Syllabus:        Chaminade University of Honolulu 

COURSE NAME AND NUMBER: Introduction to Philosophy  (PH 100-90)   Fall 2009 (October – December)

INSTRUCTOR'S NAME, PHONE AND  EMAIL: 
Dr. Mark Brasher    
381-6080 (8 a.m. - 8 p.m. only Hawaii Time[check Hawaii time before calling: calls at, for example 2 a.m., will result in reduced points]).
mark.brasher@adjunct.chaminade.edu

OFFICE HOURS: Students may e-mail or telephone the instructor.  The instructor will endeavor to respond within 24-48 hours. If an extensive consultation is necessary, students may set up an appointment by e-mail or phone for a longer discussion.   This is for course content questions and discussion.  For problems connecting to ecollege, problems with your ID/password, or other computing problems contact  jnakason@chaminade.edu, 739-8327 (Jon Nakasone, IT, Chaminade).  The administrative secretary for the evening/online program is Donna Yoshimura (dyoshi@chaminade.edu) at 735-4755.

CATALOG DESCRIPTION:

An examination of the role, themes, arguments, and discursive styles that characterize philosophy as an intellectual discipline.  Both traditional and critical theories will be considered and the role of the mytho-poetic and religious discourses will receive special attention.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

By studying major topics in philosophy and various approaches to them, students who successfully complete the course will have a basic understanding of the practice and history of philosophical inquiry.

By the end of the course, students should be able to explain the major questions and proposed answers in western philosophy and compare them in a preliminary way to eastern philosophy. 

The course forms a foundation for continued study in critical thinking or ethics and provides another perspective on human nature and society that will be useful for students of psychology, sociology, political science, religion, arts, or sciences. 

TEXT BOOK / REQUIRED READING:                

*Textbook
Fundamentals of Philosophy, Sixth Edition by David Stewart, H. Gene Blocker - Ohio University 
Publisher: Prentice Hall, Print ISBN-10: 0-13-193002-8 The eText ISBN-10: 0-13-194212-3 
Either the 6th or the 7th edition may be used.  Be sure to mention which edition you have if you ask about something on a particular page.  The instructor has copies of both editions.  The content is almost identical, but the page numbering differs. 

*On-line Lecture notes, powerpoint presentations on the course website and on-line discussions.

CLASS REQUIREMENTS: 

This course involves 6 components.   The first four are weekly activities:   

1. Reading the instructor's notes on-line 

2. reading the week's assignment in the textbook.  

3. answering 10 questions about the current week's reading and uploading them to the assignment area on ecollege

4. reading and posting on the ecollege discussion board 

Besides the weekly work, there will also be:

5. Term paper  (optional: see 2 alternative grading patterns for the course, below)

6. Final Exam on the topics discussed in the course (required for all students).    

The final exam will be on a Saturday.  You must sign up online to reserve a seat. If you are outside Oahu you must email dyoshi@chaminade.edu (Donna Yoshimura) and arrange a suitable proctor in advance.

ASSIGNMENTS: Each week, students will read the instructor's on-line notes on the current topic.  Then they will read the topic in the textbook while answering ten questions available on the website.  Next they will log on to the online discussion board and read and post responses in the weekly discussion area. At the end of the course there will be a final exam on the 8 topics we have studied.  Students may opt in (by the end of week5) to do a term paper, then the points for the final are split between the final exam and the term paper. In order to do the paper students must discuss a topic with the instructor by week 5. The final draft must be emailed in ecollege before the student begins his or her final exam.  (Recommended but not required, emailing an outline week 6, emailing a rough draft week 7 for comments, then incorporating recommended changes in the final draft.)  Note:  each submitted paper will be run through “turnitin.com” to check for plagiarism.  Evidence of plagiarism will be turned over to the Dean of Students for disciplinary action.
Students are responsible for keeping copies of all submitted work, uploading blank or damaged files will not earn credit.

