Classics of Western Philosophy

Lecture Notes

SES #	TOPICS	LECTURE NOTES
1	First class	The Apology and Crito (PDF)
Socrates (c. 470 BCE - 399 BCE) and Plato (429? BCE - 347 BCE)
2	Socrates and the Law	Study Questions for the Apology, Crito, and Euthyphro (PDF)
3	Elenchus	Socratic Definition and the Elenchus (PDF)
4	Akrasia & Pragmatic Paradox	Socrates on Weakness of Will (PDF)
5	Knowledge and Learning	Meno and the Paradox of Inquiry (PDF)
6	The Soul in Plato	Immortality and Forms in the Phaedo (PDF)
Aristotle (384 BCE - 322 BCE)
7	The Soul in Aristotle	Matter and Form, Body and Soul, in De Anima (PDF)
8	Happiness	Aristotle on Happiness (PDF)
9	Virtue	Aristotle on Virtue (PDF)
Renè Descartes (1596–1650)
10	Skepticism	Cartesian Doubt in Meditation 1 (PDF)
11	Cogito	Descartes’ Cogito (Meditation 2) (PDF)
12	Existence of God	Descartes on God and Matter (Meditations 3–5) (PDF)
13	Distinction between Mind and Body	The Real Distinction between Mind and Body (Meditation 6) (PDF)
Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673)
14	Intelligent Matter	No lecture notes for this session
David Hume (1711–1776)
15	Empiricism	Hume’s Empiricism (PDF)
16	Induction	Hume on Induction (PDF)
17	Causation	Hume on Causation (PDF)
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)
18	The Good Will	Kant and the Moral Will (PDF)
19	Hypothetical and Categorical Imperatives	Kant’s Categorical Imperative (PDF)
20	Hypothetical and Categorical Imperatives (Cont.)	No lecture notes for this session
John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)
21	Utilitarianism	Mill’s Utilitarianism (PDF)
22	Women’s Rights?	The Subjection of Women (PDF)
23	Slavery	Three Philosophers on Slavery (PDF)
W. E. B. DuBois (1868–1963)
24	Double Consciousness	Du Bois and The Souls of Black Folk (PDF)
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986)
25	Transcendence	Beauvoir on Gender, Oppression, and Freedom (PDF)
26	Last class	No lecture notes for this session