Introduction to Philosophy

The Introduction to Philosophy course is based on student discussion of various philosophies. Weekly reading questions prepare you for discussions.  After discussing a topic for several weeks, you write a paper on your learning and ideas.

Philosophers often come up with ideas that are different than ones we think are true.

For fun, look at these brief characterizations of the views of different philosophers:

WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD?

• Plato - For the greater good.
• Epicurus  - For fun.
• Aristotle - To actualize its potential.
• Machiavelli - So that its subject will view it with admiration, as a chicken which has the daring and courage to boldly cross the road, but also with fear, for whom among them has the strength to contend with such a paragon of avian virtue? In such a manner is the princely chicken's dominion maintained.
• David Hume - Out of custom and habit.
• Henry David Thoreau - To live deliberately ..and suck all the marrow out of life.
• Darwin - It was the logical next step after coming down from the trees.
• Ernest Hemingway - To die. In the rain.
• Albert Einstein - Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road crossed the chicken depends on your frame of reference.
• Salvador Dali - The Fish.
• Jacques Derrida - Any number of contending discourses may be discovered within the act of the chicken crossing the road, and each interpretation is equally valid as the authorial intent can never be discerned, because structuralism is DEAD!
• Mark Twain - The news of its crossing has been greatly exaggerated.

That's it--a brief introduction to the various ideas of philosophy. 

Join the class for plenty of new thoughts.