DEADLINES: To receive credit for your work, you need to upload your answers or post on the webboard by the deadline (each week: Sunday 11:55 p.m., Hawaii time).  You may submit up to 1 assignment late (1 set of answers, 1 set of discussion posts), within 7 days if you inform the instructor.  Any further late work may not receive credit. In order for you to participate in the group discussions and complete all of the work for the course, you need to read/answer/post each week in a timely manner.  Students are asked to post a reply to the instructor's weekly question by Saturday midnight if possible.  All students are required to reply to the instructor and to reply to another student by Sunday midnight.  (It's okay to post both on/by Saturday if you are able, but everyone should have made at least their first post by Saturday night so class members will find student posts to respond to by Sunday night.)

For this course you will need to do the work and submit it by the scheduled dates. The deadlines for the entire course are in the schedule: plan backwards from the due date to give yourself enough time to complete the assignments.   This broad introductory course presents a number of different topics to the student which cannot be mastered simultaneously.  The work is divided into 10 separate weeks’ worth of work in order to afford a realistic opportunity to the student to master each topic. 

CORRECTIONS:  Your weekly uploaded answers will be corrected and returned to the same assignments area on ecollege for you to review.  Be sure to look at the corrections on these assignments and ask about any you do not understand.  The final exam will be based on the main topics, these weekly questions are also about the main topics, so being able to answer the weekly questions is a good predictor of your ability to answer the final exam questions.  It is the student's responsibility to download and review the corrections the instructor returns.

GRADES: Credit for your submitted answers and webposts will be listed in the "Grades" section of webct, after the due date (within 7-14 days).  Check the grades section to monitor your progress and grade throughout the course. E-mail the instructor if you see any discrepancies so that they may be corrected.

CONDUCT:   Student conduct in the course is regulated by the code of conduct printed in your Student Handbook and the Chaminade University College Catalog.  Basically, the code requires that everyone in the classroom (or on-line) treat each other with respect.  Additionally: students must never present another's work as their own (plagiarism) or cheat in any way.  Students failing to abide by the code may be reprimanded, expelled from the course, or from the university, as appropriate in the situation and provided for by the policies of Chaminade University.   There is also an introduction to conduct in a college webboard discussion that applies to all of your postings on our discussion board.  Please see the website section entitled "conduct."

ABSENCES: Regular participation is required by every student throughout the ten-week term. However, a hospital emergency, unexpected duty or some other circumstance may briefly interfere with your participation at some point during the term. If this occurs, you need to email me in ecollege as soon as possible, arrange to make-up your missing work and to post your missing posts on the webboard. If you do not contact me and inform me I cannot know what you are doing and will record zero credit for the missed work. If you continue in the course, you will still need to complete all of the missing work in order to pass the course, it is not "waived," any unfinished or missing work will further reduce your course grade. (Also: the final exam will include questions about each topic we discuss, so you will still need to study each part.) If your work is regularly late or you are not participating at all, a deficiency notice will be sent in and I will recommend you drop the course in order not to receive a failing grade on your permanent transcript.  

It remains the responsibility of the student to do his or her work, remain in contact with the instructor and decide to remain in the course or officially withdraw.  Make-up work will only receive credit by following the procedures described on the website. 

Note that all work must be in by the day of the final exam and no incompletes with extended deadlines will be possible, beyond the 10 weeks of the course, except in the most extreme circumstances with documented evidence and completed paperwork.  The date of the final exam is published before registration on all registration announcements and on the syllabus and online, it is your responsibility to be available to take the final on that day/time. The time/work requirements for courses are stated on the Chaminade website and in this course syllabus. Students who do not have time to follow a course should not register for a course.  (If you are working full time and taking many other courses this does not mean you may expect to do less work in this course, it is a full credit university course.)  

