Favorites and Most Frequents of My Undergrad Philosophy Experience
Having just completed my undergraduate degree in philosophy, I thought it would be fun to share my favorite reads, most frequently read papers, and other miscellaneous and interesting facts about my undergrad experience.
Favorite philosophy class: Scientific/Inductive Reasoning, taught by Tim McGrew. Runner up: Theory of Knowledge, taught by Marc Alspector-Kelly.
Most difficult philosophy class: it's a tie between my graduate level probability class (taken as an independent study my junior year) and my formal logic class. Neither were extraordinarily demanding in terms of homework, but mastering the concepts required a lot of brain juice (still, neither were quite as tough as my math and chem classes!).
Most frequently read paper: David Hume's problem of induction in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. I read that essay in at least one philosophy class every semester for the last two years. Runner up: Excerpts from Descartes', The Meditations. Honorable mention: Hume's essay, "On Miracles."
Most difficult paper to read: David Lewis', "Humean Supervenience Debugged" (I'm still not totally sure what was said in that essay). Runner up: W.V.O. Quine's, "Two Dogma's of Empiricism" (I understand this one better now, but it was a real killer when I first read it).
Favorite paper written: "Theory Testing and the Evidential Significance of Scope." I wrote this paper during the winter of 2015 and submitted it to the Michigan State University Undergraduate Philosophy of Conference, hosted that spring. It got accepted! Honorable mentions: "Hume and External World Skepticism"; nothing too profound here; just a short and sweet analytic philosophy paper. "Four Arguments for Berkley's Idealism"; also short, sweet, and analytic (and no, I don't defend four arguments for Berkley's Idealism; I critique four of his own arguments for Idealism).
Favorite paper (or, paper that has proven to yield the most interesting personal insights and generate the most subsequent research): "Rationality and Objectivity in Science or Tom Kuhn Meets Tom Bayes," by Wesley Salmon. Honorable mentions: "Confirmation, Heuristics, and Explanatory Reasoning," by Tim McGrew; "Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person," by Harry Frankfurt; William Rowe, "The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism," and a number of related papers, including Wykstra's, "The Humean Obstacle to Arguments from Suffering: On Avoiding the Appearance of Evil," and Weilenberg's, "Skeptical Theism and Divine Lies."
Least Favorite Paper: Peter Unger's paper, "I Do Not Exist." Ridiculous.
Branches of philosophy I enjoyed the most: Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Religion, and Epistemology.
Favorite debates/issues in Philosophy: foundationalism vs. coherentism, scientific reasoning and theory testing (Bayesianism vs. Hypothetico-deductivism vs. other), philosophical interpretations of probability (epistemic probabilities, frequentism, propensity theories, etc.), explanatory reasoning (Hempel's deductive-nomological model, causal models, etc. The relationship between inference to the best explanation and Bayes's theorem), the problem of induction, skepticism and external world realism, dualism vs. materialism, moral motivation (Humeanism vs. anti-Humeanism), moral responsibility, the evidential problem of evil, and the existence of God.
Least favorite debates/issues in Philosophy: Material constitution (nihilism vs. universalism vs. other)...I can't think of anything else I dislike as much as this issue. The debate about universals and particulars (aristotelian/immanent realism vs. platonism vs. the million different versions of nominalism) comes pretty close, though.
Favorite paper written: "Theory Testing and the Evidential Significance of Scope." I wrote this paper during the winter of 2015 and submitted it to the Michigan State University Undergraduate Philosophy of Conference, hosted that spring. It got accepted! Honorable mentions: "Hume and External World Skepticism"; nothing too profound here; just a short and sweet analytic philosophy paper. "Four Arguments for Berkley's Idealism"; also short, sweet, and analytic (and no, I don't defend four arguments for Berkley's Idealism; I critique four of his own arguments for Idealism).
Favorite paper (or, paper that has proven to yield the most interesting personal insights and generate the most subsequent research): "Rationality and Objectivity in Science or Tom Kuhn Meets Tom Bayes," by Wesley Salmon. Honorable mentions: "Confirmation, Heuristics, and Explanatory Reasoning," by Tim McGrew; "Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person," by Harry Frankfurt; William Rowe, "The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism," and a number of related papers, including Wykstra's, "The Humean Obstacle to Arguments from Suffering: On Avoiding the Appearance of Evil," and Weilenberg's, "Skeptical Theism and Divine Lies."
Least Favorite Paper: Peter Unger's paper, "I Do Not Exist." Ridiculous.
Branches of philosophy I enjoyed the most: Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Religion, and Epistemology.
Favorite debates/issues in Philosophy: foundationalism vs. coherentism, scientific reasoning and theory testing (Bayesianism vs. Hypothetico-deductivism vs. other), philosophical interpretations of probability (epistemic probabilities, frequentism, propensity theories, etc.), explanatory reasoning (Hempel's deductive-nomological model, causal models, etc. The relationship between inference to the best explanation and Bayes's theorem), the problem of induction, skepticism and external world realism, dualism vs. materialism, moral motivation (Humeanism vs. anti-Humeanism), moral responsibility, the evidential problem of evil, and the existence of God.
