Instructor: Dr. Steve Naragon, Office: Ad Bldg., #231c (Phone —  office: 982-5041; home: 982-6033)

Required Texts: (1) Naragon, “A Book is a Machine to Help One Think”: An Introduction to Philosophy (Fall 2009); (2) Plato, Five Dialogues, 2nd ed. (Hackett); (3) René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy (Hackett).

Films.  This course makes use of films for exploring philosophical ideas; just like the books, these films are assigned “texts” for the class.  As such, they are to be viewed “on your own time,” outside of class, just like studying any other assigned text for class.  The main difference with these films is that I will hold evening viewings where we can watch them together.  I encourage you to attend these group viewings, although this is not required, so long as you watch them before class the next morning.  All of these films are on reserve at the library, but many can also be found at movie rentals, or downloaded (or watched in streaming video) on the internet [try www.hulu.com, or www.fancast.com/movies, or find segmented versions on YouTube]. 

Course Objectives.  After a semester of hard work, deep confusion, and more hard work, you will have: (1) become acquainted with the nature of Western philosophy and some of its perennial concerns; (2) further developed your logical and analytic skills for critically evaluating arguments and beliefs; (3) had the opportunity to reflect on some of the most pressing questions confronting each of us as human beings, once our material needs are met: Is there an real difference between right and wrong, and true and false, and can we come to know this difference? Are there good reasons either to accept or reject the existence of God?  What is it to be human?  
	
	You will be asked in this course to learn and understand various concepts and theories and arguments; but in doing this, you will also be developing your skills in thinking critically and creatively about the world around you, and about the role you see yourself playing in it.
	
	After this semester, most of you will never again be asked to explain Descartes’ argument against skepticism or Kant’s moral theory, but all of you will be required to live; and this you can do either intelligently or not, either well or not.  You can aim to live lives of wonder, filled with beauty, and seeking truth — or not.   
	
	A more detailed set of learning objectives can be found on the web syllabus, listed under each reading module.

Requirements

Attendance.  If you do not plan to attend class and participate constructively, then you should withdraw from this class.  A course on philosophy is by its nature aimed at self-examination and discussion; consequently, doing well in this class requires being there and participating.  Missing class does not directly affect your grade, although students with poor attendance typically do quite poorly in the class.  On the average, students missing more than two classes during the semester receive grades below the class average. During Jan Term, missing a day is equivalent to missing an entire week during fall or spring semester.

Groups.  The class will be divided into four groups (seven or eight students per group).  These groups will function primarily in the following ways: (1) discussing questions at the beginning of each class, (2) working through the learning objectives for each day in preparation for the quizzes, (3) posting and commenting to the online discussion forums.

Quizzes.  There will be a quiz at the beginning of every class (on the readings for the day and material discussed the previous day), and occasional quizzes at the end of the day as well (on what was discussed in class that day).  These quizzes help keep each of us informed of your grasp of the material, and should provide additional motivation to stay current with the readings, and to work through the day’s material each evening.  [Makeup: Missed quizzes can be made up in my office before the next class meeting.  It is wholly your responsibility to make this arrangement.]

Discussion Forum.  There are five discussion forums, each of which will require one post and two comments from you.  These will be completed on ANGEL.

Film Evaluation.  We will watch nine films together as a class.  You will need to write evaluations of any six of these films (you choose which six).  These evaluations are due before class begins the next morning.  The form is available on ANGEL; you should type this up using your normal word processor, and then cut-and-paste the completed form into the appropriate drop box. 

Essays.  You will need to write two essays (about 600-800 words each) that discuss the philosophical aspect of a film (drawn from a list found on ANGEL in the “Course Materials” folder).  These are due on Jan 18 (Mon), and Jan 26 (Tue).  You may complete a third response paper for extra credit, if you wish (this third essay would be due on the last class day).

In-Class Writing.  There will be brief informal writing exercises in-class.

