Reading List* The Socratic Journey: 1b. Plato: Crito (justice and injustice) 1c. Plato: Euthyphro (piety or holiness) 1d. Plato: Phaedo (afterlife) 1e. Plato: Theaetetus (knowledge) 1e. Plato: Sopist (sophistry) 1f. Plato: Laches (Courage) 1g. Plato: Protagoras (teachablility of virtue) 1h. Plato: Gorgias (rhetoric) 1i. Plato: Meno (virtue in general) 1j. Plato: Ion (Art) II. PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION II.A. Is Belief in God Rationally Justified? Arguments for the Existence of God The Cosmological Argument Pro 5. Thomas Aquinas: The Five Ways 6. William Lane Craig: The Kalam Cosmological Argument and the Anthropic Principle Contra 7. Paul Edwards: A Critique of the Cosmological Argument The Teleological Argument Pro 8. William Paley: The Watch and the Watchmaker Contra 9. David Hume: A Critique of the Teleological Argument The Ontological Argument Pro et Contra 10. St. Anselm and Gaunilo: The Ontological Argument 11. William Rowe: An Analysis of the Ontological Argument II.B. Why Is There Evil? 12. Fyodor Dostoevsky: Why Is There Evil? 13. B.C. Johnson: Why Doesn't God Intervene to Prevent Evil? 14. John Hick: There Is a Reason Why God Allows Evil * 15. William L. Rowe: The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism II.C. Is Faith Compatible with Reason? 16. Blaise Pascal: Yes, Faith Is a Logical Bet 17. W.K. Clifford: The Ethics of Belief 18. William James: The Will to Believe 19. Antony Flew, R.M. Hare, and Basil Mitchell: A Debate on the Rationality of Religious Belief 20. Alvin Plantinga: Religious Belief Without Evidence 21. Søren Kierkegaard: Faith and Truth * This list is tentative and therefore subject to reordering and revision. Of course we will not be doing all of these readings! This is just a master list and will also give you other possible paper ideas. 22. Michael Martin: Holy Spirit Epistemology 23. Bertrand Russell: Can Religion Cure Our Troubles? III. KNOWLEDGE III.A. What Can We Know? Classical Theories of Knowledge 24. René Descartes: Cartesian Doubt and the Search for Foundational Knowledge 25. John Locke: The Empiricist Theory of Knowledge 26. George Berkeley: An Idealist Theory of Knowledge 27. David Hume: The Origin of Our Ideas * 28. G.E. Moore: Proof of an External World III.B. Truth, Rationality, and Cognitive Relativism 29. Bertrand Russell: The Correspondence Theory of Truth 30. William James: The Pragmatic Theory of Truth 31. Richard Rorty: Dismantling Truth: Solidarity versus Objectivity 32. Daniel Dennett: Postmodernism and Truth 33. Harvey Siegel: Relativism III.C. Induction 34. David Hume: Skeptical Doubts Concerning the Operations of the Understanding 35. Wesley C. Salmon: The Problem of Induction IV. PHILOSOPHY OF MIND: THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM IV.A. What Am I? A Mind or a Body? 36. René Descartes: Substance Dualism 37. Gilbert Ryle: Exorcising Descartes' "Ghost in the Machine" 38. J.P. Moreland: A Contemporary Defense of Dualism 39. Paul Churchland: On Functionalism and Materialism *40. J.J.C. Smart: Sensations and Brain Processes 41. Thomas Nagel: What Is It Like to Be a Bat? 42. Jerry A. Fodor: The Mind-Body Problem 43. David Chalmers: Property Dualism 44. John Searle: Minds, Brains, and Computers 45. Ned Block: Troubles with Functionalism IV.B. Who Am I? Do We Have Personal Identity? 46. John Locke: Our Psychological Properties Define the Self 47. David Hume: We Have No Substantial Self with Which We Are Identical 48. Buddhist Scripture: Questions to King Milinda V. FREEDOM OF THE WILL AND DETERMINISM Contra 49. Baron d'Holbach: We Are Completely Determined Pro 50. William James: The Dilemma of Determinism 51. Peter van Inwagen: The Powers of Rational Beings: Freedom of the Will 52. Roderick M. Chisholm: Human Freedom and the Self Pro et Contra 53. W.T. Stace: Compatibilism 54. Harry Frankfurt: Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person 55. David Hume: Liberty and Necessity VI. ETHICS VI.A. Are There Any Moral Absolutes or Is Morality Completely Relative? 56. Ruth Benedict: Morality Is Relative 57. James Rachels: Morality Is Not Relative VI.B. Ethics and Egoism: Why Should We Be Moral? 58. Plato: Why Should I Be Moral?: Gyges' Ring and Socrates' Dilemma 59. Louis P. Pojman: Egoism and Altruism: A Critique of Ayn Rand 60. Joel Feinberg: Psychological Egoism VI.C. Which Is the Correct Ethical Theory? 61. Immanuel Kant: The Moral Law 62. John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism 63. Aristotle: The Ethics of Virtue * 64. Alison M. Jaggar: Feminist Ethics * 65. Annette C. Baier: The Need for More than Justice 66. Jean-Paul Sartre: Existentialist Ethics 67. James Rachels: The Divine Command Theory VII. POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 68. Robert Paul Wolff: In Defense of Anarchism 69. Thomas Hobbes: The Absolutist Answer: The Justification of the State Is the Security It Affords 70. John Locke: The Democratic Answer: The Justification of the State Is Its Promotion of Security and Natural Human Rights 71. John Stuart Mill: A Classical Liberal Answer: Government Must Promote Freedom 72. John Rawls: The Contemporary Liberal Answer * 73. Robert Nozick: Against Liberalism VIII. WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE? 74. Epicurus: Moderate Hedonism 75. Epictetus: Stoicism: Enchiridion 76. Albert Camus: Life Is Absurd 77. Julian Baggini: Living Life Forwards 78. Louis P. Pojman: Religion Gives Meaning to Life 79. Thomas Nagel: The Absurd 80. Bertrand Russell: Reflections on Suffering 76a. Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis IX. CONTEMPORARY MORAL PROBLEMS IX.A. Is Abortion Morally Permissible? Contra 81. Don Marquis: Why Abortion Is Immoral * 82. Francis J. Beckwith: Arguments from Bodily Rights Pro 83. Mary Anne Warren: On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion 84. Judith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of Abortion Pro et Contra 85. Jane English: The Moderate Position: Beyond the Personhood Argument IX.B. Is the Death Penalty Morally Permissible? Pro 86. Burton Leiser: The Death Penalty Is Permissible Contra 87. Hugo Adam Bedau: No, the Death Penalty Is Not Morally Permissible *IX.C. Should Society Permit Same-Sex Marriage? * 88. Sam Schulman: Gay Marriage--and Marriage Contra * 89. Jonathan Rauch: For Better or Worse? IX.D. Do We Have Obligations to the Poor and Hungry? Pro 90. Peter Singer: Famine, Affluence and Morality Contra 91. Garrett Hardin: Living on a Lifeboat IX. ADDITIONAL READINGS (Some of my recent favorites) 92. Richard Feldman: Reasonable Religious Disagreement 93. Stephen T. Davis: On Preferring That God Not Exist (Or That God Exist): A Dialogue 94. David Barnett: You are Simple 95. Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Pyrronism (if you are fascinated by skepticism) 96. Martin Cohen: 101 Philosophy Problems (for more ideas) .