Phil 428 - Seminar in History of Philosophy: Kant

Instructor: Jonathan D. Trigg Ph.D.
Office: HLG 510
Office hours: MWF 10.00 – 12.00 am. TR 2.00 – 4.00 pm
E-mail: jon.trigg@louisiana.edu
Class Time:  MW 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM
Class Place: HLG 501
Assessment: Your final grade will be made up of the following components:
            Three Essays of 1500 – 2000 words (4-6 pages)
            Final Examination – Essay of 1500 – 2000 words
Each component will make up 25% of your final grade.

Grading System
•    Remember that you are being graded for achievement, not effort.
•    Grades range from A to F. A: 90-100; B: 80-89; C: 70-79; D: 60-69; F: 59 and below
•    An A is assigned to excellent work, B to better than average, C to average and D to below average; F grades fail.
•    No ‘extra credit’ will be given.

Attendance and Class Policies
Attendance will be recorded and may be taken into account in assigning final grades to borderline cases. Good reasons for absence from class include illness (requiring medical attention) and involvement in significant university activities. I will deduct 2.5 points (a quarter letter grade) a day from unexcused late assignments. If you have a disability and require assistance with fulfilling class assignments, don't hesitate to notify me and the Office for Services to Students with Disabilities at 482-5252. Finally, be sure you are familiar with all university policies described in the UL Lafayette Undergraduate Bulletin.
Anybody caught plagiarizing will fail the course, and may be reported to the University. It is incredibly easy to identify plagiarised passages in your written work. You must include full citations of any sources that you use – including page numbers of books and URL’s for websites.
If you miss class, for whatever reason, it is your responsibility to get class notes from another student. Missed exams or other assignments can be made up only if an appropriate excuse, e.g., illness requiring medical attention, participation in certain official university events, etc., is provided. If you miss an assignment due date, you must notify me within one week of the due date in order to make up the assignment.

Emergency Evacuation Procedures
A map of this floor is posted near the elevator marking the evacuation route and the Designated Rescue Area. This is an area where emergency service personnel will go first to look for individuals who need assistance in exiting the building. Students who may need assistance should identify themselves to the teaching faculty.
Main Texts
The Critique of Pure Reason, I. Kant (the most up-to-date translation is available in the University book shops).
Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason, Sebastian Gardner
A Short History of Modern Philosophy, Roger Scruton
A Very Short Introduction to Kant, Roger Scruton

I will make other readings available through the reserve section of the University library. The readings listed below are provisional – I will give detailed instructions on reading in class.

A good general resource for topics rather than particular technical terms can be found at:
http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/
And an excellent discussion of the difference between good and bad philosophy papers, including a sample of each, can be found at:
http://homepages.ed.ac.uk/rholton/write/writehome.html

Course Structure and Reading

Epistemology and Metaphysics before Kant
A Short History of Modern Philosophy Parts 1,2,3
A Very Short Introduction to Kant Chs. 2,3,4

Week 1: Preamble; Descartes
Week 2: Locke & Berkeley
Week 3: Hume & Leibniz

SB = Sebastian Gardner Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason
The Preface, Introduction and the Transcendental Aesthetic
Week 4: SB Ch. 1 First Essay Due The Copernican Revolution
Week 5: SB Ch. 2 & 3 Space and Time as the necessary forms of inner and outer sense
Week 6: SB Ch. 4
Week 7: SB Ch. 5 Transcendental Idealism

The Transcendental Analytic: The Metaphysical Deduction; The Transcendental Deduction; The Analogies; The Refutation of Idealism

Week 8: SB Ch. 6 Second Essay Due The forms of thought
Week 9: SB Ch. 6 The transcendental unity of apperception
Week 10: SB Ch. 6 The unity of the world and the unity of consciousness

Transcendental Idealism and Empirical Realism
Week 11: SB Ch.8 Evaluating Kant’s response to scepticism
Week 12: Third Essay Due

The Influence of Kant’s Critique
Week 13: German Idealism after Kant SB Ch. 10
Week 14: Analytical Philosophy: Wittgenstein and Private Languages
Week 15: Review

Final Examination: HLG 501
Thu May 11 01:30PM - 04:00PM