W07 191 syllabus

This syllabus is the most important document you’ll get all quarter. Please download and print it so you have it to refer to at all times. It contains all the information you need in order to complete this class. Refer to the online version regularly because changes and announcements will be posted there, as will your grades as we go. You are responsible for knowing the information in it. The most crucial parts of this syllabus are:
• A Schedule of reading and work assignments and dates for when they are due. This schedule tells you what you are supposed to read and when you are supposed to have it read by. You must refer to it to find out what you are supposed to read because I almost never announce the next reading assignment in class. I expect you to refer to this schedule to know what to read next and to know when your next written work is due. If I make in-class changes to the reading assignments, or for any other assignment, you should note them in your syllabus.
• Grading assignments and instructions on how to do them. It is your responsibility to read the syllabus and know these things. “I didn’t know” is not an excuse for not turning work in because you should know--it’s right here for you to read.
• Links to important supplemental material. Links to your grades as well.

Skills goals:

1. To Comprehend some fairly abstract reasoning. Philosophy requires the ability to read carefully so that you can gain a clear, thorough and accurate understanding of the readings. Be prepared to read an assignment more than once in order to understand it.
2. To Analyze what the main issues are, what points need to be decided in order to come to a conclusion on an issue and what the arguments are about those issues.
3. To Evaluate these viewpoints to arrive at your own conclusion. Which view is the most reasonable, which has the best evidence for it? How can this evidence be weighed to determine a reasonable answer? How can one reach an answer that is not merely an opinion, but a view that can be defended and shown to be the result of significant evidence?
4. To Argue Rationally by providing evidence for your point of view and by understanding and giving fair weight to the evidence against it.
5. To Communicate the results of this process of comprehension, analysis and evaluation, in person and on paper.

Read: How to Do Well in Philosophy

Philosophy is the discipline that includes those who are thought to be the greatest and wisest thinkers of all time. At some time in one’s life, one should take time to think about the Big Issues. And what better time than college, when you are mature enough to understand philosophy and not yet totally engaged in the busy-ness of the rest of your adult life. For many, being exposed to such great minds and great works is reason enough to take philosophy courses and to even be a philosophy major.

But others may need more practical reasons. Now, everyone thinks that philosophy is probably the least practical major one could have. Be a philosophy major and you are certain to hear, over and over again, “What are you going to do with that?”

In fact, there’s a lot that you can do with it.
§        First, the philosophical skills you learn in this course can help you to think through difficult decisions, to reason better about ethical dilemmas and to get the most out of your other courses.
§        Second, Philosophy is an excellent pre-law major and philosophers get high scores on the LSAT.
§        Philosophy majors go on to succeed in careers in journalism, politics, business, and teaching.
§        We hear reports all the time from employers who love the problem-solving skills that their philosophy-major employees have. In a world where information changes rapidly, the ability to quickly absorb, analyze, interpret and make decisions about information is very valuable: philosophy majors have those abilities.
§        And the practicality of other majors is often exaggerated. There are actually very few majors that will lead you directly to a job in that discipline: almost all areas require some graduate work now, whether it’s biology or mathematics or political science or psychology.

The major here at CSUSB offers students the luxuries of small upper-division seminars, a state-of-the-art logic lab and opportunities to work closely with faculty in an individualized way. Double-majoring in philosophy and other disciplines is also quite feasible since the number of units required is modest (57 units). If you find that you are good at philosophy and enjoy it, be sure to talk to me about whether a philosophy major is right for you.

*Reading assignments are tentative and may change as we go through the quarter. Check the syllabus regularly for changes.

Part I: On Evil
Tues Jan. 9: first day of class Introlec
Thurs. Jan 11 read What is Evil?

Tues. Jan 16 read Virtues and Vices

read: The Good Samaritan

and the links inside it: Moral Universe

Compassion by the Dalai Lama

Compassion by me

read The Required and the Good

and the links inside it: Harms and Wrongs

Good Character

answer question 1

Group Answers

Discussion of Question 1

Thurs. Jan 18

Tues. Feb. 6 read Reasons of Love ch.2

Thurs. Feb. 8

Part II: On Goodness

Tues. Feb 13 read Frankfurt, Reasons of Love, ch. 1

Answer question 4

Thurs. Feb 15 re-read Moral Universe (this is a revised version, so if you have already downloaded it, you need to do so again.)

comments on question 2

comments on question 3

Tues. Feb 13 read Frankfurt, Reasons of Love, ch. 1 lecture

Answer question 4
question 4 comments

Thurs. Feb 15 read Moral Universe (this is a revised version, so if you have already downloaded it, you need to do so again.) Frankfurt lecture part 2

Tues. Feb. 20 read Frankfurt, Reasons of Love, ch. 2

Answer question 5

question 5 comments

overview of Frankfurt's view

Thurs. Feb 22 first in class exam---cancelled--you will be credited with 100 pts.
read Frankfurt Reasons of Love ch. 3

Tues. Feb. 27 -- Frankfurt continued
answer question 6

Thurs. March 1 Frankfurt continued
answer question 7

last day to turn in paper drafts for revision

Monday March 5: Dr. William Gay, "The Language of Peace and Violence" Chaparral Hall 135, 4pm (there's a bit more information on this link.)

50 pts. extra credit for attending and giving me notes and some critical reflection on his talk. You should tell me what he said, highlight the important or interesting points, and indicate in what ways you agree or disagree with what he said, and why.

Tues. March 6 read Buddha and the Terrorist, "Introduction" and chapters 1-3

read Dalai Lama on Compassion
read Buddhist Ethics
answer question 8

Thurs. March 8 read Buddha and the Terrorist, ch. 4-5
read Courage and Fear

answer question 9

Tues. March 13
read Buddha and the Terrorist, ch. 6
read Revenge

read Forgiveness
answer question 10

Thurs. March 15 Buddha and the Terrorist, ch. 7
last day of class; second in-class exam moved to date of final exam
answer question 11

Date of final exam: Thursday March 22---second in-class exam moved to this date
last day to hand in papers

1. Study Questions: 12 questions @50 pts. = possible 600 pts.
On the day of each reading assignment, you will be asked to turn in written answers to study questions on those readings. These questions will form the basis of discussion for that period. Study questions will ask about reading from the texts and sometimes about material from the website. Each study question is worth a possible 50 pts. Study questions will be announced in class and posted on the website before the class period on which they are due. There are 14 questions assigned and I will count the highest 12 of them toward your grade. This allows you to complete miss two questions. Do not ask to rewrite or turn in questions late.
Write answers to each of these questions before class. Please type if possible; if not, see that they are neat and legible. Answers should be approximately one-half page (200-250 words) in length using a 12 pt. font and single-spacing.
Do not quote from the readings word for word or closely paraphrase them. If you cannot answer a question in your own words, then you have not yet understood the reading. Read it again, come see me, call me up, e-mail me.
At the beginning of each class, you will get into groups to discuss these questions. Each group is to spend approximately 15-20 minutes discussing each question in an attempt to reach a consensus on its answer. Discussion and debate are expected. See Rules for Good Discussion below.
After 20 minutes, each group will spend the next 15-20 minutes composing a written collective answer to the question. Each group will hand in its collective answer to the question with each participant’s name on it. This collective answer should:
(a) explain clearly what the question is and
(b) explain clearly, carefully and thoroughly what your reasons are for arriving at this judgment.
Reasons should include
§         the reasons that convinced you that this answer was correct
§         and all reasons that were presented against your answer and
§         why you were not convinced by those reasons to adopt a different answer.
(c) If you cannot form a consensus then dissenters should write out their own explanations of why they disagree with the consensus and submit their dissents with their names on it.
These answers are not to be taken word-for-word from the written answers of any member of the group. They are to be newly-written to reflect the results of your discussion. Even if you decide that one (or more) of you had it right before discussion, the process of rewriting is educational--do it anyway.
Each written answer--individual and group-- will be assessed by me for its clarity, thoroughness, accuracy and insight into the issues involved.

Your individual answer will receive a numerical grade, 0-50
Your group answer will also receive a grade from 0-50
Your net grade (this is the one that counts toward your final grade) will be
• Your individual grade if it is higher than the group grade.
§        The group grade if it is higher than your individual grade unless your individual grade is 10 pts. or more lower than the group grade. In that case you will receive your individual grade as your net grade.
§         If you participate in the group discussion and in the preparation of the group answer, but did not prepare an individual answer, you will receive a score of 50% of the group answer score.
§         If you turn in an individual answer but do not participate in the group discussion and preparation you will receive 75% of your individual score.
§         If you do neither one, you will receive a zero.

