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Office Hours, Spring 2007: Thursdays, 2-5; or make an appointment before or after class
Course Syllabus
Second essay due April 13:
Topics
and Instructions
Class Assignments and Notes
Week 1: Introduction to the Course
Topic:
Religious Experience:
Readings and assignment
Week 2: Topic: Religious Experience:
Readings and assignment
Topic:
Proofs for the existence of God: Background in
logic (class notes); Read PR, pp. 173-75
Week 3:M/W: The Ontological Proof of the Existence of God:
Readings and Assignment
F:
Class Quiz covering material to this point
Discussion: The
Classical Cosmological argument
Week 4: M/W "The Kalam Cosmological Argument"
Sources: J,P. Moreland (Class handout)
William Craig (PR, pp. 210-221
Notes on Moreland's presentation of the
argument
F: The Argument from Design
William Paley: "The Analogical Teleological Argument"
(PR, pp. 232-35)
Week 5: M/ Be sure to have read the selection from William Paley
Analysis of
Paley's discussion
W/ David Hume on the Design Argument:
Notes
The Darwinian answer to Paley
F/ Evolution and Intelligent
Design: Read the class handout on
"Supernatural Selection":
Reading questions on the handout
Essay Topics will be handed out.
Week 6: M/ Class Quiz
# 2 covering the Cosmological
Argument and the Argument from Design
Carefully study the notes given from Friday of Week 3 to Friday Week
5;
We will then begin of our study of the Problem of Evil and the
Free Will Defense:
Readings and Reading Questions for this week
Week 7: M/ Dostoevsky, The Grand Inquisitor, pp. 1-17:
Reading Questions
W/ Leibniz's theodicy: pp. 84-6 in Candide and Related Texts:
Notes
F/ First Essays are
due in class and online February 23
Pope's theodicy, in Candide and Related Texts,
pp. 86-91: Notes
Week 8: M/ Voltaire's answer to Leibniz and Pope in
"Poem on the Lisbon Disaster"
in Candide and Related Texts, pp. 95-108:
Reading Questions
W/ Class Quiz # 3
Read Voltaire's Candide over the break and come back prepared
do a Reading Quiz
identifying the characters in the novel.
Also prepare answers to these questions
for our class discussion of the novel
F/ No Class
SPRING BREAK (Week of March 5)
Week 9: M/ Reading Quiz on Voltaire's
Candide
W/ Continuation of our study of Candide
F/ John Hick, "Soul-Making Theodicy", PR pp. 341-54:
Reading Questions
Week 10: M/W John Mackie "Evil and Omnipotence", PR pp. 304-14:
Reading Questions
F Class Quiz #4 on Voltaire's
Candide, and articles by Hick and Mackie
Week 11: M/ Introduction to the Section "Faith and Reason", pp.
89-91
St. Thomas Aquinas, "The Harmony of Faith and Reason", pp. 92-96
Reading Questions
W/ Ibn Rushd, "The Harmony of Philosophy and the Qur'an", pp.96-101
Reading Questions
Week 12: M / Pascal, "The Wager", pp. 101-103:
Reading Questions
W/ Soren Kierkegaard, "Truth is Subjectivity", pp. 118-22
Reading Questions
F/ William Clifford: "The Ethics of Belief", pp. 104-9
Reading Questions
Week 13: M/ William James: "The Will to Believe", pp. 120-118
Reading Questions
W/ Further discussion of the dispute between Clifford and James
F/ April 13: Second Essay is due (instructions
at the top of this page)
Visiting Lecturer: Professor William
Wainwright, University of Wisconsin
on "Philosophical Arguments in the Religious Life":
Articles related to
his talk are available on the Blackboard Website for this course
under
"Documents"
Week 14: Lecture notes have been based on Linda Badham's
article "Problems with
Accounts of Life after Death" (PR, pp. 521-8) and H.H. Price "The
Soul
Survives and Functions After Death" (PR, pp. 500-509).
Week 15: Review for the final Exam
Final Exam: 10-11:30 am. Wednesday, May
2
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