Metaphysics

Phil4/540	Spring 2008
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 2:00 P.M.–2:50 P.M.	Room 311 Social Sciences
Shaughan Lavine

A syllabus may be viewed by the University as a document that in certain circumstances may have contractual force. Faculty members have therefore been requested to include various notifications and disclosures in every syllabus. That is the reason for the legalistic tone of portions of this document. Most announced policies may be subject to reasonable modification when circumstances warrant. If you are in doubt, feel free to ask!

The following is the official course description:

PHIL 4/540 -- Metaphysics (3 units)
Description: Topics include free will and determinism; causation; personal identity; necessity and essence; truth, realism and ontology.
Grading: Regular grades are awarded for this course: A B C D E.
May be convened with: PHIL 5/440.
Usually offered: Fall, Spring.

Topics include necessity and essence; truth, realism, and ontology; types, universals, properties, and kinds; abstractness and, especially, metaontology: such questions as whether ontological questions make sense, have definite answers, and the like.

Please note that all information contained in this course syllabus, other than the grade and absence policies, may be subject to change with reasonable advance notice, as Professor Lavine deems appropriate.

The text should be available in the ASUA bookstore.

In addition to the text, I shall post lecture notes (what I have put up in class) online on
http://dingo.sbs.arizona.edu/~slavine/Courses/MetaPhysics.html.

The final examination will be Friday, 9 May, 2 P.M.–4 P.M. The final examination is a mandatory part of the course. If you will be unable to take it for any reason, do not take this course. Of course, with documentation, serious medical excuses and the like will be accepted. Airplane tickets, weddings, and so forth, will not be.

Papers

You may wish to consult How to Write a Philosophy Paper before beginning to write your papers.

There will be two required papers, the first 5-8-pages, typed double-spaced (that is, of approximately 1,250-2,000 words, or 6,250-10,000 characters in length), the second of the same length for students in Philosophy 440 and twice as long for students in Philosophy 540, a midterm examination, and a final examination. When you hand in a paper, keep a copy. You must bring blue books to the examinations. In addition, attendance at, and participation in, the class meetings is mandatory. Students in Philosophy 540 may be required to give presentations.

Your papers should each concern one of the assigned topics, presenting the relevant positions clearly and briefly and assessing their strengths and weaknesses using examples from the texts. Note that if you get a position wrong, you are unlikely to assess it well. There is rarely only one correct interpretation of anything, but—whatever your interpretation—you must document it by giving page or line references to the passages on which the interpretation is based. Do not use quotations unless the precise wording of a passage is crucial. Explain the views in your own words.

The papers for the course are not primarily research papers. You may do supplementary research if you wish, but the main requirement is that you must show that you have read the relevant texts carefully, thought about them, and made some sense of them. Do not report the views of others. Struggle with the texts on your own.

Page references to the assigned texts should be given in parentheses in the body of a paper. When you consult works other than the assigned texts, list them in a bibliography with additional acknowledgment given to any writer who influenced your thinking. The Chicago Manual of Style is a useful reference for other matters of style. If you quote from any work, paraphrase it, or your work has been substantially influenced by it, you must note that explicitly—in the case of direct quotation, the use of quotation marks will suffice. Failure to acknowledge sources or to note quotation or paraphrase constitutes plagiarism—intentionally or knowingly representing the words or ideas of another as one's own in any academic exercise, which is the ultimate academic crime—see the Code of Conduct in the ABOR Policy Manual, beginning at 5-301.C.¹ Any cheating, fabrication, or plagiarism may result in a failing grade for the work concerned or for the course, at Professor Lavine's discretion, and he may recommend additional penalties ranging from making the infraction a permanent part of your academic record to expulsion from the University, in accordance with the UA Code of Academic Integrity.

Examinations

The examinations will consist of short answer questions, each requiring an answer of no more than a few sentences. Each examination will cover all material presented in class and in the assigned readings up to the time of the examination. You will be allowed to consult your notes but not your books. (Please draw the obvious moral: take good notes on your reading.)

Each of the two papers will count for 40% of your course grade. Your examination grade will be the remaining 20%. Your attendance and participation in the class will determine what happens to your grade in borderline or questionable cases.

Your examination grade will be the average of the curved midterm and final examination grades, or your curved final examination grade, whichever is greater. That is, I drop the midterm grade if you do better on the final.

If you wish to complete an assignment late, you must get approval at least one week before the assignment is due. All holidays or special events observed by organized religions will be honored for those students who show affiliation with that particular religion. Absences preapproved by the UA Dean of Students (or Dean's designee) will be honored. Otherwise, short of serious medical excuses with written documentation, late work may result in grading penalties.

If you believe that a mistake has been made in the grading of one of your papers or examinations, you must put your reasons for thinking so in writing and then submit them within one week from the time the paper or examination was returned. All grades that have not been appealed will be considered final after one week. No oral appeals of grades will be considered. If there is still a problem after receiving a response to your appeal, you may then make an appointment to discuss the matter.

Attend class. Be prompt. Participate. Ask questions. Make use of office hours. If you are not at ease contributing regularly to class discussions, consider preparing your contributions in advance. You might write down any questions, comments, or criticisms you have concerning the readings and use those to initiate discussion. I recommend that you talk among yourselves about the readings both before and after class.

