René Descartes (1596-1650)

Phil 100, Lecture 1A, Fall 2001 MW 2:30 in Hasbrouck Lab Addition 20 Professor Kevin Klement Teaching Assistants Michael Rubin, Stephan Torre and Brandt Van der Gaast Welcome to the wonderful world of philosophy!

This provides basic information about the course, including a rough schedule of assignments, exam and paper due dates, course policies, grading information, Kevin's office hours and related information.  Click here to view the syllabus

Section Number Meeting Time Building Room TA 1A 162680 TH 9.05 MACH W-25 Torre 2A 162687 TH 10.10 MACH W-25 Torre 3A 162694 TH 11.15 TOBN 304 Van der Gaast 4A 162701 TH 12.20 TOBN 204 Rubin 5A 162708 TH 1.25 SOM 106 Torre 6A 162715 TH 2.30 HERT 117 Van der Gaast 7A 162722 TH 9.05 MACH W-24 Rubin 8A 162729 TH 10.10 MACH W-24 Van der Gaast 9A 162736 TH 11.15 TOBN 204 Rubin Sections 1A, 2A and 5A (Stephan Torre's sections) have their own specialized web page, which can be reached by following this link: http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~storre/

Below I've included the lecture notes I prepared for myself last time I taught this course. Please beware that I prepared these notes primarily for my own use, not yours, and that I am likely to make changes and additions to my lectures this semester that would not be reflected in these notes. For these and other reasons, simply reading these notes is no substitute for attending lecture. Introduction to metaphysics and epistemology Introduction to logic (updated 9/16/01) Descartes lectures Berkeley lectures Sartre lectures Butler/Beauvoir lectures Armstrong lectures Perry lectures

Philosophical texts can be challenging to read. Below I've prepared a series of questions for each text we'll be covering in the course. If you attempt to answer these questions while you're reading the text, you may find it easier to understand the arguments and issues that are being addressed. (These are meant to make the reading assignments easier on you. Unless otherwise specified by your TA, use of these questions is optional.)  Descartes questions Berkeley questions Sartre questions Butler/Beauvoir questions Armstrong questions Perry questions

This is a space for miscellansous other course materials.  Grammar handout 101 expressions to use instead of "feels that" (very important!) Logic worksheet (a set of exercises designed to help students learn the notion of validity) Tips for writing good papers and exams Midterm exam (take home) (due on October 25) Paper assignment (due on November 29) Final exam (due on December 21)

A few of the texts that we use in the course are available free in electronic form on the World Wide Web. Enjoy! Meditations on First Philosophy by René Descartes  Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous by George Berkeley  " Existentialism is a Humanism" by Jean-Paul Sartre (This is only the first part of your assigned reading on Sartre.)

There are hundreds of philosophy related sites on the internet. I couldn't possibly list them all here. But I have a selected a few, some of which are about philosophers we're studying. Others are of more general philosophical interest.  René Descartes at philosophypages.com René Descartes at liu.se  George Berkeley at tcd.ie  George Berkeley at liu.se George Berkeley at philosophypages.com Jean-Paul Sartre at geocities.com Jean-Paul Sartre at aol.com Jean-Paul Sartre at thecry.com Jean-Paul Sartre at philosophypages.com Simone de Beauvoir at aol.com Simone de Beauvoir at thecry.com Simone de Beauvoir at philosophypages.com John Perry's Homepage at stanford.edu (made by Perry himself)  The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Episteme Links: Online Guide to Philosophy Resources (contains links to information about all aspects of philosophy, including philosophers, e-texts, online journals, organizations, discussion groups, etc.) UMass Department of Philosophy Home Page Kevin's Home Page (includes links to information about my other courses)

The answers to many of your questions are just an e-mail message away!  Click here to send mail to (Prof.) Kevin Klement (klement@philos.umass.edu) Click here to send mail to Michael ("Ruby") Rubin (rubemass@aol.com) Click here to send mail to Stephan Torre (storre@philos.umass.edu) Click here to send mail to Brandt Van der Gaast (brandt@philos.umass.edu)

This page was last modified on Sun., September 16th, 2001, by Kevin C.  Klement (klement@philos.umass.edu ).
Kevin takes full responsibility for any and all cheezy graphics found on this page.