PHIL2120 Topics in Analytic Philosophy

10:40am-12:30pm, Semester 1, 2008-9 Room LE3

Dr. Joe Lau (main lecturer) and Dr. Patrick Hawley

Announcements

• [16 Jan 2009] You can get your essays back from Loletta now.
• [29 Oct] You can get back the first essay from Loletta. If you have questions about the marking or how your writing can be improved, please talk to Dr. Hawley.
• [26 Oct] Final essay topics have been posted.
• [14 Oct] books on reserve
• [12 Oct] No lecture during reading week.
• For this course there is no course text, and no tutorial.
• Please read: General information

Schedule of topics

• Please note: the lecture notes are subject to last-minute changes (hopefully finalized a week before the lecture).
• Dr. Hawley's course pages are here: http://philosophy.hku.hk/courses/200809/phil2120/

1. [4/9] Introduction - What is analytic philosophy?
2. [11/9] Philosophy of language - What is a language? [Dr Hawley]
3. [18/9] Rational choice - Newcomb's problem [Dr Hawley]
4. [25/9] Feminism - Feminist epistemology [Dr Hawley]
5. [2/10] Feminism - Feminist critique of logic
6. [9/10] Philosophy of logic - The liar paradox and truth-value gaps
7. [23/10] Philosophy of logic - Tarski's solution to the liar paradox
8. [30/10] Philosophy of science - The problem of induction and some proposed solutions
9. [6/11] Philosophy of science - Is time travel possible?
10. [13/11] Philosophy of religion - The doctrine of no-self in Buddhism
11. [20/11] Philosophy of religion - The logical problem of omnipotence

Assessment

• Two essays. Bonus points for class participation.
  • One short essay on topics 2 to 4. (20%)
  • One longer essay on the other topics. (80%)