I expect acceptable classroom behavior at all times. Disruptive or threatening behavior may result in disciplinary procedures leading to severe penalties. See the UA Policy on Threatening Behavior by Students, and documents referenced therein.

Students with physical, psychological, or learning disabilities who anticipate needing accommodations in this course are encouraged to register with the S.A.L.T. Center or the Disability Resource Center.

Students with special needs who are registered with the S.A.L.T. Center or the Disability Resource Center are reminded that they must submit appropriate documentation to as soon as possible if they are requesting special accommodations.

My office hours are for your benefit. I encourage you to come, whether to talk about the readings, the class discussions, or the papers. You are particularly strongly encouraged to discuss the paper topics and comments on your finished papers. Individual discussions usually result in more learning than classes alone. Use the opportunity.

My office hours are Monday and Wednesday 11:00 A.M.–11:50 A.M. in room 208 Social Sciences or by appointment. Feel free to come up after class to make an appointment. My scheduled office hours are brief because I prefer to make appointments on an individual basis. My office telephone number is 621-7109, and I may be reached outside of office hours by leaving a message at the department office, 621-5045, or by e-mail, shaughan@arizonaREMOVE.edu.

16 January

First Day.

18 January

Kim and Sosa, Part I, Introduction and Quine, ‘‘On what there is,’’ Chapter 1; pp. 3–12.

21 January

Martin Luther King Day. No class.

23 January

Kim and Sosa, Carnap, ‘‘Empiricism, semantics, and ontology,’’ Chapter 2; pp. 13–22.

25 January

Discussion and catching up.

28 January

Kim and Sosa, Part I, Quine, ‘‘Ontological relativity,’’ Chapter 5; pp. 45–61.

30 January

Kim and Sosa, Part II, Introduction and Kripke, ‘‘Identity and necessity,’’ Chapter 7; pp. 65, 72–89.

1 February

Discussion and catching up.

4 February

Kim and Sosa, Part II, Perry, ‘‘The same ,’’ Chapter 8; pp. 90–99.

6 February

Kim and Sosa, Part II, Gibbard, ‘‘Contingent identity,’’ Chapter 9; pp. 100–115.

8 February

Discussion and catching up.

11 February

Kim and Sosa, Part III, Introduction and Plantinga, ‘‘Modalities: Basic concepts and distinctions,’’ Chapter 11; pp. 133–148.

13 February

Kim and Sosa, Part III, Adams, ‘‘Primitive thisness and primitive identity,’’ Chapter 14; pp. 172–183.

15 February

Discussion and catching up.

18 February

Kim and Sosa, Part IV, Introduction and Armstrong, ‘‘Universals as attributes,’’ Chapter 16; pp. 197–208.

20 February

Kim and Sosa, Part IV, Lewis, ‘‘New work for a theory of universals,’’ Chapter 17; pp. 209–232.

22 February

Discussion and catching up. First paper due.

25 February

Kim and Sosa, Part IV, Quine, ‘‘Natural kinds,’’ Chapter 18; pp. 233–242.

27 February

Kim and Sosa, Part V, Introduction and Quine, ‘‘Identity, ostension, and hypostasis,’’ Chapter 22, pp. 271–272, 284–290.

29 February

Midterm.

3 March

Kim and Sosa, Part VIII, Introduction and Quine, ‘‘Ontological reduction and the world of numbers,’’ Chapter 38; pp. 485, 499–503.

5 March

Kim and Sosa, Part VIII, Hellman and Thompson, ‘‘Physicalism: Ontology, determination, and reduction,’’ Chapter 41; pp. 531–539.

7 March

Discussion and catching up.

10 March

Kim and Sosa, Part IX, Introduction and Dummett, ‘‘Realism,’’ Chapter 43; pp. 559–590.

11 March (Tuesday)

Drop date.

12 March

Kim and Sosa, Part IX, Putnam, ‘‘Pragmatic realism,’’ Chapter 44; pp. 591–619.

14 March

Discussion and catching up.

17 March

Spring Break.

19 March

Spring Break.

21 March

Spring Break.

24 March

Kim and Sosa, Part IX, Wright, ‘‘Realism, antirealism, irrealism, quasi-realism,’’ Chapter 48; pp. 649–665.

26 March

Chapter 7, pp. 62–77. A copy is available in the Philosophy Department office 213 Social Sciences.

28 March

Discussion and catching up.

31 March

2 April

4 April

Discussion and catching up.

The next five readings are no longer available through the library. I have put them on d2l: Go to the site, log in, go to this course, and you will find them under the "Content" tab.

7 April

9 April

11 April

Discussion and catching up.

14 April

16 April

18 April

Discussion and catching up.

21 April

23 April

25 April

Discussion and catching up.

28 April

30 April

2 May

Discussion and catching up.

5 May

7 May

Last Day. Second paper due.

9 May

Final examination. 2 P.M.–4 P.M.

-- ShaughanLavine - 12 Jan 2008

¹In writing this Syllabus, I have drawn liberally on previous ones of others, especially those of Healey, Kent, Lindt, Nichols, Reimer, and Yool, sometimes using extensive passages verbatim. Additional passages have been adapted or excerpted from various University of Arizona statements of policy.