GRADING POLICY / COURSE REQUIREMENTS

The components of how a student will be graded in this course is provided immediately below with accompanying details of each component's requirements.  

Assigned Weights to Assignments 

1. Attendance & Participation (10%) 

2. Philosophy Journal/Notebook (15%) 

3. Discussion Board Contributions (20%)

4. Exams (40%): 

1. Logic Exam (10%)
2. Mid-Term Exam (15%)
3. Final Exam (15%)

5. Essay (10%) & Presentation on Essay (5%)

Note on Assignment Due Dates: All due dates will be announced during class meetings. Students unable to attend class should contact the professor to find out if any important announcements were made. There will not be any make-up opportunities for exams and/or other assignments. Additionally, no late work will be accepted unless alternative arrangements have been made beforehand. If a student foresees missing the due date for an assignment or exam, they are encouraged to contact me at least 24 hours before the due date to make alternative arrangements.

Brief Description of Assignments 

1. Attendance & Participation [10%] 

Attending class meetings and participation during class activities are requirements of this course worth 10% of a student's overall grade. Students are given one unexcused absence without penalty. Upon each additional absence after the first one, two points will be deducted from the student's overall grade for the course unless the student has a reasonable, documented excuse for missing class and informs me of their absence in a timely manner (i.e., either before the day of absence or within 24 hours past the day of the absence). Students who expect to miss class meetings regularly due to issues such as a time conflict with their work schedule should contact me (cwhalin@austincc.edu) to make alternative arrangements for the attendance/participation portion of their grade.

What is an unexcused absence? A student's attendance record will be marked with an unexcused absence in the instance that the student does not respond at the time of roll-call. A ramification of this policy is that a student will not get credit for their attendance on a particular day if they do not actively reply to roll-call even if signed into the class session. 

I reserve the right to count a student absent if they miss more than 25 minutes of a class session, even if they make it for roll-call. On the other hand, I will not penalize a student for showing up late within 25 minutes of the commencement of a class meeting unless they miss roll-call and do not bring that to my attention for correction. Students who leave class meetings early without a reasonable excuse will also not receive attendance credit for that day. If a student must leave early on a particular day, they are required to alert me beforehand about the reason why they must leave class early. 

2. Philosophy Journal/Notebook 

Being able to express one’s own thoughts through language is an important and indispensable skill for doing philosophy well. Students will be required to keep a journal/notebook for this course. This assignment is intended to encourage students to write their notes and thoughts about assigned readings and content covered in class lectures. 

Requirements: The following two requirements must be met to receive credit full credit for this assignment: (1) For each class meeting, students must write a synopsis or summary of at least 75 words long which captures the main idea(s) under discussion during the class meeting and (2) create an entry of 150 or more words exploring your own opinions, thoughts, or ideas regarding material of your choosing which was covered that day. 

Note. Student journals/notebooks can be used while taking exams. Taking extensive notes in one's journal will not only help in this regard, but will also result in a better score for this assignment. 

3. Discussion Board Contributions

Students will be required to make regular contributions on the discussion board forums accessible through our Blackboard course page.

Requirements: The following requirements must all be met to receive full credit for this component of one’s overall grade for the course: 

(i) Students will be required to make a total of 15 discussion board contributions. Going over the 15 post limit will be favorably taken into consideration when calculating grades for this component of the course. 

(ii) The 15 total discussion board contributions must meet the following conditions to be counted for full credit: For (at least) 5 modules students must make three types of posts per module. These include: 

• (1st Post) “Question Contribution”: Students must clearly formulate a question that arose for them when engaging with the content in the module which they believe could create a discussion/conversation amongst their colleagues.
• (2nd Post) “Short Journal Entry Contribution”: Students are required to make a 250 word or more “journal-like entry” connected explicitly to material covered in the module. Students are invited and encouraged to explore their thoughts, beliefs, and opinions about course material freely in this entry. One could, for example, explore a specific idea or problem covered in the module that caught their attention or could make a more general entry of their thoughts about the module as a whole. Students are encouraged to try to relate the course material covered in modules to their past experiences and background knowledge. 
• (3rd Post) “Reply Contribution”: Students must write a 100 word or more reply to another colleague’s question or journal-like post.

3. Exams (40%)

Students will be required to complete three exams throughout the duration of this course. The three exams total 40% of one’s overall grade and are weighted as follows:

1. Logic Exam (10%)
2. Mid-Term Exam (15%)
3. Final Exam (15%)

Each exam will consist of a mixture of multiple choice, true/false, matching, and short answer questions. The due date for and content to be covered on exams will be announced during class meetings as the semester progresses. All exams are “open book and notes”, which means that students are not restricted from using assigned materials and their own notes while taking exams. However, communication and/or collaboration in any form with other students or persons while taking exams will be considered an act of academic dishonesty and is subject to the plagiarism/ academic dishonesty policy of this course. 

