Humanities and Philosophy Courses with Vincent Samar

Philosophy 105: Logic

This is a study of the principles of correct reasoning. Attention is given to such topics as the logical use of language, types of definition, the methods of science and the techniques used in evaluating arguments. Regarding the latter, particular attention will be paid to some of the sentential techniques used in Symbolic Logic. In Logic, I try to get students to recognize from various examples the informal fallacies of relevance, presumption, defective induction, and ambiguity. These often accompany arguments in natural language where specific wording plays an important role toward reaching a valid conclusion. I also introduce the students to how the use of different kinds of definitions can help reduce ambiguity or make precise the boundaries of a term. A great deal of time is spent on introducing the students to what makes an argument valid and sound in a formal sense. Here my emphasis is on the syntactical structure and semantics that accompany various formulations of an argument. Students are introduced to truth tables as a way to make precise what it means for arguments to be valid or statements to be tautologies, contradictions or equivalences. Formal deduction is also presented as a means for the students to develop various intuitions and strategies for proving longer arguments. Additionally, I introduce students to an elementary level of first-ordered quantificational logic as this represents more accurately operations of natural language and provides an important connection to the foundations of mathematics.

Philosophy 106: Ethics

Ethics is the branch of philosophy concerned with meaning, value, and moral responsibility in human life. Students will examine at least four conflicting theories about what constitutes moral conduct and social justice. Students will also learn to ask various metaethical questions including: are there moral facts, how is moral judgment possible, are there any human rights, if there are such rights, what is their scope and contents? Students will also be taught to engage the various normative theories to aid them in solving individual moral dilemmas, and they will also consider possible criticisms of these theories when applied to contemporary social issues such as women’s rights, animal rights, government or individual responses to terrorist-like threats, and gay and lesbian marriage. In ethics students are introduced to the questions that underlie the vary possibility of doing ethics such as Are there moral facts? How are we to know them? Can morality be objective? What incentive does morality itself provide for human action? We also treat four classical theories: natural law, utilitarianism, Kantianism and virtue ethics,. Here we consider both the ways each of these theories respond to the underlying questions but also the decision procedures they provide for making normative judgments today. With respect to the latter, each theory is critiqued in light of issues raised by the others. The course finishes with challenges from both within and outside of ethics from feminists, animal rights thinkers, gays and lesbians, and postmodern observers. There are three examinations. The first usually focuses on concepts and problems of justification. The second on how the various theories might resolve an actual real world type case and what their different resolutions might be. The final provides an overall look at the course with emphasis on what questions still remain to be answered.

This course provides discussion of knowledge, ethics, aesthetics, and metaphysics as exemplified by selected leading philosophers. Topics are arranged to reflect some of the most important issues that were particularly salient in different historical periods: Ancient, Medieval, Modern and Contemporary.

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