SYLLABUS –– INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Instructor: Dr. Cristina Borgoni
Office hours: Thursday 10:00-11:30 (or by
Time: Friday 11:45–13:15
appointment), Office 513
Place: UR09.51
Email: cristina.borgoni-goncalves@uni-graz
Language of instruction: English
Course Summary
This course will introduce you to philosophy in three ways: by exposure to some key
debates in major areas in philosophy, to some of its central methodologies, and by the
exercise of philosophical thinking. Instead of working through the history of philosophy
focusing on great historical figures and their views on different topics, we will focus on
great philosophical topics and look what historical and contemporary writers have said
about them. The focus of the course is, nevertheless, on the practical knowledge involved
in doing philosophy. In the course, you will read excerpts from original philosophical
texts that will be used to set up philosophical problems to be discussed in class.
Course Objectives
The course has two main objectives. 1. To introduce you to the central philosophical
areas and some of their major debates. 2. To foster the basic philosophical skills required
in the field: to deal with a philosophy work in a successful way (e.g., you will learn how
to read and write a philosophy paper); to deal with philosophical arguments and other
philosophical methods (e.g., you will learn how to raise criticisms and reply to them); and
to construct your own argument.
Level of Difficult
This course is an introduction to philosophy. You will have the chance to learn how to
deal with philosophy from the basics. However, this course is not an easy ‘1’. You will
be required to be actively engaged with the material throughout the whole course. You
will be expected to master original philosophy texts, synthesize arguments and think
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about different questions on a very abstract level. Do not hesitate to bring your doubts
and questions to class and office hours. You are very welcome to do so!
Assessment
Your grades will be calculated as follows:
1. Attendance and participation: 10%
You will get the total points if you come to every section and participate in most of them.
2. Weekly Quiz: 15%
There will be online quizzes on Moodle whenever there is a text assigned for the week.
The quizzes are meant to check if you have read the assigned texts.
3. Class Presentation: 35% (20% + 15%)
You will choose 2 topics to work in a group of 2 or 3 students. Your group will present
one of the topics in the assigned section. The presentation will have 10-15 minutes and is
worth 20% of the grade. A handout is required. For the second topic, your group will
prepare a criticism to be discussed in class with the other group in charge of presenting
the same topic. Your criticism is worth 15% of the grade.
4. Essay: 40% (pass-fail + 40%)
You will write a philosophy essay on one of the topics discussed in class. Guidelines will
be given later in the course. You will write your essay in two stages. The first stage is to
write your paper’s draft. Your draft will be graded on a pass-fail basis both by me and by
your colleagues in class. Submitting the draft is enough to pass. However, you will only
be able to submit the final essay if you have passed the draft. The final essay is worth
40% of your grade.
Schedule
14.03.2014: How to read a philosophy text / what is an argument?
21.03.2014: Topic 1 (Fricker)
[28.03.2014: No Class]
04.04.2014: Topic 2 (Descartes I)
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11.04.2014: Topic 3 (Descartes VI) and Topic 4 (Ryle)
09.05.2014: Topic 5 (Wittgenstein)
16.05.2014: Topic 6 (Anscombe)
23.05.2014: Topic 7 (Hume)
06.06.2014: Topic 8 (Nozick)
13.06.2014: Topic 9 (Cudd)
20.06.2014: How to write a philosophy essay
27.06.2014: Probably no class
––Deadline essay draft––
04.07.2014: In-class evaluation of the draft
18.07.2014: No class
––Deadline final essay ––
Course Topics
EPISTEMOLOGY is the area of philosophy whose questions concerns knowledge.
Its central questions include: What is knowledge? What are the sources of
knowledge? Can we know anything at all? We will discuss two topics:
Topic 1: Testimony as a source of knowledge and the ethics of knowing
Fricker, Miranda (2007), ‘Testimonial Injustice’.
Topic 2: Perception as a source of knowledge and skepticism
Descartes, René (1641), ‘Meditation I’.
If you want more: Descartes, ‘Meditation II’ /Blackburn, Simon (1999), ‘Knowledge’.
PHILOSOPHY OF MIND investigates various questions regarding the nature of the
mind and other related problems, such as: What is the mind? What is
consciousness? What is the nature of representational mental states like beliefs?
How is the mind related to the body? We will discuss two topics:
Topic 3: The introspective mind and dualism
Descartes, R. (1641), ‘Meditation VI’.
Optional reading: Blackburn, S. (1999) ‘Mind’.
Topic 4: Mind as behavior and physicalism
Ryle, Gilbert (1949), ‘Descartes’s Myth’.
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Optional reading: Blackburn, S. (1999) ‘Mind’.
PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE investigates several questions regarding language.
Some examples are: What is meaning? What does determine the meaning of
specific groups of words? How does our words refer? We will discuss 1 topic:
Topic 5: Meaning and language
Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1953), sections 1-11; 185-187; 201-202.
METAPHYSICS is the branch of philosophy that investigates the nature of reality
and existence. It includes questions about the ontological nature of time, causation,
the concept of universal and particular, and the objective structure of reality. It also
includes questions about the self and free will. We will discuss the latter two topics:
Topic 6 (Metaphysics/ Phil of Language): The self
Anscombe, Gertrud E. M. (1981) ‘The First Person’ (selection).
Optional reading: Blackburn, S. (1999) ‘The Self’.
Topic 7: Free Will and determinism
Hume, David (1748) ‘Of Liberty and Necessity’.
Highly recommended optional reading: Blackburn, S. (1999) ‘Free Will’.
ETHICS is the branch of philosophy that deals with questions about goodness,
badness, rightness, and wrongness regarding human conduct. We will discuss two
topics in political philosophy, which have ethics underpinnings. Should we
privilege justice over freedom? Are we responsible for sexism in our society?
Topic 8: Justice and Freedom
Nozick, Robert (1974), ‘Justice and Entitlement’.
Optional reading: Rawls, J. (1971), A Theory of Justice, excerpts.
Topic 9: Freedom and Oppression
Cudd, Ann E. (1994), ‘Oppression by Choice’.
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Course Material
All course materials
will be available online on the course website (at
http://moodle.uni-graz.at). The course material is composed of original philosophy
papers. Most of them (topics 2, 3, 4, 7, 8) have been reprinted in the following book:

