HUM 102: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY

Summer 2022
Schedule of Topics and Readings
SECTION ONE

Week Dates Topics & Readings

1a. May 30 Introduction and Course Outline

1 1b. June 1 What is Philosophy?

Taped Lecture 1
Required Reading: J. Chafee, The Philosopher’s Way, 1-33.
2a. June 6 The Socratic Turn
Taped Lectures 2A & 2B (optional)
Required Reading: Plato, Apology
2 Optional Reading: J. Chafee, The Philosopher’s Way, 43-81; 220-229.

2b. June 8 Plato – Theory of Forms

Taped Lecture 3A (optional)
Required Reading: Melchert & Morrow, The Great Conversation, 148-178.
3a. June 13 Plato – The Form of Good
Taped Lecture 3B (optional)
3 Required Reading: Plato, The Republic, 206-229.

3b. June 15 NO CLASS (Make Up Class TBA)

4a. June 20 Aristotle – Logic I
Taped Lecture 4A (required)
Required Reading: Melchert & Morrow, The Great Conversation, 182-207

4b. June 22 Aristotle’s Logic II

4 Taped Lecture 4B (required)
Required Reading: Aristotle, Organon, 1-12, 59-68
5a. June 27 Al-Farabi – The Second Master
Taped Lecture 5A (optional)
Required Reading: D. Black, “Al-Fārābā,” in History of Islamic Philosophy, 334-359.
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5b. June 29 Political Philosophy I – Plato, Aristotle, Al-Farabi
Required Reading: Nelly Lahoud, Political Thought in Islam, 91-109.
6a. July 4 Descartes’ Method of Doubt
Taped Lecture 6A (optional)
Required Reading: N. Warburton, Philosophy: The Classics, 47-60.
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6b. July 6 Descartes’ Dualism
Required Reading: Chafee, Melchert & Morton, Great Conversation, 360-384.

7 July 11 & 16 EID HOLIDAYS – NO CLASSES

8a. July 18 The British Empiricists – John Locke
Lecture 7A (optional)
Required Reading: John Locke, Essay in Human Understanding, pages TBA.
Optional Reading: N. Warburton, Philosophy: The Classics, 79-86.
Optional Reading: Melcher & Morton, The Great Conversation, 416-426.
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8b. July 20 Political Philosophy II –Hobbes & Locke
Lecture 10: Social Contract Theories
Required Reading: John Locke, The Second Treatise of Government, pages TBA.
Optional Reading: J. Chafee, The Philosopher’s Way, 542-554, 561-570

9 July 25 & 27 MID TERMS – NO CLASSES

July 30 MID TERM TAKE-HOME ESSAYS DUE

 10a. Aug 1 The British Empiricists – David Hume
10 Taped Lecture 7B (optional)
Required Reading: N. Warburton, Philosophy: The Classics, 101-109.

10b. Aug 3 David Hume: The Problem of Induction

Lecture 7C (optional)
Required Readings: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, pp. TBA

11a. Aug 8 Kant: Synthetic A Priori Reasoning

11 Lecture 8A (optional)
Required Reading: Melchert & Morton, The Great Conversation, 457-481.

11b. Aug 10 Kant’s Transcendental Idealism

Lecture 8B (optional)
Required Reading: N. Warburton, Philosophy: The Classics, 131-138.
12a. Aug 15 Nietzsche – Aesthetics and Metaphysics
Lecture 9A (optional)
Required Reading: F. Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Music, pp. TBA
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12b. Aug 17 Required Reading: F. Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Music, pp.TBA
13a. Aug 22 Universal History
13 Lecture 11 (optional)
Required Reading: I. Kant, Idea for a Universal History with Cosmopolitan Purpose.

13b. Aug 24 Philosophy of History

G.W.F. Hegel, “Introduction” in The Philosophy of History, pp. TBA
14a. Aug 29 Materialist Philosophy
14 Required Reading: Karl Marx, The German Ideology, pp. TBA. (??)

14b. Aug 31 Wrap Up and Finals Review

15 Sept 5 & 7 FINALS WEEK – NO CLASSES

Sept 7 FINAL TAKE-HOME ESSAYS DUE

PRESENTATIONS
SOCRATES Moumi Hossain Sheriffo S Ceesay
PLATO I Deepannita kamal Aurchi Komolika
PLATO’S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY Rabby Islam Samiha Sarker
ARISTOTLE I Fatema Tuj Johora Monika Kamal Nishat
ARISTOTLE’S POLITICS Samiha Tabassum Mim SK. Marshad
AL-FARABI Khadija Tul Kubra Tasnim Binta Reza
DESCARTES Dyeem Rahat Sadia Zaman Kona
LOCKE Fairooz Newer Tanin Suaiba Islam Choa
HUME Adonia Sama Monira Akter
KANT Kuenzang Wangyel Dorji Khusboo Pradhan
NIETZSCHE Saima Piash Binte Salam Md. Rakibul Islam
HOBBES Rabita Humayun Mahidul Huq
ROUSSEAU Raina Isabela Preity Nur
HEGEL Nazia Zafrin Farjana Alam
MARX Saba Sakender Echcha Annesha Biswas Agni

Note: If there is only one presentation in any given week, it will be on Mondays.