人生在世，俯仰於天地之間，對於眼見耳聞之諸多現象，不論是攸關自然或人事，不免會感到驚異而發問求知。在追求理解的過程中，若不以眾人視為理所當然的想法為滿足，而能追根究底問下去並且提出進一步的批判與反省，此時的提問與求知便構成了哲學的思考活動。哲學的思考與科學的思考或是數學的思考有所不同：它並非如同科學以實驗設計來尋求解答；它也不像數學以嚴格證明來找出答案。哲學思考的方式在於分析概念、釐清論題、提出論證、設想可能的反對論證等等。本課程的目的即在於介紹一些基本的哲學問題，這些問題大抵如下：
（1） 科學能夠揭露隱於經驗現象背後的實在嗎？
（2） 科學是理性知識的典型嗎？
（3） 何謂知識？知識的來源為何？
（4） 今日之我與昨日之我是同一個個體嗎？
（5） 我們有自由意志嗎？
（6） 為什麼我應該成為有道德的人？
（7） 道德具有客觀性嗎？
（8） 如何評判行為的對或錯？

The phenomena we perceive in our daily life often leave us with a feeling of wonder. Such a feeling prompts us to philosophize in order to make sense of them. It is worth noting that philosophy is quite distinct from empirical sciences in the sense that conducting experiments is not part of its methodology. Philosophy is distinct from mathematics as well insofar as it does not see rigorous proofs as the only solution to any questions under scrutiny. However, it does not follow that philosophers are less demanding than scientists or mathematicians. Quite the reverse. When philosophers seek to make sense of the natural world and the human life, they are never content with people’s common sense. They even tend to undermine people’s taken-for-granted opinions, and to show how questionable they are. In fact, philosophers may go so far as to accept nothing until they figure out why there’s reason not to. In this sense, philosophical inquiry can be arguably said to be more fundamental, even more radical than empirical/mathematical sciences. Indeed, philosophy might be characterized by the way philosophers seek to make sense of the natural world and the human life. To put it bluntly, the way to philosophize consists in analyzing concepts, clarifying theses, putting forward arguments, conceiving counter arguments and pre-empting them, etc.
In this course, we will explore some core issues in philosophy. More specifically, we address the following questions:
(1) Does science aim to reveal the reality hidden behind the appearances?
(2) Is science the model of rational knowledge?
(3) What is knowledge? What are the sources of knowledge?
(4) Can there be a personal identity relationship between the current and the past “me(s)”?
(5) Do we have free will?
(6) Why should I be moral?
(7) Is morality objective?
(8) How to assess whether an action is right or wrong?