PHIL 203 Metaphysics

Spring Semester 2013 | Day | Burnaby

INSTRUCTOR: D. Anderson, WMC 5605 (david.anderson@sfu.ca)

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Imagine that God suddenly halts the cosmos and demands that you construct a list of all and only the things that exist. You are given an infinite amount of time, an infinite number of pencils and sheets of paper, and the perceptual powers to observe things both incredibly small (think muons and gluons) and also incredibly distant (nebulae at the far reaches of the universe). What will make it onto your list? If indeed it is God that puts this task to you, perhaps your first two entries will be yourself and God. What else? Since there are already two things on your list, what about adding, as a third, the number two? Careful, now; you don’t want anything on the list that does not really exist. Do numbers exist in the same way that you do? Suppose you hold off on that question and start with some easier items. What about the pencil you are using to make your list? Surely your pencil exists! Hang on just a minute, though. What is a pencil, really? Using your newfound superpowers of perception you might notice that the pencil is composed of billions and billions of tiny particles. Suppose that you record a name for each of those particles onto your list. Do you need to add the pencil to the list as well? Does it count as another object, in addition to its component particles? Maybe you decide that there is no need to put “Pencil” on the list once we’ve already accounted for each particle. Now we must return to our very first item. Aren’t human bodies also ultimately composed of billions and billions of tiny particles? Do you really belong on the list???

What we are engaging in is a particular problem in the study of metaphysics—more specifically a problem of ontology. Metaphysics is the study of what is. In this survey course our focus will be on thinking hard about the concepts of identity, persistence over time, necessity and possibility, causation, and free will.

REQUIRED TEXTS

• Loux, Michael. Metaphysics: a contemporary introduction. Routledge: ISBN 9780415401340
• Conee, Earl & Theodore Sider. 2005. Riddles of Existence. OUP: ISBN: 9780199215188
• Additional material will be circulated via email/webCT

RECOMMENDED TEXT

• Vaughn, Lewis and J.S. McIntosh. 2009. Writing Philosophy: a guide for Canadian students. OUP, ISBN 9780195430547
  

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

• Participation - 10%
• First midterm - 20%
• Second midterm - 20%
• Third midterm - 20%
• Final Paper - 30%

NOTE: Students will be required to submit written work to turnitin.com, for plagiarism-checking and also, possibly, for anonymous peer review or as the basis for class discussion.

Prerequisites: One of PHIL 100, 150 or 151, or COGS 100.