2. Short in-class exams on
(1) Morton, On Evil and The Buddha and the Terrorist and assigned weblinks.
(2) Frankfurt, The Reasons of Love and assigned weblinks.
possible 100 pts each

3. Term Paper possible 200 pts
Each student will write a 1500-2000 word paper essay on one of the assigned study questions or any topics from a list that I wll give you. (this is equivalent to about a 5-7 pp. 12-pt single-spaced paper.) (Any student wishing to write on a different question, feel free to see me about it. If it’s a good question that is relevant to the subject matter, I will very likely approve it.)
Drafts:
You may write one or more drafts. I strongly encourage you to write at least one draft. Drafts will be returned to you with grades and comments. At that point, you may
§         Accept the grade you have, in which case I will ask only that you submit to me a set of responses to my comments.
OR
§         Rewrite the paper for a higher grade
After getting this paper back you may once again either accept the grade and submit responses to my comments or you may write it again for a higher grade. You may rewrite as many times as there is time for: the last day on which you can submit a draft for a grade and comments is Thursday March 1.
To be clear: if you turn in a draft on or before March 1, I will grade it and return it and you may then write another draft. After March 1, I will not have time to grade and return papers in time for you to rewrite.
You do not need to turn in a draft at all. If you are very confident in your writing skills and your philosophical skills, and have been doing very well on the assigned questions, you might want to take a chance on just handing in a paper on the day of the final. But you are taking a chance if you do that. Again: drafts are strongly recommended, but not required.
Papers are to be typed. I am not fussy about margins, font size, single vs. double-spacing et. al.

Clarity of expression: Clarity of expression measures how easy it is to understand your writing. This has two parts: (a) clarity in choice of words, and (b) clarity in the way you phrase your words. If your score is low on clarity of expression, you need to work on how you say what you mean. Try to choose a word that expresses exactly what you mean to say rather than one that only roughly does so--try to say exactly what you mean rather than settle for an approximation. Remember that your words are clear to you but might not be so to someone else without your background to help interpret your words.
Clarity of explanation: This is clarity in how well you explain something. If your score is low in clarity of explanation, you need to explain your point more thoroughly. What you say may be quite clear in expression but still be an unclear explanation because you haven’t said enough.
Clarity of Organization: is putting your discussion in some clear structure so that the reader can know where s/he is. Your organization score is low if you jump around from point to point, if there isn't a clear reason why one claim follows the previous claim, if the reader is confused about why this point is being made here instead of somewhere else more logical. Try to put all the points that are related to one issue in the same place and to order the issues in a logical way. An outline is excellent for this: you can outline beforehand and follow the outline while writing, or you can write first and then outline the result and see if the outline makes any sense.
Accuracy: simply means getting the facts right. If your score is low on accuracy, it means you need to work harder on getting the facts right. Be as exact as you can; give the facts as clearly and exactly as possible. Don't settle for approximately right. Be sure to include the necessary detail and qualifications to make what you say as exact as you can.
Insight. Insight measures how well you have understood the issues. It goes beyond accuracy: one can be superficially accurate. It has to do with depth of understanding and of knowing how things relate to one another intellectually. It’s a measure of your feel for the issue.
Thoroughness: Thoroughness means that you have said all that needs to be said with respect to your question. You need to make sure that you answer all parts of a question, and you need to make sure you include as much relevant information as you can in the space allotted to you. A low thoroughness grade means you left something important out. Doing so can harm an otherwise good essay. (Notice lack of clarity of explanation is often a lack of thoroughness of a part of an essay.)Thoroughness is a measure of how adequately you have covered all parts of the essay and of whether you have included all the parts that need to be included.
Relevance is sticking to the point and not including material that doesn’t help to explain or answer your question.
Soundness or Cogency is a measure of how well you argue for your conclusions. A low cogency score means that you don’t show how the claims you make really support your conclusion. You don’t really show that your conclusion is supported by evidence. Your facts need to show why your choice of a particular conclusion is the best choice. The better you can do that, the higher your cogency score will be.
And finally, Imagination. A really good essay will surprise me by coming up with a novel argument or a creative approach to the topic. This often accompanies insight.
Summing Up:

Created on Monday, January 8, 2007 10:38:35 PM US/Pacific from /Users/tommoody/Documents/laptop.vpdoc

Reading and Assignment Schedule (also below on this page)	How to Do Well in Philosophy
Announcements: check before coming to class http://web.mac.com/moodythomas/iWeb/Site%204	Key to Marks on Essays and Papers Critical Reasoning Skills Faults in Critical Reasoning Skills
Grade Requirements (also below on this page)	How to Write and Revise Philosophy Papers
	Onion Method I & Onion Method II
Grades sec. 1	Paper Topics
Grades sec. 2