Mark Alfino, Department of Philosophy, Gonzaga University

Unit 1

Explain how Moore's Realism and Wittgenstein's Tractatus are both efforts to break out of the Kantian paradigm for understanding the relationship betweeen the mind and reality. Assess the relative success of each effort. (medium)
What is "representational realism"?
Why does Kant conlude that we cannot know things in themselves (noumena)?
Why does Wheelis think the "dream of mechanism" is not possible to realize in 20th century science?
Reconstruction and evaluate Moore's "defence of realism".
Reconstruction and evaluate Moore's "refutation of idealism".
Reconstruct and evaluate Wittgenstein's distinction between the sayable and the unsayable.