Calendar. You should regard the assignments given below as approximate and tentative even though they are unlikely to change. The ones marked “TBD” (i.e., “to be determined”) will be chosen by the class when we near those days.
| 8/28 | introduction | |
| 9/2 | Universals | Loux, “The Problem of Universals” (3-13); Russell, “A World of Universals” (14-19) |
| 9/4 | Price, “Universals and Resemblances” (20-41); also on reserve in Lilly as ch. 1, “Universals and Resemblances,” of H. H. Price, Thinking and Experience (Harvard Univ. Press, 1953) BF455 .P7 1953 | |
| 9/9 | Quine, “On What There Is” (42-56); also on reserve in Lilly as ch. 1, “On What There Is,” of W. V. Quine, From a Logical Point of View (Harvard Univ. Press, 1953) BC71 .Q48 | |
| 9/11 | Quine cont’d | |
| 9/16 | Particulars | Loux, “The Ontological Structure of Concrete Particulars” (95-103); Black, “The Identity of Indiscernibles” (104-113) |
| 9/18 | Black cont’d; Allaire, “Bare Particulars” (114-120) | |
| 9/23 | ppr 1 due | Van Cleve, “Three Versions of the Bundle Theory” (121-133) |
| 9/25 | Casullo, “A Fourth Version of the Bundle Theory” (134-148) | |
| 9/30 | Possible worlds | Loux, “Modality and Possible Worlds” (151-159); Lewis, “Possible Worlds” (160-167) |
| 10/2 | Kripke, “Identity and Necessity” (218-230) | |
| 10/7 | Kripke, “Identity and Necessity” (230-237); Plantinga, “Actualism and Possible Worlds” (168-176) | |
| 10/9 | Plantinga, “Actualism and Possible Worlds” (176-187) | |
| 10/14 | Dean W. Zimmerman , “Distinct Indiscernibles and the Bundle Theory,” Mind, n.s. vol. 106 (1997), pp. 305-309—on JSTOR at http://www.jstor.org/stable/2254506 | |
| midsemester break | ||
| 10/21 | Causation | Loux, “Cause and Effect” (251-256); Hume selections (257-273) |
| 10/23 | Anscombe, “Causality and Determinism” (284-300) | |
| 10/28 | ppr 2 due | Mackie, “Causes and Conditions” (301-325) |
| 10/30 | Lewis, “Causation” (326-338) | |
| 11/4 | Time | Loux, “Time: The A-theory and the B-theory” (341-349); McTaggart, “Time” (350-361) |
| 11/6 | McTaggart cont’d; Broad, “Ostensible Temporality” (362-368) | |
| 11/11 | Taylor, “Time and Eternity” (369-378); Prior, “The Notion of the Present” (379-383) | |
| 11/13 | Mellor, “The Need for Tense” (394-407) | |
| 11/18 | Persistence | Loux, “Endurantism and Perdurantism” (411-417); Merricks, “Endurance and Indiscernibility” (443-448) |
| 11/20 | Merricks, “Endurance and Indiscernibility” (448-463) | |
| Thanksgiving break | ||
| 12/2 | Parfit, “Personal Identity” (464-484) | |
| 12/4 | Lewis, “Survival and Identity” (485-501) | |
| 12/9 | Swinburne, “Personal Identity: the Dualist Theory” (510-536) | |
| 12/11 | David Lewis, “The Paradoxes of Time Travel,” American Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 13, (1976), pp. 145-152—on JSTOR at http://www.jstor.org/stable/20009616 | |
| exam week | ||
| 12/19 | ppr 3 due | |