To invite the students to be wary of obviousness, to be distrustful of second opinions and to acquire a philosophical attitude.
Specially designed for students in science, the course covers a few major themes of philosophy: language and reality, knowledge, perception, scientific knowledge, possibility and necessity, causality and freedom, body and spirit, the ethical problems.
Cf. course contents.
Exercise sessions are included in the lecture. The lecture is regularly interrupted and the students invited by an assistant to answer on the spot deliberately destabilizing questions aiming to help them to grasp the concepts and arguments just exposed and to encourage them to develop a personal reflection.
Written examination aiming at estimating the student's understanding of the course contents (first half) and her ability to develop a philosophical thinking (second half).
Hospers, J. - An Introduction to Philosophical Analysis. London, Routledge, 1956; fourth edition, 1997; reprinted 2000. Hodges, W. - Logic. An introduction to elementary logic. Hammondsworth, Penguin Books, first published 1977. Russell, B. - Problèmes de philosophie. Paris, Payot, 1992.