M.A. Comprehensive Reading List (2007 update)
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M. A. Comprehensive Selection Sheet.
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I. Ancient Philosophy
1. Required for all:
Plato, Republic and one of the following:
1) Theaetetus, Meno
2) Sophist, Phaedrus
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, and one of the following:
1) Metaphysics, Books I, VII; Physics, Books II, III, chs. 1-3
2) De Anima, Book III; Poetics
Plotinus, Ennead 1. 6[1], On Beauty; Ennead 3. 7[45], On Time
2. Choose one of the following:
Parmenides, Proem, Way of Truth, Way of Opinion
Heraclitus, Peri Physeos
Cicero, On Friendship
Seneca, “On Philosophy and Friendship” (Epistle 9); “On Grief for Lost Friends”
(Epistle 63)
II. Medieval Philosophy
1. Required for all:
Augustine, Confessions I-XI; De Trinitate X-XI
Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy
Aquinas, Summa Theologiae
Part I, qq. 1-3 (nature of sacred science, existence and simplicity of God)
Part I, qq. 75, 76, 79, 84, 85 (union of body and soul; intellectual powers;
mode and order of understanding);
Part I-II, qq. 90-92, 94-95 (treatise on law)
2. Choose one of the following:
Abelard, Ethics
Anselm, Proslogion
Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed (selections in Hackett edition)
Averroes, Incoherence of Incoherence
Avicenna, Remarks and Admonitions
Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind to God
Scotus, Philosophical Writings
Ockham, Philosophical Writings
Cusa, Learned Ignorance
III. Modern Philosophy
1. Required for all:
Descartes, Meditations
Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, Prefaces, Introduction, Transcendental Aesthetic,
Transcendental Logic, Transcendental Analytic, Books I-II; Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals
2. Choose one of the following:
Spinoza, Ethics; Theological-Political Treatise, chs. 1-7, 14-20
Leibniz, Theodicy
Leibniz, New Essays on Human Understanding, Books 1, 2, 4
Bayle, Historical and Critical Dictionary (selections by R. Popkin)
Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, Book. I, Parts I and III
Hobbes, Leviathan, Introduction, Part I, chs. I, II, X, XI, XIII, XIV;
Part II, chs. XVII-XIX
Locke, Second Treatise on Government; An Essay Concerning Human
Understanding, Books 1 & 2
Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
IV. 19th and 20th Century Philosophy
(Choose two authors, one each from two of the four categories.)
1. 19th Century and American Philosophy
Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit, Introduction, A. Consciousness, B. Self-Consciousness; The Philosophy of Right, Introduction, Part III
Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling; Philosophical Fragments
Marx, Paris Manuscripts; German Ideology I; Capital I Book I, Parts I-III
Mill, On Liberty; Utilitarianism
Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals; Birth of Tragedy
James, Pragmatism, The Will to Believe, chs. 1-3; Principles of Psychology, chs. 9-10, 15
Peirce, “The Fixation of Belief,” “The Essentials of Pragmatism,” “Evolutionary Love”
Dewey, Experience and Nature; Art and Experience
2. 20th Century Analytic Philosophy
Austin, How to Do Things with Words and Sense and Sensibilia
Davidson, Truth and Interpretation
Frege, The Foundations of Arithmetic; Collected Papers on Mathematics, Logic and
Philosophy: “Function and Concept,” “On Sense and Meaning,” “Concept and Object”
Quine, Word and Object; From a Logical Point of View
Russell, The Philosophy of Logical Atomism, The Problems of Philosophy
Ryle, Concept of Mind, Dilemmas
Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations
3. 20th Century Continental Philosophy
Adorno and Horkheimer, Dialectic of the Enlightenment
Arendt, The Human Condition
De Beauvoir, The Second Sex
Derrida, Speech and Phenomena; Writing and Difference
Foucault, Discipline and Punish
Foucault, History of Sexuality, Vols. 1 & 2
Gadamer, Truth and Method
Habermas, Theory of Communicative Action, Vol.1, chs 1-4; Between Facts and Norms,
chs 1, 3, 5, and 9
Heidegger, Being and Time (Intro., Part 1, Division 1), Letter on Humanism
Husserl, Cartesian Meditations; Logical Investigations 1, 2, 6
Levinas, Totality and Infinity
Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception
Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, Vol 3, section 2; From Text to Action
Sartre, Being and Nothingness, Parts I & III; Existentialism is a Humanism
4. Other 20th Century Philosophy
Bergson, Time and Free Will; Creative Evolution
Blondel, Action
Gilson, Being and Some Philosophers; The Unity of Philosophical Experience
Hacking, Representing and Intervening: Introductory Topics in the Philosophy of Natural Science
Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions; Lakatos and Musgrave, Criticism and
the Growth of Knowledge, pp. 1-25; 51-59; 59-76; 91-137; 197-229
Lonergan, Insight
MacIntyre, After Virtue; Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry
Maritain, The Person and the Common Good
Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, chs. 1-8, 10; Conjectures and Refutations,
“Science: Conjectures and Refutations”
Rahner, Spirit in the World
Rawls, Theory of Justice, Part I., chs. 1-3; Political Liberalism, chs. 2, 6-8
Taylor, Sources of the Self
Whitehead, Process and Reality
Grades:
Distinction: outstanding in at least 3 of the 4 areas and competence in the other.
Pass: competence in all 4 areas.
Fail: lack of competence in any one of the 4 areas.
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