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Syllabus for Philosophy 251: Introduction to
Philosophy
Spring 2005, Dr. Stephen H. Daniel
Introduction to Philosophy develops problem-solving and critical-thinking skills by examining discussions about human nature, reality, freedom, God, knowledge, truth, ethics, political obligation, and the philosophy of art.
This course has twelve sections, each with about 25 students. All students meet together on Monday and Wednesday. On Friday they meet at various times in their sections to discuss material covered in the textbook and lectures and take a quiz on that material. Philosophy graduate teaching assistants direct these Friday sessions.
Text: Philosophy: A Text with Readings (9th ed., 2005) by Manuel Velasquez. (Click on title to order the book at a cost much lower than you would pay at a local bookstore. Make sure, though, that you are getting the 9th edition.)
- Pages listed below should be read before each class.
- To see the PowerPoint slide summaries for each class, click on the topic for that day. It might be useful to print out summaries before class so that you do not have to write down that material during class and can simply add your comments to those notes. [Note: to be able to view the slides, you have to have a PowerPoint reader installed on your computer. You can get a free read-only version of PowerPoint at the Microsoft download site, or you can purchase the full Microsoft Office software (which includes PowerPoint, Word, and Excel) from A&M's Student Computer Sales for $15.]
- For extra credit, write answers to the questions on pages listed
for each class. These answers must be given to your teaching assistant in that day's class.
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Class date |
Topic |
Reading Assignment |
Extra Credit Questions |
Extra Credit Questions Value |
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Jan. 19 |
1-17 |
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Jan. 21 |
Discussion | |
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Jan. 24 |
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31-32 #1-5, 39 | 3 points |
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Jan. 26 |
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78-79,
104 |
2
points |
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Jan. 28 |
Discussion/quiz |
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Jan. 31 |
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118 | 1 point |
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Feb. 2 |
119-44 |
130-31,
140 |
2 points | |
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Feb. 4 |
Discussion/quiz |
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Feb. 7 |
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182, 189-90, 199 #1-4 | 3 points |
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Feb. 9 |
199-218 |
205,
211, 218 |
3 points | |
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Feb. 11 |
Discussion/quiz |
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Feb. 14 |
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231 | 2 points |
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Feb. 16 |
Freedom: Determinism & Libertarianism |
232-38 |
240
#1-4 |
1 point |
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Feb. 18 |
Discussion/quiz |
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Feb. 21 |
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240 #5, 246-47 | 1 point |
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Feb. 23 |
Test 1 |
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Feb. 25 |
Discussion/quiz |
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Feb. 28 |
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293-94 | 3 points |
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Mar. 2 |
294-328 |
301-302,
309-10, 325-26 |
3 points | |
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Mar. 4 |
Discussion/quiz |
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Mar. 7 |
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365-66, 378 | 2 points |
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Mar. 9 |
379-93 |
393 |
2 points | |
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Mar. 11 |
Discussion/quiz |
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Mar. 21 |
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394-418 |
403, 415 | 2 points |
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Mar. 23 |
437-64 |
442,
464-65 |
3 points | |
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(Mar. 25) |
(No class: Good Friday) |
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Mar. 28 |
Test 2
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Mar. 30 |
507-18 |
514, 518-19 | 2 points | |
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Apr. 1 |
Discussion/quiz |
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Apr. 4 |
519-30
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1 point | |
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Apr. 6 |
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539, 548 | 2 points | |
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Apr. 8 |
Discussion/quiz |
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Apr. 11 |
548-65
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2 points | |
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Apr. 13 |
605-615 |
607-608 |
1
point |
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Apr. 15 |
Discussion/quiz |
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Apr. 18 |
616-26
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1 point |
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Apr. 20 |
Theories of Justice/Nozick |
627-45 |
645-46 |
2 points |
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Apr. 22 |
Discussion/quiz |
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Apr. 25 |
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669-70 | 2 points |
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Apr. 27 |
695-713 |
713-14 |
2 points | |
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Apr. 29 |
Discussion/quiz |
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May 2 |
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726 | 1 point |
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May 3 (Tuesday) |
Discussion/quiz |
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May 9 (Monday) |
Final exam 10:30-12:30 |
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Grades/Tests: Your course grade is based on
three true/false, multiple-choice tests (including the final
exam)--each of which is worth 25%--and the total points for Friday
discussion quizzes (23%). Test questions for previous semesters can be
found below. You can add extra points to
your test scores by turning in short essay answers to questions in the
text. Your short essay answers must
be turned in to your teaching assistant in class on the day of the lecture.
These answers have a total value of 49 points.
- Each Friday the discussion will focus on the topics covered in
the text and lectures. In the last ten minutes of the class you will be
given a short quiz containing seven true-false/multiple-choice questions. You can discuss your answer with other students but you will not be able to consult your notes. The total for those quizzes will count for 23% of the final course grade. The remaining 2% of the course grade must be fulfilled by extra credit questions.