5. Essay (10%) & Presentation (5%) in Philosophy 

Students will be required to write a philosophical essay worth 10% of their overall grade as well as create a video recording of a presentation discussing a topic in philosophy (to be specified at a later date) which explores and/or defends the plausibility of a philosophical thesis. Specific details concerning the requirements for essays and presentations will be provided during a class meeting.  

A Note on Plagiarism and the Use of “Outside” Sources. Any incidents of plagiarism will be addressed in accordance with the plagiarism policy for this course (see Section X below). Essays are assigned as an exercise to help students develop their ability to express their own philosophical thoughts and reflections on the assigned course content in writing and should not draw on websites, blogs, etc. which are outside the assigned content in the modules for this online course. Use of outside sources must get approval from the professor prior to their use. Essays that cite unapproved outside resources will be given a failing grade. 

A Note on the Prohibition on Using AI Programs/Applications. The use of AI programs and applications (such as ChatGPT) will be considered acts of academic dishonesty and will result in a failing grade for this assignment. Students that need help with grammar and writing should seek assistance/tutoring through ACC's Upswing or Learning Lab programs. Please contact me if you need more information on how to do this. 

MODULES & ASSIGNED MATERIALS FOR REVIEW 

All assigned materials for review are posted in the respective module folders on the course Blackboard page.

0. Course Syllabus
Syllabus

1. What is Philosophy?

Read Whalin, Christopher. (2022) “What is Philosophy?” Mapping the Trees of Knowledge (Draft)

Watch Lisa Feldman Barrett, Philip Kitcher, and Valerie Tiberius. “What is Wisdom?” Nour Foundation

Watch “A Clip: Alan Watts on Philosophy & Existence”

Watch “Bertrand Russell Discusses Philosophy”

2. The Pre-Socratic Philosophers

Read Parmenides. On Nature.

Read Fragments from the Pre-Socratics

3. Arguments for the Existence of God

Read Bonevac, Daniel. “Arguments for God’s Existence: Anselm & Aquinas”

Read the third meditation from Descartes, Rene. (1641) Meditations on First Philosophy.

Read Handout: St. Anselm’s Ontological Proof for the Existence of God

Read “Selection: William Paley’s Argument from Design,” from Paley, William. (1800) Natural Theology

Read “Selection: Blaise Pascal’s Wager” from Blaise Pascal’s Pensées

Read the Wikipedia article “Conceptions of God”, URL=<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptions_of_God>

4. The Problem of Evil

Read “Selection: Alvin Plantinga on the Problem of Evil,” an excerpt from Plantinga, Alvin. (1974) God, Freedom, and Evil, Harper and Row

Metcalf, Ted. “Theodicies as a Response to the Problem of Evil,” edited by Noah Levin, NGE Far Press

Watch “Obedience: Research Carried Out at Yale University Under Grants from the National Foundation of Science,” Stanley Milgram, 1965

Watch “Arendt, Hannah. (2003) “Thinking and Its Moral Considerations (Parts 1-3),” Responsibility and Judgment, ed. by Jerome Kohn, Random House, Inc.

5. Fate, Destiny, Free Will, & Moral Responsibility

Read Conee, Earl. (2005) “Fatalism,” Riddles of Existence, Oxford University Press

Read “Selection: Augustine of Hippo on Free Will,” excerpt from Augustine of Hippo’s (395AD) De Libero Arbitrio (On Free Choice of the Will) 

Read Sider, Theodore. (2005) "Free Will & Determinism," Riddles of Existence, Oxford University Press

Read Frankfurt, Harry. (1971) “Freedom of Will and the Concept of a Person,” The Journal of Philosophy, Jan. 14, 1971, Vol. 68, No. 1 (Jan. 14, 1971), pp. 5- 20

Read Bargdill, Richard W. (2006) “Fate and Destiny: Some Historical Distinctions between Concepts,” Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, Vol. 26, 2006

6. The Sophists, Skepticism, & Relativism

Watch Weber, Eugene. “Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle”

Read Fragments from the Sophists

Read Rachels, James and Stuart Rachels. (2019) “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism,” The Elements of Moral Philosophy, ninth edition

