PHIL& 101: Introduction to Philosophy
Winter Quarter 2014 Syllabus
Instructor: Steven M. Duncan
E-mail: sduncan@bellevuecollege.edu
Phone: (425) 564-3103
Office location: B100 A
Office Hours: 11:30 - 12:30 Tuesdays and
Thursdays
Philosophy department’s web site: http://bellevuecollege.edu/philosophy/
Course Information
The range of questions that philosophers
investigate is perhaps as diverse as can be found in the empirical sciences. We
will cover a broad range of topics including but not limited to the nature of
mind and consciousness, free will and determinism, knowledge and skepticism and
the nature of morality. We will read a broad range of classic and contemporary
philosophers. No text purchase is required for this course. All readings will
be available free online or on the website for this course.
In case you are considering majoring in
philosophy, you should be prepared to answer you parents and friends when they
ask what you plan to do with a philosophy degree. Tell them you plan to live
well and make a living. Tell them that philosophy majors earn more than any
other arts and humanities major and more than most social science majors (the
exceptions being the dark arts of economics and political science.)
http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/degrees.asp
Here's another link on this subject:
https://sites.google.com/site/whystudyphilosophy/
Of course, you might find philosophy enjoyable
even if you are already anxious to go into Management Information Systems or
Aerospace Engineering.
Course Outcomes
The official outcomes for this course are as
follows:
Upon successful
completion of this course, students will be able to
Some unofficial commentary: People come in all
kinds of different. What you get out of studying philosophy depends as much on
who you are and how you’ve experienced the world so far as anything I or any other
philosopher can tell you. Philosophy provides rich intellectual (and emotional
and spiritual) nourishment. But to commit to specific outcomes about what you
will understand or be able to do at the end of this course is analogous to a
gardener saying plant here and you’ll get a nice zucchini. But maybe you are a
rose, not a zucchini.
According to Socrates, the point of doing
philosophy is the leading of the examined life. But the examined life is not a
bit of knowledge or a specific skill or ability that can be captured in any
sort of course outcome. Leading the examined life does involve applying one’s
capacity for reason to better understanding one’s own nature as a human being
and the nature of the world. But given our unique backgrounds, talents and
limitations, there is no saying just what route your examined life will take or
what perspectives it will open up for you. The real outcomes for studying
philosophy can only be identified after the fact. For me to specify the
outcomes for your study of philosophy up front would amount to stating the
moral of your story without having read it (much less lived it). One shudders
at the arrogance of it.
Though Socrates was among the founders of
philosophy as an academic discipline (and I’m not so sure he’d be happy about
that) this hardly gives him the final say about the point of doing philosophy.
My motivation for doing philosophy has never been quite so
noble as attaining enlightened self-awareness or acquiring wisdom. I’ve simply
found the problems of philosophy to be amusing and absorbing. Finding the
interplay of philosophical ideas amusing and absorbing is the course outcome
I’d most sincerely wish for you.
How Outcomes will be met
A good deal of reading and writing and lots of
conversation.
Course Requirements:
Attendance: A college course
requires a significant amount of time and attention. While we do not meet on
campus at a set time, attending the course is required in other ways. A 5
credit course is defined as one that meets for 5 hours a week. While you get to
choose the hours, you are required to be in class for 5 hours a week. This
includes activities on the site like reading lecture notes, reading and
participating in discussions and taking assessments. In addition, you should
expect to put well over 5 hours a week into reading and writing outside of
class. I do run activity logs that show how much time students are putting into
various activities on the site, what documents you are reading and so forth. If
my logs show significantly less than 50 hours of active time in the course,
then you have an attendance problem that may adversely affect your grade.
Assignments and
Assessments: Your grade in this
course will be determined by your performance on a variety of assignments and
quizzes plus your participation on class discussion boards. There will be short
comprehension quizzes on the reading assignments, brief essay assignments that
may ask you to reflect on ideas from the reading or explain arguments offered
by the philosophers we will read. Most assignments and assessments will be
fairly brief, but a few (2 or 3) will be more involved tests including multiple
choice, true false, short answer and essay questions.. Assignments and
assessments will have deadlines. There will usually be ways for you to work
ahead, but do not fall behind and try not to let things wait until the last
minute (do you really trust your router that much?). I need to adhere to
deadlines in order to get timely feedback to the class.
