Required readings:

Here are the required reading assignments to be completed this week:

• Russell, The Problems of Philosophy : Chapters V-VIII [The Problems of Philosophy, Bertrand Russell: pp. 25-47]. The entire work can be found online here: Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy.
  • Study Guide: SparkNotes on Russell’s Problems of Philosophy: Chapter V ; Chapter VI ; Chapter VII ; Chapter VIII .

• Vitzthum,“ Philosophical Materialism ,” full article, pp. 1-11.

• Locke, The Works, vol. 1 An Essay concerning Human Understanding , Part 1 (1689), Book II, Chapter I, pp. 78-87.

• Berkeley, Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous , First and Second Dialogues, pp. 1-39.

• Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding , §2-7, pp. 7-39.

• Kant, Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysic that Can Present Itself as a Science , Preamble on the Special Features of All Metaphysical Knowledge and General Problems. [Excerpt from The Project Gutenberg EBook of Kant’s Prolegomena (20 pages).]
  • Study Guide: Read this helpful overview of the main themes and ideas in Kant’s philosophy from Encyclopedia Britannica’s Philosophy Pages: Kant “Cheat Sheet.”

• Nagel,“ What Is It Like to Be a Bat? ” The Philosophical Review, Vol. 83, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), pp. 435-450.
  • Read this short excerpt from Nagel’s book, What Does It All Mean? A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy (1987): Chapter 2 (3 pages).

• Jackson,“ Epiphenomenal Qualia ,” The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 127. (Apr., 1982), pp. 127-136.
  • Study Guide: Kirk, Robert, ” Zombies “, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2015 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
    .

• Searle,“ Minds, Brains, and Programs ,” The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, (1980) 3, pp. 417-457. Main article: pp. 417-424.

For general research on any philosophical topic, theme, or major philosopher, here are two excellent online sources:

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Discussion Board Forums In this four-week class, each week will feature a two-part interactive discussion/critique assignment: Part I: Q&A Discussion Forum Part II: Critical Comment Forum The entire assignment is worth 10 points (weighted at 7.5%). These two-part Discussion Board Forums comprise an important part of your grade, totaling 30% of your course grade for all four weeks. Part I: Q&A Discussion Forum: You will be asked to come up with two original questions based on the work of two different authors in each week’s required readings. Think about what stood out to you in the works in question—what ideas, theories, or approaches did you find to be interesting, engaging, or perhaps intriguing or challenging? (See each Discussion Forum for the specific authors or works you may select from in forming your questions.) Your task is then to do your best to answer each of your own questions as incisively and thoroughly as possible within a word-count range of around 350-500 words maximum (posts with fewer than 250 words will not receive any credit). The word count includes your question but not any citations. You must cite at least one source, which will be the particular essay or article from the required readings you are addressing. You are welcome to bring in as many others sources as you may need, but this is optional. Just be sure to cite any source from which you take ideas, arguments, or passages of language within the body of your response (next to the quoted or paraphrased passages), including the full source information at the end of your response (you need not do a separate works cited or reference page for this assignment). Your score for this part of the assignment will be based on the relevance, sophistication, and originality of your questions as well as the insight, understanding, and incisiveness expressed in your answers. This assignment will be due at the end of day on each Friday of the course. In these essay-style responses to your own questions, you should express a point of view and support your view with good reasons, evidence, examples, expert opinion, etc. High marks will not be achieved by simply reporting back information from the text or other sources. Philosophical thinking and writing involves more than presenting information; beyond doing this, you must also critically assess the issue in question—this involves original thinking and analysis. Moreover, you should attempt to come to some final position in response to the question and include evaluation of others’ positions or views on the issues involved in the question. Work for originality and development of critical analyses and evaluations.

First thread:

My first question is:

My answer to this question is:

Second thread:

My second question is:

My answer to this question is:

Part 2:

Week Two: Weekly Russell Round Up/Commentary

After completing this week’s assigned chapters of Russell’s The Problems of Philosophy as well as the other required readings for this week, first, summarize what you learned from reading Russell this week. Then, your main goal in this assignment beyond the summary is to tie together any theories, themes, concepts, important ideas, arguments, important observations, etc. you discover in Russell’s work and the particular philosophical views and the general content covered in the other readings. For example, in Week Two, you will be summarizing Chapters V-VIII in The Problems of Philosophy, and then you will look for how what he says there links up with, adds to, or even conflicts with the philosophical views and ideas of Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, Nagel, Jackson, and Searle. Much of Russell’s discussion draws heavily on the work of Berkeley and Hume in these chapters, so they might be the focus of your comparison or commentary. before completing this assignment.

This brief, informal essay should be in the 400-500-word range. You may submit your “Russell Round Up” as a file attachment or simply write it directly into the text editor (but best practice is always to save your work in a file so you don’t risk losing it if your computer shuts down). Please pay careful attention to grammar, spelling, word use, and writing style; this means you need to proofread your work before submitting it. This assignment is worth 5 points (weighted at 5%). It is due at the end of day on each Saturday of the course.