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Syllabus Central Problems in Philosophy - 15187
עברית
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Last update 10-08-2021
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 Email: David.Enoch@mail.huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours: By appointment

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:
meeting the course's aims

Attendance requirements(%):
100

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: Lecture and discussion.

Course/Module Content:
(I may make some changes later on.)
Skepticism; Skepticism and the Philosophy of Language; The Mind Body problem; free will; Speech and silencing - between philosophy of language and feminism; paradoxes and the sorites.

Required Reading:
Here's a list that includes required as well as additional reading:
חומר קריאה (חומר מודגש הוא חומר נדרש)
- 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.
- 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.

- 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, מה המשמעות של כל זה?, פרק רביעי "בעיית הגוף והנפש".
- Janet Levin, sections 1-3 of “Functionalism”, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, available here:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/functionalism/
- David M. Armstrong, “The Nature of Mind”, in his The nature of Mind and Other Essays.
- David Lewis, “Mad Pain and Martian Pain”, in his Philosophical Papers vol. 1.
- תומאס נייגל, "איך זה להיות עטלף?", בתוך: שאלות עלמוות. ירושלים, מאגנס, 2010
- תומאס נייגל, מה המשמעות של כל זה?, פרק שלישי "תודעות אחרות".
- Frank Jackson, “What Mary Didn’t Know”, The Journal of Philosophy 83 (1986).
- תומאס נייגל, מה המשמעות של כל זה?, פרק שישי "רצון חופשי".
- Galen Strawson, “Free Will”, in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Robert Kane, A Contemporary Introduction to Free Will (OUP 2005), especially chapter 1.
- Susan Wolf, "Asymmetrical Freedom," Journal of Philosophy 77 (March): 151-66 (1980).
- Peter Van Inwagen, An Essay on Free Will, chap. 3-5 (pp. 55-189).
- Eric Olson, “Personal Identity”, in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, available here:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/identity-personal/
- Derek Parfit, Reasons and Persons, sections 89-90 (253-266).
- Rae Langton, “Speech Acts and Unspeakable Acts”, Philosophy and Public Affairs 22 (1993), 293-330.
- Jennifer Saul, Feminist Philosophy of Language, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, available here:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-language/

- בילצקי הקדמה?
- Roy Sorensen (2017) “Epistmeic Paradoxes”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epistemic-paradoxes/

- בילצקי?-
- Dominic Hyde and Daina Raffman (2018) “Sorites Paradox”, The Stanford encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sorites-paradox/


Additional Reading Material:
See above.

Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 0 %
Presentation 0 %
Participation in Tutorials 0 %
Project work 0 %
Assignments 100 %
Reports 0 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 0 %

Additional information:
 
Students needing academic accommodations based on a disability should contact the Center for Diagnosis and Support of Students with Learning Disabilities, or the Office for Students with Disabilities, as early as possible, to discuss and coordinate accommodations, based on relevant documentation.
For further information, please visit the site of the Dean of Students Office.
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