Honors Intro to Philosophy
I will be teaching the following course in the fall:
PHIL 1101: Honors Introduction to Philosophy
Course Description:
In this course we will address some basic philosophical questions, such as:
- What does it mean to know something? What can be known? What can’t?
- What is the nature of the self? What makes you you?
- What makes an action right or wrong? What makes a person virtuous or vicious?
- How should society be organized?
- What are the ethical implications of certain scientific and technological
developments such as genetic engineering?
- What makes an argument (i.e., piece of reasoning) good or bad, strong or weak?
We will approach these and other questions via classic philosophical readings and philosophically-oriented films.
Some of the philosophers whose views we will discuss are Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Hobbes, Descartes, Locke, Hume, Kant, Kierkegaard, Mill, Nietzsche, Russell, Wittgenstein, and Sartre. Some of the films we will discuss are A Clockwork Orange, Being John Malkovich, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Fight Club, Memento, Office Space, Schindler’s List, and The Truman Show. We will watch clips from some of these films in class.
After completing this course, students will:
- be familiar with the fundamental problems traditionally addressed by philosophers
- have critically examined some theories that have been proposed to solve these problems
- have a good idea how philosophy has developed historically
- understand how philosophy is relevant to contemporary life and culture
More information can be found in the UMD Course Guide.