Intro to philosophy, Fall 2011

PHIL 20101-02 (11824)
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Course description

This class is an introduction to the methods, topics and concepts of academic philosophy, with emphases on critical thinking, analytic writing, and the relevance of philosophy to contemporary `real world' issues. Over the course of the semester, students will learn the following:

Methods of critical thinking

To identify and accurately paraphrase arguments in various kinds of texts
To critically and charitably assess whether those arguments give good support to their conclusions
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, inference to the best explanation, and common fallacies
Ethics and meta-ethics, including individualism, communitarianism, relativism, and universalism
Political philosophy, including various major 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

Class: 11am-12:15pm, TTh in Pasquerilla Center 112
Final: Tuesday, 13 December, 10:30am-12:30pm

WHO

Dan Hicks
I am a seventh-year grad student in the Philosophy Ph.D. program
Email: dhicks1@nd.edu
Office: Malloy 213
Office hours: TTH 2pm-4pm; MWF by appointment

What

There are no required books for this class, and one optional book:

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.

This book will be available in the campus bookstore; however, students are encouraged to look for less expensive copies online and at local used booksellers. I highly recommend The Seminary Co-op Bookstore in Chicago, Powell's in Portland, OR, and Better World Books in Mishawaka.

I am teaching two sections of Intro to Philosophy this semester, and using Charles Mills' The racial contract in the other section. You are neither required nor encouraged to buy this book. The Weston book is optional for boths ections.

All other readings are available below as PDF files, or will be as they become available. Please bring copies of each day's required readings with you to class -- either hard or electronic copies are fine, but it should be something that you can take notes on (underline, write notes in the margins, etc.). Supplemental readings are optional, though I may refer to them in class; they are included for readings that benefit from additional context or that develop ideas in the required readings in especially interesting or important ways. Any given long response paper is also considered supplemental: you're encouraged, but not required, to read all of them, and I may refer to them in class. Obviously you have to read the long responses you're writing short responses to! Use your netID and password for access to all PDFs. Slides will generally be posted as PDF files shortly before each class, linked under `Topic'.

If you print hard copies of the readings, consider printing two pages on each side of each sheet of paper. The logic pamphlet for week 3 is designed to printed in this way.

Grades and assignment instructions and guidelines

The heading above is a link to the assignment page.

