In the Republic, Plato defines the life of virtue against a skeptical position that denies any significant connection between morality and happiness. The aim of this course is to examine those arguments critically and, in the process, to deepen our understanding of what is involved in defending moral values on rational grounds. Analyzing Arguments, Reasons and Values. Certain basic problems of historical and philosophical interest, such as the grounds for belief in God. The important ideas of leading philosophers and the movements they influenced.
Emphasis is upon metaphysics and the problems of knowledge.
Major thinkers and influence on schools of thought such as Rationalism and Empiricism stressed. The impact of developments in science is studied, but considerations of ethics and social philosophy are not. Major philosophers and movements of the 20th-century, including American. One prior course in Philosophy strongly recommended. This course will examine such questions and the heated controversies they have provoked among artists, critics, philosophers, anthropologists, historians, and others.