PHIL 230 Personal Identity (Not offered 1999-2000)
What am I? And what makes me the same person over time? Can I survive the death of my body? Can I survive a complete amnesia? What are persons, and what does the identity of a person through time consist in? Unlike some other problems philosophers like to occupy themselves with, the problem of personal identity can become a matter of great concern to each of us individually, and to our common practices, such as religion, law or medicine. The course will emphasize close and careful reading of seminal texts on personal identity, including selections from Locke, Leibniz, Butler, Reid, Hume, Partit, Williams, and Wilkes; it will be a writing-intensive course aiming to teach students to produce clear, precise and well-organized philosophy papers. Requirements: class participation, weekly writing assignments and biweekly discussions of the writings with the instructor (a tutorial format), and a final paper (7-10 pages). There will be no final exam. Prerequisite: one course in Philosophy or permission of the instructor.