Week 1
Lesson 1
Morals 1 - Utilitarianism: Should we always act for the greater good?
This class will look at Utilitarianism, which is the Moral Philosophy that suggests a moral action is one where we act to promote the greater good. We look at some apparent counterexamples that might cause problems for this approach and some alternative approaches in Moral Philosophy that contrast to this version of Consequentialism. This is a great introduction to thinking about Moral Philosophy and how we could guide our actions and decisions as a society.
 Week 2
Lesson 2
Epistemology- "I think therefore I am" - Did Descartes prove we exist? Maybe not
In this class we will analyse the arguments surrounding one of the most famous Philosophy quotes of all time: Descartes' "I think therefore I am". He said this in order to prove his own existence because what if he was being deceived by an Evil Demon about everything. Well, it turns out it's quite hard to prove we are not and Descartes wasn't that good at it either. Which makes it a perfect topic for young minds to figure out where he went wrong!
 Week 3
Lesson 3
Philosophy of Perception - Do we (accurately) hallucinate all the time? Even now
In this class we will explore whether we see external objects directly or indirectly by discussing an extended Time-lag Argument and some theories of Time that relate to it. This is a really important subject in Philosophy of Mind & Perception because it explores how close our contact with external reality is and how reliable it is as a basis for empirical knowledge (Epistemology). We look at brains-in-vats and the film "The Matrix" and whether evolution cares which is true!
 Week 4
Lesson 4
Morals 2 - Duty Theories: What duties can we act on without exception?
We start by analysing Kant’s and the Categorical Imperative, which explains how we can work out what a moral action is and why we are duty bound to act in that way. But finding good examples of which duties we can follow without exception is quite hard. Then we finish by examining an argument from Peter Singer that is morally wrong not to give to carefully selected charities that save lives if you can afford it!
 Week 5
Lesson 5
Evolution & Human Nature 1 - Do selfish genes make selfish people?
This class will look at how much our evolutionary programming explains and controls our behaviour now. Darwin described the process of Natural Selection and Richard Dawkins coined the phrase "the Selfish Gene" to really explain how evolution works at the genetic level. There seems to be a psychological conflict between acting selfishly and cooperating, and identifying truly altruistic behaviour might be harder than you think!
 Week 6
Lesson 6
Philosophy of Mind- What is consciousness? Could we be a (philosophical) zombie?
How do brains support our lived experience of colours, sounds and emotions? in the Philosophical literature this is referred to as Phenomenal (P) Consciousness and the Hard Problem of Consciousness. We look at some theories that discuss the possibility of (philosophical) zombies, that behave like us but have no P-Consciousness and whether maybe consciousness is just too hard a problem to ever solve!
 Week 7
Lesson 7
Morals 3 - Virtue Ethics: Is Aristotle too vague about how to achieve Eudemonia?
For Aristotle and many of the early Greek Philosophers Eudemonia was living your best virtuous life. But they weren’t very clear on how we know we are doing that. We look at some modern developments and a long list of criticisms to investigate if this vague idea is any use in the modern world!
 Week 8
Lesson 8
Personal Identity - What makes you the same person over time?
In this class we'll examine what connects us throughout the different stages of our lives. Do you identify with your body or are you more of a mind person? What if we transferred your brain into another body, is that still you? These are the sort of questions that we will discuss to help us with a fun wide-ranging adventure, thinking about the Philosophy of Personal Identity
 Week 9
Lesson 9
Free Will - Is the world pre-determined and does it matter?
First, we try and understand the differences between Determinism, Libertarianism and Compatibilism to see if there is any way we can make truly free choices. Maybe there is some way that our brain and mind can make spontaneous decisions that somehow break out of a long chain of causal physics. Finally, we discuss if accepting Determinism would change the way we behave and if not, then who cares!
 Week 10
Lesson 10
Personhood - What and who counts as a "person"?
First, we look at what a good definition of a Person is and why this may matter in terms of the allocation of inalienable human rights. We focus on alien, great ape and robot rights and do not discuss the very sensitive issue of abortion at all. We look at some of the possible consequences of denying criminals their right to freedom by putting them in jail and whether great apes should have partial human rights.
 Week 11
Lesson 11
Artificial Intelligence & The Ethics of AI
This very topical subject has been discussed for many years. First, we look at how hard it is to define and test for general intelligence. And then we look at classic arguments for determining AI such as the Turing Test and the Chinese Room example. Finally, we look at some of the ethical issues that are starting to emerge as AI becomes more widely used in our society.
 Week 12
Lesson 12
 Empiricism - Do we learn everything from the senses?
John Locke argues that when we are born, we are a “tabula rasa” – a blank slate and we learn everything we know from birth. Others suggest that there are some things we already know and yet others think there are things we can work out without consulting the world. It’s hard to work out what babies know and don’t know because they can’t tell us, but we will give it a go anyway because that is what Philosophers do!
 Week 13
Lesson 13
Philosophy of Science - How does science progress & how reliable is it?
We start with a brief overview of the History of Science and the different stages it has gone through. Then we look at the debate of how science progresses and finish by discussing what demarcates science from non-science.
 Week 14
Lesson 14
The Fermi Paradox- Millions of exo-planets, so where are all the aliens then?
The Fermi Paradox is based on the idea that because we are discovering the Universe is full of exoplanets, doesn’t this mean that the Universe should be full of habitable planets and therefore should be full of Aliens. If so, then where are they? We look at different possible solutions to this apparent paradox!
 Week 15
Lesson 15
Meanings of Life - 42 different approaches to finding meaning in life!
We finish the course with a meta-analysis of some of the solutions people have come up with to explain the meaning of life. We go from single issue solutions to more complex theories and end up discussing those that think it’s just a silly question and there is no meaning! We don’t attempt to answer this ourselves but instead enjoy analysing other people’s attempts and end by discussing the merits of positive nihilism!