Instructor: Prof. Shane Drefcinski
Office: 339 Gardner Hall
Office Phone: 342-1828
E-Mail: Drefcins@uwplatt.edu
Home Page:  http://vms.www.uwplatt.edu/~drefcins/index.html

Required Texts

• Shane Drefcinski and C. Ellsworth Hood, editors. A Philosophy Reader. (Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2000).  This text can be rented from the Textbook Rental Center.

Grading:
     Grades will be based on four factors: (1) exams, (2) a paper, (3) quizzes, and (4) class participation.  There are two unit exams, each worth 50 points, and a cumulative final exam worth 100 points.  The paper, which will cover one of the suggested topics and should be approximately 3-4 pages in length, is worth 100 points.  Six short quizzes are each worth 10 points, with the lowest quiz  dropped.  Finally, class participation is worth 50 points.
    The grade based on participation is determined in the following manner.  Regular and attentive attendance earns approximately 35 points.  Regular attendance plus occasional participation earns approximately 40 points.  Regular attendance plus frequent participation earns approximately 50 points.   My rationale for a grade based upon participation is as follows.  A person must be actively wrestling with the subject matter in order to philosophize well.  Hence, a novice to philosophy must regularly and attentively attend class in order to develop some command of the difficult material we shall be considering. I expect each student to come to each class prepared to discuss the readings assigned for that day.  Since the readings are difficult, I also expect each student to have some questions about the material.  Please feel  encouraged to raise questions duringclass, no matter how basic the question may seem to be.

Policy on Missed Exams, Missed Quizzes, Late Papers and Incompletes: The student must inform the instructor before the exam that will be missed, preferably in person, and must provide an acceptable reason for the absence.  Students who miss an exam without prior notification will not be allowed to make up the exam.  Make-up exams may be slightly more difficult.  Students who miss a quiz will not be allowed to take it later.  Late papers will be penalized.   Incompletes will not be routinely assigned for unfinished course work.  In order to receive an incomplete the student must consult the instructor before the week of final exams and provide an acceptable reason why the course work cannot be completed.  Finally, any student who may need an accommodation due to a disability should see me. A VISA from Services for Students with Disabilities authorizing your accommodations will be needed.
 

Tentative Schedule of Topics and Readings

Week #2

Socrates (470-399 B.C.)           Plato (428-347 B.C.)

                Socrates’ Apology and Crito
                Plato’s Idealism: Republic II, IV, V.
                   Read:  Plato, A Philosophy Reader (hereafter Reader), pp. 41-86.

Week #3

                Plato’s Idealism: Republic VI, VII.
                Aristotle’s Realism: Physics II, Nicomachean Ethics I.
                   Read: Plato, Aristotle, Reader, pp. 86-90; 1, 35-37, 3-12.

Week #4
             Aristotle’s Realism: Nicomachean Ethics II, VI, X.
                    Read: Aristotle,  Reader, pp. 13-20, 25-33.

Week #5
 
 

             St. Thomas Aquinas’s Realism: Summa Theologiae I, qq. 1, 82; I-II, qq. 90-91.
                     Read: Aquinas, Reader, pp. 93-96, 99-109.

            Exam #1

Week #6

          Rene Descartes’ Rationalism: Meditations on First Philosophy.
          Thomas Hobbes’ Materialism: Leviathan.
              Read: Descartes, Hobbes, Reader, pp. 111-118; 119-130.

Week of #7

John Locke (1632-1704)

 Locke on Marriage

          Thomas Hobbes' Materialism: Leviathan
          John Locke’s Realism and Empiricism: Second Treatise on Government.
                       Read: Hobbes, Locke, Reader, pp. 131-139; 141-159.

Week #8
 
 

        David Hume’s Empiricism: Treatise on Human Nature.
                    Read: Hume,  Reader, pp. 161-177

Weeks ##9-10

            Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Naturalism: Discourse on the Origins of Inequality.
                     Read:  Rousseau,  Second Discourse,
 
 

              Immanuel Kant’s Idealism: Critique of Practical Reason, Critique of Pure Reason, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals..
                        Read:  Kant, Reader, pp. 179-195.

Exam #2

Week #11

        G.W.F. Hegel’s Idealism: Philosophy of History.
        Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ Materialism: Communist Manifesto.
                         Read:  Hegel, Marx, Reader, pp. 207-218; 219-239.

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)    John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)    William James (1842-1910)

         Classical Feminism: Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women.
         John Stuart Mill’s Empiricism: Utilitarianism.
         William James’ Pragmatism: “What Pragmatism Means”
              Read: Wollstonecraft, Mill, James, Reader, pp. 197-205; 267-285, 287-304.

Week #13

        John Dewey’s Pragmatism: Reconstruction in Philosophy.
        A.J. Ayer’s Empiricism: Language, Truth, and Logic.
        Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Empiricism: Philosophical Investigations.
                       Read: Dewey, Ayer, Ryle, Wittgenstein, Reader, pp.; 305-317; 319-330; 341-347; 331-340.
 

Week #14

        Søren Kierkegaard’s Existentialism: "What Then Must I Do?  Live as an Individual."
        Friedrich Nietzsche’s Existentialism: Joyful Wisdom and Thus Spake Zarathustra
            Read: Kierkegaard, Nietzsche,  Reader, pp, 241-256; 257-266.

Week #15

           Jean-Paul Sartre’s Existentialism: “Existentialism is a Humanism.”
           Simone de Beauvoir’s Existentialism, Second Sex
           Review for Final Exam.
                         Read: Sartre, de Beauvoir, Reader, pp. 349-375; 377-384.

Final Exam