PHL 100Y1 L0101 SYLLABUS 2016-2017 Page 1

PHL100Y1 L0101 Introduction to Philosophy Bader Theatre, TR12

Ronald de Sousa JHB (170 St George Street, #526) http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~sousa
Lecturer's Office Hours (FALL): T 4-6pm in Vic, NF328; R 10-11:30am in JHB526, or by appointment.
Email: sousa@chass.utoronto.ca
Office Hours for Tutors will be arranged after each assignment is returned.

Course Aims: This course is a historical introduction to philosophy. It takes up some basic questions about human life
as they have been addressed in the Western philosophical tradition. What is a life worth living? What is a just political
order? What is the basis for judgments of good and bad, right and wrong? Is there a God? What can I know, and how
can I know it? What is the mind and what is its relation to the body? In pursuit of answers to these questions, we
examine the views of influential philosophers of the past, in chronological order. We will read works by Plato,
Aristotle, Descartes, Hobbes, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, Mill, Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Rawls. Those primary readings
will be supplemented by the course lectures and, after the first week of the year, by tutorial discussion groups. Our
concern in this course is not just the scholarly one of who said what whenthough you will be expected to pay
attention to that; the aim is to DO philosophy: that is, to bring arguments to bear on the question of how to try to make
sense of our existence. The goal is to learn how to raise and address questions in a systematic and reasoned fashion
while learning something about the traditions, methods, and concerns of philosophy.

REQUIRED: Course Texts to be procured: Please buy specified editions. Some are available as ebooks; you
should, however, avoid editions without page numbers. Some additional texts are on Blackboard under Course
Materials.
Plato, Republic (2nd ed.). Trans. Grube; rev. Reeve. Hackett 1993. ISBN 9780872201361
Plato, Meno, trans. Grube. Hackett, 2nd ed. 1976. ISBN 9780915144242
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics. Trans. D. Ross. Oxford Univ. Press 2000. ISBN 0199213615
Descartes, Meditations. Ed. A.Bailey. Broadview Press. 2013. ISBN 9781554811526
Hobbes, Leviathan. Ed. Edwin Curley. Hackett Publishing 1994. ISBN 9780872201774
Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Broadview 2011 ISBN 9781551118024
Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Cambridge Univ. Press 1998. ISBN 9780521626958
Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality. Trans. M.Clark & A. Swenson. Hackett 1998. ISBN9780872202832
de Beauvoir, The Second Sex. Trans. Borde and Malovany-Chevallier. Vintage. 2011. ISBN 9780307277787

Evaluation: Your course mark will be earned on the basis of: 4 critical summaries (@5% =20%) due before 9am on
Oct 3,, Oct 24, Jan 23, Mar 6; 2 Term essays (@12%=24%) due December 9 and April 7 before midnight;
Tutorial Participation (13%); Mid Term Test (10%) (during Exam Week); Final Examination (33%).

All work will normally be submitted to Turnitin (see below), with a copy to Blackboard and one directly to your tutor.
This will ensure that in case there is a problem with one or the other the time of submission will be recorded. For each
summary, please use the header PHL100CS# LASTNAME [for # insert the number of the assignment: 1 and 2 are due
in the first semester, 3 and 4 in the second]. (For essays, use PHL100E#). NO late summaries will be accepted. If you
are prevented by illness from submitting on time, your tutor may ask you to do a make-up summary on a different date
(on a text assigned for that date) without penalty. For Essays, a lateness penalty of 5% per calendar day will apply.

Academic Integrity: Go to http://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/newstudents/transition/academic/plagiarism; read the page

carefully, and especially click on the link to How Not to Plagiarize

Submitting to Turnitin: Normally, you will be required to submit your course essays to Turnitin.com for a review of
textual similarity and detection of possible plagiarism. In doing so, you will allow your essays to be included as source
documents in the Turnitin.com reference database; they will be used solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism.
The terms that apply to the University's use of the Turnitin.com service are described on the Turnitin.com web site.
PHL 100Y1 L0101 SYLLABUS 2016-2017 Page 2

SCHEDULE OF TOPICS AND READINGS: FALL TERM

WK1 Sept 13/15 Introduction: What is Philosophy? A glimpse of its beginning in the Presocratics
WK2 Sept 20/22 Plato: Republic Book I What is justice?
WK3 Sept 27/29 Republic Book II to 376D. Kinds of Goods: Justice in the State and the individual
WK4 Oct 4/6 Republic Books IV, V, VI, & the first few pages of VII (to 518d): Parts of the Soul; the Forms; the
Line and the Cave analogies.
FIRST CRITICAL SUMMARY DUE MONDAY Oct 3 by 9am
WK5 Oct 11/13 Meno: The question of Definition and Meno's paradox
WK6 Oct 18/20 Meno: What is Virtue, and Can it be taught?
WK7 Oct 25/27 Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics Books 1-2 The purpose of life.
SECOND CRITICAL SUMMARY DUE MONDAY OCT 24 BY 9am
WK8 Nov 1/3 Nicomachean Ethics Book 3.1-5 and 10.6-9: What is Happiness?
NO CLASS ON NOV 8 (November Break)
WK9 Nov 10 & Nov 15: Descartes, Meditations 1 and 2: Radical Doubt [No Class Nov 8]
WK10 Nov 17 & WK11 Nov 22: Descartes, Meditations 3 and 4: The Existence of God
WK11 Nov 24 & WK12, Nov 29: Descartes, Med 5 & 6: More on God: reconstructing the world
WK12 Dec 1 & Dec 6: Hobbes, Leviathan Pt 1, secs. 5-6;11;13-16: knowledge; Social Contract.
FIRST ESSAY DUE BY FRIDAY DECEMBER 9 11:59pm
SCHEDULE OF TOPICS AND READINGS: WINTER TERM
WK S1 Jan 12/14 Hobbes, Leviathan Part 2 17-19, 21, 30 Sovereignty and Obligation
WK S2 Jan 19/21 Hume: Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding 2-4 Part I: Ideas & Impressions; Induction
WK S3 Jan 24/28 Hume: Enquiry - 7 Humes solution: the nature of causality
THIRD CRITICAL SUMMARY DUE BY MONDAY JAN 23 9am
WK S4 Jan 31/Feb 2 Kant, Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals ch 2 The Basis of Morality
WK S5 Feb 7/9 Kant: Foundations ch 3 The Categorical Imperative
WK S6 Feb 14/16 J. S. Mill, Utilitarianism Chapters 1&4 (Blackboard) : Utilitarianism, and how is it "proved".
[WK of Feb 20-24: READING WEEK: NO CLASSES]
WK S7 Feb 28/Mar 2 Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morality, First Treatise
WK S8 March 7/9 Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morality, Third Treatise
FOURTH CRITICAL SUMMARY DUE BY MONDAY MARCH 6, 9am,
WK9 March 14/16 Sartre: Existentialism is a Humanism (Blackboard)
WK10 March 21/23 Simone de Beauvoir: The Second Sex: Part I Chapter 1 and Part II chapter 1.
WK11 March 28/30 John Rawls, "Justice as Fairness" (Blackboard)
WK12 April 4 Review (no new readings).
FINAL ESSAY DUE FRIDAY APRIL 7 before midnight.