COURSE SYLLABUS
1. TITLE OF COURSE: Introduction to Philosophy
PREFIX/NUMBER: PHI 111 CREDIT HOURS: 3
2. PREREQUISITE: REA 099 or equivalent
3. RESOURCES NEEDED:
TEXT: The Philosopher's Way, Chaffee, current edition
SUPPLIES: The Philosopher's Notebook
4. COURSE DESCRIPTION: Introduces significant human questions and emphasizes understanding the meaning and methods of philosophy. Includes the human condition, knowledge, freedom, history, ethics, the future, and religion.
5. COURSE GOAL:
6. COURSE OBJECTIVES:
Students will be able to:
(A) Identify, describe, analyze, and evaluate major selected philosophical issues and philosophical methods.
(B) Associate major philosophical positions with the philosophers who first elucidated or clarified them
(C) Draw on the readings and class discussions to begin to formulate a personal philosophy.
7. EVALUATION PROCEDURES:
1. Three tests (including the final) will count 50 points each for a total of 150 points towards the final grade.
2. One written (five typed double-spaced pages) personal philosophical essay, counting 100 points towards the final grade.
3. The Philosopher's notebook will count as 100 points towards the final grade.
Grading Scale
Raw Score Range Letter Grade
90 to 100 A
80 to 89 B
70 to 79 C
60 to 69 D
0 to 59 F
Special Remarks:
1. Attendance: College policy states that students may be dropped from enrollment when absent 20% of the scheduled class meetings. If enrolled from the beginning of the term, 15 hours will usually constitute 20% of a four-credit semester course which meets five hours per week. Reinstatement procedures are described in the PCC catalog.
2. Tardy Policy: A student who is late three times (enters the classroom after the instructor has taken roll) will be charged with one full absence.
3. Students will be expected to share their personal philosophical essays with other members of the class at the discretion of the instructor.
8. COURSE OUTLINE (Textual Units)
Part I: What is Philosophy?
presents an overview of the discipline of Philosophy. To introduce you to what Philosophy is, the chapter describes various definitions of philosophy, philosophy’s origins, the traditional branches of philosophy, and the goals of philosophy. Critical thinking skills are necessary skills for doing philosophy, and the chapter describes what makes up the set of skills that make us critical thinkers.
Part II: The Examined life.
Chaffee takes an in depth look at the life of Socrates, the "father of Western philosophy." You will read about Socrates' activities educating the youth, about his philosophical method, and about the events that led to Socrates' death.
Part III: Who am I?
Chaffee explores the seemingly simple idea of a "self." By surveying the history of philosophical thought on this topic, he reveals that the notion of a self is far from simple. He presents multiple ideas about the nature of selfhood and discusses their strengths and weaknesses. You will gain insight on possible conceptions of selfhood.
Part IV: Freedom.
Chaffee considers the problem of free will. He presents the standard theories of free will and offers readings from representatives of each of these theories. He also makes some practical recommendations for how we might become more aware of the nature of freedom and how we can maximize our freedom.
Part V: Values.
Chaffee describes the moral ideas that people carry around with them, and also identifies how these ideas can be refined and improved by the clear, thoughtful reasoning that a systematic philosophical study of morality offers. He covers two forms of ethical relativism, and several forms of ethical absolutism. He addresses the theory that all people are motivated by self-interest, and discusses whether we ought to conclude that ethics is irrelevant.
Part VI: Ethics.
In this chapter you will learn about different moral theories including Bentham and Mill's utilitarianism, Singer's animal rights argument based on utilitarianism, Kant's Deontology, Aristotle's Virtue Ethics, Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Camus' Existentialist ethics, and Noddings' ethics of care.
Part VII: What is Religion.
Chaffee offers a survey of major world religions in order to provide a basic understanding or framework from which to address questions in the Philosophy of Religion. He then presents some guidelines for thinking critically about Religion, including the question of whether religious claims are valid. He presents Nietzsche's argument for the "death of God," and Daly's critique of the patriarchal structure of most all organized religions. In addition, he covers James's argument for the authority of mystical experience. He divides way of seeking spiritual enlightenment into reason-based methods and faith-based methods. Finally he presents the problem of evil along with some potential responses.
Part VIII: What is Real.
In this chapter, Chaffee introduces the problems of reality and truth, along with the respective philosophical branches devoted to these concepts, Metaphysics and Epistemology. He describes how Plato attempts to reconcile the views of prominent Pre-Socratic philosophers by developing the "Two Worlds" theory. He goes on to show how Aristotle's criticism of Plato's theory led him to develop his own alternative theory.
Part IX: What is Truth?
Chaffee continues the discussion of metaphysics and epistemology he began in Chapter 8. He turns his focus from the rationalists such as Plato and Descartes to the empiricists, giving particular emphasis to the British Empiricists. He traces the line of thought from Locke to Berkeley to Hume and on to Kant's constructivism. He gives a detailed account of Kant's attempt to overcome the conflict between rationalism and empiricism as well as to address the threat posed by Hume's skepticism. Chaffee also provides an account of feminist epistemology and presents Jaggar's analysis of the exclusion of emotion from theories of knowledge and her description of the theoretical problems and the widespread consequences caused by this exclusion.
Part X: Justice
Chaffee presents the main Western theories of social and political philosophy. He describes Plato's focus on the nature of justice and his rejection of democracy. He presents Aristotle's argument for the idea that humans are inherently social creatures, and its corollary, that human identity is fundamentally a social identity. He then turns to Hobbes and his depiction of the terrible conditions of the state of nature, which reveal the need for a social contract in which individuals relinquish certain of their rights in order to be protected from the chaos of the state of nature. He then turns to Locke's political theory, which takes up Hobbes's notion of a social contract, and which adds the theory of natural law. Chaffee shows the direct and enormous influence that Locke's theory had on the formation of the USA. Then he presents Hume's critique of the notion of a state of nature, and then presents Rawls's theory of justice, which relies on the notion of a state of nature or "original position", but also accepts Hume's conclusion that the state of nature cannot be understood to be an actual historical moment. Next, Chaffee presents the tenets of socialism in Marx and Engels' Manifesto, and draws the contrast between liberalism and socialism in their differing emphases on the role of the individual and the good of the community, respectively. He then covers Mill's social and political theory, again showing his influence on American democracy. Finally, Chaffee presents Okin's argument that the gender inequality built into personal family life has a tremendous power to create political inequality, along with her recommendations for addressing this inequality.
9. METHODS OF INSTRUCTION:
To be successful in this course, students are expected to participate in discussions, readings, in-class writing, and peer review activities. The instructor may assign point values to such activities.
10. ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:
The very nature of higher education requires that students adhere to accepted standards of academic integrity. Therefore, Pueblo Community College has adopted a policy of academic conduct as described in the Student Handbook. Violation of academic integrity may be defined to include the following: cheating, plagiarism, falsification and fabrication, abuse of academic materials, complicity in academic dishonesty, and personal misrepresentation. It is the student’s responsibility to be aware of the behaviors that constitute academic dishonesty. Sanctions for violating the standards of academic integrity may include warning, probation, suspension, and/or failure of the course or assignment at the discretion of the instructor.
11. ADA NOTICE:
Students who have a documented disability may be eligible to receive accommodations for this class. Please contact the Disability Resources Center at 549-3446 for further information.