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CALIFORNIA STATE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY, POMONA
Course Title: PHL 460 Metaphysics
Instructor: Dr. Zijiang Ding
Office: Room 328, Building 1
Phone: (909) 869-4660
COURSE OUTLINE
I.Course description
Speculative issues that have been central to philosophy throughout its history: the reality, time,
mind and body, Self-identity, and freedom. 4 lecture/problem-solving.
II.Required Background or Experience
PHL 201 or equivalent
III.Expected Outcomes
1.Strengthen students' background in the history of philosophical traditions and introduce students
to intellectual approaches to contemporary philosophical questions.
2.Help students to conduct a critical inquiry into several of the more central concepts and problems
specific and common to most (if not all) of metaphysical studies.
3.Develop students' philosophical reading, writing, discussing and reasoning skills.
IV.Text and Readings
Text:
Ronald C. Hoy & L. Nathan Oaklander, Metaphysics: Classic and Contemporary Readings,
Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1991
Optional readings:
W. k. C. Guthrie, The Greek Philosophers: From Thales to Aristotle,
New York: Harper &
Row, 1960
Plato, Dialogues, 4th ed., trans. Benjamin Jowett, Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1953
Aristotle, The Basic works of Aristotle, R. McKeon, ed., New York:
Random House, 1941
Rene Descartes, Principles of Philosophy, E. Haldane and G. R. T.
Ross, ed.,
Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1911
David Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, L. A. Selby-Bigge, ed.,
Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1983
Kant, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, Paul Carus, trans.,
Indianapolis,IN., Hackett
Publishing Company, Inc.,1977
Bertrand Russell, Problems of Philosophy, London: Oxford University
Press,1912
Martin Heidegger, Introduction to Metaphysics, trans. Ralph
Manheim, New Haven, CT:
Yale University Press, 1959
Lao Zi, Dao De Jing (or Taoi Te Ching The Way and Its Power)
Random House, 1941
Bonevac, Boon and Phillips, ed., Beyond the Western Tradition,
Mountain View, CA:
Mayfield, 1992
V.Course Outline
General Introduction
Section I Knowing the World and Final Being
1. Reality: Western Ancient Views
Pre-Socrates Plato Aristotle
2. Reality: Western Modern Views
Descartes Spinoza Leibniz Locke Hume Berkeley Kant Hegel
3. Reality: Western Contemporary Views
Russell Carnap Heidegger Sellars Quine Rorty
4. Reality: Eastern Views
Lao Zi Buddha
5. Time: a Philosophical Perspective
Parmenides W. C. Salmon
Section II Knowing Oneself: Mind, Body, Self-identity and Freedom
1. Mind and Body
Brentano Dennett Armstrong Putnam Nagel Jackson Churchland J.R.Searle
2. Self-identity
Hobbes Reid Chisholm B.Williams D.Parfit
3. Freedom
S.Cahn Aquinas Augustine W.L.Rowe G.E.Moore R.M.Chsholm H.Frankfurt M.Slote
VI. Instructional Methods
Students will learn by studying the reading materials, and by participating in class discussions of the
readings and issues. The instructor will guide students through the readings, introduce background
material, identify major points and issues, clarify key ideas and distinctions, and focus class
discussion on particular issues relevant to the essays covered. Students will refine and deepen their
understanding of the course materials by writing paper on the topics and readings covered.
VII.Evaluation of Outcomes
1.One term paper 30%.
2.Two oral speeches with research reports 40%.
3.Being group discussion leader and representative speaker twice 15%.
4.Class participation and discussion 15%.