Philosophy of Human Nature Lecture Notes

Return to Human Nature main page.

We'll use this page to post supplemental material to our class sessions. - Alfino

1/13/2009: Course Intro

1. Course Goals
2. Roll Call
3. Schedule, Grading Schemes, Wiki, Journals, Study Questions
4. Philosophy

Identifying the Philosophical

• Turn toward basic questions
• Meta-level cognition in general - theorizing
• In the Structure of Knowledge

Note to Class

Thanks for a good first class. Please go through your "to do" list from class and let me know if you have any difficulties.

Also, here's your first journal assignment: For Thursday: After reading the excerpt from the Apology, summarize in one or two paragraphs the main charges against Socrates and his defense. Select a detail or two that you find particularly interesting. Then make a brief (one paragraph) assessment of Socrates defense. End with one or two questions you still have after reading the passage. 1 - 1.5 pages, typed, double spaced.

1/15/2009

What is Philosophy?

Philosophy is a discipline of inquiry directed toward a wide range of basic questions about the nature of the universe and our experience in it. It involves a turn toward "basic questions". It also involves meta-level cognition.

Logos, Mythos, and Theos

locating philosophy in relation to Mythos and Theos

Other ways of identifying Philosophy

• in relation to science
• as speculative
• as dealing with matters of direct importance to living
• as dealing with matters of great uncertainty

Philosophical Methods

Go to Philosophical Methods

1/20/2009

Introduction to Platonic Metaphysics

Plato's answer to the question, "What is Real?"

The real is what persists through all changes and manifestations.

Rationality and the Project of Essential Definition

Through the project of giving essential definiutions (relentlessly asking, "What makes all instances of X (horses) "X" (capable of having the word "horse" predicated of it), Plato is led to focus on form as persistent reality.

Allegory of the Cave

The Allegory of the Cave gives us an image of the implications of Plato's metaphysics for his view of human existence.

Divided Line

1/22/2009

Some Notes on Greek History, or, How did we ever get to the Apology?

• Reference Map for Xerxes invasion

• Reference Map for Peloponnesian War

More Really Important Dates

2220 bc Creatan Minoan Culture

1000 bc Destruction of Mycenean Palace Culture

900-800 revival of population on Peloponesis, use of iron in tools and weapons.

750 city states growth.

750-550 period of Greek colonization.

480 Xerxes, ruler of Persia attacks at Thermopylae and Salamis

477, Athens governs Delian League

495-429, Pericles.

450-429, Period of "Periclean Athens" - democratic and legal reforms. great playwrights such as: Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides

431-404, Peloponnesian War, starting with Spartan invasion of Attica, ending with Athens surrender in 404

415, Alcibiades defects to Sparta.

404, Athens surrenders to Sparta.

404-403, Reign of Terror, 30 Tyrants.

399, Socrates trial.

• Timeline for locating Kant and the Enlightenment

1/27/2009

Part One: Initial Three Speeches of Symposium

The main focus of today's class will be the three speeches on love by Phaedrus, Pausanias and Eryximachus, from the Symposium.

Phaedrus:

Pausanias:

Erixymachus:

What kind of thing is love, should it be praised, and if so, how? For motivating us to virtue? Is love about intimate relationship (sexual or not) or is it a broader force in the universe?

Exercise: Beginning your theory of the value of love.

Part Two: Introduction to Epistemology

Types of Knowledge

Propositional, Know-how, Knowledge by acquaintance

1/29/2009

Skepticism

Could There be another world "behind" or "alongside" this one, as in the Matrix?

Could I be radically wrong about my knowledge of this world?

Love

Try leaving Plato aside and start theorizing about love from your current knowledge and reasonable inferences.

A naturalist starting point for love

Love as a "quasi-universal," but variable product of human culture, based in our organic drives and evolved cognitive and affective structures.

Consider theoretical possibilities, Could I be radically wrong about this? What questions does it leave unanswered?

The "normativity" of reason.

Show parabola video if there is time.[1]

5/8/2009

---

Old Material:

• Timeline for locating Kant and the Enlightenment

• Reference Map for Xerxes invasion

• Reference Map for Peloponnesian War