Philosophy 1: Introduction to Philosophy
(Officially: The Nature of Philosophy)

Summer Session I 2004. UCSD.
Time: 5:00-7:50pm
Room: CSB004
Instructor: Rick Grush (rick$mind.ucsd.edu -- http://mind.ucsd.edu)
Office Hours: Tuesday 5:00pm - 6:00pm HSS 7038
Office Phone: 822-4440 (note that email is a much more reliable way to contact me)

[ Schedule ]
[ Short Description ]
[ Grades ]
[ Exam Statistics ]
[ Email list ]

Readings
All readings and study questions for the first third of the course are collected in a single large (430K) pdf file here.
Readings for the second third of the course are colelcted in a single pdf file (244k) here.
All readings for the final third of the course are collected in a single pdf file (160K) here.

Schedule:

Session 01 (6.28.04): Introduction to course, proofs for existence of God, and the argument from Design.

Readings
Aquinas: 'Five Ways' from Summa Theologica
Paley: Natural Theology: Chapters 1 and 2
Hume: Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Parts 1-8
Swinburne: The Argument from Design

Session 02 (6.30.04) : Argument from Design (Continued) & Cosmological argument

Quiz #1 (on all readings listed under Session 01) -
Readings
Aquinas: 'Five Ways' from Summa Theologica
Hume: Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Part IX

Session 03 (7.07.04): Cosmological Argument & Ontological Argument

Quiz #2 (on all readings listed under Sessions 02 & 03) -
Readings
Taylor: 'A Critique of the Cosmological Argument'
Edwards: 'The Cosmological Argument: A Defense'
Anselm: Proslogion (with reply from Guanilo)
Plantinga: The Ontological Argument

Session 04 (7.12.04): Exam I & Intro to Biomedical ethics.

Readings
Grush: Introduction to some basic ethical orientations

Session 05 (7.14.04): The limits of doctor-patient confidentiality; Alcohilics and liver transplantation.

Quiz #3 (on all readings listed under Sessions 04 and 05) -
Readings
Tobriner (majority opinion). Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California
Clark (dissenting). Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California
Moss and Siegler: Should alcoholics compete equally for liver transplantation?
Cohen and Benjamin: Alcoholics and liver transplantation

Discussion Session 1 (7.15.04): Writing workshop (HSS 7077)

Session 06 (7.19.04): Exam II & Intro to Personal Identity

Readings:
Descartes, Rene: Meditations on First Philosophy, Meditations 1 and 2
Locke, John: Essay Concerning Human Understanding: Book II, Chapter 17

Session 07 (07.21.04):

Quiz #4 (on all readings listed under Sessions 06 and 07) -
Readings:
Dennett, Daniel: Where am I?
Dennett, Daniel: The self as a center of narrative gravity.

Discussion Session 2 (7.22.04): Movie night (HSS 7077)

Session 08 (07.26.04):

Quiz #5 (on all readings listed under Session 08) -
Readings:
Williams, Bernard: The self and the future.
Parfit, Derek: Personal Identity.

Session 09 (07.28.04): Exam III

Short Description:

Content.

This course will introduce students to some of the central methods and concerns of philosophy through three topics, each of which will occupy us for about a third of the quarter. First, we will look at a central topic of philosophy of religion: attempted proofs for (and against) the existence of God. Next, we will look at topics in biomedical ethics, such as genetic engineering, euthanasia, and health care-related resources. The final third will be concerned with personal identity -- that is, what exactly is it that makes you you. Each of these will be discussed in a bit more detail below.

The existence of God. Though they are no longer at the center of philosophical concerns, attempted proofs for the existence of God have been discussed by philosophers a least since Anselm (1033-1109), and through the 18th Century. And even now they remain a topic of interest. We will look at three 'proofs' for God's existence, and one 'proof' against. The cosmological argument attempts to establish that there must be some being which caused the physical universe to exist, this being itself being an uncaused cause. The teleological argument or argument from design argues that order in the universe can only be explained on the assumption of an intelligent designer. And the ontological argument attempts to prove that a supremely perfect being must exist, since the assumption that such a being does not exists leads to a contradiction. We will examine each of these arguments in some detail.

Topics in Biomedical Ethics. Biomedical ethics is a broad field concerned with ethical issues raised by health care and medical science. Of the many dozens of topics, we will explore only two. First, the issue of genetic engineering. Proponents see the technology as a promising way to prevent many maladies and enhance human characteristics, while opponents fear that it could widen social inequalities, create different 'classes' of people, and perhaps open the door for horrific abuses or accidents. The second topic will concern the distribution of medical resources. On one side, many have argued that tying health-care resources to financial concerns is unacceptably unfair, resulting in situations where, for instance, poor regions of the world simply cannot afford certain kinds of medications. On the other hand, the development of new treatments and drugs is a very expensive and risky business that would certainly no longer be persued by many groups if they could not make money or at least finance their own research. [I may substitute euthanasia for resource allocation.]

