PHIL 110.001 – Philosophical Texts that Changed the World: An Introduction to Philosophy through Great Works

Instructor: Rosalind Chaplin. This course meets TR 3:30 – 4:45 p.m. in CW 105.

This course is an introduction to philosophy through the study of influential writings in its history. We will cover a range of questions in epistemology, value theory, and metaphysics, focusing especially on the following: What is knowledge, and what can we know? What is it to live a good life, and does the pursuit of happiness support or conflict with the pursuit of virtue? What is the makeup of fundamental reality, and how might it be different from what we initially take it to be? Is there causality in the world? What is the nature of the self? And do we have a self at all? We will study these questions by reading the works of Plato, Aristotle, Sextus Empiricus, René Descartes, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, early Buddhism, and the Aztec (Nahua) philosophical tradition.