.
- תומאס נייגל, מה המשמעות של כל זה?, פרק שלישי "תודעות אחרות".
Frank Jackson, “What Mary Didn’t Know”, The Journal of Philosophy 83 (1986).
Fumerton, R. “Inference to the Best Explanation”, entry in Dancy, J. and Sosa E. (eds.) A Companion to Epistemology (Blackwell, 1992), 207-209.
אלעזר וינריב, בעיות בפילוסופיה של המוסר, כרך ג, 163-168. תל אביב, האוניברסיטה הפתוחה, 2008.
David Enoch, “How Is Moral Disagreement a Problem for Realism?” The Journal of Ethics 13 (2009), 15-50.
Robert Kane, A Contemporary Introduction to Free Will (OUP 2005), especially chapter 1.
Peter Van Inwagen, An Essay on Free Will, chap. 3-5 (pp. 55-189).
תומאס נייגל, מה המשמעות של כל זה?, פרק עשירי, "משמעות החיים".
Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 100 %
Presentation 0 %
Participation in Tutorials 0 %
Project work 0 %
Assignments 0 %
Reports 0 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 0 %
Additional information:
|
