University of Harvard Arguments for The Existence of God Presentation

Presentation of key philosophic idea/issue/question:

Scheduled sometime during the last 2-3 weeks of the semester (schedule will be set as of midterm grades), students will design and deliver a 10-15 minute presentation on a major philosophic idea/issue/question in the history of philosophy.

The presentation should cover the following things:

• What is the major philosophic idea? (examples are myriad, ones we cover over the semester include Plato’s “forms,” Descartes’ “cogito,” Hume’s critique of miracles, Aristotle’s “doctrine of the mean,” Nietzsche’s “master/slave morality,” the “mind-body problem,” aesthetics of modern art (one of its many issues), postmodernism (one of its many questions), classical arguments for the existence of God, a priori vs. a posteriori knowledge, virtue ethics/utilitarianism/deontology, socialism/communism/Marxism, liberalism…) (10 pts)
• What are the important historical reference points for the idea/issue/question? (10 pts)
• What controversy or debate is there about the major idea? (10 pts)
• Finally, what solutions are proposed to the controversy and which do you side with and why? (10 pts)