PHIL 101.001 – Introduction to Philosophy: Central Problems, Great Minds, Big Ideas

Instructor: Michaela Tiller. This course meets MTWRF 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. via remote synchronous (RS) instruction.

This introductory course will touch on major questions in a variety of subfields of philosophy, including ethics, metaphysics and philosophy of religion. We will look at some of the fundamental questions about the world and our place in it, and the efforts made to answer them by individuals in different eras and contexts, reading texts from Plato and Zhuangzi through Descartes and Hume and up to work being published today. These questions include: Do we know we live in reality? Does God exist? How should we determine what actions are right? What makes a person the same person through the passage of time? Is it possible to have free will?

Through discussion and paper assignments, this class will foster your ability to analyze and justify your opinions on these issues. I also aim to give students acquaintance with the breadth of topics covered in philosophy and the opportunity to find which topics they might like to study further.

This course has no prerequisites and meets the PH requirement for Gen Ed.