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PHIL 5193-001/6193-001
Weekly Assignments

    • The default is to outline the passage I assign.
    • If you choose a different passage:
      • make sure it contains an argument.
      • you have to tell me what it is. (I'm not a mind reader.)
      • please make it terse -- a paragraph or two, not a chapter, or anything like a chapter.

        (I have to read the passage side by side with your outline, to check that the latter correctly represents the argument in the former.)

        My experience is that attempts to outline longer stretches of text don't generally work out well.

  1. Aug. 25 (for those of you who have already taken a class from me, who know what these outline assignments -- not the same as microcommentary assignments! -- are supposed to look like, and who want to get an early start): Descartes, first Meditation, paras. 2-3.
    (If you already have the Cottingham, Stoothoff, and Murdoch Philosophical Writings, this is on p. 12, starting "But to accomplish this..."; if you're using the temporary online link on the Readings page, it will be on pp. 6-7, "Now for this object..."
  2. Sept. 1: Either Descartes, second Meditation, para. 6 (CSM II:18, starting "But what shall I now say that I am..."), or Davidson, "The Method of Truth in Metaphysics," end of sec. 1, from "We do not need to be omniscient..." (but you'll need to draw on the prior para., starting "Beliefs are identifed and described...").