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1. Week
INTRODUCTION
2. Week
THE RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF HUMAN NATURE:
HINDUISM
History and Main Ideas
Metaphysics
Epistemology
Theory of Human Nature
Morality, Dharma, and the Caste System
Bhagavad Gita
BUDDHISM
Life of Buddha
Buddha's Teachings
The Four Noble Truths
3. Week
THE RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF HUMAN NATURE:
JUDAISM
The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)
The Concept of Human Nature
Rules for Successful Living
The Prophets' Message
CHRISTIANITY,
The New Testament
Christ and the Concept of Human Nature
Jesus' Radical Message: Humanity is Made to Love
Paul's Vision of Human Nature
Justice and Responsibility (Mt. 25:14-30)
4. Week
ISLAM
The Sufi Path and Islam (Chittick, 1-51)
5. Week
THE GREEK TRADITION ON HUMAN NATURE
The Rise of the Sophists
Socrates' Simple Moralist View of Human Nature: Knowledge Is Virtue
Socrates' Moral Philosophy: Virtue Is Knowledge
PLATO'S THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE (Trigg 5-20 and Pojman 40-56)
The Theory of Forms
Plato's Theory of Recollection and A Priori Knowledge
The Ascent to Knowledge
Justice and Human Nature
The Allegory of the Cave and the Meaning of Life
6. Week
ARISTOTLE'S THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE (Trigg 20-35 and Pojman 56-72)
Plato and Aristotle
The Nature of Ethics
A Political Person
The Functionalist Account of Human Nature
What is the Good Life?
The Ideal Type of Human
7. Week
CLASSICAL CONSERVATIVE AND LIBERAL THEORIES OF HUMAN NATURE (Trigg 50-64 and Pojman 104-124)
Thomas Hobbes: A Conservative Theory of Human Nature
Hobbes' Account of Human Nature: Humans as Machines
Hobbes' Account of Morality: The State of Nature
Jean Jacques Rousseau: A Liberal Theory of Human Nature
Human Nature Is Good
The Social Contract
The Noble Savage and Emile
1. Term paper due
8. Week
IMMANUEL KANT'S COPERNICAN REVOLUTION (Trigg 94-109 and Pojman 124-138)
The Kantian Epistemic Revolution
Kant's Moral Theory: The Categorical Imperative
Kant's Transcendental Apperception: The Elusive Self
Freedom of the Will
On God and Immortality
9. Week
KARL MARX'S THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE (Trigg 124-139 and Pojman 153-168)
Ten Marxist Theses
Secularity and Religion
A Manifesto for a Revolutionary Program
10. Week
PESSIMISTIC IDEALISM (Pojman 138-153)
Arthur Schopenhauer
The World as Idea
The Will to Live
Salvation from the Sufferings of Existence
Morality
Schopenhauer, Sex, and Psychoanalysis
PSYCHOANALYSIS AND THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE: (Trigg 153-168 & Pojman 168-183)
Sigmund Freud
The Trinity of Personality
Id
Ego
Superego
Sexuality
Consciousness and the Unconscious
Dreams as Wish Fulfillment
Religion
Civilization and Its Discontents
Rival Psychoanalytic Theories
11. Week
THE EXISTENTIALIST THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE
Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Sartre (Trigg 139-153 and Pojman 183-204)
Three Theses of Existentialism
An Assessment of Existentialism
12. Week
THE DARWINIAN THEORY OF HUMAN NATURE 204-225
Darwinian Evolution
Evolution and Evil
Social Darwinism and Sociobiology
Evolution and Ethics
13. Week
LANGUAGE AND HUMAN NATURE
Wittgenstein’s Theory of Human Nature (Trigg 168-183)
HUMAN NATURE IN CONTEMPORARY THEORIES OF THE MIND 225-250
Dualistic Interactionism
The Classical Dualist Theory
A Critique of Dualistic Interactionism
Materialism
Functionalism and Biological Naturalism
Dualism Revisited
14. Week
THE PARADOX OF HUMAN NATURE: ARE WE FREE? (Pojman 250-261)
Free Will and Determinism
Libertarianism
The Argument from Deliberation
The Determinist's Objection to the Argument from Deliberation
The Libertarian Counterresponse: Agent Causation
Objection to Arguments from Introspection
The Argument from Quantum Physics (A Peephole of Free Will)
The Argument from Moral Responsibility
Metaphysical Compatibilism
POSTMDERNISM AND HUMAN NATURE (Trigg 183-197)
What Is The Truth About Human Nature? (Pojman 264-279)
Do We Have Free Will or Are We Wholly Determined by Antecedent Causes?
What Is Our Telos or Destiny?
What Can We Know?
How Shall We Live?
How Are the Two Sexes Related?
What Is More Fundamental, the Individual or the Group?
What Are Our Obligations to Others and How Far Do Our Ethical Obligations Extend?
2. Term paper due |