Required textbooks:

• Derek Parfit, Reasons and Persons
• Robert Brandom, Making It Explicit
• Jenann Ismael, The Situated Self (manuscript)
• John MacFarlane, What Does it Mean to Say that Logic is Formal?

Optional textbooks:

• Robert Brandom, Articulating Reasons

Further readings will be made available over the course of the semester.

1. Aug. 20. Introduction: The Metaphysics of Objects and the Objects of Metaphysics. Optional pre-reading: Parfit, Reasons and Persons, pp. 117-130, 137-148.

2. Aug. 27. The Metaphysics of Persons and the Self-Interest Theory. Parfit, Reasons and Persons, pp. 199-287. Optional reading: 287-347.

   Further optional reading (for the enthusiasts): Williams, "Persons, Character and Morality" (esp. pp. 5-8).

3. Sept. 3. What Are Material Bodies For? Strawson, Individuals, chs. 1-2 ("Bodies," "Sounds"). (On reserve in the Philosophy Department.)

   Optional reading: Ross Harrison, On What There Must Be, ch. 4 ("Time"). (On reserve in the Philosophy Department.) Barry Stroud, "Transcendental Arguments" (JSTOR).

4. Sept. 10. The Big Assertion Game. Brandom, Making It Explicit, chs. 1-3, esp. pp. xiii (middle)-xv (top), xvi (the two full paragraphs), 15 (middle)-18 (middle), 42-45 (thru first para.), 62-64 (top), 67-71 (thru first para.), 73-74, 85 (bottom)-91 (middle), para. bridging 91-92, 97 (bottom)-102 (top), para. bridging 117-118, 121-129 (thru 1st full para). [Ch. 3:] 141-144 (thru 1st full para.), 145 (bottom)-147 (1st full para.), 151 (2nd full para.)-154 (line 2), 156 (4 lines from bottom)-180, 186-198.

   Optional reading: "Semantic Inferentialism and Logical Expressivism," in Brandom, Articulating Reasons. And just in case you thought Sellars and Brandom were being unfair to parrots: Irene Pepperberg, "Referential Communication with an African Grey Parrot" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

5. Sept. 17. Knowledge, Observation and Practical Reasons in the Big Assertion Game. Brandom, Making It Explicit, ch. 4, esp. pp. 201-202 (end of page), 216 (from top of page to end of first para.), 222 (first full para.)-225 (thru first para.), 228 (2nd full para.)-229 (end of sec.), 233 (beginning of sec. 2)-236 (1st full para.), 239 (2nd full para.), 240 (last para.)-242 (1st para.), 243-253, 256 (last para.)-257 (3rd para.), 260 (1st full para.)-261 (1st para.), 264 (1st full para.)-265 (2nd full para.), 271 (1st full para.).

   Optional reading: "Actions, Norms and Practical Reasoning" and "Insights and Blindspots of Reliabilism," both in Brandom, Articulating Reasons.

6. Sept. 24. Truth and Reference Explained Away. Brandom, Making It Explicit, ch. 5, esp. 277 (2nd full para.)-283 (1st full para.), 292 (top, 1st full sentence)-295 (1st para.), 301 (last para.)-303 (end of section), 305-322, 322 (beg. sec. V)-324 (1st para.).

   Optional reading: Grover, A Prosentential Theory of Truth, pp. 80-89 (on reserve in the Philosophy Department). And in case you wanted to see a pretty close relative of Brandom's assertion game, I've put David Ives, "Sure Thing" (from his All in the Timing) on reserve as well.

7. Oct 1. Why the Big Assertion Game Needs Objects. Brandom, Making It Explicit, ch. 6, esp. pp. 335, 2nd full para., 336, lines 13-23 ("The most common position..."- end of para.), 340 (beginning of sec.)-341 (bot.), 347 (3rd line from bot.)-348 (end of 1st para.), 352, lines 3-9, 353, lines 5-7, 9-13, 31-37, 43-1st line next page, 360 (beginning of sec.)-361 (2nd para.), 363 (1st full para.)-364 (thru 1st full para.), 365 (1st full para.)-369 (1st para.), 370 (2nd full para.)-372 (line 3), 372 (starting with note 34)-373 (to footnote 37), 375, 18 lines from bot. ("From this point of view...")-376 (end sec.), 376-384 (sec. V), 390 (beg. sec. 4)-392 (end 1st para.), 393 (1st full para only), 395 (15 lines from bot.)-397 (end sec. 6), 399-404 (sec. VII).

   Carol Rovane, "Branching Self-Consciousness" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department, and on-line).

   Optional reading: "What Are Singular Terms, and Why Are There Any?" in Articulating Reasons.