- If you miss a Friday quiz because of a university-excused absence, you should notify your teaching assistant who will arrange for you to take a make-up quiz. No one who arrives more than 15 minutes late for class on Friday will be allowed to take the quiz in that session. However, if you notify your TA beforehand, you can go to one of the other discussions led by your TA and take the quiz then. (If your TA has no other later sessions, you can sit in on another TA's session as long as you notify the other TA before the session begins about your attendance for that day alone.) You should therefore learn the times and locations of your TA's other sessions on Friday:
- 9:10, section 502, Jeremy Evans, Zachary 333A
- 9:10, section 506, Steve Campbell, Zachary 119C
- 9:10, section 507, Adam Shriver, Military Science 317
- 10:20, section 504, Kim Díaz, Zachary 333A
- 10:20, section 508, Adam Shriver, Military Science 317
- 10:20, section 511, Jeremy Evans, Engineering/Physics 214
- 11:30, section 503, Kim Díaz, Zachary 333A
- 11:30, section 505, Adam Shriver, Zachary 119C
- 12:40, section 509, Kim Díaz, Zachary 333A
- 12:40, section 512, Steve Campbell, Zachary 105A
- 1:50, section 501, Jeremy Evans, Francis 151
- 1:50, section 510, Steve Campbell, Zachary 333A
- Extra credit questions can add as many as 49 points to the total points accumulated during the semester. (Actually, the first nine "extra credit" points are not extra credit, since they account for 2% of your base grade.) These questions relate to the material covered in the text and often call for nothing more than two or three sentence answers to each question. These extra points often make the difference in your final grade. For example, suppose you get an 84 on the three tests (252 pts) and accumulate 84 points in the Friday quizzes: that would give you a total of 336 points, a course average of 84 (B). But if you had turned in answers to the extra point questions and had received just 18 of the available 49 points, that would give you a total of 354 points, an 88.5 average. In this class, any student who gets within 1.5 points of a letter grade will be bumped over to the next letter grade, so by doing the extra essays, you would get an A. In short, the essays can make a real difference. Class attendance can significantly affect your performance on tests and quizzes, but there is no grade for attendance as such. However, if your name is called in a Monday or Wednesday class and you are not there, you lose five points off a test.
- Missing
a
test is more serious than missing a
quiz. Any student who has to miss a test should contact Prof.
Daniel to
schedule to take the test within the next two days (before your next class).
Test Formats: The two tests and final exam are objective-format (true-false, multiple choice) scan-tron tests. To take them you need the narrow green 882 forms that can be purchased at various bookstores and copy centers. You do not need scan-tron forms or blue books for the weekly quizzes. To turn in your test, you must know your section number.
How to do well: Read the text, outline it using both the "Summary and Conclusions" at the end of each chapter and the PowerPoint presentations, attend class, and study the practice questions on the website. For each chapter you should combine all your notes in an outline that is structured based on answering these four questions about the philosophers or philosophical positions we study:
- What is the basic position or claim being made?
- What are the arguments provided to support that position or claim?
- What objections can be raised against the position or claim?
- What replies can be given to defend the position or claim against these objections?
You should consult with the professor or teaching
assistant
as often as possible to make sure you are understanding the material.
Do not
wait until the day before a test to begin to do your outline. This is
not the
kind of course for which you can cram and expect to do well on tests.
Take
advantage of our office hours!
The publisher of the textbook also has practice questions, outlines, and other "Student Resources" at its Velasquez textbook Companion Site. Just click here.
- Click here to see the course promotion presentation (music from CBS Survivor).
- To check your final exam grade and overall course grade, log intoWebCT Vista.
Past
test questions on Philosophy in General and Socrates (Ch. 1)
Past
test questions on Human Nature & Mind-Body (Ch. 2)
Past
test questions on Reality/Freedom-Determinism/Time (Ch. 3)
Past
test questions on Philosophy of Religion (Ch. 4)
Past
test questions on Knowledge (Ch. 5)
Past
test questions on Truth (Ch. 6)
Past
test questions on Ethics (Ch. 7)
Past
test questions on Social and Political Philosophy (Ch. 8)
Past
test questions on Aesthetics (Philosophy of Art) & the Meaning of
Life (Ch. 9)
Send Dr.
Daniel a message: sdaniel@people.tamu.edu
Dr. Daniel: Office
Hours (
Phone: 845-5619 (office),
846-4649 (home)
E-mail: sdaniel@people.tamu.edu
Web:
people.tamu.edu/~sdaniel/251sy05a.html
Graduate Teaching Instructors:
- Steve
Campbell--sections 505, 506, 510. Office:
- Kim Díaz--sections 503, 504, 509. Office: Bolton 305D. Office hours: Monday 1:30-3:30, Tuesday 8:00-9:00. Phone: 862-6975 (office), 505-463-5422 (home). Email: kimstarz3@yahoo.com
- Jeremy Evans--sections 501,
502, 511. Office:
- Adam Shriver--sections
507, 508, 512. Office:
Students with disabilities are guaranteed a
learning
environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their
disabilities.
If you believe you have a disability requiring an accommodation, please
contact
the Department of Student Life, Disability Services, Cain Hall B118, or call 845-1637.
Students are bound by the Aggie honor code not to cheat. Using notes during a quiz or test, submitting another student's work as one's own, copying from another student's test, and modifying a previously graded test to improve the grade are acts of scholastic dishonesty. For more on cheating and plagiarism, see http://www.tamu.edu/aggiehonor/acadmisconduct.htm.