This course is designed to introduce students to some of the major issues of philosophy and several approaches that philosophers take to deal with them. Questions of ontology, personal identity, and epistemology will be
included. In addition to providing a basic familiarity with the practice of philosophy, a fundamental aim of the course is to improve each student’s ability to think critically and to make rational judgments. In order to achieve this end, students will critically assess philosophical problems in writing assignments and will develop their critical thinking skills during in‑class discussions.

This course is an introduction to philosophy. We will survey the fundamental areas and problems of philosophy including the following: logic, philosophy of religion, ethics, freedom of the will, personal identity, and philosophy of mind. One main objective will be to learn how to do philosophy by thought experiments. As we go about learning philosophy, we will be scrutinizing some fundamental philosophical texts by such notable thinkers as Plato, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, and Sartre.

Required Texts: Theodore Schick, Jr. and Lewis Vaughn, Doing Philosophy: An Introduction Through Thought Experiments. 4th ed. (New York: McGraw‑Hill, 2010).

Strongly Recommended Texts: Strunk and White, The Elements of Style, MacMillan Publishers; and, Lewis Vaughn, Writing Philosophy: A Students guide to Writing Philosophy Essays, Oxford University Press, 2006

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The purpose of this course is to help students learn how to analyze, critique and construct arguments in context, in other words, how to read and write argumentative essays.

Meets: New Mexico Lower-Division General Education Common Core Curriculum Area V: Humanities and Fine Arts.

In this course we will learn how to analyze, critique, and construct arguments. (An argument is a piece of reasoning, not a quarrel or a fight.) Most intellectual endeavors involve argumentation. From short letters to the editor to complex philosophical essays, and from simple everyday discussions to sophisticated legal debates, arguments are used to support or criticize points of view. Throughout the semester we will work to develop the skills that will help us to argue effectively and to judge the arguments of others. The course material is organized into two main parts. The first part is an introductory survey of important linguistic and logical concepts that we need for argument analysis. In the second part we will use those concepts to engage in an in‑depth examination of topics related to ethical choice.

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An introductory survey of early and classical Greek philosophy.

Figures: the Presocratics, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

Topics: beginnings of scientific thought; theories of the self; the concept of being; ethical relativism, happiness, theories of justice.

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The philosophies that emerged during the early modern period can be seen as a response to a two-fold challenge: 1) the skeptical challenge to human knowledge and 2) the challenge to find a scientific method appropriate for study of the natural world. We’ll begin the course by considering the growing popularity of skepticism after the Protestant Reformation, and examine the skeptical arguments forwarded in Montaigne’s Apology for Raymond Sebond. Having this background, we’ll examine the arguments of three “foundationalists,” Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz, each of whom addresses (in some way or another) the existence and goodness of God, the possibility of free human action, and our human place in nature. The “rationalists” will occupy us for approximately half the semester.

The second half of the course will be dedicated to three “empiricists”: Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. Their respective philosophies will be placed in the scientific context of the seventeenth century. After a look at Bacon’s New Organon, we’ll examine how the “empiricists” attempted to integrate the empirical method of science into their respective understandings of knowledge and nature. During the last two weeks of the semester, we’ll consider Kant’s blending of “rationalism” and “empiricism”, or better, his “transcendental” treatment of the possibility of knowledge.

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Two week, intensive summer course at Jemez Bodhi Manda Zen Center. Study of both theory and practice with visiting professors from various universities. Opportunity for directed meditation for interested participants.

Prerequisite: 333 or 334 or RELG 263 or RELG 343. Department permission required. For more information, visit www.summerseminar.org.

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