Perry, J. at al (eds). (2010): Introduction to Philosophy, Oxford University Press.
Most of the optional readings (topics 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8) are from the following book:

Blackburn, S. (1999) Think, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The full references for the remaining readings are the following:

Cudd, A. E. (1994) ‘Oppression by Choice’, Journal of Social Philosophy, pp. 22-44.

Anscombe, G. E. M. (1981) ‘The First Person’, Metaphysics and the Philosophy of
Mind, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, pp. 21-36.

Fricker, M. (2007), ‘Testimonial Injustice’, in Epistemic Injustice, Oxford: Oxford
University Press, pp. 9-29.

Wittgenstein, L. (1953), Philosophical Investigations (trans. G.E.M. Anscombe),
Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Part I, sections 1-11; 185-187; 201-202.
Besides the assigned readings, you will find the following resources useful to check
unfamiliar philosophy concepts and vocabulary:
- The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/
- The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://www.iep.utm.edu/
- A philosophy glossary for beginners (by Pryor):
http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~phils4/glossary.html
Last, but not least: Plagiarism
Don't plagiarize. It's that simple. Plagiarism is an infringement of intellectual copyright
and a serious offence, and is not taken lightly by the university. It is easy to avoid it:
whenever you help yourself to the ideas of others, make their authorship explicit by
referencing them. You will learn how to do it properly in the course. In addition, use
quotation marks (‘…’) when you cite them word for word. When in doubt, always
reference the source you're using: better a reference too many than too few.
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