Term Paper : Philosophy

Autumn Term, 2019 Introduction to Philosophy Tuesdays & Thursdays, 11:00-12:20pm

PHIL-1301-51002 Three credit hours

Mark Curtis-Thames, Ph.D., Instructor

Contact: office A559. Email [email protected].Office hours: M 8:00-9:00a; 3:30-5:00p; T 4:00-5:00p; W 11:00a-12:00p; θ 8:30-9:00a. Other times by appointment.

Philosophy 1301 State Course Description

A study of major issues in philosophy and/or the work of major philosophical figures in philosophy. Topics in philosophy may include theories of reality, theories of knowledge, theories of value, and their practical applications.

Philosophy 1301 Instructor’s Course Description

Following along with a mystery novel, the student travels the semester encountering major philosophers and their works. As students begin to think about their own philosophy of life, they engage great thinkers’ ideas about metaphysics, ethics, epistemology, and politics.

Philosophy 1301 State Student Learning Objectives

Read, analyze, and critique philosophical texts.

Demonstrate knowledge of concepts, arguments, problems, and terminology in philosophy.

Present logically persuasive arguments both orally and in writing.

Demonstrate critical thinking skills in evaluation and application of philosophical concepts to various aspects of life.

Evaluate the personal and social responsibilities of living in a diverse world.

Philosophy 1301 Instructor’s Student Learning Objectives

1. You'll be able to read, analyze, and critique a philosophical text. You’ll look at some of the following:

Plato. Apology, Crito.

Anselm. Proslogion.

Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica.

Rene Descartes. Meditations on First Philosophy.

David Hume. An Inquiry concerning Human Understanding.

Immanuel Kant. Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics.

John Stuart Mill. On Utilitarianism.

William James. The Will to Believe.

2. You should demonstrate knowledge of key concepts, major arguments, problems, and terminology in philosophy. Specifically, you’ll look at

Metaphysics: God—Anselm and Aquinas—and Skepticism—Hume and James.

Ethics: Happiness versus (?) Duty—Kant and Mill.

Epistemology: Certain (?) Knowledge—Descartes, Hume, and Kant.

Politics: Arguments for Civil Obedience and Disobedience—Plato.

3. You will present persuasive arguments, informed and structured by reason and logic, both orally and in writing. Specifically, in addition to class discussion, you will write

Five one-to-two-page opinion papers.

One five-page term paper.

4. You will need to demonstrate critical thinking skills in evaluation and application of philosophical concepts to various aspects of life. Specifically, you will learn and practice

The difference between fact and opinion.

The difference between argument and rhetoric.

The difference between assumption and considered conviction.

Details

See here for the student handbook.

See here for the El Centro core curriculum, transferable as is to any public university in Texas.

See here for dropping or withdrawing from the course.

I.e., don’t be a jerk, be a nice person, and all shall be well.

See here and here for plagiarism and cheating. You have a great sense of humor. I'm a funny guy. But no smiles here. In philosophy we respect your ideas more than anyone else, maybe even you, ever has. So whose idea is whose is a big deal. Plagiarism is claiming or just implying that somebody else's idea is really yours. Steer away from it; be clear when you write and speak as to whether an idea is one you came up with or one you got from someone else.

Written assignments are due at the start of class, and late 10 minutes after the beginning of class, on the day listed.

Writing assignments may be turned in late; but it is 2/3 of a letter grade off for each 24-hour-period late. That is, one day late the best possible grade is not A+ but A-; two days late the best is a B; three days is a C+; four is C-; and five days late one must submit an A paper in order to receive a D. All items are to be submitted on paper unless otherwise specified. An email with assignment attached will give you a time stamp that stops the grade penalty.

Writing in philosophy follows the Chicago humanities style. You don’t have to be an expert. Just use an El Centro Library thing called NoodleTools and other aids from the Library and Learning Center for assistance. See especially here . 

Indeed, I require that *all,* 100%, of your online research will be conducted through the El Centro library philosophy site, here . Google and Wikipedia are not accepted. Any site not accessed through the El Centro library will require my explicit permission.

