Phil 111 Introduction to Philosophy (Ezio Vailati)
Spring 2013
Office: PH 2212.
Phone #: x.
3376
Homepage: http://www.siue.edu/~evailat (click on "Courses" and then on
"Introduction to Philosophy")
email: evailat@siue.edu. If you email me, identify
yourselves as taking this class.
Office
Hours:
M 11-12; M 5-6; T 5-6, and by appointment if necessary
I. Course Description: An
introduction to some of the main themes in philosophy. We'll discuss God
and atheism, freedom of the will, personal identity, and some theoretical and
applied ethics. Some of the primary sources will be available on-line at
my homepage; you are responsible for downloading them.
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; (4) to teach students to read philosophical texts.
III. Course-Format: Mostly lecture,
with discussion as far as possible at the beginning of the course. As students increase their philosophical
proficiency, lecturing will diminish until it will almost disappear towards the
end of the course. As a courtesy towards the students in this class, I
have put my lectures on-line; they are reachable by clicking on the
appropriate items in the syllabus.
Please look at them before you
come to class. Note that the on-line lectures may contain less, or more,
than is presented in class. On-line lectures cannot substitute for the
readings, class attendance, and class participation, which are essential for
learning the course material.
IV. In class behavior: Students are
required to display common courtesy.
Hence, while in class avoid
activities like reading the newspaper or material unrelated to the course,
playing games on some electronic or other device, texting, surfing the net even
if in the back of the class, chatting, or behaving disrespectfully towards your
fellow students. At my discretion, transgressors may be required to leave
the class and lose 3% of the course grade for every offense. Egregious cases will be reported to the
Dean. Keep in mind that class discussion
is best conducted in a serene climate even when opposing views are strongly
held by the participants. Hence use your
common sense: on the one hand we want to avoid ‘respect creep’ and on the other
hand we want to avoid being offensive.
V. Texts:
1) Perry/Bratman (eds.), Introduction to
Philosophy Fourth edition (Rental Text) [I]
2) Handouts, and assorted on-line material
VI. Course outline, readings and
quizzes.
FIRST SEGMENT: SOME EXISTENTIAL
ISSUES
Weeks 1-3 (Jan. 7-23): Atheism
and God; two arguments for
and against. Readings: Davies’ article
handout. Don’t we have to believe on faith
anyway? Download Paley's
argument
January 21: MLK day-- Holiday
End of third week: First quiz
Week 4 (Jan 28-30): Atheism, death, and the meaning of life. Readings: Nagel handout; Download Epicurus’
argument.
SECOND SEGMENT: SOME METAPHYSICS
Week 5 (Feb. 4-6): Free
Will and Determinism.
Readings: Download. End of fifth week:
Second Quiz
Week 6 (Feb. 11-13): The
Self and its Identity. Reading: I 368-382. Look at this Split
brain video.
More split brain.
Week 7 (Feb. 18-20): Student exchange
of views on topics to be announced. Preliminary remarks on ethics.
THIRD SEGMENT: ETHICAL THEORY
Week 8 (Feb 25-27): A bit of
psychology: how do we reach moral judgments? Come with questions on the material covered
up to now as a preparation for the midterm.
End of eight week: Midterm
March 4-9: Spring Break
Week 9 (March 11-13): The relation
between morality and religion. Readings: handout on divine command theory;
Listen to debate between Kagan and Craig. End of ninth week: Third Quiz
Week 10 (March 18-20): Utilitarianism. Reading: I 489-508.
Week 11 (March 25-27): Kant. Reading: I 536-552.
Week 12 (April 1-3):
Finish Kant; Value Pluralism. W.D. Ross’ Intuitionism Reading: handout. End of twelfth week: Fourth Quiz.
FOURTH SEGMENT: APPLIED ETHICS
Week 13 (April 8-10): Abortion. Readings:
handouts.
Week 14 (April 15-17): Suicide. Reading: Download
Hume's "On Suicide " ; Download
Aquinas on suicide (only article five is directly
relevant); Kant on suicide handout.
Watch “Suicide Tourist”. Paper
due
Week 15 (April 22-24): Animals. Watch Peter Singer
lecture on the ethics of what we eat. Last day of class: Fifth Quiz.
VII. Course requirements.
·
Regular attendance for the whole class period. I’ll take attendance at different times;
every missed class hour without justification will result in a loss of .02% of
the course grade.
·
Reading the on-line lectures and
primary readings before coming to class
·
Participating in the exchange of
views among the class participants.
·
Five multiple-choice quizzes (for dates,
see the course outline), some take home and some in class, each worth 5
points (5% of the course grade). The quizzes may be based on class
discussion of issues not in the syllabus. There may be some unannounced pop
quizzes for extra points; only students in class at the time may take them; no exceptions.
·
A one-hour long midterm, worth 20%
of the course grade. For date, consult
the syllabus
·
One paper, typed, double spaced, and
4 full pages long, worth 25% of the course grade. For due date, consult the
course outline. Do not e-mail your paper to me unless in extreme
circumstances.
·
You will be paired with one or two other students and assigned an
oral presentation lasting about 5 minutes per student. You will choose an issue and
discuss it in the light of that day’s reading, or discuss an argument or a view
contained in that day’s reading. In
addition, you will identify a discussion point that will get your peers
thinking about the topic of your presentation.
Make sure you coordinate what you
are going to say with your co-presenters and come to see me before your
presentation to discuss what you are going to do. The presentation is worth
10% of the course grade. Failure
to do the scheduled presentation at the proper time amounts to losing the presentation
points.
·
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.
VIII. 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.
A indicates excellence; B indicates a competent command of skills
and material; C indicates some competency in some areas and poor command in
others or rather low competence overall; D indicates a poor competence overall;
F indicates an unacceptably low level of competence.
To determine how you are doing at any time in the semester,
multiply the number of points you have gained up to that time, including those
from pop quizzes, by 100 and then divide by the number of possible points up to
that time, excluding any extra points resulting from pop quizzes. 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 10 you have 35 points
and you have already done your presentation. Since the maximum number of points
obtainable by then (excluding possible extra points from pop quizzes) is 45 (15
from quizzes, 20 from the midterm, and 10 from the presentation), one gets
35x100=3500, which divided by 45 gives 78, a very high C.
IX. Academic policies
1.
Cheating of any kind
will be swiftly and severely punished according to the draconian guidelines of SIUE.
2.
Students are
responsible for knowing what has been said in class. Quizzes may be based on classroom
discussions not derived from any written material.
X. Paper
·
Students are strongly encouraged to give me electronic rough drafts of their
paper. 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. 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.
·
If you get stuck, talk about it to
your colleagues or talk to me.
·
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 clarity and cogency will be in the
A range.
·
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.
·
Here is some
useful advice on how to write a philosophy paper. If you're interested, here is
a very good sample paper.
If your writing is particularly bad, I strongly suggest you find professional
help at the writing center.