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PHI 2010 - Introduction
to Philosophy, Spring 2001
MWF 11:00-11:50 in CL1-104 University of Central Florida |
Dr. Nancy Stanlick/
E-mail: stanlick@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu
Office: HFA 411-I/Hours: MWF 9:30-10:45, M 4:00-4:30 & by appt. Phone: 407-823-5459, Dept. Phone: 407-823-2273 |
It is not required that you use
this on-line syllabus, but it is strongly suggested that you do.
Announcements, links, additional review questions (if applicable), and
other information relevant to this course will appear here. If you
need copies of review questions or this syllabus, computer labs may be
used, or you can use your own computer and printer.
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General Course
Description and Objective:
PHI 2010 is an introduction to major historical figures and issues in
philosophy. Topics include discussions in metaphysics, epistemology,
ethics, social philosophy and political philosophy. Subjects and
areas of inquiry may be further reduced to headings such as the nature
of being, substance and causality; the scope, nature, origin and limits
of human knowledge; the good, the right, and theoretical and practical
issues in morality; freedom, justice, rights; and the ordering of social
and governmental institutions and practices. The objective of this
course is to provide a comprehensive view of some of the perennial questions
of philosophy, to increase one's appreciation and understanding of the
nature of philosophical inquiry and reasoning, and to provide significant
development of critical and analytical ability.
Text:Primis' (A Division of McGraw-Hill Publishing Company) "Philosophy," a text designed specifically for this course for the fall 2000 and spring 2001 terms. The front cover of the book is very colorful; a window in the front cover shows the name of the course, the name of the instructor, and "University of Central Florida." The text is a compilation of primary works in philosophy. The ISBN is 0-390-18141-2. A different version of the text has been used in previous semesters. Some parts of it are relevant to this course. At least 5 works do NOT appear in the older text and at least one work has been omitted from the new one. I do not recommend using the old text.
Course Requirements, Grades, Attendance Policy, and Related Issues:
Requirements:Three examinations/tests are required and determine your grade for the course. Tests may be primarily "objective" in format, though any questions may be in essay or explanatory format. Tests will be announced prior to their administration (as well as listed in the syllabus schedule, below). Tests will be based on readings and lectures completed or assigned prior to the date of their administration. All tests are sectional tests. Tests count equally in determining your final grade for the course. From time to time, short in-class assignments, including quizzes or other brief written material, may be given. Failure to take quizzes or submit assignments will result in loss of percentage points from your final average. All tests are sectional tests. Quizzes and other assignments may be given at any time. If you miss a test, quiz or other assignment for a good, legitimate and verifiable reason, you may make it up within 3 class meeting days of its initial administration. Otherwise, you will receive a 0 for it. The lowest or missing quiz or assignment will be excluded from consideration for your final average, but all the tests count. Quizzes and other assignments will be worth no less than 5% of your final grade and no more than 20%. NOTE ADDED ON 1/22/2001: QUIZZES AND/OR IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENTS WILL COUNT COLLECTIVELY AS 19% OF YOUR FINAL GRADE. EACH MAJOR EXAMINATION WILL COUNT AS 27% OF YOUR FINAL GRADE. YOU MAY DROP ONE LOW OR MISSING QUIZ GRADE, BUT ALL THE EXAMINATIONS COUNT.
Grades and Grading Scale: A, 90-100; B, 80-89; C, 70-79; D, 60-69. Grades are not negotiable. See the link to ACADEMIC INTEGRITY. There is NO EXTRA CREDIT available in this course.
Attendance Policy: Attendance is strongly encouraged and expected but it is not considered in determining your grade for the course. You do not get "credit" for showing up for class - being in class is (one would think) a given. Much of the material covered in class may not appear in the text. Though I will not take attendance on a regular basis (or at all), your participation in class and your attentive presence can and will make a very significant difference in your appreciation of the issues, problems, theories and subject-matter we will discuss - and in your grade. If you miss a class, you are responsible for obtaining notes and any other information or assignments you missed. Office hours are held to clarify issues, to provide assistance, and otherwise attend to academic matters relevant to this course. They are not held to repeat a lecture already given in class.
Missed Tests: If you are not present on a day on which the first or second test is administered and if you have missed class for a good, legitimate, and verifiable reason, you may make it up within 3 class meeting days of its initial administration. Be aware that a test taken late may be in a different format from the one given on the original test date. After 3 class meeting days, you may not take the test and forfeit the grade (in other words, you will receive a "0" for that test). You may drop the lowest quiz or assignment grade and you can make them up if missed ONLY when you have a good, legitimate and verifiable reason. There is no provision for making up the last examination. Don't miss it.
Note: The schedule below is meant only as a guide. Changes and alterations in the schedule, scheduled topics, or test dates may be necessary to facilitate completion of all major sections listed below. Also note that additional material may be added from time to time, either through lectures, Internet sources (such as additions and links within this syllabus), journal articles, or any other appropriate sources. If they are to be added, they will be announced in class or noted in this syllabus as needed.
Schedule:
If
there is a work available on-line but not in the text, a link to it will
be available.
Review
Questions are listed in links, below.
Others may be added from time to time.
Note
on Review Questions: Review
questions are designed for review of major concepts presented throughout
the course and do not necessarily reflect actual content, format, number
or sort of questions that will appear on examinations.
