课程介绍

This course gives a introduction to Russell and Analytical Philosophy. Our course will read and discuss Russell’s Our Knowledge of the External World deeply. We will introduce the outline of Russell’s philosophy and the origin of Analytical Philosophy, his basic methods and some important characters in his philosophy. The emphasis throughout will be on understanding, analyzing, and evaluating some arguments in Our Knowledge of the External World. We pay more attention to explain Russell’s profound significance, impact and influence to 20 century’s philosophy even today.

课程大纲

学习目标

1) to offer an introduction to Bertrand Russell and his philosophy;  
2) to interpret and discuss Russell’s Our Knowledge of the External World deeply, and understand some important problems in this books according the history of western philosophy ;
3) to learn some important topics of Russell and analytical philosophy, such as Russell’s mathematical and logical method, his theory of knowledge, his two kinds of Knowledge, his ideas of Truth and Meaning, and analyticity, a priori Knowledge, Universals and the method of induction,
4) to learn the relations between Russell and analytical philosophy, some important philosophers, such as Frege, G. E. More, Quine;
5)  to improve student’s reading comprehension of western philosophical texts and writing
skills in English, and develop student’s critical reasoning and analytical skills.

学习要求

※ About the course assignment
You must turn your assignments of this course (History of Western Philosophy) in on time, usually before some day’s 24:00.

You will keep an intellectual journal (not a personal diary) throughout the semester. There should be an entry for every class meeting. I will grade them according to your writing and statement in the class. Furthermore, I will give you an evaluation of how you’re doing and suggestions for future entries.

The point of the journal is to record and sort out ideas that often occur to you while you read. But please do not develop those ideas as much as they deserve, unless I ask you to do so. Keeping this kind of journal makes you more precise readers and gives you a more active memory of the course material.

I will sometimes give you specific assignments for the journal. Our lectures and discussions will often produce suggestions for your journal exercises to develop and evaluate an idea that arises in class.

I suggest that you type your journal in an electronic file and turn it in. Your journal must be maintained 39 lines per page, 39 characters per line, and single line spacing. Every journal is not less than 70 lines.

※ Some hints about your journal

Read texts carefully. In no more than two pages, lay out your understanding of ideas what you have read according to questions assigned by me .

A. Some helpful hints before you write the journal:
1.    Read the assigned material several times, outlining it as you go.
2.    Make an outline of the paper.
3.    Write a first draft of the paper.

B. Some helpful hints as you write the journal:
1.    Indicate clearly and orderly what thesis you have encountered.
2.    You may set the argument about the thesis in context by referring to what you have read.
3.    Indicate clearly what would be significant about this thesis.
4.    Indicate what and how your argument defends or refutes that thesis.
It is important that you do not merely paraphrase what you have read. Rather, present the argument of the context in a way that shows you really understand its logical structure.
5.    Indicate clearly what other thesis there is if possible.

考核标准

1) writing assignments(five times) and engagement, 30%
2) course attendance, 10%
(5% deducted for absence once, 10% twice, over three times you would be disqualified for this course.)
3) mid-term exam, 20%
4) final exam, 40%

教材教参

1. Bertrand Russell, Our knowledge of the external world : as a field for scientific
method in philosophy (Routledge classics), London: Routledge Press, 2009
2. 罗素，陈启伟译，《我们关于外间世界的知识：哲学上科学方法应用的一个领域》，上海译文出版社，2006

Recommended texts：
3. A. P. Martinich and David Sosa (ed.), Blackwell Companion to Analytic Philosophy, “Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) by Thomas Baldwin”, Blackwell, 2001
4. （美）奥德尔著，《罗素》，陈启伟等译，北京：中华书局，2014年第2版
5. Irvine, Andrew, “Russell” in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2013/entries/russell/
6. Klement, Kevin, “Russell's Logical Atomism” in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
  http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2013/entries/logical-atomism/
7. Stubenberg, Leopold, “Neutral Monism” in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,  
http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2013/entries/neutral-monism/
8. Proops, Ian, “Logical Constructions” in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,  http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2013/entries/logical-construction/
9. A. J. Ayer, Russell, London: The Woburn Press, 1974
10. A. C. Grayling, RUSSELL: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2002
11. Gregory Landini, Russell (Routledge philosophers), London: Routledge, 2011
12. Nicholas Griffin(ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Bertrand Russell, 2003
13. Wittgenstein, L., Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (Routledge Classics 2001), 1974 Rev. edition, tr. by Pears and McGuinness, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul