Introduction to Philosophy

Karl F. Oles
for Scholars Online
2025-2026: Time to be determined with students

This course is an introduction to philosophy.

The chief text is Mortimer Adler’s Aristotle for Everybody, which describes how the Greek philosopher Aristotle addressed philosophical questions. Aristotle lived a long time ago but, as Adler points out, his thinking remains valuable today. Adler’s book will be supplemented with readings from other philosophers.

A student who completes this course will be familiar with questions that philosophers have asked and understand why those questions are interesting. Here are examples of the questions that the course will address:

Here is more information about the above topics.

  1. What is logical thinking and why is logic persuasive? A simple example of logical thinking is this: All dogs are mortal; Socrates is a dog; therefore, Socrates is mortal. If the premises are true, it appears the conclusion must be true. Why is that? We can make an infinite number of similar arguments using the same form, such as: All of Fred’s pets are birds; Bobby is one of Fred’s pets; therefore, Bobby is a bird. We can abstract the form of these arguments as follows: All X’s are Y. A is an X. Therefore, A is a Y. There are other forms that appear guaranteed to generate true conclusions from true premises as well; in fact, an infinite number. We can study them as what is called “formal logic,” so-called because it studies the form of arguments. The question remains: why are logical arguments persuasive?
  2. What kinds of things are there? Can we sort the things in our universe into categories? Contrast the category of “dogs” with the category of “things Fred has in his desk drawer.” Are some categories more “natural” than others? Is there a clear line between dogs and cats, between chairs and benches? Between living and non-living things? Are there immaterial things? Do numbers exist? Do thoughts exist? Do rainbows exist?
  3. What are material things? What are material things made of? If you think the answer is “subatomic particles,” then what are they made of? What properties do material things have in themselves, as opposed to properties arising from their relations to observers like us? What makes living things different from non-living things? Do we discover different species or do we invent distinctions that do not exist in nature?
  4. How does science work? What makes one scientific theory better than another? What makes a theory about the world scientific? What is the connection between science and mathematics? Are there any objects or events in the universe that we cannot study scientifically?
  5. Are there objective moral rights and wrongs, virtues and vices? People across cultures and across time agree that keeping a promise is right, betraying a friend is wrong, courage is a virtue, and cowardice is a vice. Why do we agree about these things? Is there a general theory of ethics that ties these concepts together?
  6. Do we know any truths about the world? What does it mean for one of our beliefs (for example, that Olympia is the capital city of Washington) to be true? How do we learn truths about the world? To what extent are we justified in relying on others when we learn truths?
  7. Can there be an infinite number of things? What is the mathematical concept of infinity? Can the universe be infinitely large, can it contain an infinite number of things, can it have existed forever, without beginning?
  8. Does God exist? What is meant by God? What arguments have philosophers proposed to prove that God exists, are they persuasive?

You can enroll at Scholars Online. Fall session begins September 2, 2025.