Personal Identity. It is not uncommon for people to feel as though they are not the same person they were in their childhood, or that someone is 'not herself' when under the influence of drugs, alcohol, or even a neurological disorder. Such loose metaphors aside, it is often important to answer questions such as 'Are A and B the same person?', and this is what personal identity is about. In legal contexts it may be important to know if a will made out by someone in 1990 should be superceded by the wishes of a patient in a hospital bed who is suffering from severe dementia -- is that the same person, who has authority to change the will, or is this a different person in some legally significant sense? Science fiction presents us with many cases, some of which my one day be science fact, where personal identity is an issue. Do the transporters on Star Trek move a person from one location to another, or do they destroy a person at the first location and create a duplicate, (with the same memories, of course) at the new location? Would it be possible to become immortal by having the synapses in your brain replaced by (or moved to) silicon relays in an undying machine, or would this simply result in your death and the creation of a new being that was under the delusion that it had once been implemented in a biological brain?

 

Structure.

There is one lecture per week. Grades will be based on two in-class midterm exams and one in-class final exam, and intermittent multiple-choice quizzes on the readings.

Text and other materials.

All readings for this course will be available from this website for free. There will be a password-accessed section of this site that will have all readings when the class begins.

Each session has links to readings and study questions for that session. But your life will be much easier if you download them altogether. The pdf file (430K) for all readings and study questions for the first third of the course is here.

Grades:

Grades will be based on a number of factors:

1. Quizzes. There will be 5 in-class quizzes worth 20 points each, for a total of 100 points.

2. There will be three exams, each of which will have a multiple choice section worth 30 points, and two essay questions worth 35 points each, for a total of 100 points per exam.

Thus the total points possible for the course will be 400. After all scores have been recorded, I will determine the grade cut-offs. The worst-case scenario will be a straight 10% breakdown: A+s, As and A-s from 90%-100%; B+s, Bs, and B-s from 80%-89.9%; etc. However, depending on the class average and how the scores are distributed, the cut-offs may be moved down. That is, the cut-off for an A- might get moved down from 90% to 88%, for example, but it won't get moved up any higher than 90%. So for example 81% will definitely get you at least a B-. It might, if the cut-offs get moved down enough, be sufficient for a B, but it won't be any lower than a B-.

Exam Statistics:

TBA

Score Sheets

Score sheets are here. They are listed by a coded version of your student ID in order to protect privacy, as per University regulations. In order to dtermine what your coded ID number is, do the following. Take your student ID number. This will be something like a letter followed by 8 digits, like "A01234567". Remove the letter and the first digit, and you're left with a string of 7 digits, like "1234567". Take the first four digits, and treat this as a 4 digit number (something between 0000 and 9999); and take the last four digits and treat this like another 4-digit number. In the exxample above, they would be "1234" and "4567". Add these two numbers together, for example: 1234 + 4567 = 5801. If the number you get is 5 digits, remove the first digit to make it 4 digits long; if it is 4, then keep it at 4 digits. This is your coded ID number. To see another example: If your student ID is "A05367921", you drop the first letter and number: "5367921"; then take the first 4 digits: "5367"; and the last 4 digits "7921"; add them together: 5367+7921=13288. If the result is 5 digits, remove the first digit: "3288".

Email List:

IMPORTANT: All of the email addresses on this page have been altered to keep them from being spammed. Replace the dollar sign with an ampersand '@' to get the real email address in all cases. I.e. if the address listed is joe$hotmail.com this really means joe@hotmail.com.

Email List: There is an email distribution list for this course. It is required that you subscribe to this list. Do it IMMEDIATELY. You can always unsubscribe later if you drop the course. The purpose of the list is to allow me to distribute information regarding due dates for assignments, passwords for the readings, changes of schedule, etc. Some of this information is crucial, and some of it will be distributed early on. To subscribe, you simply need to send a message to the following address:

phil1-sub$mind.ucsd.edu

(the message must be sent from the account that you want to be subscribed) NOTE that the address to which you send an email in order to subscribe is NOT the same as the address of the list to which you will be subscribed. Notice that the subscription address has a 'sub' in it.

The subject line and any content in the message are ignored. You only need to send the message to the appropriate address from the account that you want to be subscribed.

How to do well in this course:

1. Be sure to read the assigned material before class. This will help to ensure that our class time is quality time, and not wasted with me and some of the students reiterating the material to those who haven't read it. Reading the material before class will also help you get some points on the quizzes, and that is a good thing.

2. Use the study questions to help you focus on the important topics in the readings, and also to help you determine if there is some topic you don't understand. Try to get to the point where you would feel comfortable answering all the study questions before class meets. But if there are a few that you are still finding difficult, don't panic.

3. Bring specific questions with you to lecture. Even if there are aspects of the readings or study questions you didn't fully grasp, the fact that you tried should help you to narrow down what it is that you don't get.

4. See me in office hours, or email me, if there are still questions you are unclear about. That's what office hours are for. Don't be shy.

5. After class, re-read the material for the session, paying special attention to the questions that you had before. Hopefully the material will make much more sense to you now.

6. Manage your time well. Many students are lazy, and wait until a few days before exams to start studying. That is bad time management. The same number of hours devoted to the material BEFORE lectures can lead to a much more efficient use of your time, better understanding, and higher grades.