Syllabus: Chaminade University of Honolulu Course Name and Number: Introduction to Philosophy (PH 100-90) Spring 2005 Instructor’s name, address, phone and email: Dr. Mark Brasher 381-6080 markbrasher@hotmail.com Office Hours: Students may e-mail or telephone the instructor anytime. The instructor will respond as soon as possible. If an extensive consultation is necessary, an appointment may be made by e-mail or phone. 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 Books: * Textbook: Fundamentals of Philosophy (Fifth Edition) by David Stewart and H. Gene Blocker (Prentice-Hall, Inc. © 2001 ISBN 0-13-030896X.) *Lecture notes / powerpoint on the course website. *Course website: http://www.markbrasher.net/philosophy Class Requirements: 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 4. reading and posting on the webboard 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. Students must also complete a short survey about the course during week 8 this is not optional. It is used for the continued improvement of the course content and format. (Current students benefit from previous students' completing this survey.) 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. Then they will log on to the webboard and read and post responses. At the end of the course there will be a final exam on the 8 topics we have examined. (It is important to keep a copy of your emailed work and returned work to prepare for the final. ) Students may opt to do a term paper, then the points for the final are split between the final and the term paper. CONDUCT: Student conduct throughout 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 university webboard discussion that applies to all of your postings on the webboard. 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 contact me 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 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, however, 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 withdraw. For more specific information, see "Excused Absences" on the course website. Make-up work will only receive credit by following the procedures described on the website. Work must be completed within 14 days of the original deadline. No student can make up more than 1 week excused work, beyond this no make up credit is possible. Note that all work must be in by the day of the final and no incompletes with extended deadlines will be possible. MAINTAINING CONTACT: It always remains the responsibility of the student to maintain contact with the instructor. If you lose access to your e-mail account, or change your e-mail address, you need to inform the instructor 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. If necessary, contact Chaminade University Evening Program office (they are in the phone book) and ask for the instructor's phone number (they are instructed to give it out). Ceasing to communicate, without withdrawing from the course may lead to a deficiency notice and/or a failing grade for the course. INCOMPLETES / WITHDRAWAL: Incompletes are only possible for students who have unexpected emergencies like documented hospitalization or documented, unexpected deployment. Anyone not completing the course requirements within the 10 week course term will receive a failing grade. 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.) Incompletes will not be used to lengthen course terms. 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 by the instructor to ensure the preservation of e-mail, webboard 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. It is highly recommended that you not rely on a single copy on one computer. Instead, you should back up your work on a diskette, CD or another computer. Your weekly work will be the basis for your preparation for the final exam, do not lose it. 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. In the past several years this has only happened once, for a week, so it is not likely to occur. Normally, the course website will serve as a stable and consistent "virtual classroom" which you should visit on a weekly basis, at your convenience. Grading Scale Option 1 (no term paper) / Option 2 (with term paper) e-mailed answers: 25% / e-mailed answers: 25% webboard posts: 25% / webboard posts: 25% / term paper: 25% final exam: 50% / final exam: 25% total: 100% / total: 100% Credit: To receive credit for your work, you need to e-mail your answers or post on the webboard by the deadline (each week: Sunday midnight, Hawaii time). Late work will not receive credit (beyond the one make-up assignment described above). Rationale for this policy: 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. Most students are not motivated to submit work regularly and on time if there are no negative consequences for not doing so. 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. I will correct and grade your weekly emailed answers, returning them with a listing of the credit you received for the answers and for that week's webboard posts. Use this to keep track of your credit in the course. Any week you do not receive this back from me, you will know I did not receive it and did not give you credit. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT ANY OF THE ABOVE REQUIREMENTS, EMAIL AND/OR CALL THE INSTRUCTOR AT THE BEGINNING OF THE COURSE. THIS IS A CONTRACT BETWEEN THE INSTRUCTOR AND STUDENT AND IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO UNDERSTAND YOUR OBLIGATIONS AND RIGHTS UNDER THIS CONTRACT. SCHEDULE April 4 - 10 Week 1: Introduction to the course and to the website April 11 - 17 Week 2: Introduction to Philosophy Part I. WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY? 1. The Activity of Philosophy. 2. Philosophy’s History. 3. Philosophy and the Examined Life. READING : Socrates, In Defense of Philosophy. April 18 - 24 Week 3: Logic Part II. `THINKING ABOUT THINKING (LOGIC). 4. The Life of Reason. 5. Argument Forms. 6. Inductive Arguments and Scientific Reasoning. 7. Strategies for Philosophical Argument April 25 - May 1 Week 4: Metaphysics Part III. WHAT IS REAL? (METAPHYSICS).8. Introduction to Metaphysics. READING : Plato, Phaedo. 9. Materialism. 10. Idealism. 11. The Mind-Body Problem. (Skipping: 12. Metaphysics and Language) May 2 – 8 Week 5: Epistemology. Part IV. HOW DO WE KNOW? (EPISTEMOLOGY) 13. Introduction to Epistemology. 14. Appearance and Reality. READING : Plato, The Visible and the Invisible. 15. The Quest for Certainty. READING : René Descartes, Mediations. 16. Trust Your Senses. READING : David Hume, Skeptical Doubts Concerning the Operations of the Understanding. 17. A Compromise. READING : Immanuel Kant, Two Sources of Knowledge. (Skipping: 18. The Challenges of Postmodernism.) May 9 - 15 Week 6 : Ethics. Part V. WHAT OUGHT WE TO DO? (ETHICS). 19. Introduction to Ethical Reasoning. 21. The Morality of Self-Realization. READING : Aristotle, The Good Life. 22. Morality Depends on the Consequences. READING : John Steward Mill, Utilitarianism. 23. Morality Depends on Motives. READING : Immanuel Kant, Moral Duty. (Skipping 20) May 16 - 22 Week 7: Philosophy of Art. Part VII. PHILOSOPHY OF ART (ESTHETICS). 29. Introduction to the Philosophy of Art. 30. The Value of Art. READING : H. Gene Blocker, The Esthetic Attitude. 31. Art as Ideal. READING : Kenneth Clark, The Naked and the Nude. 32. Esthetics and Ideology. READING : Jennifer M. Jeffers, The Politics of Representation. May 23 - 29 Week 8: Social and Political Philosophy. Chapters 33 - 37 May 30 – June 5 Week 9: Eastern Thought. Part IX. EASTERN THOUGHT. 38. Philosophy East and West. 39. Eastern Thought: Theories of Human Nature. READINGS : Mencius, Xun Zi, and Dong Zhongshu. 40. Eastern Thought: The Individual and the Collective. READINGS : The Bhagavad Gita; Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching. June 6 - 11 Week 10: Review. June 11: 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). 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 Evening 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 course website address as well as the email and phone number of the instructor. It is your responsibility to keep track of these and maintain contact throughout the course.