husayn gokal
Sharjah

MITLinguistics and Philosophy24

Problems in Philosophy

planned·~168 hours total

Professor

  • Alex Byrne

Textbook

  • The Problems of Philosophy

    Bertrand Russell · ISBN 9780199539413

Materials

Byrne's survey of canonical philosophical problems — free will, knowledge, mind, personal identity, the existence of god, morality. Russell's Problems is the slim pairing classic.

Syllabus

  1. Week 1

    What is philosophy? The Socratic method

  2. Week 2

    Free will and determinism

  3. Week 3

    Compatibilism; moral responsibility

  4. Week 4

    Knowledge — what is it? Gettier cases

  5. Week 5

    Scepticism — Descartes' dream and evil demon

  6. Week 6

    The mind-body problem

  7. Week 7

    Personal identity over time

  8. Week 8

    The existence of god — cosmological argument

  9. Week 9

    The problem of evil

  10. Week 10

    Moral realism vs anti-realism

  11. Week 11

    Utilitarianism and Kantian ethics

  12. Week 12

    The meaning of life