PHIL 382.01 Ontology; Dr. Mark Steen; Spring 2012


Course Description:

In this course we will study different categories of entities and the concepts associated with them. The categories we will examine are ordinary objects, persons, time and space, properties, causation and laws, as well as the notions of existence and possibility/necessity.

This course presupposes some familiarity with metaphysics and philosophy, and is primarily intended for third-year undergraduate majors.

Contact Info:

email: mark[mylastname]ATgmail.com

Office: 350 Anderson Hall

Office hours: Mondays, 3pm-5pm, and by appointment

Course Texts:

    • Carroll, John, and Markosian, Ned, An Introduction to Metaphysics, Cambridge University Press, 2010. [Henceforth referred to as ITM ].

    • van Inwagen, Peter, and Zimmerman, Dean, Metaphysics: The Big Questions, Blackwell, 1998 [Henceforth referred to as MBQ ].

    • There will also be various scans of articles from here and there provided to you throughout the semester.

Grading Components:

    1. Midterm Essay Exam 1: 39%

    2. Final Essay Exam 2: 44%

    3. General Class Participation: 17%

There will be two essay exams, wherein students will have to pick 2 out of 3 (or perhaps 3 or 4 out of 5) questions to answer which cover the range of material which the exam is on (the final is not cumulative). The questions will be posted ahead of time.

Class participation is a function of your attendance, how you comport yourself, how well and how often you ask questions, raise objections, make comments, etc., and how you perform on several homework assignments, and in-class exercises.

Reading Schedule:

Subject to revision. Readings are to be read BY the date the readings are listed next to.

Introduction; Existence

M, Feb 20

· 1st day; no readings

W, Feb 22

· "Holes," by David and Stephanie Lewis. Reading posted electronically online

· Chapter 1 from ITM.

M, Feb 27

· "On What There Is," WVO Quine

Prof. Baber's Slideshow on Quine

Ordinary Objects and Their Persistence

W, Feb 29

· ”Of Confused Subjects which are Equivalent to Two Subjects: an Excerpt from The Port-Royal Logic, Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole." 171-173 MBQ

· ITM, pages 184-190, 210-226.

· "Identity Through Time," Roderick Chisholm, 173 through 178. MBQ

You may find Curtis Brown's webpage on the Chisholm article helpful.

M, March 5

· Chisholm continued, 178-186

· "Identity, Ostension and Hypostasis," WVO Quine, 186-188 MBQ

You might find slides 5-20 of Prof. Baber's slideshow useful (these parts cover the parts of the excerpt we read).

· "Some Problems About Time," Peter Geach, MBQ 192-204

W, March 7

  • ITM, 190-210

M, March 12

Persons part I - Personal Identity

W, March 14

M, March 19

  • ITM, 117-132, and ITM 133-144

Persons part II - The Mind-Body Problem

W, March 21 - class canceled

M, March 26

  • ITM 144-158

W, March 28

· "The Puzzle of Conscious Experience," David Chalmers. [assigned, but not for class discussion]

- "They're Made Out of Meat," Terry Bisson [assigned, but not for class discussion]

· "Materialism and Christian Belief," Alvin Plantinga, pages 100-118, in Dropbox (week 6 folder)

Time and Space

M, April 2

  • "The Notion of the Present," A.N. Prior 80-82 MBQ

  • "The Space-Time World," J.J.C. Smart, 94-101 MBQ

  • ITM, chapter 7, 1st 1/2

  • Midterm essay questions posted - The Midterm will only cover material through March 28

W,April 4

  • ITM, chapter 7, 2nd 1/2

  • "Topis, Soris, Noris," Ian Hinckfuss, 101-103 MBQ

  • "Some Free Thinking About Time," A.N. Prior 104-107 MBQ

M, April 9

MIDTERM ESSAY EXAM - Note that the exam only covers material through March 28.

W, April 11

· "The Fourth Dimension," Martin Gardner 108-111 MBQ

· "Incongruent Counterparts and Higher Dimensions," 111-120 MBQ

Properties

M, April 16

W, April 18

April 23rd and 25th - Spring Break, no classes

M, April 30

  • "Ostrich Nominalism or Mirage Realism?," Devitt

W, May 2

  • "A Reply to 'Ostrich Nominalism'," Armstrong

Causation and Laws

M, May 7

  • ITM, chapter 2

W, May 9

  • ITM chapter 4

Necessity and Possibility (Modality)

M, May 14

  • "Reductive Theories of Modality," (hencefort RTM) Ted Sider, 180-191, posted online.

W, May 16

  • RTM 191-198

M, May 21

  • RTM 199-205

W, May 23 - Last Day of (our) Class - Wrap Up.

June 1st - Deadline for drafts.

June 8th, 9am (via email) - Final drafts of papers due (no exceptions!). Please turn in a hardcopy later that day. You can turn in your essays earlier.

FINAL EXAM - June 7th, 4-7pm, in KBZ01

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