Spring 2023 PHIL-P 106 Introduction to the Problems of Philosophy (Indiana University)
What This Course is About
This course is an introduction to some of the key questions, tools, and concepts of the discipline of philosophy, a discipline based on fundamental questions about the world and our place in it and practiced by means of clear argument and dialogue. Questions we will pursue include:
Questions about morality, happiness, and justice: What makes our actions right and wrong? Are we good by nature? What is justice? What is happiness, and what makes it valuable? Is civil disobedience justified? Are reparations for slavery justified?
Questions about knowledge and truth: What is the value of truth and knowledge? Is truth relative? Can we know anything at all? What is the role of trust in knowledge, and how does trust play a role in fake news and political polarization on the Internet and social media?
Questions about freedom and God: Do we have free will, and are we responsible for our actions? Does God exist? Why or why not?
In the last three weeks of the semester, students will vote on readings to discuss. Some readings continue discussion of the questions above, while some readings take on related questions or completely new ones. These questions include:
Should you reduce your individual CO2 emissions? Are minds and selves identical to brains or other physical objects, or are they distinct entities entirely? Is morality relative? Is a social contract the basis of justice? Is time travel possible?
In working together to formulate and assess answers to these questions, we will focus on learning how to form arguments. To help with that, we will use the technique of argument mapping—a tool for representing arguments that research indicates has borne fruit in teaching clear argumentation to students.
Modules and Learning Objectives
Our class is split up into six modules, guided by concrete learning objectives. Each module ends on the Wednesday of a particular week, where we wrap up and review the module’s material. The tentative schedule is given for each module.
Each module is associated with an assignment. The assignment becomes available Wednesday afternoon and is due the next Wednesday night. Each assignment consists of multiple short response questions (usually a few sentences long) and a short essay portion. The essays become increasingly more complex as the semester goes on, the aim being to build your skills at writing philosophical essays gradually.
Each assignment for the module is based on the content of the module, and some review of the previous module’s content. Starting with the assignments for Module 2, assignments contain one question from the previous short response assignment of the student’s choosing on which the student did not receive full credit, if any.
Module 1: Starting Out
Objectives: Skills-based: Students will learn arguments and their structure, learn the basics of the technique of argument mapping, and begin practicing philosophical essay writing. Content-based: Students will understand Mengzi’s view on whether humans are naturally good, Aquinas’ argument for the existence of God, and the concept of a cosmological argument.
Resources and Plan: Week 1: Monday: No reading, introduction to course. Wednesday: Plato, Euthyphro. (In Five Dialogues book).
Week 2: M(onday): No class, MLK Day. W(ednesday): Mengzi, Mengzi, selections.
Week 3: M: Thomas Aquinas, “The Five Ways,” just the Second Way. Argument mapping via philmaps.com. W: Work on argument maps together, using philmaps.com.
Module 2: Justice and Morality
Objectives: Skills-based: Students will get practice with mapping arguments from philosophical texts and continue practicing philosophical essay writing. Content-based: Students will learn Plato’s argument against some cases of civil disobedience and Martin Luther King Jr.’s argument in favor of some cases of civil disobedience. Students will understand Bentham’s utilitarianism and hedonism and learn two common objections to utilitarianism.
Resources and Plan: Week 4: M: Plato, Crito. (In Five Dialogues book). W: Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
Week 5: M: Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, Chapter 1 and Chapter 4 W: Dale Jamieson, “Objections to Utilitarianism” (selections from Ethics and the Environment)
Module 3: Value and Truth
Objectives: Skills-based: Students will get practice at formulating their own philosophical definitions and theories by writing an essay defending a theory or definition and responding to objections to it. Content-based: Students will learn Nozick’s objection to Bentham’s hedonism. Students will then learn to define epistemology and Zagzebski’s argument for when and why we should care about the truth and Clifford’s views on belief and evidence. Students will understand and apply Harry Frankfurt’s definition of bullshit.
Resources and Plan: Week 6 M: Robert Nozick, “The Experience Machine.” W: No reading: work on philosophical theories in class.
Week 7: M: Linda Zagzebski, “Epistemic Value and What We Care About” (Chapter 1 of On Epistemology), Sections 1, 2, and 3. W: W.K. Clifford, “The Ethics of Belief.”
Week 8: M: Harry Frankfurt, On Bullshit pp. 1–34 (end at top of 34) W: Frankfurt, pp. 34–67.
Module 4: Skepticism, Relativism, and Freedom
Objectives: Skills-based: Students will continue practicing philosophical essay writing, focusing on considering the best objections to one’s argument, and continue practicing forming philosophical definitions and theories. Content-based: Students will define skepticism and different varieties of relativism, explain Graham’s argument for why relativism implies skepticism is false, and understand his views on the varieties of relativism he presents. Students will define a variety of positions on the existence of free will, define determinism and its relationship to positions on free will, and understand Strawson’s argument for the position he calls pessimism.
Resources and Plan: Week 9: M: Peter Graham, “The Relativist Response to Radical Skepticism” W: Graham, continued.
[Spring Break in between Weeks 9 and 10]
Week 10: M: Galen Strawson, “Luck Swallows Everything.” W: Strawson, continued.
Module 5: Philosophy and Matters of Contemporary Concern
Objectives: Skills-based: Students will continue practicing philosophical essay writing, writing a essay with their own choice of thesis. Content-based: Students will understand Nguyen’s distinction between epistemic bubbles and echo chambers, why he thinks echo chambers are more difficult to eliminate than epistemic bubbles, and Nguyen’s solution to echo chambers. Students will understand Boxill’s inheritance and counterfactual arguments for black reparations and understand how he refines these arguments in light of objections he considers.
Resources and Plan: Week 11: M: C. Thi Nguyen, “Escape the Echo Chamber.” W: Nguyen, continued.
Week 12: M: Bernard Boxill, “A Lockean Argument for Black Reparations.” W: Boxill, continued.
Module 6: Student-Chosen Readings
Weeks 13-15: The class votes together on three different readings/topics for the last three weeks of the semester (see below); a more detailed summary of texts with argument maps will be provided by Week 12. Our objectives are to understand and apply basic concepts in the readings, understand the crucial arguments of the readings, and consider objections to them. Students will be given an opportunity to write a new essay or expand and refine an old essay.
These are the readings students voted to read via ranked-choice voting Spring 2023. Vertical bars group readings together on the same topic, assigned in the same week:
David Lewis, "The Paradoxes of Time Travel" | Daniel Dennett, "Where Am I?" Brie Gertler: "In Defense of Mind-Body Dualism." | Aquinas, “The Five Ways,” the fifth way. David Hume: Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, selections.
Here are other readings that did not rank high enough in student voting to be assigned. Vertical bars group readings together on the same topic.
Mary Midgley, “Trying Out One’s New Sword.” Martha Nussbaum, “Non-Relative Virtues: An Aristotelian Approach" | David Hume “Of the Original Contract.” John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, Chapter 1, selections | Veronica Ivy, “Epistemic Injustice.”