Reading and Viewing Assignments

Readings are listed by author, selection title, and pages numbers (in parentheses). Readings from What Does It All Mean? by Nagel are listed by author and chapter number. Online readings are listed by author and title and labled "online". They are either available through WebCampus/Canvas, in the Readings and Viewings module (accessible via the side-menu Modules link) or they are linked here directly.

• For Jan. 22: Read Nagel, Chapter 1 (also available online), Perry and Bratman, "On the Study of Philosophy" (online), and Russell, "The Value of Philosophy" (Chapter XV). Then read Kukla, "Philosophy, Comedy, and the Need for Good Material" (online) and watch the video with Kwame Anthony Appiah, "What Does a Philosopher Do?". (You might also watch "The Personal Philosophy of Kwame Anthony Appiah", and "Kwame Anthony Appiah on Cosmopolitanism".)
• For Jan. 24: Read Plato, Apology (pp. 1-22). These Reading Questions can help you focus on some of the main points. (They are just for you, not to hand in--but for discussion everyone should be able to answer at least these questions.) Then read Perry, Bratman, and Fischer, "Logical Toolkit" (online) and Dove, "Critical Thinking: A Very Short Introduction" (online). Finally, read Weston, A Rulebook for Arguments, Chs. I-III, V-VI. Check out my Logic Poem to help you keep track of some of the basic logical notions.
• For Jan. 29: Read Plato, The Republic, Book VII ("Allegory of the Cave", pp. 360-365, also online on WebCampus). Then read Dick, "The Electric Ant" (online). Use the Assignment link in WebCampus/Canvas to write your first Electronic Journal entry (type it directly into the text box provided), describing parallels and similarities between Plato's allegory and Dick's short story. Submit your Journal entry before 1pm on 1/29. Then read Russell, "Appearance and Reality" (Chapter I). Note: Classroom Changed to CEB 240.
• For Jan. 31: Read Pollock, "A Brain in a Vat" (online) and Nagel, Ch. 2. Then watch The Matrix and read Nozick, "The Experience Machine" (online).
• For Feb. 5: Watch Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS), "The Cage" [S1:Ep0/1] (linked on WebCampus and also available for viewing on Paramount+). Then read Descartes, "Meditation One" and "Meditation Two" from Meditations on First Philosophy, followed by Heinlein, "They" (online).
• For Feb. 7: Read Descartes, "Meditation Three" from Meditations on First Philosophy. Then read Russell, "The Existence of Matter" (Chapter II). Submit Electronic Journal Entry #2 via the link on WebCampus/Canvas before 1:00pm.
• For Feb. 12: Re-read Russell, "The Existence of Matter" (Chapter II). Then re-read Descartes, "Meditation Two" with a focus on the mind-body distinction, and read Nagel, Chapter 4. Next read Churchland, "The Ontological Problem (The Mind-Body Problem)" (pp. 7-21 on Dualism) from Matter and Consciousness (online) and Descartes, "Meditation Six" (in particular, pp. 53-58 in the book or pp. 29-31 in the online PDF) and "Correspondence between Descartes and Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia" (online).
• For Feb. 14: Read Nagel, Chapter 9, then read Perry, A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality, "The First Night". Then watch Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS), "Turnabout Intruder" [S3:Ep24] (online). Submit Electronic Journal Entry #3 via the link on WebCampus/Canvas before midnight.
• For Feb. 19: No Class! for Presidents' Day. If you plan to do the Extra Credit Journal Entry (due Wed 2/21), you might gets started on that.
• For Feb. 21: Read "The Second Night" and "The Third Night" from Perry's, A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality. Then watch Star Trek: TNG, "Second Chances" [S6:Ep24] (online) and read "The Meeting" by Pohl and Kornbluth (online). If you are doing the Extra Credit Journal Entry, submit that via the Assignment link on WebCampus/Canvas before 1pm.
• For Feb. 26: Read Egan, "Learning to Be Me" (online) and Churchland, "The Ontological Problem (The Mind-Body Problem)" (pp. 36-42 on Functionalism). Then watch Star Trek: TNG, "The Measure of a Man" [S2:Ep9] and read the Wikipedia entry on the Turing test. Next, read Anderson, "Searle and the Chinese Room Argument: Parts I and II" (online). Finally, read Nagel, Ch. 3 and watch Ex Machina. Submit Journal Entry #4 before 1pm via the Assignment link on WebCampus/Canvas.
• For Feb. 28: Read Nagel, Ch. 6. Then read Chiang, "What's Expected of Us" (online) and Davis, "Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends" (online). Finally, read Taylor, "Freedom and Determinism" (online). Write out answers the Reading Questions 1-4 at the beginning of the Taylor article.
• For Mar. 4: Read Chiang, "Story of Your Life" (online) and Federman, "What Kind of Free Will Did the Buddha Teach?" (online). Submit Electronic Journal Entry #5 via the Assignment link on WebCampus/Canvas before 1pm.