FAIRNESS IN GRADING: In order for each student to be fairly graded, each must be graded on an equal basis. If some students do their work on time in the ten weeks, sometimes getting higher or lower credit as they work to meet the deadline, while other students receive extensions and complete the work over many more weeks beyond 10, it is fundamentally unfair.  This is a 10-week course, do the work and get graded on your performance during those 10 weeks, like every other student.  Please do not ask for exceptions to be graded differently than other students.

MAINTAINING CONTACT: It always remains the responsibility of the student to maintain contact with the instructor. If you lose access to ecollege you need to contact Chaminade and correct the situation as soon as possible.  You should print and save a copy of this syllabus with the contact information and requirements on it, for your reference throughout the ten week course. Ceasing to communicate, without withdrawing from the course may lead to a deficiency notice and/or a failing grade for the course.   

MAINTAINING COPIES: Throughout the course you need to keep a copy of any work you submit or any work returned to you. Every reasonable measure has been taken to ensure the preservation of e-mail, discussion board and other coursework but it always remains the student's responsibility to also keep a copy of each assignment submitted and each assignment returned to them.  If you opt in for a term paper, make multiple copies on multiple locations (hard disk, floppy) to ensure you do not lose your work.  Work cannot be re-sent to students later if they lose their own copy of that work.

ALTERNATIVE FORMAT: In the very unlikely event of a website malfunction, the course will temporarily switch to an "e-mail based" format and the instructor will email you the week's notes, questions and run an email discussion.   Be sure that you have access to your chaminade email address  (firstname.lastname@student.chaminade.edu). If you do not, you must contact Chaminade during week 1 of the course to get access to it.

FINAL EXAM/COURSE GRADE: Approximately week 5, the course website will ask you to register online for a seat at one of the exam locations. If you will not be on Oahu for the exam, you must email Chaminade to arrange for a proctored exam as soon as possible.  I grade the exams and post results as soon as I receive the exams. It takes chaminade 3-7 days to get the exams to the instructor after the exam date. Exams taken off Oahu may take longer. If you do not show up for your exam, it is assessed as a "0".

GRADING SCALE 

Option 1 (no term paper)     / Option 2 (with term paper and exam) 

weekly answers: 25%        / weekly answers:  25%

webboard posts:    25%      / webboard posts:    25%

                           /  term paper:             25%

final exam:        50%    /  final exam:              25%

total:            100%   /  total:                    100%

Note: doing the optional paper alters the point distribution, you still take the final exam, but it is worth 25% instead of 50% of the course assessment.
  
SCHEDULE		

Week 1: October 6-12
Week 2: October 13-19
Week 3: October 20-26
Week 4: October 27-November2
Week 5: November 3-9
Week 6: November 10-16
Week 7: November 17-23
Week 8: November 24-30
Week 9: December1-7
Week 10: December 8-13
Final exam:  December 13.

TOPICS / ASSIGNMENTS:
Week 1: Introduction to the course and to the website
Read the weekly lectures notes on the website, answer the weekly questions and post in the weekly discussion board.	

Week 2: Introduction to Philosophy 
Read Part   I. WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?  Read Chapter 1. The Activity of Philosophy. 2. Philosophy and Popular Culture. 3.Philosophy’s History.  4. Philosophy and the Examined Life.    And the READING: Socrates: In Defense of Philosophy. And read Recent Developments in Philosophy.			

Week 3: Logic   
Read Part II. THINKING ABOUT THINKING (LOGIC).  
Read 5. The Life of Reason. 6. Argument Forms. 7. Induction and Philosophy of Science. 8. Strategies for Philosophical Argument.  Read Shipka “Are you a critical thinker? And read  Recent Developments in Logic				

Week 4: Metaphysics 
Read parts of Part III. WHAT IS REAL? (METAPHYSICS).
Read  9. Introduction to Metaphysics. 10. Materialism. (You may read or skip Epicurus.)  11. Idealism.  (You may read or skip Berkeley.) 12. The Mind-Body Problem. (You may read or skip Taylor.)   Skip: 13. Metaphysics and Language.  Read Recent Developments in Metaphysics.	