Least favorite debates/issues in Philosophy: Material constitution (nihilism vs. universalism vs. other)...I can't think of anything else I dislike as much as this issue. The debate about universals and particulars (aristotelian/immanent realism vs. platonism vs. the million different versions of nominalism) comes pretty close, though.
Longest paper written: I wrote a 30 page paper on the problem of evil, entitled, "A New Philosophico-Theological Objection to Skeptical Theism: On Avoiding the Perils of Unqualified Skepticism." The paper was accepted for presentation at the Calvin/GVSU Undergraduate Philosophy Conference. I had to skip large sections of it for my presentation. Runner up: an 18 page paper on the problem of induction (in the paper, I try motivating a concern with the Williams-Stove Sampling Thesis -- a response to the problem of induction defended by Tim McGrew, among others. When I told Tim I was writing a paper critiquing his response to the problem of induction, he smiled and said, "good luck." The paper is, I think, a failure, but I have hopes that my basic concern can be reworked and made more robust!).
Favorite book: Foundations of Scientific Inference, by Wesley Salmon. Runner up: The Existence of God, by Richard Swinburne. Honorable mentions: The Criterion, by John Douglass; Inference to the Best Explanation, by Peter Lipton; Moral Psychology, by Valerie Tiberius.
Favorite book: Foundations of Scientific Inference, by Wesley Salmon. Runner up: The Existence of God, by Richard Swinburne. Honorable mentions: The Criterion, by John Douglass; Inference to the Best Explanation, by Peter Lipton; Moral Psychology, by Valerie Tiberius.
Favorite philosophy class: Scientific/Inductive Reasoning, taught by Tim McGrew. Runner up: Theory of Knowledge, taught by Marc Alspector-Kelly.
Most difficult philosophy class: it's a tie between my graduate level probability class (taken as an independent study my junior year) and my formal logic class. Neither were extraordinarily demanding in terms of homework, but mastering the concepts required a lot of brain juice (still, neither were quite as tough as my math and chem classes!).
Most interesting non-philosophy class: The Psychology of Sex and Gender. Runner up: Thinking About Religion (a course on the nature, origins, and academic study of religion). Honorable mentions: Astronomy; New Religious Movements.
Most memorable experience(s): participating in a discussion panel on the existence of God at a Montcalm Community College event, hosted by the Philosophy and Religion club, wherein I critiqued Steve Wykstra's defense of theism. Runner up: (this one is really two different [but related] experiences): finding out that two of my papers had been accepted to different philosophy conferences. Very, very honorable mentions: my independent studies with Tim McGrew and Dan Dolson. Also, getting accepted into a graduate program as a graduate assistant and with good funding.
Favorite jams to listen to while doing homework: mostly anything post-rock (Maybeshewill, God is an Astronaut, Explosions in the Sky, Hammock, etc.).
Favorite things to do while not doing homework: enjoy tobacco, philosophize/debate with Tyler McFarland and Mohamed Abdulaziz, watch youtube videos (an addicting waste of time), play soccer, daydream about having time to get out and meet girls but then remember that I have homework.
Most frequently eaten food: my staple meal: scrambled eggs (turkey bacon, potatoes, tomatoes, spinach, onions, and two eggs with toast on the side). Runner up: cereal. A very honorable mention: rice and chicken with sliced avocado and a very health dose of Cholula sauce. This is bachelor cuisine at its finest!
Favorite people to talk to on campus: my professors. Runner up: Mormon missionaries.
Most memorable experience(s): participating in a discussion panel on the existence of God at a Montcalm Community College event, hosted by the Philosophy and Religion club, wherein I critiqued Steve Wykstra's defense of theism. Runner up: (this one is really two different [but related] experiences): finding out that two of my papers had been accepted to different philosophy conferences. Very, very honorable mentions: my independent studies with Tim McGrew and Dan Dolson. Also, getting accepted into a graduate program as a graduate assistant and with good funding.
Favorite jams to listen to while doing homework: mostly anything post-rock (Maybeshewill, God is an Astronaut, Explosions in the Sky, Hammock, etc.).
Favorite things to do while not doing homework: enjoy tobacco, philosophize/debate with Tyler McFarland and Mohamed Abdulaziz, watch youtube videos (an addicting waste of time), play soccer, daydream about having time to get out and meet girls but then remember that I have homework.
Most frequently eaten food: my staple meal: scrambled eggs (turkey bacon, potatoes, tomatoes, spinach, onions, and two eggs with toast on the side). Runner up: cereal. A very honorable mention: rice and chicken with sliced avocado and a very health dose of Cholula sauce. This is bachelor cuisine at its finest!
Favorite people to talk to on campus: my professors. Runner up: Mormon missionaries.
Undergrad was a blast!
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