PHI100: Introduction to Philosophy

Currently taught by Professor Kelly Perez

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Philosophy is not about arguments, debates, and the caricature of cranky professors – not by a long shot! Philosophy is the key to unlocking the shackles that smother your curiosity, your wonderment, and your sense of self. Philosophy is not just a subject you learn. Rather, it’s a lifestyle of wonderful, insatiable curiosity that will, if you let it, alter your way of being in the world. 

PHI100: Introduction to Philosophy is a general review of Western Philosophy that asks and attempts to answer questions such as:

• What is the Human Condition?

• Is choice a curse or a blessing

• Can the most powerful God create a rock that they cannot lift?

• Is the world we live in real?

• What is the nature of an all-loving God?

• How is our mind related to our body?

• What are the principles of justice?

• Do we have free will to do as we please?

• What is the virtuous path?

• Are we in control of our lives?

In attempts to answer these questions, students will explore works from, but not limited to, Socrates, Plato, Descartes, St. Augustine, Siddhartha Gautama, Mill, Kant, Sartre, Nietzsche, James, Aristotle, Wollstonecraft, Butler, Nussbaum, and Locke. 

Students will have eight weeks of discussion broken up into three sections: 

• Weeks 1 - 3: Read Aristotle’s Virtue and Epicurus’ Stoicism via complimentary PDFs. We will survey the creation of logical knowledge and value systems through philosophical thought experiences.

• Week 4: Read J.S Mill and Kant’s’ ideas on Ethical systems and how we ought to form the basis for moral judgments.

• Finally, the term will end with four weeks of discussing knowledge, Utopia, reality, science fact/fiction, and politics.

For added fun:

• Throughout the course, extra credit options cover various movies related to philosophical thought experiments, such as The Trolley Problem, Computer Simulations, and Alien Lifeforms. 

Work Flow

• Eight Discussion boards are due Thursday and Sunday (respectively)

• Two 1 - 2pg. Reflective papers coving philosophers from Middle Eastern, African, and Asian philosophies (one during midterms and one during finals)

• Three vocabulary quizzes with words were given to the students ahead of time.