Epistemology and Metaphysics

  1. Collections and Introductions

    Topics:

  2. Descartes First Meditation
  3. Mind-Body Identity
  4. Free Will and Determinism
  5. Induction
  6. Personal Identity

i. Collections and Introductions

There are a couple of books that might be useful but at this stage it is more important to stick closely to the assigned readings and make sure that you read them carefully and understand them. Having said that, the following are good books:

Loux, Michael J. 1998 Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction. New York: Routledge,

Morton, A. 2001. A Guide Through the Theory of Knowledge, 3rd edition, Oxford: Blackwells

Dancy, J. 1985. Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology. Oxford: Blackwell.

Bernecker, S. and Dretske, F. eds. 2000. Knowledge: Readings in Contemporary Epistemology : Oxford: OUP

ii. Descartes First Meditation

Descartes, Meditations, First Meditation

Williams, B. 1978. Descartes: the Project of Pure Enquiry (Hassocks: Harvester Press), chapter 2 and appendix 3

Morton, A. 2001. A Guide Through the Theory of Knowledge, 3rd edition, Oxford: Blackwells Chapter 1

Essay Questions:

  1. Summarise Descartes' argument to the conclusion that you could be decieved about everything you think you know in premise/conclusion style (see Pryor's "Philosophical Terms and Methods", in particular "What is an argument?").

  2. Is Descartes' argument plausible? Answer with reference to the premises that he uses to support his conclusion.

iii. Mind-Body Identity

David Lewis, ‘An Argument for the Identity Theory', in Journal of Philosophy 63 (1966): 17-25, reprinted in his Philosophical Papers, Vol. 1, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983) Online here and here

S. Kripke, Naming & Necessity, (Oxford: Blackwell, 1980) lecture 3

Frank Jackson, "What Mary did not know" The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 83, No. 5. (May, 1986), pp. 291-295. Online

Essay Questions (answer both questions):

  1. Summarise in premise-conclusion format (see Pryor) Lewis' argument to the conclusion that every experience is idential with some physical state or Kripke's argument to the conclusion that experiences are not identical to physical states.

  2. Is pain a physical state? Answer with reference to the premises of the argument that you have summarised.

iv. Free Will and Determinism

van Inwagen. P. 1975. ‘The Incompatability of Free Will and Determinism'. Philosophical Studies 27: 185-199 Online

Strawson, P. F. 1974. ‘Freedom and resentment'. In his Freedom and Resentment: and Other Essays. London: Methuen

Kane, Robert. 1989. "Two Kinds of Incompatibilism." Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 50: 219-54 Online

Essay Questions (answer both questions):

  1. Give a definition of determinism and free will, compatibilism and incompatibilism

  2. Can we be free if the universe is deterministic?

v. Induction

D. Hume, 1739. A Treatise of Human Nature, Bk. I, Pt. III (esp. ii-viii)

B. Russell, The Problems of Philosophy (London: Williams and Norgate, 1912), chapter 6

P. F. Strawson, An Introduction to Logical Theory (London: Methuen, 1952), chapter 9

D. Papineau, ‘Reliabilism, Induction and Scepticism', Philosophical Quarterly 42 (1992): 1-20 Online

Essay Questions (answer both questions)

  1. Outline Hume or Russell's argument against the reliability of induction

  2. Is induction a reliable source of knowledge?

vi. Personal Identity

*Parfit, D. 1971. ‘Personal Identity'. Philosophical Review 80: 3-27. Online Reprinted in J. Glover, ed., The Philosophy of Mind, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976; and in Honderich, and M. Burnyeat, eds., Philosophy as it is, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979

*Johnston, M., 1987, ‘Human Beings’, Journal of Philosophy 84: 59–83 Online

Essay question:

  1. Outline one thought experiment used in the Personal Identity debate and discuss what it is meant to show.

  2. Is continuity of the body or the mind more important as a criteria for personal identity?

changed March 16, 2008