7. Rhetoric, Persuasion, Analysis, & Argumentation

Watch “Rhetoric vs. Dialectic,” Voxiversity

Read Handout: Definitions & Arguments

Read Handout: A Preliminary Conception of Truth, the Four Principles of Classical Logic, & Rational Belief Formation

Handout: Validity & Soundness Again

Watch Bearup, Jill. “31 Logical Fallacies in 8 Minutes”

Watch “15 Logical Fallacies from the 2020 Presidential Debate”

8. Truth, Falsehood, Lies, & Bullshit

Watch “Bullshit! Featuring Harry Frankfurt”

Read Frankfurt, Harry. (2005) “On Bullshit,” Princeton University Press

Read Hendricks, V.F., Vestergaard, M. (2019) “Alternative Facts, Misinformation, and Fake News,” Reality Lost, Springer

Watch “Talk about Misinformation and Fake News with Vincent Hendricks”

Watch Duffy, Bobby. “How We Create Our Own Fake News,” TEDxLiverpool 

9. Socrates’ Trial & Execution

Read Plato’s Apology of Socrates 

Read Selection: Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

10.Confidence, Ignorance, & Socratic Wisdom

Watch Dunning, David. (2017) “Why Ignorance Fails to Recognize Itself,” MacMillan Learning Center

Read Dunning, David, et. al. (2003) “Why People Fail to Recognize Their Own Ignorance,” American Psychological Association

Watch Moore, Don A. (2019) “The Psychology of Confidence,” Berkeley Haas Alumni Network

Watch So, Chaehan. “Why We Are Wrong When We Think We Are Right,” TEDxMünchen

11. Cognitive Dissonance, Cognitive Biases, Beliefs, & Self-Image

Read Tavris, Carol and Elliot Aronson. (2007) Mistakes Were Made (but not by me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Actions. Harcourt, Inc.

Watch Luttrell, Andy. “Cognitive Dissonance: A Crash Course”

Watch “A Lesson in Cognitive Dissonance: Festinger & Carlsmith’s 1954 Study”

Watch “Why It’s So Hard to Admit You’re Wrong: Cognitive Dissonance,” SciShowPsych

Watch Halvorson, Heidi Grant. “Confirmation Bias: Your Brain is So Judgmental,” Big Think

Watch Bauman, Peter. “Cognitive Biases 101,” Big Think

12. Knowledge, Perception, & Deception

Review all resources provided in the folder labelled “Materials on Perception & Deception” 

Read Russell, Bertrand. (1912) “Appearance and Reality,” in The Problems of Philosophy

Read the first and second meditations in Descartes, Rene. (1641) Meditations on First Philosophy. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 1996. This file is of the 1911 edition of The Philosophical Works of Descartes (Cambridge University Press), translated by Elizabeth S. Haldane.

Read “Selection: Locke on the Primary-Secondary Qualities Distinction”

Read “Selection: George Berkeley’s Master Argument”

Read “Overview: Perception, Knowledge, & Reality”

Please refer to the "Readings" section for a more detailed account of course subjects.

Departmental Course Student Learning Outcomes 

● Identify, demonstrate understanding of, and describe various major figures, divisions, theories, and concepts in philosophy 

● Analyze written texts from philosophy 

● Apply concepts from philosophy to issues of both individual and universal significance ● Develop and/or defend a philosophical thesis in a written essay 

Professor Objectives/Outcomes 

The content of this online course is designed to get students to start doing philosophy. Students will be given tasks which will afford them experiences of:  

∙ carefully thinking about human cognition, which in turn can lead to greater self-awareness of one's own cognition;  

∙ exposure to information which can be utilized toward the aim of avoiding errors in cognition and avoiding the formation of false beliefs;  

∙ interpreting and critiquing works in the history of philosophy;  

∙ analyzing concepts as well as evaluating various arguments, ideas, and theories found in the history of philosophy;  

∙ learning how to evaluate the plausibility of arguments and their rebuttals; ∙ exercising one's own rational autonomy through attempting to make discerning judgements concerning the truth and plausibility of alternative views for oneself.  

General Education Competencies 

Communication Skills: Develop, interpret, and express ideas and information through written, oral and visual communication that is adapted to purpose, structure, audience, and medium.

Critical Thinking Skills: Gather, analyze, synthesize, evaluate and apply information for the purposes of innovation, inquiry, and creative thinking. 

Personal Responsibility: Identify and apply ethical principles and practices to decision-making by connecting choices, actions and consequences 

Social Responsibility (Civic and Cultural Awareness): Analyze differences and commonalities among peoples, ideas, aesthetic traditions, and cultural practices to include intercultural competence, knowledge of civic responsibility, and the ability to engage effectively in regional, national, and global communities.