Phil 290J: Promises
Fall, 2022
Readings
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Thursday, September 22
- : no reading, first class.
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Tuesday, September 27
- : No class due to the second day of Rosh Hashanah.
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Tuesday, October 4
- : No class due to Yom Kippur (which begins just before
sundown).
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Thursday, October 6
- : Cajetan, commentary to ST 2–2, q. 113; Molina, De
iusticia et iure, disp.’s 262 and 266; Lessius, De iusticia et iure, book
2, ch. 17, dub. 5 James Gordley, The Philosophical Origins of Modern
Contract Doctrine, ch. 4.
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Tuesday, October 11
- : No class due to the second day of Sukkot.
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Wednesday, October 12
- : Hobbes, Leviathan, ch. 6; ch. 14 and beginning of
ch. 15 (through “hath the same relation to grace that injustice hath
to obligation by covenant”); Locke, Essay, 1.3.5–8; Letter concerning
Toleration, paragraph beginning “Lastly”; Second Treatise, 2.14, 4.23,
16.176, 16.186, 16.195; Rousseau, The Social Contract, end of 4.8.
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Wednesday, October 19
- : Pufendorf Of the Law of Nature and Nations, 3.5–8;
Wolff, Ius naturae methodo scientifica pertractum, Part III, §§361 ff. (if
I can find time to translate).
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Tuesday, October 25
- : Reid, Essays on the Active Powers, Essay V, ch. 3 and
ch.’s 5–6.
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Thursday, October 27
- : Kant, Groundwork, Ak. 4:420-425 (but especially,
of course, example 2, on Ak. 4:422); Metaphysics of Morals, Doctrine
of Right, §§18–21, Ak. 6:271–6; Doctrine of Virtue, §9, Ak. 6:428–31;
Emerson, “Self-Reliance,” five paragraphs beginning “The other terror
that scares us” (through “even if shewn in a young person”); Nietzsche,
Genealogy of Morals, 2.1–3.
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Tuesday, November 1
- : Godwin, Enquiry concerning Political Justice, 2.2
(without the Appendices); 2.5.
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Tuesday, November 8
- : Bentham, A Fragment on Government, 1.36–48; Mill,
Utilitarianism, ch. 5.
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Thursday, November 10
- : Sidgwick, Methods of Ethics, 3.5–6 and and 4.3.3–5.
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Tuesday, November 15
- : Anscombe, “On Promising and its Justice”;“On
Brute Facts”; “Modern Moral Philosophy”; “Rules, Rights, and Promises.”
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Thursday, November 17
- : Austin, “Other Minds,” section titled “If I know I
can’t be wrong”; How to Do Things with Words, lectures 1, 2, beginning
of 4 (through p. 45), and beginning of 6 (through p. 73)
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Tuesday, November 22
- : Rawls, “Two Concepts of Rules”; Theory of Justice
(original edition), §§18 and 52
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Thursday, November 24
- : No class (Thanksgiving)
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Tuesday, November 29
- : Cavell, “Must We Mean What We Say?,” pp. 12–31;
The Claim of Reason, ch. 11
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Thursday, December 1
- : David Lewis, “Scorekeeping in a Language
Game”; “Languages and Language” (selections); “Utilitarianism and
Truthfulness”.
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Wednesday, December 7
- : Final paper due.
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