Introduction to Philosophy

Professor May Sim
Philosophy 110-05
MWF 11:00-11:50 a.m.

Course Description

This survey course will introduce perennial issues in philosophy by examining the basic
works of some great philosophers. We will question the nature of ultimate reality with
philosophers like Plato, Thomas and Descartes. ‘Is the physical world around us
ultimately real, or is ultimate reality something other?’ ‘Are the two related?’ And if so,
‘what is the relation?’ Alongside metaphysical questions such as these are
epistemological questions (i.e., questions concerning the nature of knowledge). For
instance, ‘What things can we know?’ and ‘What justifications do we have for claiming
that we know something?’ will be discussed. Not only will we ask about the nature of
reality and knowledge, but thinking with Aristotle, Kant and the aforementioned
philosophers, we will ask if the nature of reality and the question of how we know it are
related to goodness. We will examine if these questions affect our happiness, and
consider if they affect our answers to the question of how we ought to live.

Required Texts

Plato: Five Dialogues, trans. by G. M. A. Grube (Hackett) 0872206335

Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, trans. by T. Irwin (Hackett) 0872204642

St. Thomas Aquinas: Introduction to Saint Thomas Aquinas, ed. with intro by A. C. Pegis
(Modern Library) 0075536536

Rene Descartes: Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, trans. by D.
A. Cress (Hackett) 0872204200

Kant: Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, trans. with intro by L. W. Beck
(Prentice Hall) 0023078251