Intro to philosophy, fall 2010

Course description

• Methods of philosophy
  
• To identify and accurately paraphrase the primary claim (thesis) of texts, including short opinion pieces, articles and book chapters, and whole books
  
• To identify and accurately paraphrase the major reasons (arguments) given in support of a thesis
  
• To critically and charitably assess whether those arguments give good support to the thesis
• To engage in critical and charitable dialogue -- both written and verbal -- with those who hold different views
• To relate the abstract topics and concepts of academic philosophy to the topics of other academic disciplines and `real-world' problems
  
• Topics and concepts of philosophy
  
• Informal logic, including deduction, induction, and inference to the best explanation
  
• Ethics and meta-ethics, including relativism, contextualism, universalism, and constructivism
  
• Political philosophy, including various major ideal and nonideal accounts of justice
• Epistemology and philosophy of science, including uncertainty and underdetermination, the role of values in science, and the politicization of science
  

Where and when

Grades and writing assignments

Your grade is based on an unweighted average of your scores on the following items:  3 short logical analyses (counted together), 2 long response papers (counted separately), 2 short response papers (counted together), class participation, and a written final exam.  Students should expect to write a total of about 4500 words (roughly 15 double-spaced pages) over the course of the semester.  All assignments should be submitted by email in DOC, DOCX, or RTF format; I don't accept hard copies.  Logical analyses I'll assign two passages for logical analyses during Unit 1.  Sometime during the remainder of the course, you should write your third logical analysis on a short argumentative piece of writing (a blog post, an op-ed column, a letter to the editor of the Observer, etc.) contributing to a public controversy.  Long response papers One long response is due during each of Units 2 and 3.  I'll circulate sign-up sheets during the second week of class or so.  Note that your long response paper is due 5pm two days before the class covering the paper to which you're responding, so that they can be emailed to the whole class in time for your classmates to write short response papers.  For example, if you're writing a long response to the reading for Monday the 10th, your paper is due by 5pm Saturday the 8th.  Long responses are circulated to the whole class, but without my comments or a grade.  Short response papers One short response paper is due during each of Units 2 and 3.  You don't sign up for short response papers; just pick a long response and write a short response to it!  A short response should be submitted at least 12 hours before class starts.  However, you cannot write a short response during the week you write a long response, and you can only write one short response per week.  Short response papers are not circulated; only I read them. For more detailed instructions and guidelines, see the general information and policies.

Extra credit

What

• Mills, The racial contract.  (Cornell U. Press, 1997)  ISBN:  9780801484636 (pbk)
• Weston, A rulebook for arguments, 4th edition.  (Hackett, 2008)  ISBN:  9780872209541 (pbk)
  
• Note that the fourth edition is heavily revised, and earlier editions cannot be substituted.