PHIL 105OS: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Summer 2012, Trinity Western University
Instructor:
Course Duration:
Email:
Dr. Myron A. Penner
July 2 – August 15
Myron.Penner@twu.ca
Text:
 Elliot Sober, Core Questions in Philosophy: A Text with Readings, 5th ed. (Prentice Hall:
2005).
Course Objectives:
1. Develop tools of analysis that will help you engage some basic philosophical questions with
intelligence and clarity.
2. Digest some writings of a few great thinkers within the history of philosophy.
3. Examine some of the questions important to western philosophy, including: What, if
anything, can we know? Is it rational to believe that God exists? Are human beings
physical objects or nonphysical souls?
Requirements:
 Exam 1
 Exam 2
 Exam 3
 Paper
 Exam 4
15%
20%
15%
20%
30%
Exams:
This course will have four exams. The first three exams will be glorified “unit tests” which will
focus on the material covered in the preceding section. The final exam will be cumulative and
focus on material covered since the beginning of the course. (Helpful Hint: The “Review
Questions” and “Problems for Further Thought” listed for the Sober readings may suggest
potential exam questions.)
Papers:
This course will have one short paper (2000 words, plus or minus 10%). Your paper topic will
come from a list of possibilities which I will provide for you. You must submit a one page
proposal outlining the argument of your paper on the specified due date. Specific instructions
for this course are outlined in the document “PHIL 105OS Paper Topics”.
Some Policies to Note:
All course assignments (i.e. exams and term paper) are to be completed by August 15, 2012.
Exam 1 is based on content from the readings and audio material for lectures 1 – 4. Exam 2 is
PHIL 105OS Syllabus
Myron A. Penner
1
based on content from the readings and audio material for lectures 5 – 12. Exam 3 is based on
content from the readings and audio material for lectures 13 – 16. Exam 4 is based on content
from the readings and audio material for lectures 1 – 20. All of the exams have time limits:
Exams 1 – 3 must be completed within two hours; Exam 4 must be completed within 4 hours.
PHIL 105OS Syllabus
Myron A. Penner
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COURSE SCHEDULE:
Lecture #
Topic/Reading
Very Introductory Logic
1
2
3
4
Chapter 1: What is Philosophy? (1-7)
Chapter 2: Deductive Arguments (7-19)
Chapter 3: Inductive and Abductive Arguments (19-36)
Chapter 3: Cont’d
EXAM ONE
Reason and Belief in God
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Chapter 4: Aquinas’ Four Ways (37-53; 118-120)
Chapter 5: The Design Argument (53-60; 120-123)
Hume’s Critique of the Design Argument (123-28)
Chapter 6: Evolution and Creationism (61-75)
Chapter 7: Can Science Explain Everything? (76-83)
Chapter 9: Is the Existence of God Testable? (92-99; 132-36)
Chapter 10: Pascal and Irrationality (100-108; 136-138)
Chapter 11: The Argument from Evil (108-116)
EXAM TWO
Knowledge and Justified Belief
13
14
15
16
Chapter 12: What is Knowledge? (147-155)
ES Chapter 13: Descartes’s Foundationalism (156-168)
ES Chapter 14: The Reliability Theory of Knowledge (170-179)
Plantinga’s “The Reformed Objection to Natural Theology”
EXAM THREE
Mind-Body Problem
17
18
19
20
PHIL 105OS Syllabus
Myron A. Penner
ES Chapter 19: Dualism and the Mind/Body Problem (255-263)
Chapter 22: The Mind/Brain Identity Theory
David Chalmers, “The Puzzle of Conscious Experience”
Alvin Plantinga, “Materialism and Christian Belief”
3