8. Oct 8. The Towel of Minerva Gets the Sand Shaken Out Only at Dusk. Brandom, Making It Explicit, chs. 7-8, esp.: In ch. 7: p. 420, line 25 ("...the method of abstraction...")-421, line 4, 422 (first full para.)-423 (end first para.), 424 (first full para.)-425 (end first para.), 425 (2nd full para.), 426 (last para.)-431 (end first para.), 433 (last para.)-434 (21 lines from bottom: "...in the use of quantifiers"), 437 (first full para.)-438 (2nd full para.), 439 (line 9)-442 (thru first full para.), 443 (first full para.), 444 (18 lines from bottom)-445 (first full para.), 446 (first full para.), 460 (20 lines from bottom)-462 (line 3), 462 (11 lines from bottom)-463 (end 1st full para.), 463 (last para.)-464 (1st full para.), 464 (3 lines from bottom)-465 (line 4), 466 (3 lines from bottom)-467 (line 13), 468 (begin sec. 3)-469 (thru 2nd para.), 470 (whole page), 472 (lines 10-20), 479 (first full para.)-481 (thru 1st para.), 485 (last para.)-487 (end sec. 5), 488 (lines 5-24), 489 (the two full paras.).

   In ch. 8: p. 500 (last para.)-503 (bottom of page), 513 (begin sec. 3)-514 (thru last full para.), 518 (last full para.)-519 (first para.), 522 (beg. sec. 2)-524 (first para.), 538 (both full paras.), 541 (last full para ["These are entitlement-preserving..."])-542 (end sec. 4), 543 (2 lines from bottom, "For a scorekeeper...")-545 (14 lines from bottom, "...butchered two-thirds of its inhabitants"), 550 (line 14, "...a minimal criterion...")-559 (end sec 2), 564 (last para.)-566 (line 17, "...and indirect reflexives"), 566 (last para.)-570 (first para.), 582 (last para.)-583 (to bottom of page), 584 (beg. sec. VI)-591 (line 2), 593 (16 lines from bottom, "In particular...")-607 (end sec. 5),

   Optional reading: MIE, ch. 9, esp. 616 (top thru first full para.: "...conceptual all the way down"), 623 (begin sec. II)-626 (bottom), 627 (middle para.), 631 (beg. sec. 4)-632 (end 1st full para.), 633 (2nd para.), 636 (line 8 ["Talk of grasp..."]-end sec. 5), 639 (beg. sec. III)-640 (line 2), 641 (begin sec. 2)-642 (end 1st full para.), 648 (1st full para.).

   Further optional reading: Brandom, "A Social Route from Reasoning to Representing;" "Objectivity and the Normative Fine Structure of Rationality;" both in Articulating Reasons.

TOPICS FOR THE SECOND PAPER NOW AVAILABLE; read Orwell, "Politics and the English Language" (on-line reserve).
9. Oct 15. ...and You Thought You Knew What Logic Was? MacFarlane, What Does It Mean to Say That Logic Is Formal?, chs. 1-3.

10. Oct 22. The Roots of Logical Hylomorphism. MacFarlane, What Does It Mean to Say That Logic Is Formal?, chs. 4-5, 7.

    Optional reading: MacFarlane, What Does It Mean to Say That Logic Is Formal?, ch. 6.

11. Oct 29. Endurance vs. Perdurance: Metaphysics Made Pointless. Mark Johnston and Graeme Forbes, "Is There a Problem about Persistence?" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department)

    Optional reading: David Lewis, On the Plurality of Worlds, pp. 198-220 (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

John MacFarlane will speak in the Department Colloquium Friday, October 31; he will meet with members of the class on the morning of Saturday, Nov. 1, 10:00-12:00 a.m., at Cocoa Cafe (corner of 900 S and 300 E). Save the dates!

MODEL PAPER NOW ON RESERVE IN THE PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT

12. Nov. 5. Nolipsism and the Model-Theoretic Argument. Jenann Ismael, The Situated Self, pp. 1-97.

    Optional reading: Hilary Putnam, Reason, Truth and History, pp. 32-38, 217-218 (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

    Further optional reading: Putnam, "Models and Reality"; Clifton McIntosh, "Basics of Model Theory"; David Anderson, "What Is the Model-Theoretic Argument?"; Timothy Bays, "On Putnam and his Models" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

13. Nov. 12. The Legend(ary) Problem: Mary and Inverted Spectra; Correcting Strawson. Ismael, The Situated Self, pp. 98-145; Ismael, "Nowhere to be Found" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

    Optional reading: Jackson, "What Mary Didn't Know", "Epiphenomenal Qualia" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

14. Nov. 19. Now Is the Time! I Am Myself! Ismael, The Situated Self, pp.146-216.

    Optional reading: Ismael, "Red dots from a dynamical systems perspective" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department); McTaggart, "The Unreality of Time" (on-line resource).

    Further optional reading: Michael Dummett. "A Defense of McTaggart's Proof of the Unreality of Time" (on-line resource).

15. Nov. 26. Biometaphysics; also, Another Time-Slice of Endurance and Perdurance. Reserve TS, chs. 1-3; Michael Thompson, "Apprehending Human Form" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

    Optional reading: Thompson, "The Representation of Life" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

16. Dec. 3 Endurance and Perdurance: Back Again, or Still Here? Reserve TS, ch.4.

    Optional reading: Remainder of reserve TS; Lewis, "Zimmerman and the Spinning Sphere"; Zimmerman, "One Really Big Liquid Sphere: Reply to Lewis" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

    I have added some comments of Matt Shockey's (on the Ismael manuscript) to the reserve bin.

Graded final papers are now available. If you're a philosophy graduate student, your paper should be in your box; if you're not, ask Lenna Hanson at the front desk.