Pathways
to Philosophy
choose from six pathways
A.
Introduction to Philosophy
B. Philosophy of Mind
C. Ancient Philosophy
D. Philosophy of Language
E. Moral Philosophy
F. Metaphysics
The
six Pathways programs A–F are designed to stimulate
original inquiry. You will be participating in an investigation
into the fundamental questions of philosophy.
Each
program consists of fifteen study units together with
five essay question sheets. Pathways
students are invited to submit five essays of 800–1500
words — one essay for each group of three units.
If
you succeed in completing all six Pathways, you will
have written 30 essays covering a broad range of philosophical
topics. You will know a lot of philosophy.
However,
we consider one or two Pathways sufficient preparation
for applying to study for the Associate
and Fellowship programs offered by the International
Society for Philosophers — or for undertaking
a Philosophy degree, such as the BA offered by the University
of London International Programme.
The
easiest of the six Pathways is Possible
World Machine. This is the Pathway we generally
recommend to students who have had no prior exposure
to philosophy.
The
most difficult is Metaphysics
which was originally developed as a 28 week lecture
course for final year undergraduates at the University of Sheffield, UK.
The difficulty rating gives a rough guide to how challenging
you are likely to find the material.
= Difficulty rating (1—4).
How
different might the world have been from the way it
actually is? Thinking about possible worlds is an important
tool of philosophy. Such 'thought experiments' challenge
our intuitions concerning the limits of logic and meaning.
The program is based on a series of original short stories
each raising a different philosophical problem or theme.
Topics covered include the idea of philosophical knowledge,
freedom of the will, the existence of the soul, knowledge
and scepticism, our knowledge of other minds, the objectivity
of moral values, the criteria for personal identity,
our fear of death, appearance and reality, space and
time, the reality of the past, the definition of truth,
fatalism and the future, the existence of possible worlds.
Possible worlds and philosophy 'the possible world
machine', free will 'the black box', mind and body 'walkabout',
knowledge and scepticism 'a case of doubt', other minds
'a lesson in biology', personal identity 'the insurance
policy', why be moral? 'a moral tale', reality of the
past 'the good witness', future and fatalism 'the fatalists',
perception and illusion 'the ministry of perception',
idealism 'Dr Johnson's boots', space and physics 'space
hopper', time and temporality 'the window of consciousness',
solipsism 'message from a lonely planet', is it rational
to fear death? 'Morgan's farewell'.
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What
is the relationship between mind and body? We shall
be investigating the background to Descartes' argument
in the Meditations for a dualism of mental and
material substances, based on the impossibility of doubting
the existence of the 'I' that says, 'I think.' After
subjecting Descartes' argument to close scrutiny, we
shall examine specific questions arising from the dualist
theory, such as the interaction between soul and body,
and the idea of disembodied souls. We shall then look
at alternatives to mind-body dualism, including the
theory that the mind is identical with the brain, and
follow up the consequences of the competing views for
our conception of ourselves and our place in the world.
Philosophy and the soul, sources of belief in the
soul, inside and outside, the I and the theatre of consciousness,
can mind and body be separated? bodies without minds
and minds without bodies, Descartes' argument for mind-body
dualism, defending Descartes' argument, dualism and
the concept of identity, self is not a substance or
entity, self as a collection of mental items, duplicating
the self – a thought experiment, identity of the
self over time, is identity necessary? interactionism
versus epiphenomenalism, refutations of epiphenomenalism
and interactionism, self as source of the will, impossibility
of identifying acts of will, an argument against freedom
of the will, dualist's attempt to escape the argument,
the notion of qualia, qualia and the inverted spectrum
hypothesis, do qualia exist? impossibility of a private
language, the theory of solipsism, the theory of idealism,
the meaning of I, dualism of subjective and objective
worlds, myself and others, my fear of death.
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How
did philosophy begin? Some time around 600 BC in ancient
Greece a radically new idea took root. Beliefs about
a world derived from religious dogma and often lurid
myths handed down from generation to generation gave
way to the idea of logos, the notion of a universe structured
on rational principles, a structure which human beings
could uncover with the aid of reason and logic. Exactly
how the idea arose remains a mystery. But it was the
seed of all that has subsequently come under the name
of 'Philosophy' right up to the present time. By delving
into the fragments that have been preserved of the theories
and writings of these first, 'pre-Socratic' philosophers,
such as Thales, Anaximander, Zeno and Parmenides, we
shall encounter problems and paradoxes that remain unsolved
to this day, as well as getting a feel for what the
enterprise of philosophy is about.
