Metaphysics and Epistemology Core

Course Description

We're going to try to gain a basic understanding of some important positions in contemporary philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and epistemology while developing a core philosophical skill set. We begin with an extended unit on language covering a few classic texts and concepts, using Kripke's Naming and Necessity as a focal point. In the subsequent part of the course we'll cover a brief and more scattered set of debates in philosophy of mind and epistemology.

Syllabus

• Syllabus
• Presentations

Readings

• "Sense and Reference", Frege
• "On Denoting", Russell
• Stanford Encyclopedia Entry: Modal Logic
• "Attitudes De Dicto and De Se", Lewis
• "The Problem of the Essential Indexical", Perry
• Philosophy of Mind, (Chs. 5-6), Kim
• "Troubles with Functionalism, Block
• "Inverted Earth", Block
• "Epiphenomenal Qualia", Jackson
• "The Two-Dimensional Argument Against Materialism", Chalmers
• "Do Experiences Have Contents?" Siegel
• "Perception and Its Objects", Brewer
• "Elusive Knowledge", Lewis
• "Contextualist Solutions to Scepticism, Schiffer
• Knowledge and its Limits (selections), Williamson
• Notes on Bayesian Confirmation Theory, Strevens
• "Reflection and Disagreement", Elga
• "Moral Disagreement and Moral Expertise", McGrath