The aims of this course are:(1) To get a firm grip on the core problems of metaethics, and their main solutions;(2) To develop one’s skills of critically analyzing arguments and positions in metaethics;(3) To develop one’s ability to construct new arguments and positions in metaethics;(4) To develop one’s writing skills and one’s mastery of English;(5) Enhancing one’s debating skills.
|
|
During the last forty years, and in particular during the first decade of the 21st century, there has been a resurgence of interest in philosophical problems about the freedom of the will. The main causes of this resurgence are recent developments in sciences such as physics, the neurosciences, cognitive science, psychology, and also in philosophy (both analytical and empirical). In the course (and the Handbook), scientific background knowledge of the free-will problem is provided, and new versions of philosophical solutions will be discussed, that is, of compatibilism, incompatibilism, and libertarianism. Many free-will related issues are covered, such as moral agency and responsibility, accountability and blameworthiness in ethics, autonomy, coercion and control in social theory, criminal liability, responsibility and punishment in legal theory, issues concerning the relation of mind to body, consciousness and the nature of action in philosophy of mind and the cognitive neurosciences, questions about divine foreknowledge, providence and human freedom in philosophy of religion (which are now popular in the U.S.), and general metaphysical questions about necessity and possibility, determinism, time and chance, quantum reality, and causation and explanation. The seminar will be intellectually challenging and also great fun!
This course is for Students History and Philosophy of Science, RMA Philosophy. Students of other MA-programmes, please contact the Course Coordinator.
|
 |
|