What do you think of this intro to philosophy syllabus I found on reddit?

It was posted by the professor; I have no idea where the guy teaches, but as with virtually every Mises Academy class, all the readings are free and online.

No readings

1. Fri Jan 22 – Introduction II

Plato, Euthyphro  (http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/euthyfro.html)

Section 1: Religion

1. Tues Jan 26 – The Cosmological Argument

Aquinas, excerpt from Summa Theologica (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/aquinas3.html)

1. Fri Jan 29 – The Teleological Argument

Paley, excerpt from Natural Theology

(http://philosophy.lander.edu/intro/articles/paley-a.pdf)

Gould, excerpt from The Panda’s Thumb (http://faculty.washington.edu/lynnhank/Gould.pdf)

1. Tues Feb 2 – The Ontological Argument

Anselm, excerpt from Proslogion (plus replies)

(http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/anselm.html)

1. Fri Feb 5 – The Problem of Evil

Mackie, “Evil and omnipotence”

(http://faculty.unlv.edu/jwood/unlv/evilomnipotence.pdf)

1. Tues Feb 9 – Pascal’s wager

Pascal, excerpt from Pensées

(http://www.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/web%20publishing/Pascal_Wager.htm)

James, excerpt from “The will to believe”

(http://educ.jmu.edu//~omearawm/ph101willtobelieve.html)

Section 2: Knowledge

1. Fri Feb 12 – Skepticism I

Descartes, Meditation I

(http://www.filepedia.org/meditations-on-first-philosophy)

1. Tues Feb 16 – Skepticism II

Moore, “Proof of an external world”

(http://web.mac.com/cludwig/Site/Philosophie_de_la_connaissance_files/moore.pdf)

1. Fri Feb 19 – Skepticism III

Putnam, “Brains in a vat”

(http://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/ph29a/putnam.html)

1. Tues Feb 23 – Induction I

Hume, excerpt from An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding

(http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/pdfbits/he1.pdf) (Section IV)

1. Fri Feb 26 - Induction II

Goodman, excerpt from Fact, Fiction and Forecast

(http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/teaching/1702_jnrsnr_seminar/docs/goodman.pdf)

Section 3: Mind and Body

1. Tues Mar 2 – What is Consciousness?

Nagel, “What is it like to be a bat?”

(http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/nagel_nice.html)

Descartes, Meditation VI, 9-19

(http://www.filepedia.org/meditations-on-first-philosophy)

1. Fri Mar 5 – The Mind-body Problem I

Jackson, “What Mary didn’t know”

(jorgemlg.googlepages.com/jackson-whatmarydidntknow.pdf)

1. Tues Mar 9 – The Mind-body Problem II

Smart, “Sensations and brain processes”

(henry.laycock.googlepages.com/sensations.pdf)

Fri Mar 12 – NO CLASS

     Tues Mar 16 – SPRING BREAK – NO CLASS
     Fri Mar 19 – SPRING BREAK – NO CLASS

1. Tues Mar 23 – The Mind-body Problem III

Lewis, “Mad pain and Martian pain”

(http://web.missouri.edu/johnsonrn/papers/lewis.pdf)

1. Fri Mar 26 – Artificial Intelligence

Searle, “Minds, brains, and programs”

(http://web.archive.org/web/20071210043312/http://members.aol.com/NeoNoetics/MindsBrainsPrograms.html)

Section 4: Free Will and Personal Identity

1. Tues Mar 30 – Personal Identity I

Williams, “The self and the future”

(http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/content/BPL_Images/Content_store/Sample_chapter/9780631234418/001.pdf)

1. Fri Apr 2 – Personal Identity II

Locke, excerpt from Essay Concerning Human Understanding

(http://ethnicity.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/locke227.html)

Reid, excerpt from Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man

(http://www.philosophy.ucf.edu/pi/reid.html)

1. Tues Apr 6 – Personal Identity III

Dennett, “Where am I?”

(http://www.newbanner.com/SecHumSCM/WhereAmI.html)

1. Fri Apr 9 – Free Will I

Holbach, excerpt from The System of Nature

(Available in entirety on Google books.  Read first 10-15 pgs. of ch. 11)

1. Tues Apr 13 – Free Will II

Ayer, “Freedom and necessity”

(http://psych.dbourget.com/readings/Ayer.pdf)

Section 5: Ethics

1. Fri Apr 16 – Utilitarianism

Mill, excerpt from Utilitarianism

(Available in entirety on Google books.  Read Ch. 2)

1. Tues Apr 20 – Deontological Views

Kant, excerpt from Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals

(http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/pdfbits/kgw1.pdf)

1. Fri Apr 23 – Cultural Relativism

Rachels, “The challenge of cultural relativism”

(http://www.unc.edu/courses/2005ss1/phil/020/002/Rachels.pdf)

1. Tues Apr 27 – Applied Ethics I

Thomson, “A defense of abortion”

(http://www.jhu.edu/choice/files/adefenseofabortion.pdf)

1. Fri Apr 30 – Applied Ethics II

Singer, “Famine, affluence, and morality”

(http://commonsenseatheism.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Singer-Famine-Affluence-and-Morality.pdf)

 

Gracias

Sweet, man. Thanks for that. I was very confused until I realized that you said "philosophy" and not "psychology".

Some comments:

About knowledge -no intuitionism or innate ideas? no infalliblism? Also, there's nothing about deduction.

Second, the use of Singer -this probably will put up another roadblock to ancap but I have no essential argument against singer's ideas, being that I don't really know them all that well except that he holds a sort of utilitarian defense of animal rights.

Interesting, in my Civil Wars and Revolutions class my professor also has all of the readings be online and free. Interestingly enough, he is a libertarian and our faculty advisor for our campus YAL chapter.

fakename:

Some comments:

About knowledge -no intuitionism or innate ideas? no infalliblism? Also, there's nothing about deduction.

Second, the use of Singer -this probably will put up another roadblock to ancap but I have no essential argument against singer's ideas, being that I don't really know them all that well except that he holds a sort of utilitarian defense of animal rights.

At least in this interview with Richard Dawkins, Singer's defense of animal rights seem deontological to me.

Thanks for posting this!