Thales and the beginnings of philosophy, Anaximander
and the theory of the apeiron, Anaximander versus Anaximenes,
Xenophanes on god and the limits of human knowledge,
Heraclitus 'you never step twice into the same river',
Pythagoras and the Pythagorean school, Parmenides' way
of truth, Parmenides versus Melissus, Zeno's paradoxes,
Empedocles' cosmic cycle, Anaxagoras 'a portion of everything
in everything', The atomism of Leucippus and Democritus,
Philosophical consequences of atomism, Protagoras 'man
is the measure of all things', Gorgias 'on what is not'.
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How
does thought relate to reality? One answer is, 'Through
the medium of language.' That answer, a major outcome
of developments in philosophy in the 20th century, implies
a necessary priority of language over thought. The nature
of thought, and of truth as the mark of what thought
attains when it succeeds in representing how things
are can only be approached — or so it is claimed
— via the analysis of the workings of language.
In this course, we shall take a detached and moderately
sceptical view of these developments, focusing on the
ambitious claim of the philosophy of language to provide
the basis for resolving many of the central problems
of philosophy.
Private language and the normativity of meaning,
what keeps our use of language on track? the difference
between names and propositions, Wittgenstein's picture
theory of propositions, how vague concepts pose a problem
for meaning, vagueness and the picture theory, the egocentricity
of the picture theory, transcending the world of the
solitary subject, Wittgenstein's later view that meaning
is use, nominalism platonism and mentalism, does thought
entail the possession of language? the explanation of
animal behaviour, truth conditions and the analysis
of sentence structure, the distinction between concept
and object, the relativism of language, the distinction
between sense and reference, accounting for the sense
of proper names, proper names have a point, accounting
for the sense of a concept, the point of concepts, truth
conditions and verification conditions, refining the
idea of verification conditions, do we aim at truth
or at verification? general statements and statements
about the past, truth as an imaginary target, the truth
conditions of vague statements, truth conditions and
the theory of fictions, truth and the ideal of convergence,
how can meanings be objective? normativity of meaning
and the asymmetry of self and other.
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Why
should I be moral? The view that it is in my self-interest
to consider the possible harm my actions might do to
others encounters the objection that sometimes it can
appear very much against our own interests to act morally.
The question that raises is whether a rational basis
can be found for acting morally in cases where doing
so does not coincide with self-interest. Many attempts
have been made, but most have foundered on a persistent
logical gap between facts and values, or between what
is the case and what one ought to do. We shall examine
whether this gap can be bridged, and the consequences
either way for our ethical beliefs.
Our knowledge of right and wrong, the challenge of
amoralism and the problem of relativity, prudential
reasoning and weakness of will, weakness of will and
moral reasoning, prudential and moral dilemmas, moral
dilemmas and the limits of reason, moral judgements
as universal – Kant's categorical imperative,
principle of sufficient reason and the disinterested
standpoint, objectivity of morals – a three-part
argument, solipsist theory that the world is my world,
refutation of solipsism, anti-solipsism and the principle
of utility, between solipsism and anti-solipsism, two-world
theory and the primacy of action, agency and the theory
of values, the objectivity of my values, why must others
count in my deliberations? moral conduct and the world
of the other, the ethics of dialogue, moral dialogue
in the real world, what is truth? how can moral judgements
be true? self-assertion and self-sacrifice, a defence
of partiality, the moral status of animals, animal rights
and the ethics of dialogue, the paradox of liberalism,
dialogue and the limits of tolerance, the limits of
ethics, supererogation – politics – idea
of a theory.
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Is
there more to existence than the familiar objects of
sense perception, or the underlying structures that
science describes? Are there things that lie beyond
the mundane world of empirical inquiry, things whose
nature can only be approached through pure reasoning?
While some philosophers today remain sceptical about
such a possibility, others continue to hold theories
that are unashamedly 'metaphysical'. One theory formulated
over two centuries ago that still finds adherents today
is Berkeley's 'immaterialism' – the view that
our familiar material world of objects in space is ultimately
composed of mental entities, such as perceptions in
the mind of God. We shall be looking at this and other
similar theories and examining their claims to credibility.
Metaphysics and the problem of beginnings, defining
reality, the reality principle, truth and existence,
ontology and thing-hood, the this and the given, subjectivism,
refining the subjectivist theory, the refutation of
subjectivism, searching for an alternative theory, the
impossibility of a private language, the concept of
truth, realism versus anti-realism, anti-realism and
the reality principle, anti-realism and the philosophy
of language, the idea of an anti-realist theory of meaning,
can the past be erased? an attempted refutation of realism,
the reality of possible worlds, the existence of God,
the attack on the idea of matter, the dialectic of immaterialism,
defining matter, Berkeley's immaterialist theory, Leibniz's
theory of monads, objective idealism, combining immaterialism
and anti-realism, realist facts and Kantian noumena,
agency and physical objects, judging as a physical action.
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