The difference between philosophy and other subjects only emerged in the last 200 years. Philosophy is – in its most basic form – the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Not to get a job. Not to build a car. Not even for the sake of creating a just political system. It aims the exploration of our universe by way of disciplined study and not only does it seek to help us understand our world but to understand how and why we do understand it. Many people will encourage students to go to university for the sake of getting a job, and, while this is indeed a worthy pursuit the thing that will make you most successful is going to university to learn how to think and understand the world on your own. This course will emphasize the development of critical reasoning skills to discuss questions to which our current scientific knowledge has no determinate answer: even in 2018 nobody has a clear idea of what consciousness is, how it is that we have knowledge of the world, what it means to be sentient or aware, and how technology might change the species for better or for worse.

This course will integrate art, philosophy, science, and media in a way that encourages students to find wonder in learning. The important thing is to show that imagination, creativity, science, and logic are not separate and that entertainment can be educational and education can be entertaining. Even when we watch TV or read stories we are exercising our capacities to understand the world and can learn a great deal if we’re not simply passive to the information presented to us on our screens. Learning to critically respond to and evaluate information is the chief thing that philosophy can give to students in the modern age. We are exposed to an overabundance of information and are not always given the best tools to separate the wheat from the chaff. Being able to understand why you believe something to be true and how it is that you know it can help eliminate the paralysis that can come about from this overexposure to information. This course will then be driven by the students and their own participation. Success in university does not depend merely on receiving information from teachers or professors but learning to process and respond to that information. It will encourage them to ask questions, do further research, and mull over things in a way that doesn’t only focus on how they will do on a test but will encourage them to practice thinking outside the confines of examination. This is one of the benefits of the fact that this course is not graded though my hope is that students learn the critical skills which will inevitably transform them into better test takers. Learning to be a good test taker doesn’t make you a good thinker but learning to be a good thinker will make you a good test taker.

Given that philosophy is about asking questions and figuring out how to give the best possible answer to them, this course will not give you determinate answers to any of these questions but better tools to investigate and study them.

They speak of reading, writing and arithmetic as the RRR’s but it is my belief that reasoning has been left out from this old adage and this course will briefly introduce students to elementary logic and reasoning in order to better understand the scaffold on which their thoughts rest.

What is reasoning?

While it is true that you will have already spent your lives thinking, reasoning, and critically assessing, most of you will not have received any specific training as to what this really amounts to. Studying “logic” is like going to a gym in which reasoning skills can be refined, strengthened, and broadened. This is not unlike an actual gym. Of course, before any athletic training most of us can move our limbs, catch objects, and walk or run. However, the purpose of athletic training is to ensure that these natural capacities can reach their fullest potential. Reasoning is a natural capacity to human beings. It is something we do all the time. It is most obvious in our disagreements with our partners or parents, in espousing our political views, and in any educational endeavour we embark upon. Critical thinking is the most general skill involved in giving reasons for any claim or belief which one might wish others to regard as true. It is also the essential skill required to assess the reasons other people give us for their beliefs, actions, and claims to knowledge. Nonetheless, there are better and worse ways to reason. In fact, there are incorrect and correct ways by which we might reason, and while we may have an intuitive understanding of the rules by which reasoning comes to be correct or incorrect, most of us have no explicit awareness of the rules in question. The study of logic is then then study of the basic rules of reasoning

Introduction to Reasoning

Introduction to Epistemology

Descartes, the Matrix, and how can we ever know what is real?

• Rene Descartes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/René_Descartes
• (Can We Be Certain of Anything? (Descartes) - 8-Bit Philosophy) https://youtu.be/cDNCv-ob87E
• Cartesian Skepticism - Neo, Meet Rene: Crash Course Philosophy #5 https://youtu.be/MLKrmw906TM
• What is a homunculus? (Clip from the film “Men in Black”) https://youtu.be/aJCCUdK7PiU

Extra Reading

Rene Descartes

Meditations (1641)

A reasonably short book (60 pages) and a classic introduction to philosophy. Here is a free online version! http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/descartes1641.pdf

Since the book was originally written in Latin, you can buy newer translations which are sometimes easier to read. I recommend the translation by Donald A. Cress published by Hackett Publishing Company in 1993. Link on Amazon.ca: http://a.co/gC532J1

Hilary Putnam

Brains in a Vat

A very famous paper published in 1981 originally in a book called Reason, Truth, and History. Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-21.

(Disclaimer): This is a tough paper to read and, as with everything you study, it is okay if it doesn’t make sense the first, second, or even tenth time you read it. Often times understanding a subject is like learning to play a video game, a sport, or an instrument – practice makes perfect!! You are never as good at a video game or sport or instrument the first time you play it as you are after you have played it over and over again. Usually this is an essay that will be read at the university level but do not let this intimidate you! All knowledge is always more intimidating than it is difficult.

You can find a link to the paper here: http://ieas.unideb.hu/admin/file_2908.pdf

Crash Course YouTube Channel

This is in general a great resource for a number of different subjects and they have a playlist called “Crash Course Philosophy”: https://youtu.be/1A_CAkYt3GY