Philo-sophiaa kerrakseen

Tämän lukukauden rypistys kolmenkymmenen opiskelijan kanssa alkaa olla taputtelua vaille valmis. Lopputentti ja niiden korjaaminen tietysti vielä edessä, mutta johan tässä ollaan voiton puolella -- ehkä.

Tämä kurssi jakaantui neljään osaan, joissa puolestaan jokaisella viikolla oli oma teemansa. Ja tuosta eikun lukemaan.


Section I: Introduction – Philosophy of the person (but what is a person?)

Introduction

Sept 4
General Introduction – What is (academic) philosophy and what are we about to do?

Sept 7
René Descartes: Meditations (I and II) and David Hume: A Treatise of Human Nature (ch. Of Personal Identity)

Human being who does things

Sept 10
Homo faber – Henri Bergson: Creative Evolution (Ch. II [excerpt])

Sept 12
Homo ludens – Johan Huizinga: Homo Ludens (Foreword and Ch. I)

Sept 14
Homo oeconomicus – J S Mill: Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy (Essay V [excerpt])

Human being who searches and questions

Sept 17
Homo religiosus – Mircea Eliade: The Sacred and the Profane (Introduction and ch. Sacred and Profane in the Modern World)

Sept 19
Homo viator – Bonaventure: The Breviloquium (Prologue & II.11-12)

Sept 21
Homo sapiens – Carl von Linné: A General System of Nature (Foreword and Introduction and Mammals: Primates: Homo)

The first reflection due on Sat Sept 22 at 6:00pm (“What – or rather who – am I as a human being?”)



Section II: Perspectives on knowing

The rationalist approach: the mind’s eye

Sept 24
Plato: Theaetetos (200d-202d) and Meno (80a-86c)

Sept 26
René Descartes: Discourse on Method (IV and V)

Sept 28
Gottfried Leibniz: The New Essays on Human Understanding (Preface and Book I, Ch. i)

The demonstrative and empirical approaches: sensory experience

Oct 1
Aristotle: On the Soul (Book III, ch.4-8) and Posterior Analytics (Book Alpha, ch.1-2)

Oct 3
David Hume: A Treatise of Human Nature (ch. Of the Origin of Our Ideas)

Oct 5
George Berkeley: The Principles of Human Knowledge (Part I [excerpt])

The transcendental approach: necessary conditions for the possibility of cognition

Oct 8
Columbus Day – No class

Oct 10
Immanuel Kant: Critique of Pure Reason (Prefaces A and B)

Oct 12
Immanuel Kant: Critique of Pure Reason (Introduction B, On the Concepts of Understanding [§10])

The pragmatic approach: a true belief functions in practice

Oct 15
Charles S. Peirce: How to Make Our Ideas Clear?

Oct 17
William James: Pragmatism (ch. What Pragmatism Means)

Oct 19
John Dewey: Problems of Men (ch. The Problems of Men and the Present State of Philosophy)

The second reflection due on Sat Oct 20 at 6:00pm (“How do I know what I know – if I know?”)


Section III: Perspectives on being

Greek natural philosophers: the Elements, panta rei, and the One

Oct 22
Heidegger: Being and Time (§1-§4) and Diogenes Laertios: Life of Thales

Oct 24
Heraclitus: Fragments

Oct 26
Parmenides: Fragments

Plato: Philosophy and Eternal Ideas

Oct 29
Hurricane Sandy – No class

Oct 31
Plato: The Republic (Book II [excerpt, 368e-376c])


Nov 2
Conference break – No class

Plato and his students: Idealism

Nov 5
Plato: The Republic (Book V-VI [excerpt, 472b-485a] and Book X [excerpt, 596a-597e])


Nov 7
Plato: The Republic (Book VI and VII [excerpt 507a-518d])

Nov 9
Plotinos: Enneads (On Beauty [I.6] and On the Good or the One [VI.9]) OR
Augustine: Confessions (selections on books VII, XII, and XIII)

Realism and Nominalism: the universalia-particularia dispute

Nov 12
Aristotle: Metaphysics (IV.1-2, VII.1-8)

Nov 14
Aquinas: Summa Theologiae (I.q15 [On Ideas] and I.q16 [On Truth])

Nov 16
William Ockham: Philosophical Writings (selection)

Reactions against metaphysics: scientific verification

Nov 19
Auguste Comte: A General View of Positivism (ch. I [excerpt]) and
The Scientific Conception of the World: The Vienna Circle Pamphlet

Nov 21
Thanksgiving holiday – No class

Nov 23
Thanksgiving holiday – No class

The third reflection due on Tue Nov 20 at 6:00pm (“What are the things that are for me – and how they are?”)



Section IV: Perspectives on the human quest and fortune

Philosophy and human life

Nov 26
Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy (I)

Nov 28
Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy (II)

Nov 30
Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy (III)

Philosophy and human life

Dec 3
Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy (IV)

Dec 5
Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy (V)

Dec 7
Review session