Grading.  The course grade is determined as follows: the set of Quizzes (30%), the Discussion Forums (30%), the Film Evaluations (10%), the two Essays (25%), and the In-Class Writing (5%).  I use the following letter grade conversion scale: A (94-100), A- (90-93), B+ (87-89), B (83-86), B- (80-82), C+ (77-79), C (73-76), C- (70-72), D+ (67-69), D (63-66), D-(60-62), F (0-59).

Students with Disabilities.  Manchester College, in compliance with federal guidelines, is committed to providing students with disabilities an access to programs and activities that are equal to the access provided to students without disabilities.  If you believe that you need an accommodation due to a disability, please contact Bonnie O’Connell, the director of services for students with disabilities (Success Center, second floor of the Union); please telephone 982-5076 to schedule an appointment.

Cheating and Plagiarism.  Plagiarism consists of submitting the statements, ideas, opinions, or findings of another as if they were your own.  It is not plagiarism to copy from or paraphrase a source as long as this is acknowledged and the source is cited.  Cheating and deliberate plagiarism will result in automatically failing the class.  For more information, see the college Catalog.

SCHEDULE OF DISCUSSION AND READINGS

All readings are in my textbook, except for those in the Descartes and Plato texts.

Wed, Jan 6
(1) What is philosophy?
	Read: Naragon (§§1-4).
Logic and Epistemology
Thu, Jan 7
(2) Logic
	Read: Naragon, §§5-7; Plato, “Allegory of the Cave”.
Thursday evening film: Twelve Angry Men (1957).
Fri, Jan 8
(3) Belief
	Read: Peirce, “Fixation of Belief”; Clifford, “The Ethics of Belief”.
Sunday evening film: Thank You For Smoking (2006).
Mon, Jan 11
(4) Knowledge and belief
	Read: Naragon, §§9-11; Plato, Apology; Plato, Meno.
Monday evening film: The Matrix (1999).
Tue, Jan 12
(5) Is knowledge possible?
	Read: Naragon, §§14-19; Descartes, “Meditations One and Two”; Borges, “The Circular Ruins”.
Wed, Jan 13
(6) Where do my ideas come from?
	Read: Naragon, §§20-21; Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
Wednesday evening film: Artificial Intelligence (2001).
The Metaphysics of Being Human
Thu, Jan 14
(7) What am I?
	Read: Naragon, §§25-28; Descartes, Discourse on Method (selection); Law, “Could a Machine Think?”; Searle, “The Myth of the Computer”.
Thursday evening film: Memento (2000).
Fri, Jan 15
(8) Am I the same person?
	Read: Naragon, §§33-35; Dennett, “Where am I?”.
Sunday evening film: Being John Malkovich (1999).
Mon, Jan 18
(9) Am I free?
	Read: Naragon, §§29-32; Stace, “The Problem of Morals”.
Monday evening film: Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).
Ethics
Tue, Jan 19
(10) Why be moral?
	Read: Naragon, §45-46; Plato, “Ring of Gyges”; Singer, “Prisoner’s Dilemma”; Twain, “Selection from Huckleberry Finn”.
Wed, Jan 20
(11) Moral Subjectivism
	Read: Naragon, §47, 51-52; Benedict, “Anthropology and the Abnormal”; Mill, Utilitarianism; Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”.
Thu, Jan 21
(12) Moral Objectivism
	Read: Naragon, §§53-55; Kant, “Foundations”; Singer, “Famine, Affluence, and Morality”.
Thursday evening film: The Apostle (1998).
Philosophy of Religion
Fri, Jan 22
(13) Believing in God
	Read: Naragon, §§36, 38; Smullyan, “A Conversation with God”; Rousseau, “Creed of a Priest of Savoy”; Einstein, “Religion and Science”.
Sunday evening film: The Seventh Seal (1957).
Mon, Jan 25
(14) Not believing in God
	Read: Naragon, §§37, 42; Russell, “Why I am not a Christian”; Dostoyevsky, Brothers Karamazov.
Tue, Jan 26
(15) Can we prove that God exists?
	Read: Naragon; §§41, 43-44; Paley, Natural Theology (selection); Begley, “Science finds Religion”; Pascal, “The Wager”.