Most of these have been in print for a while, and you can find inexpensive used copies online.
Additional readings will be made available through the Philosophy Department reserve file (behind the desk in the reception area of the department office), and online.
Optional prereading: Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy,
the First Meditation
("What can be called into doubt," CSM II:12-15).
(Optional reading really is optional.)
Reading: Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy,
Second Meditation
("Concerning the Nature of the Human Mind");
Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, secs. 16-17;
Jaakko Hintikka, "Cogito, Ergo
Sum: Inference or Performance?" (you can find the
journal in the Marriott catalog, log in,
and click through to JSTOR). And here's
the default translation for this class, till the book
turns up.
Optional reading: Robert Nozick, "Fiction," in his Socratic Puzzles.
Reading: Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy,
Third Meditation
("Concerning God, That He Exists");
Annette Baier, "The Idea of the
True God in Descartes," thru sec. 3 (i.e., up to p. 370),
in Amelie Rorty, Essays on Descartes' Meditations.
(Pay special attention to the para. bridging 363f.)
Optional reading: Austin, Sense and Sensibilia, pp. 70-71. The remainder of the Baier paper.
Reading: Descartes, Meditations,
Fourth Meditation;
Bernard Williams, "Deciding to Believe"
(search Marriott for his book, Problems of the
Self; this is ch. 9).
Optional reading: Rogers Albritton, "Freedom of Will and Freedom of Action".
Happy Labor Day! Feeling extra ambitious? Take Bernard Williams's book, Descartes, to the beach! (Available in Marriott, print only.)
Reading: Review Descartes, Meditations,
Meditations Three and Four.
Optional reading: Imre Lakatos, Proofs and Refutations (in case you want to see what it looks like for a 'confused and obscure' idea to be made 'clear and distinct'; available via the Marriott catalog). Avner Baz, "Whose Dream Is It Anyway?", sec. 7 only, starting on p. 281.
Reading: Descartes, Meditations,
Fifth Meditation (read around the ontological argument;
it's low priority for us). O.K. Bouwsma,
"Descartes' Evil Genius" (this is in
Philosophical Review 58(2), Mar., 1949: 141-151).
Optional reading: Harry Frankfurt, Demons, Dreamers, and Madmen (available via the Marriott catalog), chs. 12-15.
Reading: Descartes, Meditations,
Sixth Meditation.
Optional reading: Marleen Rozemond, Descartes's Dualism, ch. 1 ("The Real Distinction Argument"); Hilary Putnam, Reason, Truth and History, ch. 4 ("Mind and Body"), up to p. 85.
Reading: John Stuart Mill,
An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's
Philosophy, ch. 11 ("The Psychological Theory of
the Belief in an External World", at pp. 177-87 [which
starts at p. 285 of the online pdf]).
Optional reading: Roderick Chisholm "The Problem of Empiricism", Journal of Philosophy 45(19), Sept. 1948: 512-17.
Reading: Review Mill, Hamilton, ch. 11; read A. J. Ayer,
The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge, pp. 1-28.
Optional reading: John Stuart Mill, An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy, ch. 12 ("The Psychological Theory of the Belief in Matter, How Far Applicable to Mind" -- addresses issues arising out of the 'Permanent Possibilities of Sensation' view having to do with the cogito). Additional followon reading: Putnam, Reason, Truth and History, pp. 180-82 (from "If the conception of rationality we have just described..." to "...as we remarked, failed"). And following up on questions in class about QM and realism: Mermin, Quantum Mysteries for Anyone.
Reading: A. J. Ayer,
The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge, pp. 136-61.
Optional followon reading: C.I. Lewis, Mind and the World Order.
Reading: Hilary Putnam,
Reason, Truth and History, chs. 1-3. (In the
section,
"Why the received view doesn't work," read the first two
paras., and if you're math-shy, don't worry about the
rest.)
Optional reading: Comfortable with math? Take a look at the Appendix. And now would be a good occasion on which to look at the rest of ch. 4.
Reading: Olivia Milliner, "Disproving Cartesian Skepticism"; Jesse Robinson, "Belief and Its Incompatibility with a Metaphysical Faculty of Judgement".
Donald Davidson,
"The Method of Truth in Metaphysics,"
sec. 1. (Look for the book, Inquiries into Truth and
Interpretation, in the Marriott catalog; in the
online table of contents, open ["Show Subsections"] the "Language and Reality"
Part; MTM will be Essay 15.)
Davidson, "A
Coherence Theory of Truth and Knowledge", from the bottom
of p. 149 ("The details are not here to the point...") to
153.
(Look for the book, Subjective, Intersubjective,
Objective, in the Marriott catalog; in the
online table of contents, open ["Show Subsections"] the "Objective"
Part; CTTK will be Essay 10.)
Optional reading: The rest of the Davidson papers; Reason, Truth and History, pp. 113-24.
