Philosophy Course for Adults

Lesson 1 • Reading and Analysing Philosophical Texts

Teaches active reading strategies for dense argumentative prose. Students extract claims, premises, and conclusions from primary sources.

Lesson 2 • Core Concepts: Truth, Belief, and Knowledge

Introduces the distinction between belief, justified belief, and knowledge. Grounds later epistemology and ethics chapters in precise conceptual vocabulary.

Lesson 3 • What Philosophy Is and Does

Defines philosophy by its questions, methods, and goals across history. Establishes why philosophical inquiry matters for adult personal and professional life.

Lesson 1 • Constructing and Presenting Arguments

Guides students through drafting well-structured philosophical arguments in writing and speech. Emphasises clarity, precision, and charitable engagement with objections.

Lesson 2 • Deductive Reasoning and Validity

Covers the structure of deductive arguments and the concept of logical validity. Students test argument forms using truth tables and syllogistic rules.

Lesson 3 • Inductive Reasoning and Probability

Examines how inductive arguments support conclusions without guaranteeing them. Connects probabilistic reasoning to everyday and scientific inference.

Lesson 4 • Abductive Reasoning and Inference

Introduces inference to the best explanation as a third reasoning mode. Students apply abduction to philosophical and practical problem-solving scenarios.

Lesson 1 • Classical Theories of Knowledge

Surveys the justified true belief account and its Gettier-problem challenges. Establishes the historical baseline for all subsequent epistemological debate.

Lesson 2 • Sources of Knowledge: Perception and Reason

Contrasts empiricist and rationalist accounts of how knowledge originates. Students evaluate which sources are reliable and under what conditions.

Lesson 3 • Social and Testimonial Knowledge

Explores how knowledge is transmitted through testimony, institutions, and communities. Connects epistemology to trust, expertise, and information literacy.

Lesson 4 • Skepticism and Its Responses

Presents radical skeptical challenges and major philosophical responses. Students develop strategies for maintaining justified beliefs under uncertainty.

Lesson 1 • Causation, Determinism, and Free Will

Explores causal theories and their implications for human agency and freedom. Students evaluate compatibilist and incompatibilist positions using real-world scenarios.

Lesson 2 • Mind and Body: The Hard Problem

Examines dualist, physicalist, and functionalist accounts of the mind-body relation. Grounds later discussions of consciousness, AI, and personal identity.

Lesson 3 • Personal Identity Over Time

Analyses what makes a person the same individual across time and change. Students apply theories to practical cases involving memory, responsibility, and continuity.

Lesson 4 • Time, Space, and Possible Worlds

Surveys philosophical accounts of time, space, and modal reality. Introduces possible-worlds semantics as a tool for analysing necessity and possibility.

Lesson 1 • Consequentialism and Utilitarian Ethics

Presents consequentialist reasoning with a focus on utilitarian calculation. Students apply and critique the framework using classic and contemporary cases.

Lesson 2 • Virtue Ethics and Character

Introduces Aristotelian virtue ethics and the concept of eudaimonia. Students identify virtues relevant to their professional and personal roles.

Lesson 3 • Deontological Ethics and Duty

Covers Kantian duty-based ethics and the categorical imperative formulations. Students test deontological reasoning against cases where rules conflict.

Lesson 4 • Metaethics: The Nature of Moral Claims

Examines whether moral claims are objective, subjective, or neither. Establishes the metaethical foundation required before evaluating normative theories.

Lesson 1 • Bioethics: Life, Death, and Medicine

Examines ethical issues in healthcare including autonomy, consent, and end-of-life decisions. Students apply all three frameworks to medical dilemmas.

Lesson 2 • Justice, Inequality, and Social Ethics

Applies theories of distributive justice to inequality, poverty, and social policy. Students evaluate competing conceptions of fairness and obligation.

Lesson 3 • Environmental and Animal Ethics

Explores moral obligations toward non-human animals and the natural environment. Students evaluate anthropocentric vs. ecocentric ethical positions.

Lesson 4 • Professional and Business Ethics

Examines ethical obligations specific to professional roles and organisational contexts. Students develop frameworks for navigating workplace moral dilemmas.

Lesson 1 • Democracy, Authority, and Legitimacy

Investigates what makes political authority legitimate and democratic systems justified. Students evaluate deliberative, aggregative, and epistemic democracy models.

Lesson 2 • Power, Ideology, and Critical Theory

Introduces critical perspectives on power, ideology, and structural oppression. Students apply these lenses to analyse contemporary social and political phenomena.

Lesson 3 • The Social Contract Tradition

Surveys Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau on the origins and limits of political authority. Students compare how each thinker grounds legitimate government.

Lesson 4 • Liberty, Rights, and the State

Examines negative and positive conceptions of liberty and their policy implications. Students assess the proper scope of state interference in individual life.

Lesson 1 • Integrating Frameworks Across Disciplines

Demonstrates how philosophical methods enrich inquiry in science, law, and the arts. Students practise cross-disciplinary philosophical analysis on complex problems.

Lesson 2 • Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art

Investigates the nature of beauty, aesthetic experience, and artistic value. Students apply aesthetic theories to evaluate works across multiple art forms.

Lesson 3 • Capstone: Original Philosophical Argument

Guides students through planning, drafting, and defending an original philosophical position. Synthesises logic, epistemology, ethics, and metaphysics in one sustained argument.

Lesson 4 • Philosophy of Language and Meaning

Examines how language conveys meaning and how linguistic analysis clarifies philosophical problems. Students use speech act theory and reference theory as analytical tools.