This page is intended to give overviews for the units. While these unit overviews are quite specific, it is important to know that they may change given the changing nature of classes. The information here is intended to be a baseline. Be sure to pay attention to what happens in class and listen for any modifications to the schedule.
Logic
Day 1
Aristotle (Read at home)
Aristotelian Logic (Read and answer questions 1-4 at home)
Categorical Syllogisms (In class)
Day 2
The Venn Diagram (Part A: Read and answer questions at home; Part B: In class)
Day 3
Defining Mill’s Method (Read at home; answer questions in class)
Sleight-of-Hand Fallacies (Read at home; be prepared to discuss in class)
Recognizing Weak Arguments (Read at home; be prepared to discuss in class)
Epistemology
Day 4
The Divided Line Defined (Read at home)
Watch in class: Allegory of the Cave (Be prepared to discuss in class)
Epistemology (Read and discuss in class)
Epistemology Defined (Read and discuss in class)
Rationalism
Day 5
Rene Descartes and Epistemology (Read at home)
Descartes’ Four Rules (Read at home)
Descartes’ Meditations (Read at home; answer questions in class)
A Rationalist World (Be prepared to discuss in class)
Empiricism
Day 6
Empiricists (Read at home)
Defining Empiricism (Read at home; answer questions in class)
An Empirical World (Be prepared to discuss in class)
Day 7
Francis Bacon (Read at home)
Bacon’s Idols (Read at home)
Bacon’s Idols Applied (Be prepared to discuss in class)
End of Unit
Day 8
Review Day (Homework Journals Due)
Day 9
Unit Test (Free(ish) Response Journals Due)
Cosmology
Day 1
Explaining Your World (Read and answer questions at home)
Metaphysics Vocabulary (In class)
The Three Philosophers from Miletus (In class)
Day 2
Five Pre-Socratics Background Information (Read at home)
Pre-Socratic Idea Flow Chart (In class)
Day 3
Plato’s Forms (Read at home)
Listen: History of Philosophy Podcast, Episode 26: The Cave and Plato’s Forms (Be prepared to discuss in class)
Plato’s The Euthyphro and Characteristics of Plato’s Forms (Read, be prepared to discuss and answer questions in class)
Day 4
Aristotle (Read at home)
Aristotle’s Metaphysics (Read, be prepared to discuss and answer questions in class)
Mind and Body
Day 5
Rene Descartes (Read at home)
Introduction to Descartes’ Meditation VI (Read, be prepared to discuss and answer questions in class)
Day 6
Baruch Spinoza (Read at home)
Spinoza’s Metaphysics (Read at home)
Mind-Body Problems and Near-Death Experiences (Read and be prepared to discuss in class)
Free Will vs Determinism
Day 7
Free Will and Determinism Defined (Read at home)
Forty-Eight Hours (Be prepared to discuss and answer questions in class)
The Causal Chain (Be prepared to discuss and answer questions in class)
End of Unit
Day 8
Review Day (Homework Journals Due)
Day 9
Unit Test (Free(ish) Response Journals Due)
Objectivism vs Relativism:
Day 1
What is Ethics? (Read and answer questions at home)
Three Bases for Ethics? (Be prepared to discuss in class)
Virtue-Based Ethics
Day 2
Plato’s Ethics (Read at home; be prepared to discuss and answer questions in class)
Day 3
The Doctrine of the Mean (Read and answer questions at home)
The Doctrine of the Mean Applied (Be prepared to discuss and answer questions in class)
Day 4
Stoicism (Read at home)
Stoic Guidelines for Living (Read at home)
The Stoic Mental Health Clinic (Be prepared to discuss and answer questions in class)
Utilitarianism
Day 5
Teleology and Utilitarianism (Read at home)
Epicurus (Read at home)
Pleasure through Pain Avoidance (Read at home)
Epicurean Society vs. Present Society (Be prepared to discuss and answer questions in class)
Day 6
Mill’s Utilitarianism (Read and answer questions at home)
Mill and Lying (Read at home)
Applying Results-Oriented Ethics (Be prepared to discuss and answer questions in class)
Duty-Based Ethics
Day 7
Deontological Approach (Read at home)
Immanuel Kant (Read at home)
Kant’s Categorical Imperative (Read at home; be prepared to discuss and answer questions in class)
Kant Versus Mill (Be prepared to discuss in class)
End of Unit
Day 8
Review Day (Homework Journals Due)
Day 9
Unit Test (Free(ish) Response Journals Due)
What is existentialism?
Day 1
Existentialism Defined (Read at home)
Defining Existentialism (Read and answer questions at home)
The Existential Process (Be prepared to discuss and answer questions in class)
Man vs Society
Day 2
Soren Kierkegaard (Read at home)
Herd Mentality (Be prepared to discuss and answer questions in class)
Day 3
Kierkegaard’s Three Life Stages (Read at home; be prepared to discuss and answer questions in class)
The Existential Situation (Read at home; be prepared to discuss and answer questions in class)
Man vs Self
Day 4
Friedrich Nietzsche (Read at home)
The Ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche (Be prepared to discuss and answer questions in class)
Day 5
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Read and answer questions at home)
Media Expectations and the Teenage Ubermensch (Read, be prepared to discuss and answer questions in class)
Twenty-First Century Ubermensch (Read, be prepared to discuss and answer questions in class)
Living Authentically and Meaningfully
Day 6
Existentialism in the 1800s (Read at home)
Jean-Paul Sartre (Read at home)
Living an Authentic Life (Read, be prepared to discuss and answer questions in class)
Sartre and Freedom (Read, be prepared to discuss and answer questions in class)
Day 7
Being and Nothingness (Read at home; be prepared to discuss in class)
Viktor Frankl (Read at home)
From Man’s Search for Meaning (Read at home; be prepared to discuss and answer questions in class)
End of Unit
Day 8
Review Day (Homework Journals Due)
Day 9
Unit Test (Free(ish) Response Journals Due)