Course description & grading policy

Topic. This course will be organized around four of the central topics in Western philosophy: the existence of God; the nature of human beings; the relationship between mind and world; and the nature of ethical requirements and moral responsibility. In most cases, we'll be discussing in sequence a number of arguments for opposing views on these topics. Students will be asked to understand these arguments, and form and defend their own views about which among them are most successful. So the aim of the course will not just be to learn about philosophical thinking but to practice it, by developing informed views on the topics mentioned above. We will spend a bit of time at the beginning of the course, and occasionally throughout, discussing what good arguments are, and why they might be worth pursuing.
    The course will meet three times per week. The first two of these will be meetings of the class as a whole; while the format will include some lecture time, class discussion will be a part of these meetings as well. In addition to these two meetings, each student will be assigned to a smaller group, which will meet once per week to discuss the material covered in lectures and related topics.

Texts. Students are not required to purchase a textbook or coursepack. All readings will be made available in PDF form via links from the course syllabus. If you are having trouble accessing the reading, some help is available here.

Assignments. There will be three papers and two exams. The first paper will be a short, 1-2 page paper written in several drafts over the first few weeks of the course; this will be worth 5% of the grade. The other two papers will each be 5-7 pages in length, and each are worth 20% of the grade. Late papers will be penalized 3 points/day, including weekends. There will also be a midterm exam and a (non-cumulative) final exam, each of which will be worth 20% of your grade. The remaining 15% of the grade will be given on the basis of attendance and participation. Each assignment is required, in the sense that failure to complete one or more assignments is sufficient reason for failing the course.
    In all of their assignments, students are responsible for compliance with the University’s honor code, information about which is available at http://www.nd.edu/~hnrcode/. You should also review the philosophy department guidelines regarding plagiarism.