Philosophy 1600 - Honors Seminar

                                                                                Seminar Handouts

Most of the following handouts are quite brief, having been
intended mainly to focus the discussion in the seminar, though
some, such as the Topic 5's "Critical Reflection on Miracles,"
and Topic 10, "Christianity," are more substantial.

Topic 1: Faith, Rationality, and the Ethics of Belief

• 1. Pascal's Wager
  
• 2. W. K. Clifford and the Ethics of Belief
• 3. William James and the Will to Believe

Topic 2: Cosmological Arguments for the Existence of God

• 1. St. Thomas Aquinas and the Argument from Motion
  
• 2. St. Thomas Aquinas and the Cosmological Argument

Topic 3: The Argument from Design

Topic 4: Are Proofs of the Existence of God Relevant to Religion?

• Michael Scriven and the Presumption of Atheism
  

Topic 5: Miracles and Revelation

• 1. J. L. Mackie on Miracles and Testimony
  
• 2. Critical Reflection on Miracles

Topic 6: Religious Experience and the Existence of God

• 1. C. D. Broad on the Argument from Religious Experience
• 2. Gary Gutting and the Argument from Religious Experience
• 3. Louis Pojman's Response to Gutting's Argument
• 4. Mysticism Readings
  

Topic 7: Atheism and the Argument from Evil

• 1. Incompatibility Arguments from Evil
  
• 2. Evidential Arguments from Evil
  

Topic 8: Death and Immortality

Topic 9: Religion and Ethics

• Religion and Ethics - Exercise 2 Revisited
  

Topic 10: Christianity

• Christianity