A series of 8 lectures on General Philosophy, delivered to first year Oxford University undergraduates in Michaelmas term 2018. The lectures cover six main topics: Knowledge and Scepticism, Induction, Mind and Body, Personal Identity, Free Will, God and Evil. But they set these topics within a much broader context, encompassing humanity’s history of discovery about the natural world (both in physics and biology), and our place within it (linked to issues of both evolution and morality). Main themes of the lectures are: (1) Introduction, and views of the cosmos from Genesis to Descartes; (2) Humanity’s place in the scientific picture of the world; (3) Scepticism and the problem of induction; (4) More on induction, and facing up to scepticism; (5) The mind, and personal identity; (6) Identity, self-interest, morality, and free will; (7) Free will, causality, explanation, and moral responsibility; (8) God and morality.