Syllabus

Jump to: Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 3

Week	Date	Topic	Required reading	Supplemental reading and notes
1	23 Aug	Course overview and logistics; Disputes and dialogues
Unit 1: The good life and disagreement
	25 Aug	The good life: Virtues in community	Confucius, from Analects, translator's Introduction and commentaries	MacIntyre, `The virtues in heroic societies'
			Lear, Radical hope, ch. 1, through p. 24	Lear, remainder of Radical hope, ch. 1 (in the same PDF)
2	30 Aug	The good life: Work and labor	Crawford, `Shop class as soulcraft', through p. 15	NewsHour interview with Crawford (Online video, about 7 minutes, not on ND's servers)
			Waller, `It has to come from the people'	Crawford, remainder of `Shop class as soulcraft' (same PDF)
			Day, `Day after day' and `Aims and purposes'
	1 Sept	The good life: Individualism	Mill, from On liberty, ch. 3
			Stanton, `The solitude of self'
3	6 Sept	Logic: The study of arguments	A short introduction to logic, through sec. 2.3 (pg. 26)	Weston, especially sections 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, and 8
	8 Sept	Logic II	A short introduction to logic, remainder	Logical analysis 1 assigned; due Thursday, 15 Sept, 6pm
4	13 Sept	The good life: Relativism	Rachels, `The challenge of cultural relativism'
	15 Sept	The good life: Relativism II	Wong, `Relativism'	Sign-ups for long response papers
				Logical analysis 1 due at 6pm
				Logical analysis 2 assigned; due Thursday, 22 Sept, 6pm
5	20 Sept	The good life: The ethics of enquiry	MacIntyre, `Moral pluralism without moral relativism'
	22 Sept	Writing philosophy papers	The giant philosophy papers packet	A short plagiarism quiz (not on ND's servers)
				Logical analysis 2 due at 6pm
Unit 2: Justice and injustice Long response paper schedule
6	27 Sept	Introduce Unit 2: Political philosophy	Rawls, A theory of justice, sec. 3-4	Locke, from Two treatises on government
	29 Sept	Rawls' egalitarian liberalism	Rawls, A theory of justice, sec. 11 (same PDF)	LRs may be written on any section of the Rawls reading
7	4 Oct	Libertarianism; reductio ad absurdum arguments	Nozick, from Anarchy, state, and utopia, ch. 7	Nozick, from Anarchy, state, and utopia, chs. 3 and 7 (in the same PDF)
	6 Oct	Case study: Public sector employee unions	McCartin, `What's really going on in Wisconsin?' (not on ND's servers)	I won't be lecturing -- come to class prepared for discussion!
			Disalvo, `The trouble with public sector unions' (not on ND's servers)
8	11 Oct	Capability and disability	Silvers and Stein, `Disability and the social contract'
	13 Oct	Nozick and matriarchy	Okin, `Libertarianism: Matriarchy, slavery, and dystopia'	Okin, `Justice as fairness: For whom?' (same PDF)
Fall break
9	25 Oct	Freedom and capitalism	Cohen, `Freedom, justice and capitalism'	Ehrenreich, `What is socialist feminism?' (not on ND's servers)
			OccupyWallSt, `A Modest Call to Action on this September 17th' (not on ND's servers)
	27 Oct	Why not socialism?	Cohen, `Why not socialism?'	Sociological Images, `Visual overview of inequality in the U.S.' (not on ND's servers)
			Occupy Wall Street: The General Assembly (Online video, 6:26, not on ND's servers)	Rosenberg, `Where all work is created equal' (not on ND's servers)
10	1 Nov	Critical race theory	Mills, `White supremacy and racial justice'	Mills, `White Supremacy as a sociopolitical system' (same PDF)
				Tully, `Rediscovering America: The Two Treatises and aboriginal rights'
				Native Foster Care: Lost Children, Shattered Families (not on ND's servers)
	3 Nov	Case study: Appalachia	Billings, `Economic representations in an American region: What's at stake in Appalachia?'	I won't be lecturing -- come to class prepared for discussion!
Unit 3: Uncertainty and disagreement in science Long response paper schedule
11	8 Nov	Introduce Unit 3: Philosophy of science; Hume and the problem of induction	Hume, `Sceptical doubts concerning the operations of the understanding'
	10 Nov	Falsification	Popper, `Science: Conjectures and refutations'
12	15 Nov	Sources of uncertainty: Underdetermination	Duhem, `Physical theory and experiment'
	17 Nov	Sources of uncertainty: Background assumptions	Longino, from Science as social knowledge	Longino, from Science as social knowledge (in the middle of the same PDF)
13	22 Nov	The effects of uncertainty: Science and values; type I and type II errors	Douglas, `Inductive risk and values in science'	Rudner, `Remarks on value judgments in scientific validation'
				Borrell, `The big test for bisphenol A'
Thanksgiving break -- Travel safe!
14	29 Nov	Sources of uncertainty: Complexity	Feynman, from The character of physical law	Hoefer, `For fundamentalism'
			Cartwright, `Fundamentalism and the patchwork of laws'
	1 Dec	The effects of uncertainty: Disputes and dialogues	Sarewitz, `How science makes environmental controversies worse'	Atkinson et al., `Climate Pragmatism' (not on ND's servers)
15	6 Dec	Case study: Climate change	Oreskes and Conway, `Challenging Knowledge'	George C. Marshall Institute, `The cocktail conversation guide to global warming' (not on ND's servers)
			Manzi, `Game plan: What conservatives should do about global warming'	I won't be lecturing -- come to class prepared for discussion!
				Final exam questions announced
	8 Dec	Case study: Vaccination; final questions; closing remarks	Frontline, The vaccine wars (Online video, about 1 hour, not on ND's servers)	Wakefield's MMR work takes another kicking (not on ND's servers)
				Transcript of The vaccine wars (not on ND's servers)
				I won't be lecturing -- come to class prepared for discussion!
				LA3 and Extra Credit due today
Final: TBA

Intro to philosophy, Fall 2011

Course description

Where and when

WHO

What

Grades and assignment instructions and guidelines

Syllabus

Week

Date

Topic

Required reading

Supplemental reading and notes

Unit 1: The good life and disagreement

Unit 2: Justice and injustice

Unit 3: Uncertainty and disagreement in science