This is an introduction to basic methods of philosophical inquiry and their application to some traditional problems in philosophy. Topics include arguments and their place in philosophy, philosophical thought-experiments and the method of counterexamples, the analysis of knowledge, skepticism, the mind-body problem, free will, and the existence of God. This course helps students to understand some main philosophical problems about persons and their place in the world: the nature of persons and personal identity; mind and body; persons as free agents in a deterministic world; the subjectivity of personal values and the objectivity of moral requirements; the meaning of life. A main objective is to facilitate the student’s own thinking about such issues.
