PHIL 5400/6400
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. Jan. 13 (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): Reasons and Persons, p. 258, para. starting "There are three other possibilities..." (N.B.: you'll have to read sec. 89 for context).
2. Jan. 20: Williams, "The Self and the Future", in Phil Rev p. 177, from "Relatedly, the subject..." to the end of the para. (But I suggest also taking a look at the following two paras., up through "...undecidable whether I occur," before starting your outline.) If you have Problems of the Self, this is on p. 60.
3. Jan. 27: Parfit, Reasons and Persons, sec. 86 ("The Combined Spectrum"), up to the second break on p. 239 ("...a strong argument for this view").
4. Feb. 3: Williams, "Persons, Character and Morality," from "many moral notions show" (on p. 7) to "what Parfit calls the Simple View" (on p. 8).
5. Feb. 10: either Parfit, Reasons and Persons, sec. 64 ("Past or Future Suffering") [Remember, stories aren't part of the argument!], or p. 156, from "And there is a sceptical argument..." to the end of the first full para. ("...as likely to be right as me").
6. Feb. 17: either Olson, The Human Animal, first full para. on p. 60 ("Suppose the operation fails..."); or Wiggins, Sameness and Substance, p. 170, top of the page to the end of the first full para. (from "To make the link..." to "...the consciousness of a person").
7. Feb. 24: either Johnston, "Human Beings," p. 68, para. starting "Now imagine that the machine...", or Thompson, "Representation of Life," taking together two paras., one starting "Does the sentence then rather amount to...," on pp. 284-85, and the para. bridging 285-86, starting "It is implicit in Aristotle's remarks..."
8. Mar. 3: Nagel, Possibility of Altruism, either pp. 33f, from "I think it is very important..." to the end of the para., or p. 42, para. starting "Thirdly, although..."
9. Mar. 10: Bonus weekly assignment! Nagel, Possibility of Altruism, p. 75, 2 paras. starting "But it is clear that..."

After this point, it's two-part weekly assignments, as described on the syllabus.

10. Mar. 17: Strawson, Individuals, either p. 35, from the top of the page ("But the point can be better put...") to "...in one sub-system with some items in the other," or p. 20, from "So, it may seem, in the nondemonstrative identification..." to the end of the para. (Don't use Strawson's own replies in constructing your rebuttal.)
11. Mar. 24: Either Strawson, Individuals, p. 104, top, from "Let me rehearse briefly..." up to "...and corporeal characteristics," or pp. 105f, para. starting "What then are the consequences...".
12. Mar. 31: Either Williams, "The Makropulos Case," p. 96, para. starting "Some philosophers have pictured..." or p. 90, para. starting "There are difficult questions...".
13. Apr. 7: Lear, Love and Its Place in Nature, either p. 34, from "Indeed, if one asks ..." to "...alternative to the discharge model", or p. 44, first full para., from "There was, however..." to "...stability of a symptom."
14. Apr. 14: Lear, Love and Its Place in Nature, either pp. 169-170, from "In its most general terms..." to "...identify with the love-object" and then on the next page, from "So the process of psychic organization..." to "...organization is achieved," or p. 177, first full para. of sec IV, from "For Freud..." to "...complexity and refinement."
15. Apr. 21: Either Pradeu, pp. 261f, from "It is crucial to note..." to "...individuals contained within it"; or reserve typescript, at p. (2)48, from "I find it very implausible..." to "So our problem is solved"; or Parfit, RP p. 191, para. starting "These relations are, in most respects, different."
16. Apr. 28: Either Williams, "Makropulos Case," p. 86, 2nd full para. ("To suppose that one can in this way..."), or Nagel, Possibility of Altruism, pp. 94f (two paras., starting "This case is worth pursuing..." to the end of the section; however, you'll need to read from the beginning of the chapter for it to make sense).