Teaching – Daniel Hoek, Virginia Tech

Advice on How to Write Philosophy
Eileen Nutting’s handout on writing a philosophy paper: All the advice in this handout is golden. Don’t miss the dos and don’ts on the second page.
A sample philosophy paper (by Angela Mendelovici)
Writing Philosophy for Publication (by Daniel Muñoz: contains excellent advice on how to write philosophy in a way that will make people want to read it.)
Writing an introduction
“Success isn’t linear”, dance by Yoann Bourgeois.

Knowledge and Reality (Virginia Tech, Fall 2023)
Terry Tao on Eratosthenes and the Cosmic Distance Ladder
Sally Haslanger (WiPhi) and Amanda Askell (blogpost) on the Problem of Evil
William Paley and Richard Dawkins on the Design Argument
Doctor Who on Causal Loops (Blink!)
The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy and the Coen Brothers on the Meaning of Life
Hilbert’s Hotel explained
Elizabeth of Bohemia and René Descartes on the Mind-Body connection
Syllabus

Advanced Introduction to Epistemology (Virginia Tech, Fall 2020)
Question Set 6
Question Set 5
Question Set 4
Short Essay Assignment about the Gettier problem, draft due October 16th
Question Set 3 (including Four-sentence Essay instructions)
Question Set 2
Sk epticism Slides
Soundness and Validity by WiPhi
Question Set 1
President Obama and Regina Rini on Deepfakes
The Matrix on Skepticism I: Blue Pill or Red Pill?
Syllabus (revised version)

Philosophical Foundations of Probability and Decision Theory (Princeton, Spring 2020)
Exercise on Chance in Quantum Mechanics
Chance in Quantum Mechanics: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Slides.
Exercise on Symmetry and Chance
Physical Probability: Part 1, Part 2, Slides.
Term paper assignment
Judy Thomson on Statistical Evidence: Part 1, Part 2
The Curious Case of Charles Shonubi (full paper).
Some counterexamples to Causal Decision Theory, and then one more
Ahmed on Newcomb’s Problem: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
Exercise on Newcomb’s Problem
Recorded Lecture on Ramsey’s Truth and Probability: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Slides.
Revised Online Syllabus
Short Essay Assignment on the Ravens Paradox.
The script for Pascal’s Mugging.
For more about infinite sequences of coin flips, read Williamson; or you could dip your toes into Benci, Wenmackers and Horsten.
Problem Set 2: Problems of Induction
Extra Logic Set: A Second Chance
Hume’s original essay “On Miracles”
Problem Set 1: The Basics
Notes on Bayesian Confirmation Theory by Michael Strevens
Original Syllabus (Revised Version)

Logical Subtraction (Princeton, Fall 2019)
Week 6: Substitution and Subtraction (Saul on Substitution Failure; Crimmins on Make-Believe and Frege’s Puzzle; Humberstone on Parts and Partitions)
Week 5: The Limits of Subtraction (Varieties of Antirealism; Dorr’s Explanatory Criterion for Antirealism; Moral Fictionalism)
Week 4: Mathematical Fictionalism (“Easy Road” Nominalism; Mathematical Exculpature; Rosen on Modal Deviance)
Week 3: Metaphor (Walton on prop-oriented make-believe and “parafictional” descriptions; conversational exculpature; Yablo on subtraction)
Week 2: Hyperintensionality and Propositional Mereology (formal toolkit; Lewis, Yablo and Fine on subject matters, truthmakers and analytic entailment)
Week 1: Logical Subtraction (Except Maybe Not) (introductory overview; Jaeger, Hudson and Peirce on logical subtraction)
Syllabus