Time Schedule:
Tyler W. Hildebrand
PHIL 356
Seattle Campus
Introductory examination of some of the main problems in metaphysics, such as the nature of truth and reality, the metaphysical status of properties, the existence of free will.
Class description
This course surveys some of the most important issues in contemporary metaphysics. Topics include personal identity (what makes you the same person today that you were when you were a child?), free will and determinism (do you have the ability to act as you please or are your actions determined by forces outside of your control?), properties (what explains the fact that different objects resemble one another to different degrees?), laws of nature (is the world governed by laws or do things merely happen randomly?), time (are the past and future as real as the present?), and mereology (what does it take for parts to compose a whole?). TEXT: Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics, Theodore Sider, John Hawthorne, and Dean Zimmerman, eds.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
