Philosophy is the application of rational thought to questions that
cannot be decided through faith, science, or common sense alone.  We
will learn philosophy through doing philosophy itself, which entails
thorough and critical reading, reflection, and discussion.  It is
intended that each student will come away with an educated
perspective on major philosophical issues and a more thorough grasp
of how to reason, write and argue effectively.

We will consider what we can know about God, what exists in the
world, and what it means say that we know something. To that end, we
will examine:
1.traditional proofs advocating theism, agnosticism, and atheism,
2.the metaphysical topic of what (if anything) exists in the world
external to our mind,
3.and the epistemological topics of what knowledge is and what we
can know.

Authors studied will include, but are by no means limited to: Plato,
Aquinas, Blackburn, Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume.

The grades in this class will come from weekly homework assignments,
a few unannounced in-class assignments, at least two quizzes, two
take-home essays, and two in-class examinations.