Yeshiva College Syllabi -- 2021 - 2022 courses (past versions for reference ONLY) -- PHI (Philosophy)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12202/6976
Syllabi are provided for general information about course scope and content. Syllabi are subject to change.
Browse
Recent Submissions
Item Restricted PHI4932 Seminar: The Epistemology of Judaism(Yeshiva College, Yeshiva University, 2022-08) Soloveichik, Meir; Johnson, David A.GOALS/OBJECTIVES: Throughout the Bible, there appear to be obligations to know of God’s existence; there are, in other words, epistemic commandments in the written law of Moses. For example (one of many), Deuteronomy 7:9: “Know, therefore, that the Lord thy God is God…” The Hebrew seems to be an imperative sentence, not a declarative. Knowing that the Lord your God is God—because He did certain things—obviously requires knowing that God exists. Some medieval Jewish philosophers locate this obligation first and foremost in the first of the Sinai commandments: “I am the Lord thy God.”¶ What is the nature of this command? Is it an obligation to seek evidence of the Divine through events, or through philosophical argument, or both? Moses often emphasizes the miracles of the Exodus as an epistemic foundation for knowledge and belief; but what does it mean to apply the obligations of knowledge of God, and of these miraculous events, to Jews of future generations who were not in Egypt? Does the obligation cease when sufficient evidence for faith is found, or is one obligated to engage every possible proof and argument that one can find?¶ Today, engaging the arguments for God, or for Judaism, requires engaging the assertions put forward by naturalism. Naturalism is easier to understand than to define, but it is essentially a worldview that states: “This is all there is. The world is material, and I am a material part of it, and that’s all that is going on. The mind is just some epiphenomenon of the workings of the brain. There is no afterlife, or Divine Being.” Should there be an obligation to know of God, then there must perforce be an obligation to reject naturalism. What is the philosophical foundation for this rejection? We will consider these questions as well, as we study the arguments put forward by David Hume, perhaps the most influential advocate of naturalism in philosophy.¶ This course is an innovative and interdisciplinary course joining philosophical logic, and Jewish theological texts, taught by two teachers who respectively specialize in one of these two fields. It will involve both logical excurses and argument, and careful readings of central texts in Medieval Jewish thought and modern philosophy. The goal is to settle the main issues pertaining to the epistemology of Judaism.Item Restricted PHI1550: Metaphysics(Yeshiva College, Yeshiva University, 2022-08) Johnson, David A.GOALS/OBJECTIVES: The goal of the course is for students to be able to understand and critically assess the most important claims and arguments that have been given concerning the ultimate nature of reality.Item Restricted PHI1011: Intro to Philosophy I(Yeshiva College, Yeshiva University, 2022-08) Johnson, David A.COURSE DESCRIPTION: People study philosophy because they want to know the answers to certain important questions such as those mentioned below. Philosophy usually fails in its attempts to answer them, but people keep returning to it because there is no other path to wisdom about such matters. (There is something to be said for knowing what doesn’t work; and the study of philosophy greatly enhances the critical powers of the mind.) We will be concerned with such questions as the following: (i) Does God exist?, (ii) Is there such a thing as human free will, and, if so, what is its nature?, (iii) Is human free will compatible with perfect Divine foreknowledge?, (iv) Is human free will compatible with determinism?, (v) Are there moral truths, and, if so, how do we know what they are?, (vi) What is the nature of truth?, (vii) What is the nature of infinity?, (viii) What is the nature of probability?, (ix) What is the nature of knowledge?, (x) What is the case for, and against, skepticism?, (xi) Do the things around you exist? (Answer: No.), (xii) Are we physical objects?¶ Introduction to the problems of ethics, political and social philosophy, philosophy of religion, and aesthetics. 3.000 Credit hoursItem Restricted PHI 2170: Ancient & Medieval Philosophy(2021-01) Johnson, David A.Goal of the Course: The goal is to become properly familiar with (and with the merits of) certain famous arguments from antiquity and the Middle Ages.Item Restricted PHI 1600: Ethics(2021-01) Johnson, David A.Goal of the Course: The goal of this course is for you to become properly familiar with (and with the merits of) certain important concepts, claims, and arguments pertaining to the existence and nature of morality.Item Restricted PHI1100H: Logic(2020-09) Johnson, David A.The goal of the course is to achieve mastery of: the first-order predicate calculus with identity.Item Restricted PHI1320: Theories of the Mind(2017-01) Johnson, David A.Item Restricted PHI1011: Intro to Philosophy I(2014-09) Johnson, David A.People study philosophy because they want to know the answers to certain important questions such as those mentioned below. Philosophy usually fails in its attempts to answer them, but people keep returning to it because there is no other path to wisdom about such matters. (There is something to be said for knowing what doesn’t work; and the study of philosophy greatly enhances the critical powers of the mind.) We will be concerned with such questions as the following: (i) Does God exist?, (ii) Is there such a thing as human free will, and, if so, what is its nature?, (iii) Is human free will compatible with perfect Divine foreknowledge?, (iv) Is human free will compatible with determinism?, (v) Are there moral truths, and, if so, how do we know what they are?, (vi) What is the nature of truth?, (vii) What is the nature of infinity?, (viii) What is the nature of probability?, (ix) What is the nature of knowledge?, (x) What is the case for, and against, skepticism?, (xi) Do the things around you exist? (Answer: No.), (xii) Are we physical objects?