Info on the Learning Center for help with test-taking and writing is here. Other student help: adult resource center here. Counseling here.

Since tests and the final focus as much on lecture and class discussion as on reading, do not miss class in order to work on a late assignment.

Make-up of texts and quizzes is allowed when you have a documented medical or legal excuse, but not otherwise. The final may not be rescheduled or made up.

The texts are cheap. Buy them at our bookstore or anywhere. If you can get them (legally) free, via a library or an open-source text, fine. But if you don't have them, you will fail, period.

Grading

Quizzes 25%

Opinion Papers 15%

Final 25%

Term Paper Proposal 2.5%

Term Paper Draft 7.5%

Term Paper 20%

Participation 10%

Required Materials

Gaarder, Jostein. Sophie's World. New York: FarrarStrausGiroux, 2007. ISBN 978-037453071.

Wolff, Robert Paul. Ten Great Works of Philosophy. Harmondsworth: Penguin Signet Classic,

2002. ISBN 978-045152830.

Computer access to ecampus.

Access to printing services.

Access to email.

Microsoft Word or equivalent, to include Chicago-style formatting and citation.

Calendar

Lesson 1: Let's Get Going.

August 27, 2018

(1) Who I am.

(2) Who you are: Introductions and Self-Report sheet.

(3) Pretest.

(4) What this, er, philosophy stuff is: a thought experiment.

(5) Assignment of First Opinion Paper.

(6) Sophie's World, Ten Great Works.

(7) Library, learning center, office visits, email contact.

September 3

**Housekeeping: Honors option, religious holiday excused absences, disability mitigations, and electronic device permissions explained.

Lesson 2: Sophie's Story Starts.

(1) *Turn in First Opinion Paper.

(2) Informal college writing: opinion papers.

(3) Introductions: who sits next to you?

(4) Sophie's story, "The Garden of Eden" and “The Top Hat.”

September 5

**Housekeeping: permissions.

(6) Sophie's story, "Myths" and “The Natural Philosophers.”

(8) Tools, areas, and questions of philosophy:

a) innocence as blameless ignorance; wonder; curiosity.

b) metaphysics as answer to the questions Who’s here? What is it? & What’s going on?

(9) Assignment of Second Opinion Paper: What's Going on?

September 10

**Housekeeping: all permission requests submitted. No exceptions. Last day for certification.

Lesson Three: How One Begins Befriending Wisdom...

(1) *Submit Second Opinion Paper.

(2) Discussion of first opinion paper.

(3) Sophie's story, chapters "Democritus" and “Fate.”

(4) Honors planning.

September 12

Lesson 4: Socrates and Epic People.

(1) Review for first quiz.

(2) First quiz.

(3) Karl Jaspers’ Socrates Confucius Buddha Jesus: what it is to be a world-transforming human.

(4) Sophie's story: “Socrates.”

(5) Plato and the Apology of Socrates. Begin reading The Apology in class.

September 17

Lesson 5: Plato: All the Rest of Us Are Footnotes.

(1) Review of quiz one.

(2) Discussion of 2nd Opinion Paper.

(3) Reading the Apology, continued.

September 19

(4) Sophie’s story, chapters "Athens" and “Plato.”

(5) The forms.

(6) The Cave.

September 24

Lesson 6: Aristotle: The Master of Those Who Know.

(1) "The Major's Cabin."

(2) Tools of philosophy: common sense, and investigation.

(3) "Aristotle" and Poetics.

(4) Areas & questions of philosophy: ethics as answer to What’s important? & What should I do?

(5) Assignment of Third Opinion Paper: "The Lifeboat."

September 26

(6) Aristotle’s 4 causes and Golden mean.

(7) Turn in third opinion paper.

October 1

Lesson 7: America the New Rome?

(1) Review for quiz two.

(2) Quiz two.

(3) "Hellenism" and “The Postcards.”

October 3

(4) Hellenism and America.

