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PHIL 5193-003/6193-003
Weekly Assignments

    • The default is to outline the passage I assign.
    • If you choose a different passage:
      • make sure it contains an argument.
      • you have to tell me what it is. (I'm not a mind reader.)
      • please make it terse---a paragraph or two, not a chapter, or anything like a chapter. (I have to read the passage side by side with your outline, to check that the latter correctly represents the argument in the former.) My experience is that attempts to outline longer stretches of text don't generally work out well.
  1. Aug. 20 (for those of you who have already taken a class from me, who know what these outline assignments -- not the same as microcommentary assignments! -- are supposed to look like, and who want to get an early start): T I.i.7, in the second para. (which starts " 'Tis evident, that in forming..."), from "It may therefore be thought..." to "...represent no particular degree either of quantity or quality". (In the Selby-Bigge edition, look on pp. 17-18.)
  2. Aug. 27: T I.iii.6, two paras. (starting "It shall therefore be allow'd for a moment..."), at SB 91f/NN 63f.
  3. Sept. 3: T I.iv.2, either the para. starting "To begin with the SENSES...", or the following para., starting "That our senses offer not..." at SB 188f/NN 126.
  4. Sept. 10: T I.iv.6, 2 paras. starting "In order to this, suppose any mass of matter...", through "...constitutes the imperfect identity", at SB 255f/NN 167.
  5. Sept. 17: T I.iv.5, either the para. starting "If instead of answering these questions..." (SB 233/NN 153), or the para. starting "There is one argument commonly employ'd..." (SB 234/NN 154).
  6. Sept. 24: Either T I.ii.iv, para. starting "But can any thing be imagin'd more absurd..." (SB 43/NN 33); you'll want to have read the previous three paragraphs, from Hume's "III" [in NN, "3."], for context. Or Garrett, Cognition and Commitment in Hume's Philosophy, p. 66, from "This assumption can be grounded..." to "...conceivable, hence possible" [i.e., up to note 14].
  7. Oct. 1: T I.ii.4, para. beginning "The idea of a plain surface..." (SB 50/NN 38, which modernizes the spelling to "plane"). (Keep in mind the general and fairly abstract point Hume is after.) Alternatively, in Garrett, Cognition and Commitment, in the chapter on "The Separability Principle," the para. bridging pp. 74f ("Consider one such paradox").

    8. FROM HERE ON OUT, WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS ARE TWO-PART; SEE THE REQUIREMENTS PAGE FOR DETAILS

  8. Oct. 8: BONUS WEEKLY ASSIGNMENT! T II.iii.3, para. starting "A passion is an original existence..." (SB 415/NN 266f).
  9. Oct. 15: In "The Sceptic", para. bridging pp. 164f, starting "But the case is not the same..."
  10. Oct. 22: T III.ii.5, para. starting "All morality depends upon our sentiments..." (SB 517/NN 332).
  11. Oct. 29: T II.i.2, para. starting "But tho' that connected succession of the passions..." plus the first sentence of the following paragraph (SB 277f/NN 182f).
  12. Nov. 5: EPM sec. IX, part ii, para. starting "Whatever contradiction..." (p. 281 in the Selby-Bigge edition). Before you outline the argument, look at the 2nd para. of Appendix II (SB 296), starting "There is another principle..."
  13. Nov. 12: "Of the Original Contract" (in Essays), para. bridging pp. 476f, up to "...had marked out to them".
  14. Nov. 19: Korsgaard, Sources of Normativity, pp. 64f, from "His point is that..." through "...that of the understanding itself". (Make sure to abstract away from the analogy, and to get a sense of the implicit conclusion of the argument, keep in mind the context, and esp. the following paragraph, which finishes up the section.)
  15. Nov. 26: "Of the Standard of Taste" (in Essays), para. starting bottom 229, "There is a species of philosophy...," up to "...never possibly have being".
  16. Dec. 3: In "Of the Standard of Taste" (in Essays), bottom of p. 236, from "A very delicate palate..." to the end of the page. (Pay special attention to the form of the argument.)