I. Course Description: An introduction to some of the main themes in philosophy.  We'll discuss the existence of God; freedom of the will; personal identity; some ethics; death and the absurd; liberty; autonomy.  Some of the primary sources will be available on-line at my homepage; you are responsible for downloading them. If you do not have a computer account, get one for free from SIUE.

II. Course objectives: (1) to assist students in acquiring an understanding and appreciation of some philosophical issues and perspectives; (2) to develop the ability of students to identify, evaluate and compare philosophical positions on the basis of arguments; (3) to develop the capacity of students to reason to their own views on philosophical issues.

III. Course-Format: Mostly lecture, with discussion as far as possible.  As a courtesy towards the students in this class, I have  put my lectures on-line at my homepage; please look at them as you see fit.  Note that the on-line lectures may contain more (or less) than is presented in class. For this reason, on-line lectures cannot substitute for the readings, class attendance, and class participation, which are essential in considering the problems raised in the course. Since SIUE is a university and treating adults as children encourages infantilism, I do not take roll: students are free to attend or not. However, I would appreciate if you avoid reading the newspaper, playing games on some electronic device, falling asleep, gossiping during class, or behaving disrespectfully towards your fellow students. If you do not like the class, just DROP it. Not everybody likes philosophy.

IV. Texts:
1) Perry/Bratman (eds.), Introduction to Philosophy   Fourth edition  (Rental Text) [I]
2 ) John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (Rental Text) [L]
3 ) Assorted on-line material, including episodes from Philosophy Talk.

V. Course outline, readings and quizzes.

Weeks 1-2 : Free Will and Determinism: I 451-463. Listen to episode from Philosophy Talk. End of second week: First quiz.
Week 3: Movie: Groundhog Day. Discussion

Week 4: God: God's attributes; The Cosmological Argument and the Argument from Design; Readings: download Clarke. I 82-85; I 128-32. Paley and Darwin. Listen to episode from Philosophy Talk. Listen to another episode, if you like (not required).

Week 5: The problem of evil. Reading: handout. Meaning of life: Reading: handout. Listen to episode from Philosophy Talk. End of fifth week: Second Quiz.
Week 6: Showing of The Seventh Seal. Discussion.

Week 7: The Self and its Identity. Reading: I 369-382. The memory theory of personal identity.
Week 8: Movie: Memento. Discussion. End of eighth week: Third Quiz; First paper due (download paper topics)

Week 9: Universalization and the Golden Rule; Utilitarianism. Reading: I 489-508.
Week 10: Kant. Reading: I 536-552.
Week 11: Sartre's Existentialism is a Humanism; (download); Listen to episode from Philosophy Talk. Baier on why be moral: Handout. End of eleventh week: Fourth Quiz.

Week 12: Movie: Crimes and Misdemeanors. Discussion.

Week 13: Suicide. Reading: (Download Hume's "On Suicide " ) (Download Aquinas on suicide); handout: Kant on suicide. Listen to episode from Philosophy Talk. If you're interested in assisted suicide, you may want to listen to this episode from Philosophy Talk (not required). End of thirteenth week: Fifth Quiz.
Week 14: Liberty. Readings: L (Mill's On Liberty); handout: Lord Devlin on the enforcement of morality.
Week 15: Death Penalty. Readings: Handout. Marshall's dissenting opinion in Gregg v. Georgia. Listen to episode from Philosophy Talk. Review. Last day of class: Sixth Quiz; Second paper due (download paper topics )
 

Answers to quizzes 1-5; Answer to quiz 6.

VI. Course requirements.
1) Six multiple-choice quizzes (for dates, see the course outline), some take home some in class, each worth 4 points  (4% of the course grade). The quizzes may be based on class lectures, class discussion, or episodes from Philosophy Talk listed in the syllabus. There may be some unannounced pop quizzes for extra points.
2) Two papers, typed, double spaced, and 4 full pages long; each will be worth 30 points, that is, 30% of the course grade.  For due dates, consult the course outline. Do not e-mail your paper to me unless in extreme circumstances.
3) A one hour long comprehensive final exam, consisting of a multiple choice quiz and a short essay, which will be worth 20% of the course grade. The essay topic will be chosen by me out of the following Topics for final . You do not get to choose the essay topic.
4 ) The correspondence between points and grades is as follows: above 90: A; 89-80: B; 79-70: C; 69-59: D; fewer than 59 points: F. To determine how you are doing at any time in the semester, multiply the number of points you have gained up to that time by 100 and then divide by the number of possible points up to that time (excluding any extra points resulting from pop quizzes, etc.). A look at the correspondence between points and grades given above will tell you the letter grade you have earned. For example, suppose that by week 9 you have 35 points. Since the maximum number of points obtainable by then (excluding possible extra points) is 42 (12 from quizzes and 30 from the first paper), one gets 35x100=3500, which divided by 42 gives 83.3, a letter grade of B.

VII. Academic policies.
Students are responsible for knowing what has been said in class, especially announcements concerning reading assignments and papers.  Papers or quizzes may be based on classroom discussions not derived from any written material.  If for any reason you miss some classes, make sure to find out, e.g., from some other student, what has been done in class.
Be aware that SIUE's policies against plagiarism are very severe and that I am bound to implement them.

VIII. Papers
1) You are encouraged to give me rough drafts of your papers.  Keep in mind that I can return them with significant comments only if: i) they are given to me at least one week before the papers are due; ii) they are written reasonably clearly.  Rough drafts consisting only of disjointed paragraphs or, worse, mere paragraph headings cannot be properly evaluated.  You may turn in your rough drafts as many times as you like, compatibly with the above requirements.
If you get stuck, talk about it to your colleagues or come and talk to me during my office hours.
2) Grading criteria for papers are as follows.  A paper providing all the information adequately and accurately in clear prose substantially free of spelling and grammatical mistakes will be in the C to low B range.  A paper which in addition to meeting this requirement shows reasonably clear and cogent arguments will be in the B range.  A paper which shows significant originality, clarity and cogency will be in the A range.
My reading a student's rough draft of a paper does not entail  that the paper, even if my comments are considered, will get a "B" or an "A."   Often a bad paper must be revised more than once to become good.
A half letter grade will be subtracted from a given paper for every solar day  it is late.  If you cannot turn in the paper on time, talk to me before the due date.
Some misspellings are particularly awful and should be carefully avoided.  Here are some:
it's/its; there/their; cite/site; principal/principle; than/then; to/too/two; who's/whose; weather/whether; conscience/conscious; since/sense; coarse/course.
Note that a spell checker won't catch these!
In addition, the following are serious misspelling errors:
arguement, diety, concieve, decieve, percieve, sieze, truely, wholely, existance, dependance.
If unsure about how to spell these words correctly, check a dictionary.

Here is some useful advice on how to write a philosophy paper. If you're interested, here is a sample paper. If your writing is particularly bad, there is little help I can offer; I strongly suggest you find professional help at the writing center,

IX. Thought Questions (download). As this course is always changing, in addition to pertinent material they contain some extra stuff you need not concern yourselves with. Many students find this course difficult, mainly because they are unused to thinking philosophically. Diligence and class participation usually solve the problem. However, this requires putting enough effort into the course; if you are not prepared or are unable to do that, please just drop the class NOW.