Week 1: Welcome and Introduction

Jan. 10: No reading.

Week 2: Logic and Introduction of Puzzles of Objects

Jan. 15: Logic Handout (html); Introduction of Material Constitution (MC) (get the PDF here).
Jan. 17: Introduction of MC continued; Puzzles of Objects (html).

Week 3: Coincident Entities

Jan. 22: "On Being at the Same Place at the Same Time", David Wiggins; "Spatially Coinciding Objects", Frederick Doepke (pp. 3-24 in MC)
Jan. 24: Doepke continued; "Constitution is Not Identity", Mark Johnston (pp. 44-62 in MC)

Week 4:

Jan. 29: Wiggins, Doepke, and Johnston continued.
Jan. 31: Wiggins, Doepke, and Johnston continued.

Helpful handouts: Identity of Indiscernibles and Coincedent Entities

Week 5: Contigent Identity and Counterpart Theory

Feb. 5: "Continingent Identity", Allan Gibbard (pp. 93-125 in MC) **NOTE: you are only responsible for sections I-IV**
Feb. 7: "Counterparts or Double Lives", David Lewis (pp. 126- 147 in MC)

Helpful Handouts: Contingent Identity and Modal Realism (optional) and More Than You Want to Know About Kripke's Theory of Names (super optional)

Week 6: Eliminitivism

Feb. 12: "I Do Not Exist", Peter Unger (pp. 175-190 in MC)
Feb. 14: "The Doctrine of Arbitrary Undetached Parts", Peter van Inwagen (pp. 191-208)

Week 7: Relative Identity and Temporal Parts

Feb. 19: "Reference and Generality (selections)", Peter Geach (pp. 305-312 in MC)
Feb. 21: "Temporal Parts and Four Dimensional Objects", Mark Heller (pp. 320-330 in MC)

Week 8: Introduction of Puzzles of Persons and the Soul View

Feb. 26: Last thoughts of Puzzles of Objects; Begin Puzzles of Persons: Arguments for Dualism--no reading.
Feb. 28: "The First Night", A Dialogue on Personal Identity (pp. 1-18)




Week 9: Soul Identity, Brain Idnentity, and Body Identity
Mar. 4: "The Second Night", A Dialogue on Personal Identity (pp. 19-36)
Mar. 6: "The Third Night", A Dialogue on Persaonl Identity (pp. 37-49)

Helpful Handouts: Perry on Personal Identity


Week 10: SPRING BREAK!!!!

Mar. 11: NO CLASS.
Mar. 13: NO CLASS.

Week 11: The Mind-Body Problem and Puzzles of Personal Identity

Mar. 18: The Mind-Body Problem No Class, university-wide.
Mar. 20: The Mind-Body Problem and Puzzles of Persons. 3 Questions, a Few Terms, 4 Principles, The Mind-Body Problem, and a Compromising Proposal (handout)

Week 12: Introduction to Puzzles About Death

Mar. 25: Mind/Body Problem continued. Read above handout.
Mar. 27: Mind/Body Problem continued.

Week 13: More Puzzles About Death, and Still More Puzzles About Death

Apr. 1:"Introduction: Death, Metaphysics, and Morality", John Martin Fischer in The Metaphysics of Death (MD) pp. 1-30. "Rationality and the Fear of Death", Jeffrie G. Murphy (pp. 41-58 in MD)
Apr. 3: "Death", Thomas Nagel (pp. 59-69 in MD), "The Makropulos Case: Reflections of the Tedium of Immortality", Bernard Williams (pp. 71-92 in MD),

Week 14: Sick to Death of Death? Yes, Even More Puzzles...

Apr. 8: "The Evil of Death", Harry Silverstein (pp. 93-116 in MD)
Apr. 10: "How to Be Dead and Not Care: A Defense of Epicurus", Stephen Rosenbaum (pp. 117-134)

Week 15: The Evil of Death

Apr. 15: "Why is Death Bad?", Bruekner and Fischer (pp. 219-230 in MD)
Apr. 17: "Some Puzzles About the Evil of Death", Fred Feldman (pp. 305-326 in MD)


Week 16: Wrapping Up Death

Apr. 22: Puzzles About Death (html...link coming soon)
Apr. 24: Last Day of Class. Course Wrap-up. No readings.

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