Philosophy 2350: Introduction to Philosophy
Fall Term 2019
McMurry University
Professor Kinlaw
Email: kinlawj@mcmurryadm.mcm.edu
Tel: x3897
Required texts:
Plato, Meno (Hackett edition)
Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy (Cambridge University Press)
Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Hackett edition)
Mill, Utilitarianism (Oxford University Press edition)
Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics (Hackett edition)
Requirements: course preparation (readings and lectures), three written examinations.
This course explores some of the basic problems of philosophy. What constitutes knowledge? How do
we know? What is the range or scope of our knowledge? Can we successfully answer skeptic’s
challenges which claim that we have little or no real knowledge? What constitutes the good? When
exploring questions of right and wrong, should we focus on the action or the agent performing the
action when making moral assessments? The class is divided into three units or modules. The first
involves a close study of Plato’s dialogue Meno. We start here for several reasons: (1) to develop the
habit of reading texts closely and following a discussion and/or argument step by step; (2) Socrates and
