Introduction to Metaphysics (Spring 2020)
INSTRUCTOR: Jeff Tolly
TEXT: Metaphysics: an Introduction by Alyssa Ney (2014) (M)
All other readings will be supplied on Sakai or accessible through a link below.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Science can tell us lots of things about reality. It provides insightful descriptions of the different causes and effects that occur in the universe. Science also helps us understand the universe’s history. But there are deeper questions about reality that science doesn’t concern itself with—questions like “What is a cause?,” and “What is time itself?” These are the sorts of questions addressed by metaphysics. In this course, we’ll examine some of the key metaphysical debates surrounding the following questions:
-
What is a person?
-
Is the mind something physical or something non-physical?
-
How does one’s identity persist through time?
-
Why is there something rather than nothing?
-
What is free will, and are we free?
-
What is a cause? What is an effect?
-
What are space and time, and is time travel a coherent possibility?
-
Fundamentally, what sorts of things exist?
-
What is race?
-
How should mysterious scientific theories, like quantum mechanics, alter our view of reality (if at all)?
SCHEDULE
Wednesday 1/22: First day-Introductions
Unit 1: Logic and Love
Monday 1/27: Love and Arguments
Readings:
-
Video: How to Argue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKEhdsnKKHs&t
2. “A Love Story”—Radio Documentary, This American Life. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/247/what-is-this-thing/act-three
3. Optional: (M) pgs. 1-13
Wednesday 1/29: Love and Personal Identity
Readings:
-
“The Rise of Dating App Fatigue”—Julie Beck (Sakai)
-
Trailer: “Freaky Friday” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ8KJ4MzzO
Unit 2: Personal Identity and Philosophy of Mind
Monday 2/3: Personal Identity: Teletransporters, Split Brains, and Souls
-
Video: “Fission and Personal Identity”—Shelley Kagan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRicA5zuFF0
Wednesday: 2/5: Philosophy of Mind: The Mind/Body Problem
Readings:
-
“The Mind-Body Problem”—Thomas Nagel (Sakai)
Monday 2/10 Philosophy of Mind: Is Consciousness Something Purely Physical?
Readings:
-
Video: “Mary’s Room: A Philosophical Thought Experiment”-Eleanor Nelson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGYmiQkah4o&
Wednesday 2/12 Philosophy of Mind: Is Mental Representation Something Purely Physical?
Readings:
-
Video: “The Chinese Room Experiment-the Hunt for AI”—BBC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0MD4sRHj1M&
2. Video: “The Chinese Room Argument”—John Searle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18SXA-G2peY
Unit 3: Ontology
Monday 2/17 Ontology: Do abstract objects exist?
Reading
-
(M) pgs 60-74
-
Optional: (M) pgs 75-86
Wednesday 2/19 Ontology: Material Composition
Reading:
-
(M) pgs 89-109
Monday 2/24: Ontology: Wrap up day
Reading:
-
(M) pgs 110-117
Unit 4: Time, Persistence, and Time Travel
Wednesday 2/26: Time: What is the nature of time itself?
Reading:
-
(M) pgs 138-152
-
Optional (M) pgs 152-167
Monday 3/2 Time: What is the nature of persistence?
Reading:
-
(M): pgs 170-183
-
Optional: (M) 184-189
Wednesday 3/4 Time: Paradoxes of Time Travel
Reading:
-
“The Paradoxes of Time Travel”—David Lewis
Unit 5: Free Will
Monday 3/9 Free Will—Compatibilism and Incompatibilism
Reading:
-
(M) pgs 239-251
-
Optional: (M): 252-257
Wednesday 3/11 Free Will –Science and Free Will
Reading:
-
Video: “Neuroscience and Free Will-Libet’s Experiment”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ4nwTTmcgs
Quiz #1 in class
-Spring Break: 3/14-3/22-
Unit 6: Metaphysics and Quantum Mechanics
Monday 3/23: Quantum Mechanics: The “Double Slit” experiment
Readings:
-
Overview Video 1: “Easy Quantum Mechanics” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u_UQG1La1o
-
More Detail-(part 1) “The Quantum Experiment that Broke Reality” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-MNSLsjjdo
-
More Detail- (part 2) : “ How the Quantum Eraser Re-writes the Past” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ORLN_KwAgs
Wednesday 3/25: Paper-Writing and Prospectus Workshop
Due: Prospectus, and bring 3 copies of your prospectus to class.
Monday 3/30 : Quantum Mechanics: Metaphysical Questions
Readings:
-
Video: “Quantum Entanglement and the Great Bohr-Einstein Debate”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tafGL02EUOA
2. Optional Video: “Quantum Entanglement and Spooky Action at a Distance”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuvK-od647c
Wednesday 4/1: Free will day 3 : the paradox of free will and the problem of luck
(no new reading)
Unit 7: Causation
Monday 4/6 Causation: David Hume, Causal Skepticism, and the Laws of Nature
Reading:
-
(M) pgs 217-230
Wednesday 4/8 Causation: Will a Counterfactual Theory of Causation Work?
Reading:
-
(M) pg. 231-236
Unit 8: Metaphysics of Race
Monday 4/13 Philosophy of Race: What is Race? (day 1)
Reading:
-
(M) pgs. 259-269
Wednesday 4/15 Philosophy of Race: What is Race? (day 2)
Reading:
-
(M) pgs. 270-278
Unit 9: Metaphysics and Cosmology
Monday 4/20 The Cosmological Argument—Why is there something rather than nothing?
Reading:
-
Video: “Leibniz’s Contingency Argument”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPCzEP0oD7I
2. Video: “Debate on the Existence of God--Fr. Copelston vs Bertrand Russell”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QlhjcSv6Ec
(if you’d like to read the transcript of the debate, it is posted on Sakai)
Wednesday 4/22 The Cosmological Argument—Infinities and Big Bang Cosmology
Reading:
-
“The Kalam Cosmological Argument” –William Lane Craig and J.P. Moreland (Sakai)
-
“A Critique of the Kalam Cosmological Argument”—Paul Draper (Sakai)
Quiz #2 in class
Monday 4/27 The Fine-Tuning Argument For God’s Existence (Day 1)
Reading:
-
Pgs 1-8, “The Fine Tuning Argument”—Robin Collins (Sakai)
Wednesday 4/29 The Fine-Tuning Argument For God’s Existence (Day 2)—the “multiple universes” hypothesis.
Reading:
-
Pgs 9-17, “The Fine Tuning Argument”—Robin Collins (Sakai)
Monday 5/4 (last day of class and rough draft workshop)