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Knowledge and Reality | Online Synchronous Course | 30 Spots | 8 pm Beirut time

Knowledge and Reality: Perception, Skepticism, Time, Mind
Nassim Nicholas Taleb will be joining for a 5th q&a session.

https://twitter.com/Decafquest/status/1396852198496260096

Website: 

decafquest.com

Instructors:

The course will be co-taught by:

• Mahmoud Rasmi (@decafquest): finished his PhD in Philosophy at the University of Salamanca Spain. Between 2013 and 2020, he taught philosophy and cultural studies at the American University of Beirut and the Lebanese American University. Now, he has decided to venture into the virtual world in order to give affordable classes online to people who are interested in studying philosophy in a non-academic setting. 

Here’s a sample class on Stoicism from an Introduction to Philosophy online course:

• Philippe Caponis (@philippecaponis): Philippe holds an MS in Physics and an MA in Philosophy from the University of Paris. He taught philosophy at the American University of Beirut and Lebanese American University. He is interested in better understanding how scientific theories illuminate (and often reshape) philosophical debates about the nature of space and time, identity and material constitution.

Here’s a talk by Philippe titled: Three Philosophical Lessons from Modern Physics:

Dates and Schedule:

• 4 weeks, once a week, 2 hrs per session.
• The course will start on Tuesday, June 8, 2021, and will end on Tuesday, June 29, 2021.
• Course Schedule: Tuesdays at 8:00 pm Beirut time (7:00 pm CET time).
• Synchronous online course via Zoom.
• Asynchronous: if you can’t attend, you will have the option to watch the recorded lectures. 
• Price: USD120$
• Capacity: 30 seats (raised to 35)

Important information:

You will receive the link to the sessions a few days before the course starts. 

Those based in Lebanon can make the payment via Bank transfer (please contact me to provide you with the details).

Since we are not an institution, you will not be able to claim credits for the course. Many of you might also already be busy with your jobs and daily routine; as a result, we won’t be assigning any homework, exams, or papers. However, if any of you wishes to be assessed on the course material covered, we can arrange for the proper method and format in private.

The sessions will be recorded and uploaded to the DecafQuest YouTube channel as hidden. The links will be made available on google classroom to those registered.

Please find below a tentative syllabus: 

This series will serve as an introduction to the traditional philosophical problems about the structure of reality and our attempts at understanding it. It surveys a variety of topics in metaphysics and epistemology through selected essays largely free of technical terminology. The concepts covered in this first course are perception, skepticism, time and mind.

Discussions will mainly revolve around the following questions: does sense perception enable us to gain knowledge about the world? can we be certain about the existence of the external world or the existence of things outside of us must be accepted merely on faith? What do we mean when we say that time passes? Are past and future events real? What is the nature of the mind? Is it non-physical or a mere product of brain processes?

L1: Perception

• Locke
• Berkeley
• Kant

L2: Skepticism

• Descartes & Hume
• Moore & Wittgenstein

L3: Time

• McTaggart
• Putnam

L4: Mind

• Descartes & Malebranche 
• Smart
• Nagel

L5: TBA Q&A with Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Trishank Karthik Kuppusamy

Link to registration – https://gumroad.com/l/knowledge-reality