PHI 550: First Year Philosophy Graduate Seminar

Meeting time/location: Thursdays 9:30-11:30a at Marx 201.

This page: http://www.princeton.edu/~adame/teaching/PHI550_F2019

A seminar for Princeton first-year graduate students in philosophy. We will cover a range of topics with an emphasis on careful analysis of arguments by engaging in paired in-class discussions, completing short writing assignments, and creating “argument maps” (visual representations of the structure of arguments).

Logistics

Use userid “guest” and a password (to be distributed in class) to access this folder containing the readings (along with optional background readings).
Since we will be sometimes create argument maps in small groups, please always bring a charged, wifi-enabled laptop to class.
Before the first session (“Killing and letting die”), please:
- Read the reading assigned for that session
- Set up Mindmup using this guide: Getting started with MindMup
- Familiarize yourself with argument mapping by reading this handout: Getting started with argument mapping
- Make a few simple practice argument maps just to get familiar with the software. Bring printouts of these maps to the first class session.
- (Optional) Read more about argument mapping:
  - https://maps.simoncullen.org/software
  - https://maps.simoncullen.org/hints
- (Optional) Try your hand at mapping a couple of the arguments from the first-week readings
The work you do for this course may be anonymously used for the benefit of other students. If you would prefer that your work not be used in this way, please email the course instructor at any time before or during the semester. No explanation is required: an email to the instructor with subject line “I opt out of my [name of class] [semester] work being anonymously used” is sufficient. Students who opt out will not be penalized in any way. Also, if you are generally ok with such use but there is a particular assignment you’d prefer to be kept private, just include a note saying so at the top of that assignment.
When we split up for individual or small-group work in class, if you should finish the assigned work or get stuck, please let me know. Please do not do other work or use phone etc.

Sessions

(Readings subject to change.)

Killing and letting die
- James Rachels, “Active and Passive Euthanasia”
- Philippa Foot, “Killing and Letting Die”
Abortion
- Judith Thomson, “A defense of abortion”
- Don Marquis, “Why abortion is immoral”
Killing and letting die, continued
- Philippa Foot, “Killing and Letting Die”
- James Rachels, “Active and Passive Euthanasia”
Obligations to the needy
- Peter Singer, “Famine, affluence, and morality” pp. 229-232.
- David Lewis, “Illusory innocence?”
- Travis Timmerman, “Sometimes there is nothing wrong with letting a child drown”
Skepticism
- Ned Markosian, “Do you know that you are not a brain in a vat?”
Reasons for belief
- Susanna Rinard, “No exception for belief”. Read up to and including section 4, and also section 9.
Personal identity
- Derek Partfit, “Personal Identity”
Qualia
- Frank Jackson, “What Mary didn’t know”
Creation ethics
- Robert Adams, “Must God create the best?”
- M. Spriggs, “Lesbian couple create a child who is deaf like them”
Non-identity problem
- Derek Parfit, “The non-identity problem” (chapter 16 of Reasons and Persons) sections 119, 123.
Incompatibilism
- Derk Pereboom, “Why we have no free will and can live without it”
Problem of evil
- Louise Antony. “No good reason”
- Eleonore Stump. “The problem of evil” sections 1, 3, 5.

Homework

Weekly
- Read the assigned paper(s)
- Bring the assigned paper(s) to class (in either paper or electronic form)
Several times throughout the semester (as assigned)
- Map at least one interesting argument from an assigned paper. You may work with a partner if you wish, but don’t always work with a partner and please mix up who works with who as the semester progresses. Your map should show:
  - The author(s) of the maps
  - Which passages (paper and page number(s)) are the source of each map
- Write a paragraph reacting to an aspect of an assigned paper. The paragraph should be no more than 200 words, and everyone should write their own paragraph (even if you worked as a pair to produce your map). The paragraph might clarify a tricky aspect of the paper, raise an objection, raise some pertinent questions, add a supporting argument, fend off an objection to the paper, or otherwise engage with the paper in a way that reflects serious thought.
- Submit your map and paragraph by noon on the day before the seminar through the submission form. (Link provided separately; you’ll use the same submission link each week.)
Optional: lead a portion of one seminar session
- If you would like to do this, please confirm your plan to present at least one week ahead of time with the instructor.
- Create a handout that will act as a skeleton for a portion of the seminar discussion that day. (Submit your handout to the instructor by noon on the day before the seminar, and bring copies for everyone on the day of the seminar.)
- With approximately three 3-to-5-minute mini-presentations (to be interleaved within the class discussion), get the ball rolling for several phases of the discussion. For example, you might direct attention to a particular portion of the paper under discussion, raise a question with appropriate background, or try out an objection.
- Note that part of giving an ideal mini-presentation is giving the presentation and then stopping within 3 to 5 minutes (without my having to stop you). This is difficult because 5 minutes is so short. It is almost impossible to do well unless you practice your mini-presentation in advance with the help of a stopwatch.
- One of your goals as presenter should be to bring out the best in the other students in the class. That means fostering discussion (perhaps by posing questions using the opt-out convention).
- Try to especially encourage participation from students who have spoken less (during the day’s session, and over the course of the semester).