Text: Primis' (A Division of McGraw-Hill Publishing Company) "Philosophy," a text designed specifically for this course for the fall term, 1999, spring term, 2000 and summer term, 2000. The front cover of the book is an enlarged graphic of an Intel Pentium chip; 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.
Course Requirements, Grades, Attendance Policy, and Related Issues:
Requirements: Three examinations/tests and one short paper 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 and the paper count equally in determining your final grade for the course.
Click here for important information about academic integrity.
Grades and Grading Scale: A, 90-100; B, 80-89; C, 70-79; D, 60-69.
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/Late Papers: 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 2 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 2 class meeting days, you may not take the test and must either forfeit the grade (in other words, you will receive a "0" for that test) OR you must write an 8-page paper due no later than 1 week after the administration of the test you missed. Paper topics must be approved by the instructor and the finalized paper must be typed and double spaced, containing appropriate references, ordinary font size, and substantial content. If you miss the first or second test without a good, legitimate and verifiable reason, your only options are to write a paper (described above) or receive no credit. There is no provision for making up the last examination. Don't miss it. Paper requirements are given in the following document: Click here for paper requirements. Note that the "short paper" (required) is different from a paper written to replace an examination. Instructions and requirements for an examination replacement paper will soon appear in a link.
Extra Credit: Extra credit is available. Use this link for details.
Note 2: 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: June 20-July 31, 2000
Numbers
appearing in parentheses after a work or author's name are the beginning
page numbers for the works/topics listed.
Review
Questions are listed in links,below.
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
link below 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.
PART ONE: PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION, METAPHYSICS AND EPISTEMOLOGY
(T & W, June 20 & 21) Plato's Euthyphro, (1); Plato's Apology, (17); Plato's Crito, (38) - The nature of philosophical inquiry.
Review Questions - 3 works of Plato
(R & M, June 22 and 26) St. Anselm and St. Thomas Aquinas (49, 55) - from Anselm's Proslogion and Aquinas' Summa Theologiae: The Ontological and Cosmological Arguments for the Existence of God.
(T, June 27) Paul Edwards and William Paley (61, 75) - A critique of the Cosmological Argument. The Teleological Argument for the Existence of God.
(W, June 28) William James (83) and Blaise Pascal (96) - The Rationality of Religious Faith & G.W.F. Leibniz and Richard Swinburne (92 and 102) - Theodicy and the Problem of Evil.
Review Questions on Anselm, Aquinas, Edwards, Paley, James, Pascal, Leibniz and Swinburne
(R, June 29)
EXAM 1 Review Questions Sets 1 and 2 are relevant to this
exam.
(M, July 3) Plato (112) - the Nature of Reality & Rene Descartes (122, 187) - Rationalism; the means to complete and certain knowledge, the nature of reality.
(W, July 5) George Berkeley (135) - Empiricism; the denial of the existence of matter in the universe; Reality
(R, July 6) David Hume (150) - skepticism; the nature of causality.
(M, July 10) Baron d'Holbach (197) - Determinism and William James (205) - The Dilemma of Determinism.
Review
Questions on Plato, Descartes, Berkeley, Hume, d'Holbach, and James
Additional
Review Questions on Descartes and Berkeley
(T, July 11)
EXAM 2 Review Questions Sets 3 and 4 are relevant to this
exam.
ETHICS, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
(W, July 12) Aristotle
(237) - Aristotle's Ethical Theory
Aristotle's
Works
(R, July 13) Kant
(248) - Kantian Deontology
Kant's
Works
(M, July 17) Mill (260) - Utilitarian Ethical Theory
(T, July 18) Nietzsche (269) - a Critique of Traditional Notions of Morality & Baier (277) and Held (300) - Feminist Moral Theory
Review Questions on Aristotle, Kant, Mill and Nietzsche
Review Questions on Baier and Held
(W, July 19) Plato (224) - the Nature of Justice and the Creation of the Perfect Political State and Aristotle (312) - Aristotle's Political Theory
(R, July 20) Class is not scheduled to meet on this day (Library/Internet Research). Use this time for Internet research as specified in the paper requirements. You may satisfy this requirement in the Library or using your own computer at home.
(M, July 24) Class is not scheduled to meet on this day. Use this time for Internet research for extra credit as specified in the linked document on extra credit.
(T, July 25) Hobbes
(321) - Hobbesian Ethics and Politics - an argument that human beings are
essentially egoistic and social contract theory of government AND
Locke (331) - a classical theory of property and human rights, social contract
theory.
Locke's
Works
(W, July 26) Mill (343)
- On Liberty - arguments against censorship and the curbing of individual
freedoms
See
the previous link to Mill.
(R, July 27) Wollstonecraft (351) - A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. -- Paper and Extra Credit are DUE.
Review Questions on Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Mill and Wollstonecraft
(M, 7/31) EXAM 3 Review Questions sets 5, 6, and 7 are relevant to this exam.
This page was last updated on 6/26/2000.