This is part of a whole series of lectures (playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0B58AB39400D982E&feature=plcp) for my online course Phil 115 Introduction to Philosophy at SUNY Fredonia. It is an introduction to Philosophy with no prerequisites, which satisfies the SUNY Humanities General Education requirement. See the fuller description below.

Want to take this course for credit? Info for Summer 2014 is here:
http://www.fredonia.edu/summer/

School: http://www.fredonia.edu/
Department: http://www.fredonia.edu/philosophy/
my department page: http://www.fredonia.edu/philosophy/Tuggy.asp
my personal page: http://trinities.org/dale/

The aim of this course is to introduce students to philosophy by considering four core areas of philosophy and some central problems in each. These branches are:

Ethics (What is a good life? Why act morally? Is morality relative to cultures? What makes some actions right and others wrong? What is the relation between religion and morality? Is death bad for the one who dies?)

Metaphysics (Do we have free will? Are free will and moral responsibility compatible with a scientific world view? Is there such a thing as an immaterial soul?)

Epistemology (Can we know anything? What is it to know? To know something, must I be certain about it?)

Philosophy of Religion (What sort of being is God supposed to be? Can one prove that God exists? Can one prove that God doesn't exist?).

We will focus on classic more than on contemporary sources, although both will be used.