 |
|
|
Alan Bailey's Philosophy Webpage
This page contains resources relating to the philosophy courses I previously taught at the University of Birmingham and Keele University. The material associated with Keele currently includes the first nine lectures from my second-year Ancient Philosophy module, and further lectures from this module will be added over the next couple of weeks.
Modules
THE SCEPTICAL TRADITION: FROM PYRRHO TO HUME (3rd Year Module)
Brief Course Outline
The intellectual ethos of the society in which we happen to find ourselves living is, by the standards that have generally prevailed throughout human history, a remarkably critical and questioning one. Both traditional and sacred beliefs are regarded as answerable to reason and personal experience. Social authority itself increasingly depends less upon brute coercion and more upon the ability of the people offering leadership to present themselves as acting on the basis of beliefs that can survive critical scrutiny and are supported by better reasons than any competing beliefs. We have all been brought up within a broadly rationalist practice of demanding and offering reasons for taking socially important beliefs to be true, and we have been systematically trained to place great value on rigorously justified belief and to despise mere prejudice and unexamined tradition. Human nature being what it is, this training has by no means extirpated all forms of intellectual complacency and indolence. However there is a more profound and disturbing problem lying at the core of this rationalist outlook. What happens when this outlook is subjected to the same intensity of critical examination that it recommends for all other beliefs and practices? The answer embodied in the sceptical tradition is that it cannot withstand such self-scrutiny. The thinkers to be examined in this module are, with the exception of Descartes, united in arguing that the capacities of reason are much more limited than we ordinarily suppose. Indeed, most of them can plausibly be represented as holding that our practice of seeking and constructing reasons for our beliefs is ultimately a thoroughly incoherent one that merely conceals from us the arbitrary nature of those beliefs and the crucial role played by instinct and psychological necessitation. And sceptics do not simply delight in destructively turning the critical standards of our rationalist practice against that very practice: they also seek to persuade us that abandoning the search for rationally justified beliefs can assist us to achieve peace of mind and true happiness.
Core Texts
Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Scepticism, ed. J. Annas and J. Barnes (C.U.P., 2000)
David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, ed. L.A. Selby-Bigge and P.H. Nidditch, 2nd edn. (O.U.P., 1978)
Introductory Reading:
R.J. Hankinson, The Sceptics (Routledge, 1995)
M. Burnyeat, The Skeptical Tradition (University of California Press, 1983)
R.H. Popkin, The History of Scepticism from Erasmus to Spinoza (University of California Press, 1978)
R. Fogelin, Hume’s Skepticism in the Treatise of Human Nature (Routledge, 1985)
C. Hookway, Scepticism (Routledge, 1990)
Scepticism - Reading List (Part One)
Scepticism - Reading List (Part Two)
Lecture 1: Introduction
Lecture 2: An Outline of Sextus' Pyrrhonism & The Sceptic's Arguments
Lecture 3: Self-Refutation and Livability
Lecture 4: Pyrrho, Pyrrhonism, and Academic Scepticism
Lecture 5a: Aenesidemus and Pyrrhonism
Lecture 6: Descartes
Lecture 7a: The Sceptical Reaction to Descartes
Lecture 7b: Scepticism after Descartes
Lecture 7c: Pierre Bayle
Lecture 8: Hume's Naturalism and his Critique of Extreme Scepticism
Lecture 9a: A Clash of Opinions
Lecture 9b: A Summary of Hume's Critique of Causal Reasoning
Lecture 10a: Hume on our Belief in the Existence of an External World
Lecture 10a: (Continuation)
Lecture 10b: Hume's Sceptical Master Argument
DESCARTES (1st year module)
Brief Course Outline
Descartes is often regarded as the founder of modern philosophy, and this module examines his views about knowledge and the right way of conducting factual inquiries, the relationship between mind and the physical world, and the existence of God.
Core Text
René Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy
All students will need to possess their own copy of this work. The most accurate and convenient edition to acquire is probably the one prepared and translated by John Cottingham (Cambridge University Press, 1986).
Anyone wishing to explore Descartes’ other philosophical writings should consult the three-volume edition of Descartes’ works prepared by Cottingham, Stoothof, and Murdoch: The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, Cambridge University Press, 1986-91. See, in particular, the series of 'Objections and Replies' to the arguments in the Meditations (in volume 2) and the Discourse on the Method, especially Part Four (volume 1).
Introductory secondary reading
J. Cottingham, Descartes
A. Kenny, Descartes: A Study of his Philosophy
G. Dicker, Descartes: An Analytical and Historical Introduction
G. Hatfield, Descartes and the Meditations (Routledge Philosophy Guidebook)
T. Sorrell, Descartes
Lecture 1: Preliminaries and the Intellectual Context
Lecture 2: The Method of Doubt
Lecture 3: More on the Method of Doubt
Lecture 4: The Cogito
Lecture 5: The Cartesian Circle
Lecture 6: Descartes' Arguments for the Existence of God
Lecture 7: Descartes' Arguments for the Existence of God (continued)
Lecture 8: Descartes on God and Mind
Lecture 9: Descartes' Arguments for a Real Distinction between Mind and Body
Lecture 10: Descartes' Arguments Considered Further
The Sceptical Tradition - Lecture Notes
Descartes - Lecture Notes
Sextus Empiricus and Pyrrhonean Scepticism
Useful Links
NEW Hume's Enquiry: Reader's Guide
Keele Modules and Lectures
Send E-Mail to: alan.bailey4@yahoo.co.uk
Copyright © 2001 Alan Bailey. All Rights Reserved