| Week 1: Jan. 7, 9 | Overview of course aims and introduction; Natural Philosophy |
| Week 2: Jan. 14, 16 |
Early modern metaphysics, physics, and systematic natural philosophy Leibniz-Clarke correspondence, on debate concerning absolute space Excerpt from Kant, Prolegomena to any future metaphysics Excerpts from Newton’s Principia Mathematica |
| Week 3: Jan. 21, 23 | Rejection of metaphysics, take one Pragmatism and radical empiricism: William James Excerpts from Meaning of Truth and Pragmatism |
| Week 4: Jan. 28, 30 | More William James and pragmatism, humanism, radical empiricism |
| Week 5: Feb. 4, 6 | Rejection of metaphysics, take two Carnap, “Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology” Carnap, “Elimination of metaphysics through logical analysis of language” |
| Week 6: Feb. 18, 20 | Midcentury pragmatism: the end of logical empiricism Quine, “Two dogmas of empiricism” |
| Week 7: Feb. 25, 27 | The rise of “hardcore analytic metaphysics” Lewis, “Causation” Lewis, “A Philosopher’s Paradise” |
| Week 8: Mar. 4, 6 | Ismael, “An Empiricist’s Guide to Objective Modality” Hall, “Physical and Metaphysical Modality" |
| Week 9: Mar. 11, 13 | Laws in metaphysics and philosophy of science Loewer, “Two accounts of laws and time” Lange, “Grounding, explanation, and scientific laws” |
| Week 10: Mar. 18, 20 | Laws in metaphysics and philosophy of science Woodward, “Simplicity in the Best Systems Account of Laws of Nature” Maudlin, The Metaphysics within Physics, “Suggestions from physics for deep metaphysics” |
| Week 11: Mar. 25, 27 | What is there, really? Structural realism in philosophy of science Worrall, “Structural realism: the best of both worlds?” Ross, Ladyman, and Spurrett, Every Thing Must Go, “In defence of scientism” |
| Week 12: Apr. 1, 3 | What is there, really? Structuralism in metaphysics Sider, excerpts from Writing the Book of the World |