Philosophy 2335 Topics in Contemporary Philosophy
Contemporary Philosophical Naturalism
Fall 2006
Bob Brandom
Tuesdays
Wilfrid Sellars Seminar Room (“The Space of Reasons”) 1001 Cathedral of Learning
Week 1 (9/5): Introduction; Physicalism
Stoljar “Physicalism” (plato.stanford.edu/entries/physicalism)
Dupré “The Miracle of Monism” in De Caro & Macarthur (henceforth: “DC&M)
Crane & Mellor “There is No Question of Physicalism” (JSTOR)
Week 2 (9/12): Supervenience & Reduction I
Haugeland “Weak Supervenience”
Kim “Multiple Realization and the Metaphysics of Reduction” (JSTOR)
Fodor “Special Sciences: Still Autonomous After All These Years” (JSTOR)
Week 3 (9/19): Supervenience & Reduction II
Stalnaker “Varieties of Supervenience” (JSTOR)
Horgan “Supervenience and Superdupervenience” (JSTOR)
Crane “All God Has To Do” (JSTOR)
Week 4 (10/3): Jackson I
Jackson FME, Chapter One
Jackson FME, Chapter Two
Week 5 (10/10): Jackson II
Jackson FME, Chapter Three
Week 6 (10/17): Jackson III
Jackson FME, Chapter Five
Jackson FME, Chapter Six
Week 7 (10/24): Sellars
I: the Scientia Mensura
Sellars “Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man”
Week 8 (10/31: Sellars II: Modality, Description, and Explanation
Sellars “Counterfactuals, Dispositions, and the Causal Modalities”
Week 9 (11/7): Sellars III: A World of Facts vs a World of Objects
Sellars “Counterfactuals, Dispositions, and the Causal Modalities”
Week 10 (11/14): The New Non-naturalism I
Stroud “The Charm of Naturalism” (DC&M)
Putnam “The Content and Appeal of ‘Naturalism’” (DC&M)
Week 11 (11/21): The New Non-naturalism II
Davidson “Could There Be a Science of Rationality?” (DC&M)
McDowell “Naturalism in the Philosophy of Mind” (DC&M)
Week 12 (11/28): The New Non-naturalism III
Rorty “Naturalism and Quietism”
Price “Naturalism Without Representationalism” (DC&M)
Ramberg, “Naturalizing idealizations; pragmatism and the interpretive strategy”
Week 13 (12/5): Concluding Questions