General Philosophy

A series of lectures delivered by Peter Millican to first-year philosophy students at the University of Oxford. The lectures comprise the 8-week General Philosophy course and were delivered in late 2009.

A series of lectures delivered by Peter Millican to first-year philosophy students at the University of Oxford. The lectures comprise the 8-week General Philosophy course and were delivered in late 2009.

A series of lectures delivered by Peter Millican to first-year philosophy students at the University of Oxford. The lectures comprise the 8-week General Philosophy course and were delivered in late 2009.

This lecture dissects David Hume's classic formulation of the problem of induction, examining its implications for scientific reasoning and empirical knowledge. Millican explores the philosophical challenges to justifying inductive inferences.

This lecture introduces the foundational concepts of Cartesian dualism, examining René Descartes' arguments for the distinction between mind and body and its implications for substance and interaction.

This lecture examines the traditional analysis of knowledge as 'Justified True Belief' (JTB), tracing its origins to Plato's Meno and Theaetetus. It provides a foundational understanding of classical epistemological criteria.

This session delves into Edmund Gettier's influential counterexamples to the Justified True Belief theory of knowledge. It explores various 'Gettier problems' and their profound impact on contemporary epistemology, necessitating refinements to the definition of knowledge.

This lecture introduces the distinction between primary and secondary qualities, as developed by philosophers like John Locke and Robert Boyle. It explores how these concepts differentiate inherent properties of objects from observer-dependent perceptions, impacting theories of perception.