Philosophy asks questions that are usually not asked in everyday life, but whose answers are of the utmost importance for our deepest beliefs and social institutions.  The questions are difficult, the candidates for answers are many, varied, and highly controversial.  The purpose of this course is to help equip you to find your own answers.

We begin with a study of what it means to justify a belief.  We will then turn to what is perhaps the most difficult of all philosophical questions, namely the place of the mind in nature.  Is the mind just the brain?  Is it something else?  If so, what?  Do animals have minds?  What is the relationship between language and thinking?

Next we turn to the issue of control of the mental.  Are our lives fated?  Are they determined by events that we are helpless to change?  How much control do we have over our lives, given that we are biological creatures who are subject to the conditioning of our parents, teachers and environment?  Are we responsible for what we do?  Are we free to choose our own paths in life?

Reconciling the existence of an all-powerful god with human freedom is very difficult, but the proofs for the existence of god are surprisingly simple.   One of them in its most modern form makes use of what is called Intelligent Design.  How good are this proof and the other proofs?   Just as important, how can we reconcile the existence of an allegedly all-good god with the existence of so much evil in the world?  This last question will lead us to our final discussion over ethical systems and how they are justified.

Requirements: 2 short papers and a longer final term paper, 2 midterms and a two-hour final exam.  There is one textbook, Knowledge, Nature and Norms, by Mark Timmons and David Shoemaker, paperback, Wadsworth Publishing, 2009, $57.95 on Amazon, much cheaper if bought used.  If you do not get the book elsewhere, it will be sold at our first Wednesday class.  There will also be assigned reading on our Blackboard website.  In philosophy, open dialogue and discussion is encouraged and expected.