Instructor: Brian W. Carver
Office Hours: by appointment
Office Location: varies
E-mail: bwcarver at earthlink dot net (written this way to avoid spam. Interpret 'at' and 'dot' as you'd expect.)
Course Website: http://home.earthlink.net/~bwcarver/

REQUIRED TEXTS:     Louis Pojman, Philosophy: The Quest for Truth 4th Edition
                                        Course Packet from:     PIP Printing
                                                                            4023 Main St
                                                                            (909)682-2005

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

(1) Reading Questions (10%): Reading questions will be assigned for each reading assignment, and are due on the class date that reading is discussed.
(2) Exam #1 on Philosophy of Religion (30%): Tuesday, March 27.
(3) Exam #2 on Philosophy of Mind (30%): Tuesday, May 1.
(4) Exam #3 on Epistemology (30%): Final Exam Period, Tuesday, June 5. 11:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Exams will contain 2-3 essay questions and 5-10 short answer questions.

Make-up Exams: Make-up exams generally will not be given. If you know you must be absent on one of the scheduled exam dates you should make arrangements with me well in advance.

Attendance: Attendance is expected. Quality class participation and an excellent attendance record may be used to resolve borderline cases.

Drop Policy: The college has determined that the last day to drop without a "W" is March 23, 2001 and the last day to drop is May 11, 2001. If space permits, I will add students who attend every class through March 1, and who turn in all reading questions.

Academic Honesty: I assume you are familiar with the College's policies on Academic Honesty. I consider it my responsibility in cases of academic dishonesty to respond with the most severe penalty.

Philosophy of Religion
    The Cosmological Argument
        2/27 T: Thomas Aquinas, The Five Ways (in Pojman 42-45)
        3/01 R: William Rowe, An Examination of the Cosmological Argument

    The Teleological Argument
        3/06 T: William Paley, The Watch and the Watchmaker (in Pojman 57-59)
        3/08 R: David Hume, A Critique of the Teleological Argument (in Pojman 60-66)

    The Ontological Argument
        3/13 T: Saint Anselm, The Ontological Argument (in Pojman 68-71)
        3/15 R: Immanuel Kant, A Critique of the Ontological Argument

    The Problem of Evil
        3/20 T: J.L. Mackie - Evil and Omnipotence
        3/22 R: John Hick - There is a Reason Why God Allows Evil (in Pojman 82-87)

3/27 T: EXAM #1

Philosophy of Mind
    The Mind-Body Problem
        3/29 R: René Descartes, Dualistic Interactionism (in Pojman 221-227)
        4/03 T: Gilbert Ryle, Exorcising Descartes' "Ghost in the Machine" (in Pojman 228-233)
        4/05 R: J. P. Moreland, A Contemporary Defense of Dualism (in Pojman 234-244)
        4/17 T: Richard Taylor, Burying the Mind-Body Problem

    The Problem of Personal Identity
        4/19 R: John Locke, Our Psychological Properties Define the Self (in Pojman 281-284)
        4/24 T: David Hume, We Have No Substantial Self with Which We Are Identical (in Pojman 285-287)
        4/26 R: Derek Parfit and Godfrey Vesey, Brain Transplants and Personal Identity: A Dialogue (in Pojman 288-293)

5/01 T: EXAM #2

Epistemology (Theory of Knowledge)
        5/03 R: Plato, excerpts from the Theaetetus
        5/08 T: Edmund L. Gettier, Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?
        5/10 R: John Pollock, The Gettier Problem

        5/15 T: René Descartes, Cartesian Doubt and the Search for Foundational Knowledge(in Pojman 129-134)
        5/17 R: John Locke, The Empiricist Theory of Knowledge (in Pojman 135-146)
        5/22 T: Laurence Bonjour, A Critique of Foundationalism

        5/24 R: David Annis, A Contextual Theory of Epistemic Justification
        5/29 T: Alvin I. Goldman, Reliabilism: What is Justified Belief?
        5/31 R: W.V.O. Quine, Epistemology Naturalized

6/5 T 11:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m. (Final Exam Period): EXAM #3