PHIL 455W/802: FALL 2013

PHILOSOPHICAL NATURALISM, PHYSICALISM, AND SCIENTIFIC REALISM

Texts:

Understanding Naturalism, Jack Ritchie. Durham, GBR: Acumen (2008) Electronic version available through SFU Library.

Physicalism, Daniel Stoljar. Routledge (2010).

Some Related Readings:

Jaegwon Kim, “The American Origins of Philosophical Naturalism” Journal of Philosophical Research APA Centennial Volume (2003) pp. 83-98.

Jaegwon Kim, “Supervenience as a Philosophical Concept,” Metaphilosophy Vol. 21 Issues 1-2 (1990).

Jaegwon Kim, “Multiple Realization and the Metaphysics of Reduction,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research,” Vol. 82 (1994) pp. 1-26.

Daniel Stoljar, “Two Conceptions of the Physical, “Philosophical and Phenomenological Research Vol. LXII, No. 2 (March 2001, 253-281.

Andrew Melnyk, “Formulating Physicalism: Two Suggestions,” Synthese 105 (1996) pp. 381-407.

Andrew Melnyk, How to Keep the ‘Physical’ in Physicalism,”Journal of Philosophy Vol. 94 (1997) pp. 622-37.

Hilary Putnam, “Why There Isn’t a Ready-Made World”, Synthese 51 (1982) pp. 141-167.

Hilary Putnam, “Why Reason Can’t Be Naturalized”, Synthese 52 (1982) pp. 3-23.

Arthur Fine, “The Natural Ontological Attitude,” in Jarrett Leplin, ed., Scientific Realism Berkeley: U of Californian Press (1984) pp. 83-107.

Carl Matheson, “Is the Naturalist Really Naturally a Realist?” Mind Vol. xcviii, no. 390 April 1989 pp. 247-258.

Michael Devitt, “A Naturalistic Defense of Realism,” in Steven D. Hales, ed., Metaphysics Wadsworth Pub. (1999) pp. 90-106.

P.D. Magnus and Craig Callender, “Realist Ennui and the Base Rate Fallacy”, Philosophy of Science, Vol. 71 No.3 (July 2004) pp 320-338.

Michael Friedman, “Philosophical Naturalism,” Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, Vol. 71 No. 2 (Nov. 1997), pp. 7-21.

Recommended Background Readings:

David Papineau, “Naturalism,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (hereafter ‘SEP’) (2007)

Daniel Stoljar, “Physicalism,” SEP (2009)

Anjan Chakravartty “Scientific Realism,” SEP (2011)

Alex Rosenberg, “A Field Guide to Recent Species of Naturalism,” British Journal of Philosophy of Science 47 (1996) pp. 1-29.

To Be Placed on Library 3 Day Reserve:

David Papineau, Philosophical Naturalism, Blackwell (1996)

Andrew Melnyk, A Physicalist Manifesto: Thoroughly Modern Materialism, Cambridge (2003)

Daniel Stoljar, Physicalism, Routledge (2010)

Cheryl J. Misak, The Pragmatists, Oxford (2013)

C. Gillet nd B. Loewer, Physicalism and Its Discontents, Cambridge (2001)

D. Braddon-Mitchell and R. Nola (eds.) Conceptual Analysis and Philosophical Naturalism (2002)

Assignment Schedule

1st short paper topics (for 455w and 802) handed out on Tuesday September 17^th. Paper due in class on Tuesday October 1^st. Returned grades by Thursday October 10^th. For those in 455w, the rewrite will be due in class on Thursday October 17^th .

2^nd short paper topics (for 455w students only) handed out on Thursday October 17^th, with a submission deadline of Thursday October 31^st (Hallowe’en).

Class presentation topics (for 802 students only) to be posted by on or before October 17^th.

Final essay assignment topics to be handed out on October 31^st, and due on the last day of classes of term, which is Monday December 3^rd. The official deadline is 4:00 PM on that day, in the instructor’s Department mailbox.