Course Reading Schedule
(tentative!)
Philosophy of Religion
Summer Session II
June 19-July 24, 2008
Week
1: Introduction
6/19: Course introduction. No readings.
6/20: Logic, Attributes of God. Reading: A
Little Bit
of Logic (handout). Suggested
reading: Western
Concepts of God (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Week 2: Arguments for the
Existence of God
6/23: The Cosmological Argument. Readings: Aquinas' Summa Theologica.
6/24: The Cosmological Argument (continued). Readings: TBA (link coming
soon), The
Cosmological Argument (handout).
6/25: The Cosmological Argument (continued); The Teleological Argument.
Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion,
in particular Part
II (the rest is optional).
6/26: The Teleological Argument (continued). Readings: Hume (continued).
6/27: The Teleological Argument (continued). Readings: The
Teleological Argument (handout).
Week 3: Arguments for the
Existence of God (continued)
6/30: The Ontological Argument (continued). Readings: Anselm's Proslogium, Chapter II
and Chapter
III.
7/1: The Ontological Argument (continued); Review. Readings: The Ontological
Argument (handout).
7/2: TBA and Review
7/3: MIDTERM I. No
reading
assignment.
7/4: ---NO CLASS!---
Week 4: Faith and
Reason, The Problem
of Evil
7/7: Pragmatic Justification of Religious Belief. Readings:
Pensees
(esp. #233), William James, "The
Will to Believe", Clifford, "The
Ethics of Belief".
7/8: Pragmatic Justification of Religious Belief. Readings: Pragmatic Considerations (handout), Theology
and Falsification, The
Dragon in My Garage.
7/9: The Problem of Evil (continued). Readings: Mackie's Evil
and Omnipotence (linked through JSTOR). Optional: Excerpts
from Dostoyevsky's The
Brother's Karamozov (pdf)--Highly recommended!
7/10: The Problem of Evil (continued). Readings: The
Problem of Evil
(handout).
7/11: Free Will. Discussion in class. Free Will
(handout)
Week 5: Religion and Morality
7/14: Fideism: Faith
Without/Against Reason. Readings: "Science
Discredits Religion"
(pdf). Free Will (continued).
7/15: Divine Command Theory. Readings: "Divine
Commands are the Foundation of Morality". The Euthyphro
Problem. Readings: Plato, Euthyphro (on-line),
The
Euthyphro Problem (handout).
7/16: Nietzsche. Readings: On
the Genealogy of Morals (the juicy bits!).
7/17: Nietzsche (continued). Readings: Nietzsche:
On the
Genealogy of Morals
(handout), and review for Midterm II.
7/18: MIDTERM II. No
reading
assignment.
Week 6: Religion and the
Meaning of Life
7/21: Religion and the Meaning of Life. Readings: Plato's Apology.
7/22: Last day of class; course wrap-up. No reading assignment.
7/23: NO CLASS--Reading Day.
7/24: FINAL EXAM!
11:30am-2:30pm
Page Last Updated: July
18, 2008
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