Study Guide

Table of Contents

Week One: Philosophy and the Craft of Giving Reasons

1. Materials Assigned for the Week
2. The Central Point of This Week's Material
3. Other Concepts and Points you are Expected To Master This Week
4. Miscellaneous Comments and Clarifications
   1. In Defence of Philosophising
   2. In Defence of Arguing

Week Two: Argument- The Tools of the Trade

1. Materials Assigned for the Week
2. The Central Point of This Week's Material
3. Other Concepts and Points you are Expected To Master This Week
4. Miscellaneous Comments and Clarifications
   1. A List of "Argument Words" for Premises and Conclusions
   2. The Definition of "Validity"
   3. Deduction, Induction and Abduction
   4. A Checklist of Valid versus Invalid Deductive Arguments

Week Three: What is Knowledge?

1. Materials Assigned for the Week
2. The Central Point of This Week's Material
3. Other Concepts and Points you are Expected To Master This Week
4. Miscellaneous Comments and Clarifications
   1. Three Competing Definitions of Knowledge
   2. The Plato Reading
   3. A Problem About "reliability"

Week Four: Descartes’ Foundationalism - Finding Some Foundations of Knowledge

1. Materials Assigned for the Week
2. The Central Point of This Week's Material
3. Other Concepts and Points you are Expected To Master This Week
4. Miscellaneous Comments and Clarifications
   1. Before anything else, Give Each of Descartes’ Meditations a More Revealing Title
   2. Descartes’ "Foundationalist" Project as a Whole
   3. The Meaning of the Phrase "Clear and Distinct Ideas"
   4. Descartes’ Argument for the Existence of God: Meditation Three

Week Five: Descartes’ Foundationalism - Rebuilding Knowledge from the Foundations

1. Materials Assigned for the Week
2. The Central Point of This Week's Material
3. Other Concepts and Points you are Expected To Master This Week
4. Miscellaneous Comments and Clarifications
   1. What Happens After the Existence of God is Proved?
   2. The Real Source of Human Error: Meditations Four and Six
   3. Descartes’ argument against scepticism: Meditation Six
   4. The "Cartesian Circle": Meditations Three and Six
   5. Three Special Cases for Advanced Readers: Meditation Six

Week Six: Hume’s Problem of Induction

1. Materials Assigned for the Week
2. The Central Point of This Week's Material
3. Other Concepts and Points you are Expected To Master This Week

Week Seven: Dualism and the Mind-Body Problem

1. Materials Assigned for the Week
2. The Central Point of This Week's Material
3. Other Concepts and Points you are Expected To Master This Week
4. Miscellaneous Comments and Clarifications
   1. "Leibniz’ Law"
   2. The General Form of Any Argument for Mind-Body Dualism
   3. First Argument for Dualism: The Argument From Doubt
   4. Criticism: Do These Arguments Commit the "Intensional Fallacy"?
   5. Second Argument for Dualism: The Spatial Argument
   6. Criticism: Do These Arguments Beg the Question?

Week Eight: Behaviourism and "Scientific Method"

1. Materials Assigned for the Week
2. The Central Point of This Week's Material
3. Other Concepts and Points you are Expected To Master This Week
4. Miscellaneous Comments and Clarifications
   1. Trial-run at a Dispositional Analysis of a Mental Expression, "X wants Y"
   2. Testing the Existence of God and Testing the Existence of Minds

Week Nine: Mind-Brain Identity Theory

1. Materials Assigned for the Week
2. The Central Point of This Week's Material
3. Other Concepts and Points you are Expected To Master This Week
4. Miscellaneous Comments and Clarifications
   1. Mind-Brain Identity and the Success of the Biological Sciences
   2. The Identity Theorist’s "Argument from the Advance of Science"
   3. The Identity Theorist’s "Argument from the Principle of Parsimony"
   4. Is There Any Conflict Between the "Science Argument" and the "Parsimony Argument"?
   5. A Common But Not Recommended Way to Distinguish Between Identity Theory and Functionalism

Week Ten: Functionalism

1. Materials Assigned for the Week
2. The Central Point of This Week's Material
3. Other Concepts and Points you are Expected To Master This Week
4. Miscellaneous Comments and Clarifications
   1. "Function" versus "Structure"
   2. Functions, Causes and "Causal Roles"
   3. "Species Chauvinism"
   4. How to Remember Functionalism: Four Easy Mnemonics
   5. The Turing Reading

Week Eleven: The Problem of Freedom and Determinism

1. Materials Assigned for the Week
2. The Central Point of This Week's Material
3. Other Concepts and Points you are Expected To Master This Week
4. Miscellaneous Comments and Clarifications
   1. The Selection From Hume
   2. The Selection From Sartre
   3. The Selection From Skinner
   4. Causality and Determination

Week Twelve: Compatibilism and Libertarianism

1. Materials Assigned for the Week
2. The Central Point of This Week's Material
3. Other Concepts and Points you are Expected To Master This Week
4. Miscellaneous Comments and Clarifications
   1. A Checklist of "Isms"
   2. Freedom and the Concept "S Could Have Done Otherwise"

Review Week

1. Materials Assigned for the Week
2. The Central Point of This Week's Material
3. Other Concepts and Points you are Expected To Master This Week
4. Miscellaneous Comments and Clarifications

Useful Web Resources for 134.101

• The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Descartes - A full transcription of Descartes' Meditations
• Guide to Philosophy on the Internet - other philosophy resources

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First Week: Philosophy and the Craft of Giving Reasons

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