Late work: While I would like to be infinitely flexible, I have found
that I cannot both deal constantly with late work and quizzes and be available
to discuss course material with students who are staying on schedule. So it
will be your responsibility to make the course deadlines. Plan accordingly.
Limited flexibility is built into the course. Quizzes must be taken during the
time windows posted on the course calendar. Quizzes will remain open for 24
hours past the posted due time and can be taken during that grace period
without penalty. The Canvas site will accept assignments (not quizzes) up
to one week after the deadline. Late assignments will be penalized 10% or 1
point which ever is greater, no exceptions.
Assignments will not be accepted later than one week after posted deadlines.
The one exception to this policy is the final assignment for the course which
cannot be submitted late.
Grading: Essay questions and brief essay assignments will typically be
graded on a 10 point scale with 9 or 10 point scores representing the A to A-
range, 8 point scores representing B work, 7 point scores representing C work
and so forth. Points for assignments will show up in you grade book. So, at any
point in the course, you should be able to identify how many of the available
points you have earned. My deliberations for letter grades for the course start
with a 10% scale where point totals above 90% are A
range, 80% to 89% are B range and so forth. But I may adjust the scale for
final grades based on the overall performance of the class.
There will be points available for participation
on the discussion boards. Here I will be looking for engagement with the
material, including but not limited to explanation and analysis of arguments,
insightful questions, questions of clarification, objections to arguments and
so forth. Philosophy is done by critically questioning ideas and arguments. So
do this, but there is generally little to be gained by criticizing people. So
keep your critical focus on ideas and lines of reasoning. If one of your ideas
draws some critical attention, you should (a) remember that it is an idea or
argument that is being critically examined, not you, and (b) be flattered that
someone considers your idea or argument worthy of careful attention. Approach
discussions with humble good humor and don’t be shy. If you are shy anyway, you
can earn some discussion points from personal emails with me. If a personal
discussion is interesting, I may want to share it with the class, but I’ll
protect the identity of the innocent should they prefer.
Secrets to success
Stay active and engaged. Being active starts
with keeping up with the reading and discussion. Being engaged with the
material will show in your writing and participation in discussion. I will be
encouraging scholarship and looking for evidence of it and the intellectual
maturity scholarship brings. Well-intentioned contributions in class can help
you significantly. Inappropriate or disrespectful behavior may adversely affect
your grade in the course. You should consult the BC course catalog
for information on grading standards at this institution. http://bellevuecollege.edu/about/publications/catalog/
Maintaining a good learning environment will be
your responsibility as well as mine. Philosophy is best learned
through actively engaging in discussion of the issues. You may have
strong feelings about some of the issues we will discuss. This is
fine and it will present no problem so long as we all make respect for each
other a guiding principle of our inquiry. While the experience will
be new to many of you, talking about the existence of God or the nature of
morality with people that disagree with you can actually be fun. Keep in mind
that what matters most in philosophy is that we do a good job at evaluating the
reasons for and against the views we consider. And we can do a good
job at this quite independent of our feelings about those views. That we
all end up agreeing is not essential to a fruitful philosophical
dialogue. That we are amicable and gracious towards one another is.
I take a dim view of cheating and plagiarism. Write your own
stuff. I have a duty to report cheating, plagiarism and other
conduct that is destructive to the course to administration and student services. I
would appreciate not having to act on that duty.
Student Concerns
Should you have concerns about any aspect of the
class, I invite you to bring them to me. In any of your classes, if for any
reason you don’t feel comfortable speaking with your instructor, the usual next
step would be to talk with the program chair. Since I am the program chair for
philosophy, if for any reason you don’t feel comfortable raising your concerns
with me, you can bring concerns about this class to the Arts and Humanities
Division Dean, Maggie Harada (maggie.harada@bellevuecollege.edu) or the Assistant Dean, Scott Bessho (scott.bessho@bellevuecollege.edu) in the Arts and Humanities division office
(R230). An additional resource for concerns you find aren’t
being addressed by faculty or administration is the Ombuds
Office: (http://www.bellevuecollege.edu/ombuds/default.html).
