Instructor: Dr. David Beisecker

Office: FDH 526

Phone: 895-4038 (office)

809-4292 (cell)

Office Hrs: MWF 2:00 – 3:00 (and by appt.)

E-Mail: beiseckd@nevada.unlv.edu

Website: www.scsv.nevada.edu/~beiseckd

Course Objective: Our objective this spring is, quite simply, to develop an understanding of, appreciation for, and aptitude in current academic research in philosophy. This we shall accomplish through a detailed study of one of the most important works in 20^th century philosophy as well as some other chestnuts in the analytic tradtion, and through the compilation of a "journal" of peer-reviewed papers commenting on articles that have recently appeared in major philosophy journals.

Texts: We will begin our study with the following, all of which should be available at the university bookstore.

Subsequent readings will be determined by student interests and will be distributed in class.

Course Plan: For the first month or so, we will plow through Wilfrid Sellars' Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind with the assistance of both the DeVries and Triplett and the Brandom commentaries. Everyone should come to class having already read the material and armed with questions and objections in mind. Folk who’ve had the misfortune of taking my classes before will attest that given half a chance, I will quickly soar over students’ heads. Stop me if you feel the point of my ramblings slipping away (chances are, most everyone else is feeling the same way too)!

For the remainder, we will discuss the articles students have selected as targets for their commentaries, as well as other assigned readings as deemed appropriate. These will be distributed in class. It is the responsibility of students to be present to pick these readings up as well as to be apprised of what has been assigned for each class period.

Requirements: First, there will be two equally weighted exams (a midterm and final). In addition, students will also be asked to choose an article that's been published in a major philosophy journal or anthology within the past five years, on which they are to write a short (5-6 page) commentary to be presented before the class. As mentioned above, all of these commentaries will also be compiled in a class journal. Every student will be expected to assist in bringing about the production of this journal through timely review of others’ contributions. Finally, for each of my lectures, I will assign one member of the class to take notes for that day. Everyone will be asked to take notes at least once during the semester. Notetakers will be expected to distribute their notes and to present a 5-10 minute summary of the lecture at the beginning of the next class meeting.