The Message
Board Link was created for use in this course as an on-line
forum for discussion of review questions
between and among people registered for this course. I occasionally
check the message board and perform maintenance on it, but do not necessarily
contribute to your on-line discussions. When you use the board, use
your REAL NAME and put your e-mail address in the appropriate field.
Anonymous postings or notes posted with the use of an alias should not
be used on the board and will be deleted by the board's administrator.
Please do not use any person's name but your own when you post messages,
answers to review questions, questions of your own, or any comments.
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Weeks
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Dates
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Topic
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Review Questions
Link
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Other Information
Lecture Notes |
Announcements
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PART
ONE:
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PHILOSOPHY
OF
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RELIGION,
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METAPHYSICS
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AND
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EPISTEMOLOGY
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1 - 4
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Jan
8-Feb 2
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First class meeting;
overview of requirements, readings; general background
Plato's Euthyphro; Plato's Apology; Plato's Crito - The nature of philosophical inquiry. |
Notes - Plato's
Euthyphro
Notes - Plato's Apology Plato's Crito - in class notes only |
Quiz
1 (in-class) on Jan. 19, 2001
Note: Quizzes and/or in-class assignments will count collectively as 19% of your final grade. Examinations count as 27% each. Quiz 1 will be returned on 1/24/2001 in class. If you were not in class to pick it up, you may pick it up during my office hours. |
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St. Anselm and
St. Thomas Aquinas - from Anselm's Proslogion
and Aquinas' Summa
Theologiae: The Ontological
and Cosmological Arguments for the Existence of God.
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Notes - An Outline
of Arguments for the Existence of God
Notes - Short Outline of "God" Arguments with Characteristics of an Ultimate Being Notes on the Ontological Argument |
Quiz 2 in class on Jan. 29, 2001. Quiz 2 will be returned on 2/2/01 in class. Answers posted 2/2/01. Important Note: Quizzes and exams can be made up ONLY with appropriate verification and documentation. See Requirements section, above, in the syllabus. |
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Paul Edwards
and William Paley - A critique
of the Cosmological Argument and
Paley's presentation of The Teleological
Argument for the Existence of
God
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William James
and Blaise Pascal - The Rationality of Religious Faith in "The
Will to Believe" and Pascal's Pensees.
G.W.F. Leibniz and Richard Swinburne - Theodicy and the Problem of Evil from Leibniz's "Theodicy" and Swinburne's "The Problem of Evil". |
Notes - William James's "Will to Believe" |
Exam 1 Feb. 2
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5-9
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Feb
5 - Mar 9
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Plato, from Republic
- the Nature of Reality; and Rene Descartes from Meditations
on First Philosophy- Rationalism;
the means to complete and certain knowledge, the nature of reality.
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Plato-
Republic - in class notes only.
Descartes, detailed notes, comments & arguments
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John Locke, from An
Essay Concerning Human Understanding
- Empiricism; Human Knowledge; Matter; God.
George Berkeley, from Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous - Empiricism; the denial of the existence of matter in the universe; Reality |
Notes - Berkeley - immaterialism See also more Berkeley notes |
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David Hume, from An
Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
- skepticism; the nature of causality.
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Notes - Hume
- skepticism
See also more Hume notes |
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Charles Sanders
Peirce, "The Fixation
of Belief" - the means to adequate
knowledge (and how not to go in search of it)
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Remember that the content
of Exam 2 does NOT include Peirce, James and d’Holbach.They
will move to the third test.
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Baron d'Holbach,
from "The System of Nature"
- Determinism; and William James - The
Dilemma of Determinism.
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Exam 2 March
9
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PART
TWO:
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ETHICS
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SOCIAL
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AND
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POLITICAL
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PHILOSOPHY
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10
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Mar 12-17
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SPRING BREAK
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11-16
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Mar
19 - Apr 23
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Aristotle
- Aristotle's Ethical Theory and Aristotle's Political Theory, from Nicomachean
Ethics and Politics
Epicurus - Letter to Menoeceus |
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ETHICS
NOTES - Aristotle, Kant, Mill, Nietzsche
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Kant - Kantian
Deontology, from Foundations
of the Metaphysics of Morals
Mill - Utilitarian Ethical Theory, from Utilitarianism Nietzsche - a Critique of Traditional Notions of Morality |
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Ralph Waldo Emerson,
"Self Reliance"
Annette Baier, "What Do Women Want in a Moral Theory?" Plato, from Republic - the Nature of Justice and the Creation of the Perfect Political State |
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Hobbes, from Leviathan
- Hobbesian Ethics and Politics - an argument that human beings are essentially
egoistic; social contract theory of government
Locke, from Second
Treatise of Government-
a classical theory of property and human rights, social contract theory.
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Notes - Social
and Political Philosophy - Plato,
Aristotle, Hobbes and Locke
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Mill - On
Liberty - arguments against
censorship and the curbing of individual freedoms
Karl Marx, from Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 Henry David Thoreau, "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" |
Notes - Marx, from Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 |
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16
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Apr 23 - Last day
of classes
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Wollstonecraft
- from A Vindication
of the Rights of Woman
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April 27th (Friday)
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Final Exam
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The
final examination is designed to last 1 hr, 20 minutes. The official
time for the final is 10-12:50 on Friday 4/27. The actual time is
10-11:20 on that date.
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This page was last updated on 01/03/2001.