Affirmation of Inclusion
Bellevue College is committed to
maintaining an environment in which every member of the campus community feels
welcome to participate in the life of the college, free from harassment and
discrimination.
We value our different backgrounds at Bellevue
College, and students, faculty, staff members, and administrators are to treat
one another with dignity and respect. http://bellevuecollege.edu/about/goals/inclusion.asp
Division Statements
You should also the Arts and Humanities
Expectations posted here: http://bellevuecollege.edu/artshum/policy.html
Information about Bellevue College’s copyright
guidelines can be found at: http://bellevuecollege.edu/lmc/links/copyright.html
A good resource for Plagiarism is the
Writing Lab: http://bellevuecollege.edu/writinglab/Plagiarism.html
Student Code
“Cheating, stealing and plagiarizing (using the
ideas or words of another as one’s own without crediting the source) and
inappropriate/disruptive classroom behavior are violations of the Student Code
of Conduct at Bellevue College. Examples of unacceptable behavior
include, but are not limited to: talking out of turn, arriving late or leaving
early without a valid reason, allowing cell phones/pagers to ring, and inappropriate
behavior toward the instructor or classmates. The instructor can
refer any violation of the Student Code of Conduct to the Vice President of
Student Services for possible probation or suspension from Bellevue
College. Specific student rights, responsibilities and appeal
procedures are listed in the Student Code of Conduct, available in the office
of the Vice President of Student Services.” The Student Code, Policy
2050, in its entirety is located at: http://bellevuecollege.edu/policies/2/2050_Student_Code.asp
Important Links
Bellevue College E-mail
and access to MyBC
All students registered for classes at Bellevue
College are entitled to a network and e-mail account. Your student
network account can be used to access your student e-mail, log in to computers
in labs and classrooms, connect to the BC wireless network and log in to MyBC. To create your account, go to: https://bellevuecollege.edu/sam
BC offers a wide variety of computer and
learning labs to enhance learning and student success. Find current campus
locations for all student labs by visiting the Computing Services website.
Disability Resource
Center DRC)
The Disability Resource Center serves students
with a wide array of learning challenges and disabilities. If you are a student
who has a disability or learning challenge for which you have documentation or
have seen someone for treatment and if you feel you may need accommodations in
order to be successful in college, please contact us as soon as possible. If
you are a person who requires assistance in case of an emergency situation,
such as a fire, earthquake, etc, please meet with
your individual instructors to develop a safety plan within the first week of
the quarter. The DRC office is temporarily located in the Library Media Center
(D126) or you can call our reception desk at 425.564.2498. Deaf
students can reach us by video phone at 425-440-2025 or by TTY at
425-564-4110. Please visit our website for application
information into our program and other helpful links at www.bellevuecollege.edu/drc
Public Safety
The Bellevue College (BC) Public Safety
Department’s well trained and courteous non-commissioned staff provides
personal safety, security, crime prevention, preliminary investigations, and
other services to the campus community, 24 hours per day,7
days per week. Their phone number is 425.564.2400. The
Public Safety website is your one-stop resource for campus emergency
preparedness information, campus closure announcements and critical information
in the event of an emergency. Public Safety is located in K100 and on the web at:http://bellevuecollege.edu/publicsafety/
Final Exam Schedule
http://bellevuecollege.edu/classes/exams
Academic Calendar
The Bellevue College Academic Calendar is
separated into two calendars. They provide information about holidays, closures
and important enrollment dates such as the finals schedule.
Enrollment Calendar - http://bellevuecollege.edu/enrollment/calendar/deadlines/. On this calendar you will find admissions and registration dates
and important dates for withdrawing and receiving tuition refunds.
College Calendar - http://bellevuecollege.edu/enrollment/calendar/holidays/0910.asp.
This calendar gives you the year at a glance and
includes college holidays, scheduled closures, quarter end and start dates, and
final exam dates.