• For Mar. 6: Study for the Midterm Exam, which will be in-person in our classroom during our regularly scheduled meeting time (1pm-2:15pm). Everything from weeks 1-8 of the course is relevant. Bring an Exambook to write your essay answers in. You may use hardcopies of any of the readings assigned and any handwritten/printed notes you have while taking the exam, but you will not be allowed to access a computer or the course Canvas page or anything else online.
• For Mar. 18: Re-read the Federman article and the Chiang story assigned for 3/4.
• For Mar. 20: Read Plato, The Republic, Book II ("The Ring of Gyges", pp. 212-221) and watch H.G. Wells's The Invisible Man (from 1933). Next read Nagel, Ch. 7 and "Good Minus God" by Louise Antony (online).
• For Mar. 25: Read Sheckley, "The Monsters" (online) and Rachels, "The Challenge of Cultural Relativism" (online). Then read the longish story by Yudkowsky, "Three Worlds Collide" (online). Submit Electronic Journal Entry #6 via the Assignment link on WebCampus/Canvas before 1pm. [Note the new, later due date.]
• For Mar. 27: Re-read the argument on pp. 64-67 in Nagel, Ch. 7. Watch Star Trek: TOS, "Journey to Babel" [S2:Ep10] (online). Then read Kant, "Preface" and "First Section" from Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals (Sections 387-405 by the margin numbers, which turns out to be pp. 1-18 in the hardcopy or pp. 3-21 in the online PDF version).
• For Apr. 1: Read Kant, "Second Section" from Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals (Sections 406-440 by the margin numbers, pp. 19-45 in the hardcopy, pp. 22-58 in the online PDF version). Next, read Godwin, "The Cold Equations" (online). Then read Mill, Utilitarianism, Chapters I and II. Watch Star Trek: SNW, "Lift Us Up Where Suffering Cannot Reach" [S1:Ep6] (online) and read LeGuin, "The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas" (online). Submit Journal Entry #7 on WebCampus/Canvas by 1pm.
• For Apr. 3: Read Nagel, Chapter 8, and Vonnegut, "Harrison Bergson" (online).
• For Apr. 8: Read Nozick, selections from Anarchy, State, and Utopia (online) and and Kress, "Beggars in Spain" (online--a longer story!). Then read Okin, "Libertarianism: Matriachry, Slavery, and Dystopia" (online). Email me a basic outline of what your Research Project will cover (Mini Task #4), as explained in the Announcement on WebCampus/Canvas.
• For Apr. 10: Read "Rawls Rules: Three Post-War Liberals Strove to Establish the Meaning of Freedom" from The Economist (online) and Rawls, "A Theory of Justice" (online). Then watch Doctor Who, "The Day of the Doctor" [50th Anniversary Special from 2013] (online). Submit Journal Entry #8 on WebCampus/Canvas by 1pm.
• For Apr. 15: Watch Star Trek: TOS, "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" [S3:Ep15] and then read Kress, "Out of All Them Bright Stars" (online). Next, read Mills, The Racial Contract, Intro and Ch. 1 (online) and Bell, "The Space Traders" (online). [Recommended supplementary reading: Appiah, "The Uncompleted Argument: Du Bois and the Illusion of Race" (online).] Your complete (to-be-graded) Research Project Outline will be due before midnight on Friday, April 19 (so, not on 4/15 like the syllabus says, and not on 4/17, like the Announcement said), via the assignment posting in WebCampus/Canvas.
• For Apr. 17: Read Russ, "When it Changed" (online) and hooks, "Understanding Patriarchy" (online).
• For Apr. 19: Friday: Submit your detailed Research Project Outline before midnight. If you are doing Extra Credit Journal Entry #4, submit that before midnight as well.
• For Apr. 22: (Re-)read Russ, "When it Changed" (online) and hooks, "Understanding Patriarchy" (online). Then watch Star Trek: TNG, "The Outcast" [S5:Ep17] and read Sturgeon, "The World Well Lost" (online) and Barnes, "The Metaphysics of Gender" (online). Submit Journal Entry #9 on WebCampus/Canvas by 1pm.
• For Apr. 24: No class! Be working on your Research Project--which is due Sunday 4/28 before midnight [note the later due date]--and on Extra Credit Journal Entry #5 (due Saturday 4/27), if you are submitting that entry.
• For Apr. 28: Sunday! Submit your Research Project Individual Essay to Turnitin.com via the link in the Assignment posting on WebCampus/Canvas before midnight. If you are doing a group presentation, have one member of the group email me the slides for your presentation before midnight.
• For Apr. 29: Read Forster, "The Machine Stops" (online) and Verbeek, "Cultivating Humanity: Towards a Non-Humanist Ethics of Technology" (online).
• For May 1: Read Asimov, "The Last Question" (online). Then read Bostrom, "The Future of Humanity" (online) and Nagel, Chapter 10. Submit Journal Entry #10 on WebCampus/Canvas by 1pm.
• For May 6: Final Exam! 1pm-3pm, in our regular classroom. Bring an exambook.

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Last updated May 4, 2024

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This document was created on December 23, 2023.