Intro Into Philosophy
Course Description:
Major areas of study and concern in philosophy include epistemology, metaphysics, ethics and political theory. The first of these, epistemology, deals with how we come to know and form justified beliefs, metaphysics inquiries into what is real, God(s), minds, souls, freedom, etc. Ethics is the study of proper conduct and or how we ought to behave and political theory concerns itself with what might be termed ethics for mass society. This class will touch on all four of these topics in addition to developing reading comprehension and writing skills.
Course Over-View:
The class will begin at the beginning of Philosophy, move to Socrates and Plato before covering David Hume, an 18th century thinker and the work of Susan Haack, a contemporary British philosopher.
Texts for the Class:
Before and After Socrates, by F.M. Cornford, Cambridge University Press, ISBN: 0-521-09113-6.
https://www.amazon.com/Before-After-Socrates-F-Cornford/dp/0521091136
Plato, The Republic, by Plato, Translated by Richard Sterling and William Scott. W.W. Norton and Company, 1985, ISBN: 0-393-31467-7.
https://www.amazon.com/Republic-Plato/dp/0393019721
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, by David Hume, edited by Eric Steinberg, Hackett Publishing, 2nd edition, 1993, ISBN: 0-872-20229-1.
https://www.amazon.com/Enquiry-Concerning-Human-Understanding-Second/dp/B007CZJCH8
This is available for free at the following web-site.
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/david_hume/human_understanding.html
Some Thoughts on Thinking, by Jonathan Finch, University Press of America, 2002, ISBN: 0-7618-2315-8.
https://www.amazon.com/Some-Thoughts-Thinking-Philosophy-Miles/dp/0761823158