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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?

  • From Mythos to Logos: the Origins of Western Philosophy

  • Eastern Philosophical Traditions

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

  • Stoicism and Neoplatonic Philosophy

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II.  Critical Thinking

     

  • Identifying Arguments

  • Deductive Arguments

  • Non-Deductive Arguments

  • Consistency and Inconsistency

  • Evaluating Definitions

  • Fallacies of Reasoning

  • Cognitive Biases

  • Writing an Argumentative Essay

  • Moral Reasoning

  • 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

  • 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

  • Responsibilities to Posterity

  • Responsibilities to the Natural World

  • Pollution

  • Overpopulation  

  • The Voice of the Earth: Ethics for a Living Planet

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IV.  Language, Mind, and World

         

  • On the Existence of God

  • What is Art?

  • Art and Morality in Aristotle’s Poetics

  • The Philosophy of Love: From Plato to the Present

  • Freedom and Responsibility

  • Creating a Self

  • Philosophical Perspectives on the Meaning of Life

  • Happiness and Human Flourishing

  • The Self as Mental Matter

  • The Self as Body

  • The Self and the Cosmos

  • Knowledge and Reality

  • Wittgenstein on the Limits of Language

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