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PHIL 401

Metaphysics

A senior-level seminar that wrestles with what there fundamentally is and how it hangs together — existence, universals, particulars, persistence, modality, causation, free will, and mind — by working through canonical papers from Quine, Kripke, Lewis, Parfit, Chalmers, and others rather than a unified textbook. You'll do a lot of close reading and argument reconstruction, defend positions through short and term essays, an oral presentation, and active class discussion. It builds on the analytic toolkit from earlier logic and epistemology courses and serves as the natural capstone for anyone heading into philosophy of mind, language, or science, where these debates over ontology and identity quietly underwrite everything.

Credit3ECTS5FacultyFaculty of Humanities and LettersBölümPhilosophyMüfredatY3 Güz

→ STARS müfredatı (resmi syllabus)

Değerlendirme 100% — 5 adım

20%
25%
15%
15%
25%
Short essay Position papers 20%
Term essay Essay 1 25%
Oral presentation Oral presentations 15%
In-class participation Participation 15%
Term Essay Essay 2 25%

Önerilen kaynaklar 1 kitap

📕
Zorunlu
Course Reader
YS Berkovski
2025

Haftalık müfredat 14 hafta

Hafta 1
Introduction, logic
Hafta 2
Topic I: Existence The Quinean orthodoxy and its Alternatives Additional Information: W.V.O. Quine, “On what there is”, Meinongianism: Terence Parsons, “Referring to nonexistent objects”, Grounding: Jonathan Schaffer, “On what grounds what”
Hafta 3
Topic II: Universals Realism vs Nominalism, Platonism vs Aristotelianism Additional Information: David Armstrong, A Theory of Universals, Vol I, chapters 2, 4, 7, Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra, “What is the problem of universals?”
Hafta 4
Topic III: Particulars Additional Information: Bare particularity, Max Black, “The identity of indiscernibles”, Robert M. Adams, “Primitive thisness and primitive identity” The Bundle Theory, Arda Denkel, The refutation of substrata
Hafta 5
Topic IV: Persistence and change Additional Information: Four-dimensionalism, David Lewis, “Tensing the Copula”, Theodore Sider (1996) “All the Worlds a Stage”
Hafta 6
Topic V: Personal identity Additional Information: The psychological criterion: Derek Parfit, “Personal Identity”, Animalism: Eric T. Olson, ”Animalism and the Corpse Problem”
Hafta 7
Topic VI: Possibility and necessity Additional Information: Alvin Plantinga, "Modalities", Saul Kripke, Naming and Necessity, Lecture III (pp. 106-144), David Lewis. On the Plurality of Worlds, chapter 1
Hafta 8
Topic VII: Freedom and necessity Additional Information: Fatalism and determinism, Richard Taylor, “Fatalism”, Peter Van Inwagen, “The incompatibility of free will and determinism”
Hafta 9
Topic VIII: Causation Additional Information: Week 9: General issues, The direction of the causal relation: Michael Dummett, “Bringing about the past”, The adicity of the causal relation: Jonathan Schaffer, “Contrastive Causation”
Hafta 10
(continued) Topic VIII: Causation Additional Information: The regularity theory and The counterfactual theory: Michael McDermott, "Redundant Causation" Jonathan Schaffer, "Trumping preemption"
Hafta 11
Topic IX: God Additional Information: God’s existence: (I) The Ontological Argument: David K. Lewis, "Anslem and Actuality", (II) The Cosmological Argument: Adolf Grünbaum, “The poverty of Theistic Cosmology”, The Argument from Design: Ian Hacking, “The Inverse Gambler's Fallacy: The Argument from Design. The Anthropic Principle Applied to Wheeler Universes”
Hafta 12
(continued) Topic IX: God Additional Information: Special doctrines Norman Kretzmann, “Omniscience and Immutability”, Lynn Rudder Baker, “Material persons and the doctrine of resurrection”
Hafta 13
Topic X: Mind and body Additional Information: David J. Chalmers, "Consciousness and its Place in Nature”, István Aranyosi, “A New Argument for Mind-Brain Identity”
Hafta 14
Review Additional Information: Student questions

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PHIL 401 için defter ekibi henüz not yazmadı.

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Geçmiş GPA dağılımı 19 dönem · ort. 3.10

DönemCourse CPA
2025-2026 Fall 2.99 1 sec · 20 öğr
2024-2025 Fall 3.42 1 sec · 27 öğr
2023-2024 Fall 3.54 1 sec · 21 öğr
2022-2023 Fall 3.19 1 sec · 18 öğr
2021-2022 Fall 3.05 1 sec · 14 öğr
2020-2021 Fall 2.99 1 sec · 19 öğr
2019-2020 Fall 2.70 1 sec · 12 öğr
2018-2019 Fall 2.90 1 sec · 14 öğr
2017-2018 Fall 2.67 1 sec · 19 öğr
2016-2017 Fall 2.96 1 sec · 9 öğr

Aggregate course GPA — Bilkent STARS'tan public data. Hoca-bazlı per-section detayı için STARS evaluation report →. Öğrenci anket cevapları KVKK kapsamında defter'de tutulmaz.

⚠️ FZ engelleyen şartlar

Students do not qualify for the exam if they cannot obtain a grade above 50.

Hocalar 0 bu dönem · 4 geçmiş

Geçmişte ders veren (4 kişi)
Yehezkel S. Berkovski, Istvan Albert Aranyosi, John Woods III, Mark Edward Steen