Syllabus

PHILOSOPHY

Course Description

This course provides the bachelor students who chose English as a medium of instruction with information about main philosophical problems, such as knowledge, the truth, freedom, mind, justice, etc. Philosophy course trains students’ critical thinking skills and their skills in analysis and argumentation.

Contact information

Instructor: Dr. Oleksandr Kulyk

Office: Gagarin ave, 72, 813

Email: prof.kulyk@gmail.com

Course Webpages: https://sites.google.com/site/kuliktexts/en/courses/ph-is

Required texts

Plato, Republic

E. Gettier, Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?

L. Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

H.-G. Gadamer, Truth and Method

J. J. Thomson, Killing, Letting Die, and the Trolley Problem

Student Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

• apply reliable patterns of reasoning to avoid stereotypes and to provide own intellectual autonomy;

• use tools of intellectual work with such notions as “reality,” “cause,” and “truth;”

• use sound argumentative techniques;

• understand moral challenges.

Evaluation

Grades will be based on a 100-point scale distributed as follows:

Requirement

Participation (20%) – 20 points

Essays (40%) – 40 points

Exam – (40%) – 40 points

Final grade

А 90–100 points

В 82–89 points

С 75–81 points

D 64–74 points

Е 60–63 points

F 0–59 points

Course Requirements

Participation

To participate is to come to class and regularly contribute to discussions throughout the semester. This includes discussions in class and with the instructor during office hours.

Essays

In the framework of this course students will write four essays on the assigned readings.

Exam

There will be a final exam in which students will respond to two questions about the material covered. The format will be an essay. Students are expected to demonstrate in their answers that they have thought about the issues in an informed, thoughtful, and articulate way.

Tentative Timeline

February

Lecture:

The Role and Functions of Philosophy.

Seminar:

Plato, Republic: Allegory of the Cave

Lecture:

Philosophical Way of Thinking

March

Lecture:

The Nature of Knowledge

Seminar:

E. Gettier, Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?

Lecture:

Reality, Causation, and Material Constitution

Seminar:

L. Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

April

Lecture:

The Philosophy of Mind

Seminar:

H.-G. Gadamer, Truth and Method 

Lecture:

Morality and Values

Seminar:

J. J. Thomson, Killing, Letting Die, and the Trolley Problem

May

Lecture:

Ancient Philosophy: Key Themes and Thinkers

Lecture:

Main Traditions of Medieval Philosophy

Lecture:

Renaissance Philosophy

Lecture:

The Seventeenth-Century Rationalists and the Age of Enlightenment

June

Lecture:

German Idealism

Lecture:

Philosophy of the 19th-20th Centuries

Consultation

Exam