Read: Plato, Apology and Crito (Reader, pp. 41-64).
These works are also available on the Internet:
Text of
Apology
Text of Crito
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
Office Hours: W: 5:30-6:30pm and by appointment.
Student Learning Objectives:
Students who successfully complete this course will:
• Acquire a basic understanding of the some of the central views of
education in Western philosophy.
• Enhance their ability to analyze and clarify ideas, especially their
own ideas about education.
• Become more ethically sensitive through an introductory study of
various ethical theories.
• Enhance their ability to present their ideas and arguments effectively,
both orally and in writing.
Grading:
Grades are primarily based on a term paper. Typically the grade you
earn on your term paper is the grade you will receive for
the course. In your term paper, you will address your own philosophy
of education. You are expected to discuss the central
topics of this course: the aim of education, the content of the curriculum,
the methods of instruction, the role of the teacher,
and the nature of the student. You also are expected to refer to several
of the philosophies and authors that we studied in the
course. The paper should be approximately 10-15+ pages long and
is due on December 22. Extensions are granted upon request.
Class presentations and class participation are also factored into the
final grade. In the class presentations you are expected to lead
the seminar discussion of a text written by a recent proponent of one of
the philosophies that we are studying.
Required Texts:
To Be Rented from the Textbook Center:
Outline of Each Session in the Course
June 13 Overview of the course and the nature of philosophy
June 14
Socrates (c. 470-399 B.C.)
Read: Plato, Apology and Crito (Reader, pp. 41-64).
These works are also available on the Internet:
Text of
Apology
Text of Crito
June 15 Idealism: Plato (c. 428-347 B.C.)
June 16 Plato, continued
June 20 Seminar Presentation on a Recent Idealist: Earl Shorris (1936- )
June 21 Realism: Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
Read: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics I, Physics II, (Reader,
pp. 1, 35-37, 3-12.)
Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is also available on the Internet:
Text
of Nicomachean Ethics I
Text
of Nicomachean Ethics II
June 22
Aristotle continued
Read: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics II, VI, X; Politics
VII 17-VIII 4, Reader, pp. 13-20, 25-33;
handout on on Politics VII 17-VIII 4.
Exercise # 2 due.
June 23 Seminar Presentation on a Recent Realist: Jacques Maritain (1882-1973)
A web site devoted to Jacques Maritain:
Jacques
Maritain Center at the University of Notre Dame
June 27 Naturalism: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Read: Rousseau, Emile (pp. 33-55, 77-92, 165-189);
Recommended: Emile (Introduction, pp. 3-29); Mary Wollstonecraft
(1759-1797),
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Reader, pp. 197-205).
June 28 Seminar Presentation of a Recent Naturalist: A.S. Neill (1883-1973)
Read: A.S. Neill, Summerhill (pp. ix-xi, 3-151).
June 29 Pragmatism: William James (1842-1910) and John Dewey (1859-1952)
June 30 Seminar Presentation of A Recent Pragmatist: Lauerl N. Tanner
Read: Lauerl N. Tanner’s Dewey’s Laboratory School: Lessons for Today
chapters 1, 3-4, 7-8
(pp. 1-11, 23-63, 120-178).
July 5
Existentialism: Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Friedrich
Nietzsche (1844-1900),
Simone De Beauvoir (1908-1986)
Read: Kierkegaard, “What Then Must I Do?” (Reader, pp. 241-256);
Nietzsche, selections from Joyful Wisdom and Thus Spoke Zarathustra
(Reader, pp. 257-266)
De Beauvoir, The Second Sex (Reader, pp. 377-384).
July 6 Seminar Report on a Recent Existentialist: Van Cleve Morris
Read: Van Cleve Morris, Existentialism in Education (99-155).
July 7
Postmodern Trends
Read: Lawrence Cahoone, Introduction to From Modernism to Postmodernism
(handout, pp. 1-23); Henry Giroux, "Towards a Postmodern Pedagogy" (handout,
pp. 687-697).
Paper
Due July 25