Week 5: Epistemology.
Read Part IV.HOW DO WE KNOW? (EPISTEMOLOGY)
Read  14. Introduction to Epistemology.  15. Appearance and Reality. Read READING : Plato	 The Visible and the Invisible.  Read 16. The Quest for Certainty. Read the  READING: René Descartes  Mediations.  Read 17.  Trust Your Senses.  Read the READING: David Hume - Skeptical Doubts Concerning the Operations of the Understanding. Carefully read 18.  A Compromise. Immanuel Kant. Two Sources of Knowledge.  You may read or skip Recent Developments in Epistemology.

Week 6 : Ethics.
Read parts of  Part V. WHAT OUGHT WE TO DO? (ETHICS).
Read 19. Introduction to Ethical Reasoning. Skip Chapter 20 The need for Morality pp. 236 – 251.  Skip the READING: Hobbes – Leviathan.   Read 21.  The Morality of Self-Realization.  Read the READING: Aristotle   - The Good Life. Read  22. Morality Depends on the Consequences.  Read the READING:  John Steward Mill  -  Utilitarianism.  Read 23. Morality Depends on Motives. Carefully read the READING: Immanuel Kant  -  Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals. And read Recent Developments in Ethics.	

NOTE:  This semester the course is skipping Part 6 Philosophy of Religion. (Topics alternate for different semesters).

Week 7:  PHILOSOPHY OF ART
Read Part VII  Philosophy of Art (Esthetics)
Read Chapter 29.Introduction to the Philosophy of Art  Chapter 30.  The Value of Art. Read the READING  Blocker: The Esthetic Attitude. Read Chapter 31. Art as Ideal.  Read the READING  Clark:  The Naked and the Nude.  Read Chapter 32 Esthetics and Ideology.  Read the READING  Jeffers: Politics of Representation.   Read Recent Developments in Esthetics.

Week 8:  SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Read Part VIII.
Read Chapter 33. Introduction. 34. The Liberal, Secular State.  Read the  READING:   Locke – Toleration. Read  35. The Individual and the State.  Read the  READING:  JS Mill – Liberty. Skip 36. (See on-line notes.)  Read  37. Minority Group Rights. Read Recent Developments  in Social and Political Philosophy.

Week 9: EASTERN THOUGHT.
Read Part IX. Eastern Thought.    Read 38. Philosophy East and West.  Read 39. Chinese Theories of Human Nature.   Read the  READINGS: Mencius,  Xun Zi, Dong Zhongshu, Lao Tzu.  Read  40. Indian Theories of Human Nature.  Read the READINGS: The Bhagavad Gita; Upanishads.  Shankara, Ramanua on the Vedanta Sutras. Read  Recent Developments in Eastern Philosophy.

Week 10:Review.			
Read the instructions in the week 10 weekly notes: review your corrected answers and the online discussions.  Post 4 questions on the week 10 review board.  Think about your essay for the final exam.

Final Exam:  on the Main Campus at Chaminade.  
Exam consists of short answer questions and an essay. Optional term paper due in electronic form by e-mail and/or diskette (no paper copies) before you begin your exam if you have opted to do the paper. All students must take the final and do the short answer and essay portions.  After the exams are graded, grades will be posted on ecollege.
  				
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This syllabus describes all of the requirements for the course and the due dates of all work. If you have any questions about any of the information contained within it, ask the instructor immediately.  If you lose your syllabus you should call the base Chaminade coordinator or Accelerated Undergraduate Program office at the main campus and ask for the instructor’s phone number and call the instructor immediately to ask about work due and to request a new syllabus, the loss of the syllabus does not excuse one from any deadlines.  The instructor's phone number is available from Chaminade, so there is no reason for a delay contacting the instructor.  Be sure to write down the email address and phone number of the instructor. It is your responsibility to keep track of these and maintain contact throughout the course.

PRINT AND SAVE A COPY OF THIS SYLLABUS FOR YOUR REFERENCE
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