MW
Office Hours: MW
Office: 330B RC
Office phone: (631) 244-3349
E-mail: perringc@dowling.edu (please put “PHL003” in the subject line of your email, and make sure your message contains your first and last names)
Home page: http://alien.dowling.edu/~cperring
This course aims to introduce you to the philosophical discussion of knowledge and reality as addressed by both historically important and contemporary writers. We will focus on issues about our own nature, the nature of the world, and the status of our beliefs about the world and ourselves. You will learn how to read a philosophical text so to understand the claims and arguments of the author, and to appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments. You will also learn to formulate and justify your own philosophical views. One of the main goals of this course is to improve your skills of thinking and arguing on topics for which there are no straightforward ways of discovering the truth, and ultimately these skills should be useful in your personal and professional life. You will be encouraged to continually consider how philosophical investigation could make a difference to how you live.
All papers should be submitted via Turnitin.com or sent to me by email as an attachment in MS Word or RTF. I will give you information about how to use Turnitin.com. Note that I view any form of academic dishonesty very seriously, and if I find that you have engaged in any form of plagiarism or cheating I will fail you in this course and report my action to the Dean of Students.
There will be two in-class tests, consisting of short-answers questions. You will write 6 personal reflections of at least 400 words. There will be two papers, one of 4 pages, and the other of 6 pages. You will need to write a draft of your 8 page paper.
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2 Tests |
10% each = 20% |
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Papers (1200 words and 1800 words) |
20% and 30% |
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Attendance |
5% (-1% for each class missed without excuse) |
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Class participation |
5% |
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Personal Reflections (6) |
20% |
Textbook:
Philosophical
Questions: Readings and Interactive Guides. James Fieser and
Norman Lillegard (
Attendance: If you need to miss a class, you should
notify me by phone or email before the class.
Your attendance grade will suffer significantly if you miss classes
without excuse. If you miss classes, you
should request make-up work from me. To
get full credit for attendance, you need to be in class on time, be there for
the full class time, and you need to be awake and paying attention to the
class. If you have to miss class for a
legitimate reason, you should provide me with some evidence for your excuse.
Participation: You should participate in class discussion,
both answering questions that are put to the class, raising questions when you
do not fully understand an idea or a part of the text, or what someone in the
class says.
Keep copies of all your writing. For any paper or piece of writing, there is a chance that I will mislay it. So you must keep a copy of everything that you give me. If your copy is electronic, you should keep your copy in at least 3 different places (floppy disk, hard drive, memory card, jump drive, etc) in order to minimize the danger of losing it in a computer crash or hardware failure. If you give me something handwritten, you should photocopy or scan it first.
Due dates: Work is due on the day stated in the
schedule. You can give it to me in
class, in my office if I am there, in my mailbox, or by e-mail or using
turnitin.com by
Personal Reflections: These should be at least 400 words, in
grammatical English. They will not be
graded, but I will give you some feedback on them. You either get credit for them or you don't. They are not meant to be academically
challenging, but are meant to give you the opportunity to link the topics of
the class to your own life and ideas you have about how best to make
decisions. It is up to you how much of
your own personal experience you include, but you are encouraged to link your
own life with philosophical discussions.
Grading: As a rough guide, I assign the following
meanings to grades:
A - excellent
B - good
C- effort made but major problems
D - some understanding and effort made, but deep confusion
F - little understanding and little effort made, or complete
lack of understanding.
Extra
credit and make-ups. I will sometimes allow students to get extra credit by attending talks,
exhibitions or performances at
Test-taking and special needs. If
you need extra time or special conditions to take a test, please let me know at
least a week before.
Classroom
Etiquette. All
cell phones ringers should be turned off and you should never talk on your cell
phone in class. You should not eat any
food in class, especially food that others will notice through sound or smell. You should turn up on time to all
classes. Prepare yourself before class
so you don't need to take a bathroom break.
However, if you do need to leave the classroom briefly, choose a moment
when it will not disrupt the class much.
You should not take a long break during the middle of class: if you do,
you may be counted as absent Even if you are tired, you should stay awake and
keep your eyes open. Your attention
needs to be on the class, and you should not do other reading or work during
the class. If your attention is not on
the class, you may be counted as absent.
You are free to express your views and question the views of others,
including your professor, and you can be passionate about your opinions. However, you must always treat others in the
class with respect; you can criticize the views and arguments of others, but
you cannot criticize them as persons.
You should also make sure you are not dominating classroom discussion to
the exclusion of other class members.
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Date |
Topic |
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Work Due |
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M Jan 31 |
Introduction |
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W Feb 2 |
Mysticism and Religious Experience |
PQ 52-60, Ch 2. C1 & C2 |
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M 7 |
|
PQ 60-68, Ch 2, C3 & C4 |
|
|
W 9 |
The Design Argument for God's Existence |
PQ 83-99, Ch 2, F |
Reflection: Do we have less reason to believe mystical experiences than we do other experiences? |
|
M 14 |
Faith and Rationality |
PQ 99-114, Ch 2, G |
|
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W 16 |
Determinism Versus Free Will |
PQ 116-124, Ch 3, A1-2 |
First paper topics given out |
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W 23 |
|
PQ 125-137, Ch 3, A3-4 |
Reflection: Do you believe that you act freely? Would it make any difference to you if you were wrong about this? |
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M 28 |
|
PQ 137-146 , Ch 3, A5 |
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W Mar 2 |
Review |
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M 7 |
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Test (in class) |
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W 9 |
Identity and Survival |
PQ 147-156, Ch 3, B1-2 |
Reflection: Is the idea that we have no self disturbing or liberating for you? |
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M 14 |
|
PQ 156-164, Ch 3, B3 |
|
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W 16 |
Souls, Minds, and Bodies |
PQ 222-233, Ch 4, A1-3 |
First paper due |
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M 21 |
|
PQ 233-243, Ch 4, B1-C1 |
|
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W 23 |
|
PQ 243-250, Ch 4, C2-D1 |
Second paper
topics given out |
|
M 28 |
|
PQ 250-258, Ch 4, D2-3 |
Reflection: Do you think the best way to understand another person is to understand her brain chemistry? |
|
W 30 |
Minds and Machines |
PQ 282-290, Ch 4, F1 |
|
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M Apr 4 |
|
PQ 290-304, Ch 4, F2-3 |
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W 6 |
|
PQ 304-314, Ch 4, F4-5 |
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M 11 |
Review |
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W 13 |
|
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Test (in class) |
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M 18 |
Skepticism and Certainty |
PQ 316-326, Ch 5, A1-3 |
Reflection: Would you be upset if all your previous experience turned out to be an illusion? |
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W 20 |
|
PQ 326-334, Ch 5, A4-5 |
Draft of second paper due |
|
M May 2 |
Rationalism and Empiricism |
PQ 334-342, Ch 5, B1-2 |
|
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W 4 |
Perception |
PQ 342-348, Ch 5, B3 |
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M 9 |
A priori knowledge |
PQ 348-360, Ch 5, C1 |
Second paper due |
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W 11 |
Foundationalism and Coherence |
PQ 360-372, Ch 5, D1-2 |
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