1. IS-VNU
Philosophy 101
Mr. Mike Beard Introduction to Philosophy
Course Syllabus
INTRODUCTION
Philosophy can be an intimidating subject to study, especially if you don't plan to major in philosophy or a re-
lated field. But, philosophy doesn't need to be difficult. Philosophy is simply the study of questions and ideas.
The questions philosophers raise are worth our time investigating since they are usually about the most im-
portant issues in life such as: What happens after death? Does God exist? What is God? Is the world real
or just a construct of my imagination? How do I know? What can I know? Can I know anything for
certain? This course will survey some of the major fields of study (disciplines) in philosophy and examine
some of the key ideas that key philosophers have explored throughout Western culture. Since this course is
designed to be a general introduction, we will try to avoid too many technical details and advanced vocabu-
lary. However, like most fields of study, we will need to learn some of the basic vocabulary of philosophy.
Our goal is to obtain a broad overview of the big ideas in philosophy.
We will follow a lecture/discussion format for the class. All lectures and/or discussions in the class will occur
in English. Students are encouraged to take notes. Exams for this course will be based on material covered
in the lectures and assigned reading. Students will not be able to pass the course exams if they do not attend
class and complete the assigned readings.
EXPECTATIONS
All students are expected to attend each class. Please arrive before class begins in order to minimize distrac-
tions at the beginning of class. If a student has a problem coming to class on time, the teacher may ask
him/her to withdraw from the course.
All assigned readings must be completed prior to class. The teacher may give a surprise reading quiz at the
beginning of class to check if students have done their reading which will be factored into their course grade.
Due to the short length of this course, no extensions to any writing, reading or exam dates will be given.
READING TEXTBOOK
Required Textbook:
2001. Magee, Bryan. The Story of Philosophy. DK Publising, Inc. New York, NY.
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Mid-Term Exam – Short-answer and multiple-choice exam covering half of the course lectures and reading
materials.
Final Exam – Short-answer and multiple-choice exam covering ALL of the course lectures and reading mate-
rials
Term Paper – Three page paper. More information will be given out in class regarding the term paper.
Readings – Reading in this course will be monitored by two short quizzes. Students should have all assigned
reading completed prior to class (see reading schedule handout).
SCORING STRUCTURE
Mid-term Exam – 25% Final Exam – 35%
Term Paper – 25% Reading – 15%

2. LECTURE TOPICS
Introduction
◦ What is Philosophy?
◦ General Disciplines of Philosophy
The Presocratics
◦ Thales
◦ Pythagoras of Samos
◦ Xenophanes of Colophon
◦ Heraclitus
◦ Parmenides of Elea
◦ Zeno of Elea
◦ Democritus
The Big Three
◦ Socrates, Plato & Aristotle
Philosophy after Aristotle
◦ Epicureanism, Stoicism, Scepticism
◦ Jesus of Nazareth and Christianity
◦ Gnosticism & Neo-Platonism
Early Christian Philosophy
◦ Augustine
◦ Boethius
Medieval Philosophy
◦ Anselm
◦ Thomas Aquinas
◦ John Duns Scotus
◦ William of Occam
The Age of Science
◦ Copernicus, Galileo and Isaac Newton
◦ Machiavelli – The Prince
◦ Francis Bacon & Scientific Method
◦ Thomas Hobbes
The Enlightenment
◦ Progress
◦ Tolerance
◦ Opposition of Abuses in Church and State
◦ Freedom and Liberty
◦ Equality
Rationalism
◦ Rene Descartes
◦ Spinoza
◦ Leibniz
Empiricism
◦ Locke
◦ Berkeley
◦ Hume
◦ Burke
Revolutionary Philosophers
◦ Voltaire
◦ Diderot
◦ Rousseau

3. The Idealists
◦ George Berkeley
◦ Immanuel Kant
◦ Johann Schiller
◦ Frederick Schelling
◦ George Hegel
◦ Arthur Schopenhauer
The Liberals
◦ Adam Smith
◦ Mary Wollstonecraft
◦ Thomas Paine
◦ Jeremy Bentham
◦ John Stuart Mill
Evolution's Impact on Philosophy
◦ Charles Darwin
◦ Social Darwinism
◦ Herbert Spencer, Thomas Malthus,
Francis Galton & Ernst Haeckel
Socialism
◦ Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels
◦ Vladimir Lenin
Psychology
◦ Sigmund Freud
◦ Carl Jung
◦ B.F. Skinner
◦ Viktor Frankl
Existentialism
Influential Thinkers
◦ Søren Kierkegaard
◦ Friedrich Nietzsche
◦ Martin Heidegger
Existentialists
Atheists
◦ Sartre, de Beauvoir & Camus
Theists
◦ Martin Buber & Paul Tillich
Positivism
◦ Auguste Comte
◦ Bertrand Russell
◦ Ludwig Wittgenstein
◦ Rudolf Carnap
Linguistics
◦ Noam Chomsky
New Science
◦ Karl Popper
Postmodernism
◦ Claude Levi-Strauss
◦ Michel Foucault
◦ Jacques Derrida
Critical Realism