Intro Phil: Major Texts (PHIL*1000-02)

Term: Fall 2014

Details

This course will examine some of the most important and enduring thinkers in the history of Western philosophy. Although philosophers have grappled with a wide range of issues, this course will concentrate on two of the most fundamental questions that have concerned Western philosophers: What is real? and, How do humans have knowledge of reality? The questions concerning the nature of reality are a branch of philosophy called metaphysics, and questions about human knowledge are a branch of philosophy called epistemology. Some of the questions that follow from these fundamental issues are: is there a world outside the mind, what can humans know about the world, is there a distinction between the appearance of things and reality itself, what does our experience of the world tell us about what exists independently of human experience. The answers philosophers have given to these questions have shaped not only modern science, but modern conceptions of self.

Syllabus

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PHIL1000-02 Sheridan_0.pdf	272.92 KB