(5) Discussion of Third Opinion Paper.

October 8

Lesson 8—A Thinking Person’s Religion?

(1) Review of second quiz.

(2) "Two Cultures." "The Middle Ages."

(3) Read Proslogion and Summa Theologica.

October 10

Lesson 9: The Rise of Modernity.

(1) *Paper Proposal due.

(2) "The Renaissance." "The Baroque." Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes.

(3) Characteristics or components of modernity: trust in technology, belief in individual equality.

(4) Quiz 3 explained.

!!March 18 Monday!!

(5) *Quiz 3 due online just before midnight.

October 15

Lesson 10: Descartes’s Bones.

(1) "Descartes."

(2) Meditations on First Philosophy, “Meditation 2.”

(3) Assignment of Fourth Opinion Paper.

(4) Tools of philosophy: method of doubt, hermeneutic of suspicion.

(5) Area of philosophy: epistemology as answer to the question, How do you know?

October 17

(6) *Submit Fourth Opinion Paper.

(7) Developing the modern worldview: Rationalism and empiricism.

(8) Characteristics or elements of modernity: secularization, priority on epistemology, mind-body dualism, the need for epistemic certainty, trust in impersonal processes and expertise, the use of the method of doubt, the self.

(9) Sophie's story: "Spinoza," "Locke," "Hume."

(10) Read Hume’s An Inquiry into Human Understanding.

(11) Discussion of Quiz 3.

October 22

Lesson 11: It Has Something to Do with Berkeley.

(1) "Berkeley" and "Bjerkeley."

(2) Berkeley: worlds in minds.

October 24

(3) Recapitulate modernity and the relation of Berkeley and Sophie’s World.

(4) "The Enlightenment" and “Kant.”

(5) Creativity and reality.

October 29

Lesson 12: Immanuel Kant: The Duty to Be Human

(1) Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics.

(2) Characteristics of modernity: trust in natural science; rational ethics.

October 31

Lesson 13: Thinking and Feeling

(1) Review for 4th Quiz.

(2) 4th Quiz.

(3) "Romanticism."

(4) "Hegel."

(5) Characteristics of modernity: the belief in progress; evolution as a paradigm.

November 5

Lesson 14: Making Philosophy Work.

(1) *Paper Draft Due.

(2) Review of quiz 4.

(3) Life of Kierkegaard.

(4) "Kierkegaard" and the “stages” of choice.

(5) Area of philosophy: Politics as the answer to the question, How do we decide?

(6) Tool of philosophy: personal commitment.

(7) Assignment of 5th Opinion Paper.

November 7

(7) "Marx." The Communist Manifesto.

(8) The hermeneutics of suspicion and theory as critique.

November 12

Lesson 15: Secularization: Life Is Better without God?

(1) "Darwin."

(2) *Turn in 5th Opinion Paper.

November 14 *Last Day to Withdraw*

(3) John Stuart Mill.

(4) On Utilitarianism.

November 19

Lesson 16: Postmodernism?

(1) Review of 5th Opinion Paper.

(2) Nietzsche.

(3) [Paper help day.]

November 21

Lesson 18: Our Existence Becomes a Problem

(1) Review for Quiz 5.

(2) Quiz 5.

(3) Preview of final examination.

(4) "Freud," "Our Own Time." Sartre and de Beauvoir.

November 26

Lesson 19: Getting to Now.

(1) Review of Quiz 5.

(2) "The Garden Party."

November 28

Thanksgiving Break

December 3

*Term paper due.

Lesson 20: Any Intelligent Life?

(1) "Counterpoint." "The Big Bang."

December 4

Lesson 21: What Just Happened?

(1) Posttest.

(2) Philosophical personality profile: are you modern or non (pre? Post?) modern? Are you Aristotelian or Platonic?

(3) Opinion paper debrief.

(4) Questions about the instructor’s personal views.

(5) Feedback on the course.

(6) Review for final.

December 10

Final examination, 11:00am – 1:00pm