Philosophy

Is Chinese philosophy incommensurable with Western philosophy, or is there a philosophy in general? There are stereotypes (opinions) about Chinese philosophy, and this course examines the truth of Chinese philosophy in particular and the truth of philosophy in general. This course introduces classical (pre-Qin) Confucianism and Legalism; investigates the problems the pre-Qin Confucian and Legalist philosophers try to answer, what their answers are, whether the answers are coherent within one text and how these answers are related to each other; and examines how these philosophical texts address philosophical problems, that is, problems that transcend a particular people, a particular time, and a particular locale. By comparing these philosophers' answers to those by other philosophers (Chinese or non-Chinese), students see the merits and problems of these answers that are still relevant today.

Full course description

The mind-body problem is a legacy from the scientific revolution which started in the 16th century and reached its culmination point with Newtonian physics. Starting with Galileo’s and Descartes’ formulation of this problem we will discuss different philosophical positions in a more in-depth fashion. In the behavioral- and neurosciences these problems transform into questions about consciousness, conscious experience, and conscious perception. Those topics disappeared from science with the rise of behaviorism in the early twentieth century. But now they are back in the behavioral- and neurosciences again. Only over the past few decades consciousness has reappeared in cognitive science and neuropsychology. We will start this course with some philosophy, then we will scrutinize modern day sciences, especially cognitive science and neuroscience for ideas on mind and consciousness. At the end of the course we will go back to philosophy and we will ask ourselves whether all this empirical knowledge from psychology and neuroscience has brought us further in unraveling the brain-consciousness- (or mind-body) problem.

Course objectives

• To acquaint students with current ideas, philosophical arguments and empirical evidence on the nature of mind and the relationship between mind and body. We focus on modern cognitive and neuropsychological theories in the area of consciousness. Philosophical reflection on the caveats and problems associated with the notion of consciousness will be stimulated.  

Prerequisites

COR1002 Philosophy of Science and at least one 2000-level course from either Humanities, Social Sciences or Sciences.

The first part of the course introduces students to Kant’s theoretical philosophy as articulated in the Critique of Pure Reason. The course focuses primarily, but not exclusively, on topics from the first half of the book, and examine core topics such as the Copernican Turn, Kant’s doctrine of transcendental idealism, the analytic/synthetic distinction, the nature of space, the problem of causation and the response to Humean scepticism, and Kant’s theory of the self.   The course aims to show the centrality of Kant’s thought both to an understanding of the development of the history of philosophy and as a source of philosophical interest for contemporary epistemology and metaphysics.

This course examines the workings of science through four core topics: how science explains, how we reason to science, what scientific theories tell us about the world, and what role values play in science. Students consider cases where science succeeds, as well as cases where it fails, and they learn to explore deep philosophical issues about our knowledge of the world.

This course introduces students to some of the central questions in political philosophy, such as: What is political authority? What, if anything, makes the exercise of coercive power legitimate? What is the value of democracy? What, if any, are legitimate political constraints on freedom of expression? What is the proper role of expertise in democratic decision making? When is civil disobedience justified? The course is designed to complement (and lay the groundwork for) the Level 5 and Level 6 political philosophy modules. 

This course examines a range of metaphysical questions that relate to our everyday lives. These include questions like: what is a border; what is a person; what are race and gender; do fictional characters like Sherlock Holmes exist; does it even make sense to ask which things (really) exist and what do we mean when we ask this sort of question; how is metaphysics related to cognitive science; how should you respond when members of another culture have different metaphysical beliefs than you do; are the concepts that we use to ask metaphysical questions the concepts that we should be using; and should we try to construct new concepts, and if so, how should we do that?

This course examines Darwin and the science of evolution in nineteenth and early twentieth century.

This course introduces students to major ideas and themes in contemporary epistemology. Students examine debates about the nature of knowledge and of justified belief, and cover topics including skepticism, contextualism, pragmatic encroachment, knowledge-first epistemology, reliabilism, and a little formal epistemology.

This course introduces the Mahayana Buddhist doctrine, with a focus on the Indian origins and East Asian (Chinese) traditions, while Central Asian (Tibetan) traditions are selectively covered. Buddhism in this course is studied mainly as a religious-intellectual tradition. Thus, basic ideas in Mahayana theories of spiritual cultivation and soteriology are examined. Topics such as the patterns of religious practice and cultivation, images of Enlightened Being (Buddha), types of ideal religious personality; concepts of Buddha-Nature (tathagatagarbha), Enlightenment, Pure-lands, knowledge and virtues are discussed. Various issues are reviewed in the context of the Hinayana vs Mahayana contrast. The continuity and differences between both traditions are studied. Please Notice that, other than the required readings, additional supplementary materials will be delivered to the class through email. Lecture is the main pattern of teaching, while class discussion is also essential.