Lecture Notes

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Throughout my years of teaching, I have developed lecture notes on a variety of topics, for the variety of classes which I taught.  Here is a list of some of these topics.  I hope to upload all the notes here in the near future.

   

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I.  Intro to Philosophy

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• What is Philosophy?

• Plato on the Nature of Philosophy: The Theory of Forms & Allegory of the Cave

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II.  Critical Thinking

     

• Identifying Arguments: Argument Mapping

• Evaluating Deductive Arguments

• Evaluating Non-Deductive Arguments

• Consistency and Inconsistency

• Evaluating Definitions

• Fallacies of Reasoning

• Cognitive Biases

• Writing an Argumentative Essay

• Moral Reasoning and The Socratic Method

• The Role of Reason in Grounding Moral Judgments

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III.  Moral & Political Philosophy

    

• The Trial and Death of Socrates

• Plato’s Theory of Justice

• The Individual vs the State: A Study of Socrates and Antigone

• Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics

• The Ring of Gyges and the Possibility of Altruism

• Nietzsche's Critique of Judaeo-Christian Morality

• Plato & Aristotle’s Critique of Democracy

• Direct vs. Representative Democracy

• The Social Contract Approach to Justice

• Tolerance and its Limits

• Freedom of Speech

• Utilitarian vs. Rights-Based Ethics

• Rule-Utilitarianism

• Utilitarians vs Libertarians on Taxation

• Sources of Unethical Behavior in the Corporate World 

• Critique of Laissez-Faire Capitalism

• Critique of Cost-Benefit Analysis in Environmental Policy-Making

• Pollution

• Overpopulation  

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IV.  Language, Mind, and World

         

• On the Existence of God

• What is Art?

• Art and Morality in Aristotle’s Poetics

• Freedom and Responsibility

• Creating a Self

• The self as mental matter

• The self as body

• Knowledge and Reality

• Wittgenstein on the Limits of Language