Philosophy of Mind

I. The Mind-Body Problem
      A. Cartesian Dualism
      B. Minimal Materialism
II. Descartes' Arguments against Materialism
      A. Descartes First Argument: The Argument from Doubt
            1. The Concept of Numerical Identity
            2. Leibniz's Law
            3. The Argument
            4. A Parody Argument
      B. Descartes' Second Argument
III. Some Popular Arguments for Dualism
      A. The Argument from Religion
      B. The Argument from Introspection
      C. The Argument from the Paraphychological Phenomena
IV. Arguments against Dualism
      A. The Problem of Other Minds
            1. Two Interpretations
      B. Causal Arguments Against Dualism
            1. The Inconceivability of Causal Interaction
            2. The Argument from the Causal Closure of the Physical
            3. Remote Control Argument
      C. The Continuity of Nature Argument
      D. The Argument from Parsimony

Philosophy of Religion

I. Introduction to Philosophy of Religion
      A. The Fundamental Questions of Philosophy of Religion
      B. Clarifying the Question of Existence of God
            1. Two Senses of 'reason to believe'
                  a. Pascal's Wager
            2. A definition of 'God'
                  a. God as Love
                  b. God as The Supreme Being
      C. Types of Argument for the Existence of God
            1. Cosmological Arguments
            2. Teleological Arguments
            3. Ontological Arguments
II. Cosmological Arguments
      A. Aquinas' Second Way
            1. Problems with Aquinas' Second Way
                  a. Infinite Causal Chains
      B. Leibniz Argument from Sufficient Reason
            1. The Principle of Sufficient Reason
                  a. What PSR is Not
                  b. Reasons to Think PSR is True
            2. The Argument
            3. Objections
      C. Aquinas' Third Way
            1. Necessity, Contingency, Possible Worlds
            2. Problems with Aquinas' Third Way
                  a. the possibility of a contingent eternal thing
                  b. The Birthday Fallacy
                  c. Non-divine Necessary Beings
III. Teleological Arguments
      A. Paley's Argument
      B. The Fine-Tuning Argument
IV. The Problem of Evil
      A. First Argument from Evil
            1. Attempted Solutions
                  a. give up omnipotence
                  b. good and evil are illusions
                  c. mystery reply
                  d. theodicy
                        - soul-building evils
                        - free will
      B. Second Argument from Evil
            1. Attempted Solution
                  a. defense
V. Concluding Remarks on the Philosophy of Religion

Epistemology

I. Introduction to Epistemology
      A. Three Kinds of Knowledge
      B. Plato's Theaetetus
      C. Justification

II. The JTB Theory
      A. Gettier Counterexamples to JTB

III. Replies to Gettier
      A. Infallibilism
      B. A Causal Theory

IV. Cartesian Foundationalism
      A. Descartes and the Meditations
      B. Descartes Project: Foundationalism
      C. Descartes Method: Methodological Doubt
            1. Indubitability
            2. Tools to Prove Dubitiability
                  a. The Dream Argument
                  b. The Evil Genius Hypothesis
      D. The Cogito
      E. The Primacy of the Mental
            1. Incorrigibility
            2. Personal Identity
      F. Building the Superstructure
            1. Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God
            2. Descartes' Truth Rule: Clarity and Distinctness
            3. A Cartesian Circle?
      G. Skepticism Avoided?

V. Humean Skepticism
      A. Two Kinds of Skepticism
            1. about Knowledge
            2. about Justified Belief
      B. Some Distinctions Among Propositions
            1. relations of ideas vs. matters of fact
                (aka: analytic vs. synthetic)
            2. a priori vs. a posteriori
      C. Hume's Problem of Induction
            1. The Principle of the Uniformity of Nature (PUN)
            2. Hume's Argument that There Is No Reason to Believe in PUN
            3. Hume's Basic Idea Restated in Terms of Possible Worlds.

Course Introduction

I. Introductions
      A. Stuttering
      B. Roll
      C. Syllabus

II. What is Philosophy?
      A. Some Examples
            1. What is Knowledge?
                  a. conceptual analysis
                  b. necessary and sufficient conditions
            2. Are There Any Reasons to Believe God Exists?
            3. The Mind-Body Problem
            4. The Problem of Freedom and Determinism
      B. Core Areas of Philosophy
            1. Metaphysics
            2. Logic
            3. Epistemology
            4. Ethics

III. Logic
      A. Arguments
      B. Deductive Logic
            1. Validity
            2. Soundness
      C. Non-Deductive Logic
            1. Inductive Logic
                  a. Strong vs. Weak Inductions
            2. Abductive Logic
      D. Truth