Philosophy

PHILOSOPHY 101

AN INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY

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i. Course Preface

ii. Introductory Considerations

iii. Course Assignments

I. INITIAL REFLECTIONS

A. LEISURE THE BASIS OF CULTURE, Josef Pieper

• Questions (These questions or citations are designed to promote the student's intellectual penetration of the material that has been read. The entry can be written as a reflection on any one of the questions or on a subject that is of interest to the student and related to the content of the readings.
B. TEACHING/LEARNING AND THEIR COUNTERFEITS, Mortimer Adler

• Questions

II. SOPHISTRY, SCEPTICISM AND RELATIVISM

A. Introductory Questions and THE THEAETETUS, Plato

• Questions
B. THE ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE, Plato

• Questions
C. THE LAW, E.F. Bochenski

• Questions
D. THE REALITY OF IDEAS**

• Questions (the chapter by Adler and Bochenski's article.)
E. THE CLOSING OF THE AMERICAN MIND, Allen Bloom (Chapter one)

• Eight selected paragraphs to be considered.
• Questions (in this instance there are several citations from the work by Bloom)
F. A SUMMATION concluding this section of phi101, using THE ABUSE OF LANGUAGE, THE ABUSE OF POWER, Josef Pieper
**This material is taken largely from the second chap. of SIX GREAT IDEAS, by M. Adler.

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III. THE PRIORITY OF THE IDEA OF BEING OVER THE IDEA OF TRUTH, AND OF THE IDEA OF TRUTH OVER THE IDEA OF THE GOOD

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IV. THE IDEA OF BEING AND THE PRINCIPLE OF IDENTITY / THE IDEA OF BECOMING

A. The three acts of intellect
B. The distinction between an image and an idea
C. The simple priority of the idea of being over all other conceptualizations or ideas
D. Arriving at the logically prior concept of being as such
E. The principle of identity
F. Skepticism
G. Conclusion
H. Questions (Being and Becoming)

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V. THE IDEA OF TRUTH

A. The philosophical sceptic
B. The somewhat sceptical
C. The condition of doubt
D. Seeking the truth
E. Questions (The Idea of Truth)

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VI. FROM TRUTH TO GOODNESS

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VII. THE IDEA OF THE GOOD

A. The possibility of moral truth

• Questions
B. The first principle of moral reasoning

• Questions
C. The four secondary principles of moral truth
D. Universal Moral Truths

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Supplementary Readings

A. Orthdoxy
• The Ethics of Elfland (Part 1)
• The Ethics of Elfland (Part 2)
• Flag of the World
• The Suicide of Thought
• The Maniac
• Paradoxes of Christianity
B. The Sceptics
• Scepticism of the 18th Century
• Contemporary Scepticism
• Logical Empiricism
• Medieval Scepticism
• Modern Scepticism
• Montaigne: The Essays
• Scepticism
• Scepticism of the 17th Century
• Scepticism in the Reformation
• The Word Sceptic
• Various Senses and Applications
C. Other Supplementary Readings
• A Call To Counterrevolution - Gertrude Himmelfarb
• Academia Can't Tell Friend From Faux
• Closing Of The American Mind - Allen Bloom
• For Whom Bell Tolls
• Illiberal Education- Dinesh D'souza
• Intellectual Segregation
• Is And Ought - Mortimer Adler
• Knowledge And Freedom
• Language, Truth, And Logic - Ayer
• Liberty 101 -- Quotes Concerning The Relationship Between Freedom And Truth Taken From Splendor
• Multiculturalism and the Academy
• New Evidence Of A "Gay Gene"
• Not Out Of Africa - Mary Lefkowitz
• Objective / Subjective
• "Ought To" - Josef Pieper
• Pigs Is Pigs - Christopher Derrick
• Sex, Love, Marriage, Babies
• The Abolition Of Man - C.S. Lewis
• The Blind Men And The Elephant
• The Human Condition - Hannah Arendt
• The Movement Of Antitheistic Humanism In European Thought And Its Effect On Moral Philosophy In Our Time
• The Ordering Of The Concepts Of Being, Truth And Goodness
• The Patriarchal Family In History
• The Screwtape Letters: A Devil's Diabolical Advice For The Capturing Of The Human Heart - C.S.Lewis
• The Twentieth-Century Crisis In The Teaching Of Ethics - Sloan
• Theaetetus
• Unity Of Theoretical And Practical Reason
• Veritatis
• We Liberals - Newsweek

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