** PHIL 201: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY **
Last Offered: SPRING 1996
Syllabus Index:
The problems treated in this course all arise from standard
philosophical attempts at questioning human nature and experience.
While the discipline of philosophy does encompass specialized agendas
and many complex technical issues, the sorts of questions we will
address are ones to which most of us have, at one time or another,
evolved some answers, however rudimentary.
The following text is required; a thorough familiarity with its
contents is advised:
--Gaarder, Jostein. Sophie's World: A Novel about the History of Philosophy.
Trans. Paulette Mĝller. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1994.
The following texts are recommended for those students who wish to advance their philosophical understanding or abilities; a limited supply of these texts will be available in the bookstore:
--Audi, Robert. Philosophy: A Brief Guide for Undergraduates.
American Philosophical Association, 1982.
--Biffle, Christopher. A Guided Tour of René Descartes' MEDITATIONS
ON FIRST PHILOSOPHY. Mayfield Publishing, 1989.
--Palmer, Donald. Looking at Philosophy: The Unbearable Heaviness of
Philosophy Made Lighter, Second Edition. Mayfield Publishing,
1994.
After a brief overview of the main branches of contemporary
philosophical practice, readings, lectures, exercises, and
discussions will pursue the following topic areas:
- ANCIENT & MEDIĈVAL PHILOSOPHY
- Readings: Gaarder, Chapters 1-15 (127 pages);
- Exercise #1.
- RENAISSANCE & ENLIGHTENMENT PHILOSOPHY
- Readings: Gaarder, Chapters 16-25 (134 pages);
- Exercise #2;
- EXAM #1.
- NINETEENTH & TWENTIETH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY
- Readings: Gaarder, Chapters 26-35 (133 pages);
- Philosophy Paper;
- EXAM #2 (comprehensive).
For the most part, reading assignments will be made on a weekly
basis. Exercises will be assigned at least one full calendar week
before coming due; however, exercises will be accepted for credit
ONLY on or before the assigned days. The philosophy paper will be
assigned sometime during mid-semester, with the paper due on or
before Monday, 22 April. Class format will follow but will not
always overlap the readings, so it is important that you keep up with
the designated material.
All students are expected to attend all class periods. While
reasonable pleas for exemption from the attendance requirement will
be duly considered, a 'reasonable plea' should ordinarily be
documented by a physician, team coach, faculty advisor, or a dean.
Unexcused absences exceeding EITHER four (4) class meetings on the TR
schedule OR six (6) class meetings on the MWF schedule may result in
a grade-penalty.
Students who miss an examination or fail to hand in an exercise
AND who satisfy the conditions for exemption from the attendance
requirement (specified above), are entitled to receive a MAKE-UP
examination or exercise. Make-ups will be provided at the earliest
mutual convenience of both student and instructor. Students who miss
an examination or fail to hand in an exercise BUT who DO NOT satisfy
the conditions for exemption from the attendance requirement, will
receive NULL CREDIT for that exercise or examination. Students
falling into this category may, HOWEVER, take advantage of the GRADE
REPAIR OPTION specified below.
Any student who wishes to improve what he or she takes to be an
unsatisfactorily low grade may submit (in lieu of the material for
which that grade was received) a FULLY COMPLETED copy of the
programmed text, A Guided Tour of René Descartes' MEDITATIONS ON
FIRST PHILOSOPHY (see "Recommended Texts" above). If the grade
assigned this additional work proves more satisfactory, the new grade
will replace the old.
NOTA BENE: the following conditions will apply to the use of this option in all cases:
(a) use of the option must be approved by your instructor prior to your submitting the text;
(b) texts must be submitted on or before the due-date assigned by your instructor at the time you secure option-approval;
(c) the option may be used only ONCE per semester;
(d) the option does NOT apply to the FINAL examination;
(e) all copies of texts submitted for a grade will be retained by your instructor.
Exercises and exams, as well as the philosophy paper, will receive
numerical scores intended to reflect your performance levels on an
absolute scale (measured against your instructor's expectations).
Each assignment will also receive a letter grade indexed according to
the (relative) class mean. Final grades sent to the registrar are
based on cumulative average performance: specifically, the overall
class average is set to the current University mean GPA, with letter
grades adjusted to yield this mean. (Note: the purpose of this
grading policy is to avoid grade-inflation WITHOUT penalizing
students arbitrarily.)
The exercises and examinations in this course will comprise some
short-answer and some essay writing; the philosophy paper will
likewise involve the exercise of your writing skills. In each
instance, you will be asked to reflect on a prominent course-topic
and to provide some indication as to how thoroughly you understand
that topic; your writing will, however, indicate little or no actual
understanding if you restrict your exposition simply to the
recapitulation of reading and/or lecture material. When assessing
written work, your instructor will generally be looking for evidence
of your ability to carry a reading assignment or class discussion
beyond its initial presentation (rule of thumb: you may be said to
understand something when you know what to say next). Accordingly,
if your response to an essay question or paper assignment consists
mainly of verbatim notes, you can expect at best the equivalent of a
C-grade on that item.