General Philosophy Course

Lesson 1 • Writing and Discussing Philosophy

Covers the conventions of philosophical writing and productive philosophical discussion. Students produce a short analytical paragraph applying course vocabulary.

Lesson 2 • Core Methods of Philosophical Inquiry

Introduces conceptual analysis, thought experiments, and dialectical reasoning as primary tools. Students practice applying each method to simple philosophical scenarios.

Lesson 3 • Philosophical Questions and Problems

Identifies the structure of genuinely philosophical problems and why they resist easy resolution. Prepares students to recognise and formulate philosophical questions independently.

Lesson 4 • Reading and Interpreting Philosophical Texts

Teaches strategies for close reading, identifying arguments, and charitably interpreting difficult texts. Directly supports engagement with primary sources throughout the course.

Lesson 1 • Argument Mapping and Reconstruction

Teaches visual and textual techniques for reconstructing complex arguments from philosophical prose. Bridges logical theory with practical reading of philosophical sources.

Lesson 2 • Identifying and Avoiding Fallacies

Catalogues common formal and informal fallacies with real philosophical examples. Students develop the habit of fallacy detection in texts and discussions.

Lesson 3 • Inductive and Abductive Reasoning

Examines enumerative induction, analogical arguments, and inference to the best explanation. Students evaluate the strength and cogency of non-deductive arguments.

Lesson 4 • Basic Concepts of Logical Reasoning

Introduces propositions, truth values, and the relationship between premises and conclusions. Provides the conceptual scaffolding for all argument analysis that follows.

Lesson 1 • Sources of Knowledge

Surveys perception, reason, memory, testimony, and introspection as epistemic sources. Students assess the reliability and limits of each source.

Lesson 2 • Scepticism and Its Responses

Presents Cartesian and Humean sceptical arguments and major philosophical responses. Students practice applying logical tools from Chapter 2 to evaluate sceptical reasoning.

Lesson 3 • Theories of Justification

Contrasts foundationalism, coherentism, and reliabilism as accounts of epistemic justification. Students evaluate which theory best handles standard objections.

Lesson 4 • What Is Knowledge?

Examines the traditional tripartite definition of knowledge and the Gettier problem that challenged it. Sets the central puzzle of epistemology that subsequent sections address.

Lesson 1 • The Nature of Reality and Being

Introduces ontology and the question of what kinds of things exist. Distinguishes substance, property, and relation as basic ontological categories.

Lesson 2 • Personal Identity and Persistence

Examines psychological and physical continuity theories of personal identity over time. Students evaluate thought experiments such as teleportation and fission cases.

Lesson 3 • Free Will, Determinism, and Moral Responsibility

Presents hard determinism, compatibilism, and libertarian free will as competing positions. Prepares students for the ethical implications explored in the next chapter.

Lesson 4 • Causation and Explanation

Surveys regularity, counterfactual, and mechanistic theories of causation. Connects causal analysis to scientific explanation and everyday reasoning.

Lesson 1 • Virtue Ethics and Character

Examines Aristotelian virtue ethics, eudaimonia, and contemporary virtue theory. Students assess how character-based ethics complements and challenges rule-based theories.

Lesson 2 • Deontological Ethics and Duty

Presents Kantian ethics, the categorical imperative, and rights-based deontology. Students contrast deontological constraints with consequentialist reasoning.

Lesson 3 • Contractualism and Social Ethics

Introduces social contract theory, Rawlsian justice, and Scanlonian contractualism. Bridges individual ethics and political philosophy covered in the next chapter.

Lesson 4 • Metaethics: The Nature of Morality

Examines whether moral facts exist, what moral language means, and how moral knowledge is possible. Grounds subsequent normative theory in foundational metaethical questions.

Lesson 1 • Political Authority and Legitimacy

Analyses the grounds for political obligation and the conditions under which authority is legitimate. Connects social contract theory to contemporary debates about consent and democracy.

Lesson 2 • Democracy, Power, and Representation

Examines deliberative, aggregative, and participatory models of democracy. Students evaluate how power structures affect the fairness of political outcomes.

Lesson 3 • Liberty, Rights, and the State

Contrasts negative and positive liberty and examines the scope of individual rights against state power. Students evaluate libertarian, liberal, and communitarian positions.

Lesson 4 • Justice, Identity, and Recognition

Introduces recognition theory, identity politics, and intersectional approaches to justice. Expands distributive frameworks to include cultural and social dimensions of injustice.

Lesson 1 • Intentionality and Mental Content

Analyses how mental states are about or represent things in the world. Connects philosophy of mind to epistemology by examining the nature of mental representation.

Lesson 2 • Language, Thought, and Reality

Examines the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, linguistic relativity, and the role of language in shaping thought. Students evaluate how language constrains and enables philosophical inquiry itself.

Lesson 3 • Meaning, Reference, and Truth

Covers theories of meaning, reference, and the relationship between language and reality. Students apply logical tools from Chapter 2 to analyse linguistic meaning.

Lesson 4 • The Mind-Body Problem

Presents substance dualism, physicalism, and property dualism as competing accounts of the mind. Students evaluate each position using arguments from metaphysics and cognitive science.

Lesson 1 • Technology, AI, and Ethics

Investigates ethical challenges posed by artificial intelligence, surveillance, and digital life. Students apply deontological and consequentialist lenses to emerging technological dilemmas.

Lesson 2 • Moral Progress and Philosophical Synthesis

Examines the concept of moral progress and integrates the course's ethical frameworks into a coherent personal moral outlook. Students produce a capstone argument defending a position on a contested issue.

Lesson 3 • Bioethics and Medical Decision-Making

Applies ethical theories to end-of-life care, informed consent, and resource allocation in medicine. Students practice multi-framework analysis on concrete bioethical cases.

Lesson 4 • Global Ethics and Human Rights

Addresses global poverty, humanitarian intervention, and the philosophical foundations of human rights. Students evaluate cosmopolitan and statist positions on global moral obligations.