Reading: Austin, Sense and Sensibilia (yup, the
whole thing -- it's a short book).
Optional reading: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, Part I, secs. 244-248, 258-265, 268-279, 293, 298-299, 308.
Reading: Matt Min, "Contradictions, Existence, and Infinite Substances." Sam Faerber, "Descartes' 'Light of Nature' Is No More Sure Than Conditioning".
Wittgenstein, On Certainty.
Don't worry, it's German-English facing
pages, so it's a lot shorter than it looks. But pay special attention to
secs. 84, 11-13, 18, 32, 42, 67-69,
70-72, 93-94, 55, 96-97, 80-81 -- and you might want to
read those in that order.
Optional reading: "Proof of an External World (excerpts)" (originally in Proceedings of the British Academy 25 [1939]); G. E. Moore, "A Defence of Common Sense," in G. E. Moore, Philosophical Papers (New York: Collier, 1966): 32-59.
Have a great fall break -- why not take Consciousness Explained as beach reading?
Reading: David Finkelstein,
"Detectivism" (ch. 1 of his Expression and the Inner).
Optional reading: Shaun Nichols and Stephen Stich, "Reading One's Own Mind" (ch. 4 of their Mindreading).
Reading: Tredwell Abrams, "Dreams and the 'I'";
Madison Bloodworth, "Anyway, It's My Dream".
Sydney Shoemaker,
"On Knowing One's Own Mind" (this is ch. 2 of his The
First-Person Perspective and Other Essays).
Optional reading: Shoemaker, "How Is Self-Knowledge Possible?" (this is ch. 6 of his Self-Knowledge and Self-Identity -- kind of a look into the Wittgenstein-influenced prehistory of the discussion).
Reading:
review Shoemaker,
"On Knowing One's Own Mind";
Richard Moran, Authority and Estrangement,
ch. 1; Gareth Evans, Varieties of Reference,
pp. 223f (corner-quoted passage on handout).
Optional reading: Heather Douglas,"The Irreducible Complexity of Objectivity".
Reading: Luke Duncan, "The Self as Sandbox"; Hailey
Hernandez,
"The Brain in a Vat Thought Experiment".
Optional reading: Dennett, Consciousness Explained, pp. 3-6.
Reading: Richard Moran, Authority and Estrangement,
ch. 2;
Victoria McGeer,
"Is "Self-Knowledge" An Empirical Problem? Renegotiating the Space of Philosophical Explanation".
Optional reading: McGeer, "The Moral Development of First-Person Authority," Eur J Phil 16(1): 81-108 (available through the Marriott catalog).
Reading: Mich Spangler, "How Mistakes Prove the
External World".
Moran, Authority and Estrangement, ch. 3.
Optional reading: Shojaee et al., "The Illusion of Thinking: Understanding the Strengths and Limitations of Reasoning Models via the Lens of Problem Complexity" (available shortly).
Reading: Shoemaker's Royce Lectures, I
(ch. 10 in Shoemaker,
The First-Person Perspective; or:
Lect. I).
Optional reading: Shoemaker, "First-Person Access," in The First-Person Perspective, pp. 70-71.
Reading: Slader Rodman, "Experience, Language, and
the Nature of Existence";
Shoemaker's Royce Lectures, II
(ch. 11 in Shoemaker,
The First-Person Perspective; or:
Lect. II).
Optional reading: Royce Lect. III, sec. iv (pp. 260-266 in The First-Person Perspective).
Reading: Dennett, Consciousness Explained,
chs. 1-3.
Optional reading: Royce Lect. III, sec. i and the first two paras. of sec. ii (pp. 246-249 [top] in The First-Person Perspective).
Reading:
Walter Shewmake, "Externalism and the Expressibility Gap";
Redmond Ross, "Alternative Mediations of Reference".
Dennett, Consciousness Explained,
ch. 4.
Optional reading: Consciousness Explained, Appendix A.
Reading: Dennett, Consciousness Explained,
chs. 5-7 (but in ch. 7, if you're pressed for time, you
can skip pp. 171-193).
Optional reading: Consciousness Explained, pp. 171-193; https://xkcd.com/1196.
Reading: Dennett, Consciousness Explained,
chs. 8-9.
Optional reading: Robert Nozick, Invariances, ch. 4 ("The Realm of Consciousness"; hardcopy available from Marriott Library).
Reading: Dennett, Consciousness Explained,
chs. 10-11.
Optional reading: Hardin, Color for Philosophers (dated but still useful).
Reading: Dennett, Consciousness Explained,
chs. 12-13.
Optional reading: Shoemaker, "Unity of Consciousness and Consciousness of Unity" (ch. 9 in FPP).
Reading: Dennett, Consciousness Explained,
ch. 14.
Optional reading: TBA.