Spring Quarter
2013 - Course Syllabus
PHIL& 101 – Intro to Philosophy
Instructor: W. Russ Payne
E-mail: wpayne@bellevuecollege.edu
Phone: (425) 564-2079
Office location: B100 E
Office Hours: 10:30 – 12:20 Tuesday and
Thursday
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
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:
1.
recognize and use
basic philosophic vocabulary (e.g., “a priori,” “epistemology,” “contingent,”
etc) in in-class and take-home essays, short answer tests, or matching quizzes.
2.
recognize, assess, and
be able to use appropriate deductive or inductive argument strategies and
tactics. For instance, students should be able to recognize an arguments
logical sgtrengths or weaknesses, adn
be able to explain how the truth or falsity of the premises impacts teh argument.
3.
distinguish good
evidence or reasoning for a position from bad evidence or reasoning. For
example, students should be able to explain in a one page essay why a
philosopher has failed to support his or her position on a specific issue.
4.
explain in an essay
the arguments (i.e., evidence) for and against a specified position. For
example, students should be able to write a four-page, take-home essay
explaining the reasons an informed and intelligent person might accept the Foundationalist school of epistemology, and why such a
person would reject this school of thought.
5.
analyze philosophic
concepts in writing. For instance, students should be able give an analysis of
concepts such as Justice, Personhood, or the Good. Successful analyses would
include an adequate definition and considerations of potential counterexamples.
6.
accurately and
informatively explain the topics discussed by the philosophers studied in
class. For instance, students studying Descartes should be able to write a
one-page essay explaining what he means be mental and bodily substances.
7.
identify, distinguish,
and explain the different fields in Philosophy (e.g., epistemology,
metaphysics, logic). This may be assessed via short answer tests.
8.
write argumentative
essays containing clear thesis claims, strong arguments for the theses,
reasonable consideration of opposing views, and conforming to the
presentation/writing standards set forth in the “BC Philosophy Writing
Guidelines" (found at www.bellevuecollege.edu/philosophy).
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 will adversely affect your
grade.
Assignments and Assessments: Your grade in this course will be determined by your
performance on a variety of assignments and assessments 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.
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.
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
Bellevue College E-mail and access to MyBC
DisabilityResource Center(DRC)
http://bellevuecollege.edu/classes/exams
College Calendar
- http://bellevuecollege.edu/enrollment/calendar/holidays/0910.asp.