Prescribed Text

For the HL version of the course, we are expected to conduct an in-depth study of a specific philosophical text. This should take about 40 of the 240 hours. Students will write about this text in Paper 2 of the exam.

Though I have chosen to study Lao Tzu's Tao te Ching, these other titles are well worth consideration, and we will likely read excerpts from several of them.

  • Simone de Beauvoir--The Second Sex (selections)
  • David Hume--Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
  • Friedrich Nietzsche--The Genealogy of Morals
  • Ortega y Gasset--The Origin of Philosophy
  • Peter Singer---The Life You Can Save
  • Lao Tzu---Tao Te Ching*
  • René Descartes--Meditations
  • John Stuart Mill--On Liberty
  • Martha Nussbaum--Creating Capabilities…
  • Plato--The Republic (Books IV–IX)
  • Charles Taylor---The Ethics of Authenticity
  • Zhuangzi---Zhuangzi, Inner Chapters