Important Note: This page is to be used for Distance Education courses ONLY. If you are enrolled in the traditional "land-based" version, please refer to the website listed on your syllabus. There are significant differences between the course requirements.
Syllabus Spring 2008 HTML 2nd Session (Quicker)
or
Syllabus Spring 2008 RTF 2nd Session (Better Formatting)
Welcome Announcement 1: Preliminaries (Sent sometime after you first email me)
Welcome Announcement 2: Access Info for Blackboard (Sent just before the semester begins)
Blackboard Access: Use the password in welcome email 2 to access our primary course site.
FAQs: Some Frequently asked questions
· Note: Some of these handouts or "study guides" are informational. Others outline some of the topics covered in lecture and discussion. Thus, you may want to print out and bring study guides to lecture/Slide Show presentations as we will discuss elements contained in them. They are meant to supplement the readings, lecture, and discussion. They are not meant to substitute for any of these. I have classified Guides into 4 categories: “Required”, “Strongly Recommended”, “Recommended”, and for web dictionaries: “Some [Terms] are recommended”.
o Guides listed as “Required” (in bold) must be printed out. You could get by with these only but your note-taking will be much easier with others.
o Outside web-help is “Recommended”. I suggest printing out all guides except for the web dictionaries listed as “Terms” (in which case you should merely read the relevant ones listed on our website).
o All others are “Strongly Recommended” guides that I have created for your benefit. Many step-by-step arguments covered in slide shows are listed here. Thus, following the arguments in class will be much easier with these.
- Here is a sample Philosophy Poll I will be giving everyone the first week of class. (Poll Results of 2 previous class sections)
Study Guides: Suggested Weekly Order of Operations
SG 2a: Discussion Board Reason Questions
- SG 2b - Discussion Board "Experiences" List
- SG 2c - Discussion Suggestions
- SG 2d - Discussion Samples from students (with grades)
SG 3a- Metaphysics, Axiology, Epistemology, and Logic
- SG 3b - Web-Help: Terms: Philosophy Terminology - See: metaphysics, epistemology, a priori, a posteriori, rationalist, empiricist, Argument, Premises, Conclusion, Inductive, Deductive, Valid, Sound, Atheism, Agnosticism, Theism, Pantheism
- SG 3c - Web-Help: Terms: Philosophy Terminology II - See: deductive, atheism, agnosticism
SG 4a - Socratic (Dialectical) Method Steps
SG 5a - Reason & Argument: A Brief Summary
- SG 5b - Argument Exercises (Answers)
- SG 5c - Argument Validity
-
Web-Help: Terms: Basic Terms of Logic - See: argument, proposition, premise, conclusion, validity, sound, deductive, inductive
SG 6a - Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy, 1st*** and 2nd Meditations http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/descartes/meditations/meditations.html
- SG 6b - Epistemology
- SG 6d - Matrix Topics
- SG 6e - Descartes' Method
- SG 6f - Web-Help: Descartes and the Wax (Artist unknown: formerly of Brocku.ca)
SG 7a - Locke: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Bk II Ch VIII #1-17 http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/locke/locke1/Book2a.html#Chapter%20VIII
- SG 7b - Locke's Empiricism
- SG 7c - Locke's Secondary Quality Distinction
- SG 7d* - Blind Spot: http://www.yorku.ca/eye/blndspo1.htm
SG 8 - Quiz 1 and Exam 1 Topics
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SG 9a - Freedom: Paul d’Holbach: The System of Nature: “Of the System of Man’s Free Agency”***, http://faculty.uca.edu/~rnovy/Meta%20DHolbach.htm
- SG 9b - Free Will and Determinism
- SG 9c - Ree: Determinism and the Illusion of Moral Responsibility http://www.zeroaltitude.org/philosophy/intro/readings/ree.htm
- SG 9d - Ayer: Freedom and Necessity http://www.zeroaltitude.org/philosophy/intro/readings/ayer.htm
- SG 9e - Free Will Quiz plus suggested answers
SG 10a - Descartes: 6th Meditation (sections 9-13 only) http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/descartes/meditations/Meditation6.html
- SG 10c - Descartes' Dualism
- SG 10d - Web-Help: Splitting the Human Brain
- SG 10e - Web-Help: A.L.I.C.E.'s Transcripts (Only the first 2 pages)
- SG 10f - Web-Help: Deep Blue
- SG 11b - Mind-Body Theories continued
- SG 11c - John Searle: “Minds, Brains, and Programs”*** The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol. 3. 1980 Cambridge. Only the 1st 4 pages (of 14) http://members.aol.com/NeoNoetics/MindsBrainsPrograms.html up to “The Systems Reply”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SG 13a - “Does God Exist” Question 2: Article 3: 1st and 4th Ways only from Aquinas' Summa Theologica http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/aquinas1.html
- SG 13b - Proofs for God's Existence
- SG 13c - Paley: Natural Theology, http://www-phil.tamu.edu/~gary/intro/paper.paley.html
- SG 13d - Anselm’s Ontological Argument: http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/anselm.htm
- SG 13e - Pascal's Wager (If time)
- SG 13f - Outline of Mackie’s version of the Logical Problem of Evil http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/problem_of_evil.htm
- SG 13g - The Problem of Evil
- SG 14b - Web-Help: Ethics Terminology - See ethics, normative (also see the equivalent: “general normative ethics”), applied normative ethics (We’ll call this “applied ethics”), ethical absolutism, ethical relativism, meta-ethics, hedonism, psychological egoism, ethical egoism (see the equivalent: “egoism” or “universal ethical egoism”) (Recommended)
- SG 14c - Web-Help: Ethics Terminology II - See absolutism, altruism, nihilism, psychological egoism, relativism, skepticism, subjectivism (Recommended)
SG 15 - Extra Credit: See "Course Information" in Blackboard
SG 16a - Analysis paper
- SG 16b - Analysis Paper Rubric
- SG 16c - Tips on Writing a Philosophy Paper
- SG 16d - Analysis Paper-The "Mind" of Agent Smith in "The Matrix"
- SG 16d2 - More Film Stuff: Script & Questions
Survey - I will provide this (or something similar) online during the last week.