This course provides an introduction to philosophy, with a focus on the traditional philosophical practice of oral communication and argument. As an intro-level philosophy course, this course aims to showcase how philosophers view, analyze, and understand various issues in communication. We will begin with communication amongst ourselves, discussing communication-related issues from pornography, confederate monuments, stand-up comedy, etc. Next, we’ll explore communication with kinds of minds other than our own, such as extraterrestrial beings and other apes. Finally, we will explore the role of communication in the development of artificial intelligence and recent advances in these forms of human-machine communication, in particular its potential implication to philosophy and college education in general. 

This course is designed to expose students to various moral issues in sports, including the nature of competition, cheating, performance-enhancing drugs, sex segregation in sports, etc. By doing this, I expect that students will become aware of significant moral issues in sports, critically engage with different viewpoints on each issue, and ultimately form their own views on the discussed issues through interaction with the readings, assignments, and their own reflections. 

Epistemology is the study of knowledge and justification, so we will discuss a set of questions bearing on knowledge and justification in this course: (1) How can I know I have two hands and am typing my epistemology syllabus? (Skepticism); (2) What is knowledge? Is true justified belief knowledge? (Analysis of knowledge); (3) When is my belief justified? (Nature and structure of justification). In addition to these traditional questions in epistemology, I invite you to explore recent issues in epistemology, such as disagreement and the role of gender in knowledge production.