Introduction to Philosophy

What does it mean to be human, and what is our place in the world?  We'll think hard about these questions.

Course Texts: Leslie Stevenson and David Haberman (eds.), Ten Theories of Human Nature, 5th edition (Oxford Univ. Press)Thomas Dixon, Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford Univ. Press)

Find a preliminary syllabus here [PDF].

Introduction to Logic

This course is an introduction to the methodology of correct formal and informal logic, examining the applicability of logic to mathematical, scientific, and everyday reasoning.  The course develops a system of natural deduction and applies this system to the problem of hypothesis testing in science, Sudoku puzzles, and test-taking skills for graduate-level entrance examinations.  The course also surveys the traditional canon of inductive logic, logical and rhetorical fallacies, and rational decision theory.

Find a syllabus here [PDF].

Find Wesley Salmon's Logic here.

Introduction to Ethics

This course has two components.  One concerns an examination of theories of right and wrong action, for which we will explore the moral importance of character, inclination, motivation, and outcomes through discussing virtue ethics, natural law theory, Kantian deontology, and utilitarianism.  The second component looks at some interesting and important ethical issues in applied ethics, including: gay marriage, famine relief, the treatment of incompetent patients, truthfulness, and safety.  These issues are mixed in with the discussion of ethical theories, to keep things interesting and to provide an opportunity for immediate application of each theory.

The purposes of this course are to teach students how to discuss contemporary ethical issues in an intelligent manner, how to understand and apply some classical and modern ethical theories to moral debates, how to critically assess and support their opinions on various ethical issues, how to assess and understand the opinions of others, and how to compromise when there is a rational stand-off of opinion.  The key idea underlying the course is that difference of moral opinion (at least within the United States) tend to result from different rankings of shared values rather than from conflicts between different sets of values.

This course has its own website here.

Find a syllabus here [PDF].

Modern Philosophy

This course is a survey of the European philosophical tradition from Descartes through Kant, examining issues such as the nature, sources, and extent of human knowledge, the composition of the physical world, the nature of the human mind and its relation to the physical world, the possibility of a rational understanding of God and the self, and the nature of human freedom.

The course has its own website here.

Find a syllabus here [PDF].

Philosophy of Science

This course has two components.  The first is an introduction to the major issues in the philosophy of science, including: scientific explanation, hypothesis testing and confirmation, the relation between theory and observation, theoretical underdetermination, and the rationality of paradigm changes.  The second component is an introduction to issues in the foundations of quantum mechanics, including determinism, the double-slit and EPR experiments, Bell's theorem, the measurement problem, and interpretations of standard quantum theory.  

This course has its own website here.

Find a syllabus here [PDF].

Asian Philosophy (aka Philos. of Eastern and Western Religions)

This is a survey of the major ancient philosophies from India and China.  From India, the course covers five of the orthodox Upanishadic schools and two Buddhist schools.  From China, the course covers three indigenous traditions and the subsequent assimilation of Buddhism.  The focus throughout is examining each philosophy on its own terms, as a whole, while avoiding simplistic explanations or translations into more familiar (European) ways of understanding.  The guiding theme of the course is that differences between European and Asian philosophies, as well as differences among Asian philosophies, result from treating certain experiences and concerns as more or less salient, and that small-scale difference in emphasis produces large-scale difference in results.

Course Text: Forrest E. Baird and Raeburne S. Heimbeck, Asian Philosophy (Philosophic Classics Volume VI), Pearson/Prentice Hall

The course has its own website [not yet active].

Find a preliminary syllabus here [PDF].

Office Hours

Autumn 2008 Semester: MW 1:40-3:40, TR 2:50-3:50, by appointment, and whenever the office door is open.

Find me in Morton Hall 332B.

Call me at 256.824.2338

Email me at Nick[dot]Jones[at]uah[dot]edu