Course
Description
Goals
of the Course
Focus
Themes
Grading
Required
Texts
Philosophical Development. This course begins with the presumption that all studentsóand all human beingsóare philosophers, insofar as they are concerned about basic questions of reality, knowledge, and truth. For this reason, an important objective of the course is to promote philosophical inquiry on the part of students by active interaction with significant philosophical texts and ideas.
Academic Skills. Like any philosophy course, Human Nature is intended to aid students in the development of academic skills. As a result of the work in this course, students should be able to read texts more closely and carefully, to understand those texts more fully, and to express their own positions more clearly both verbally and in writing.
|
|
25%
25% 25% 25% |
Optional graded assignments, such as a late midterm exam and extra papers, are available. Check with me at any time if you would like to explore optional assignments. (Any additional optional assignments will simply reduce the value of any single assignment; for example, if you choose to write a Sartre paper or take a late midterm exam, each of your 5 grade areas will be worth 20% of the total grade.) Under any grading option, all required work must be completed successfully in order to pass the course.
In the first week of class, I would like for you to get a letter-sized manila file folder (please use a file folder and not a mailing envelope, and make sure that it is letter-sized rather than legal!) that will serve as your class work file. All written work for submission in the course (discussion preparation reports, paper drafts, and graded papers, but not class notes) should be collected in this folder, and the folder should be turned in complete with every written assignment and at the end of the semester.
Attendance and In-class Discussion. Regular attendance is absolutely necessary to achieve a satisfactory course participation grade (see the GU Catalogue under Academic Citizenship for the University Policy on class attendance). I cannot overemphasize the value of discussion in class not only for my evaluation of your grasp of the material but also for your own processing of the readings and lectures. Philosophy is a written discipline, but it is also in significant ways a verbal discipline. The best way to develop and refine your understanding of the class material and to develop your own views is to discuss the issues in class (and outside of class). For this reason I will encourage and reward discussion. Ideally, discussion in class would be conducted on a voluntary basis, but I value including all students enough to occasionally call on those students who do not volunteer to comment. You may ìpassî when I call on you, but repeated passes will harm your participation grade.
Discussion Preparation Report. To ensure adequate preparation for discussion, students are required to come to class every day with a short (about one-half to one page long) written discussion preparation report that records your interaction with the assigned reading for the day. These discussion preparation reports are to be collected in your coursework folder. While each report will not be individually graded, the reports will contribute to your course participation grade. The course discussion preparation notes will provide you with a very valuable study record when you begin to prepare your papers and when you study for the final exam.
The reponse to the assigned reading in the report can take many forms: overview of the entire reading, summary of key points, discussion of an important idea or passage, or comparison of the ideas in the reading to something else you have read or studied. Even if you find the material difficult to understand, you can try to discuss the main topic of the reading and indicate some questions the reading raises for you. The best reports will contain at least some reporting on what the author said and some critical response indicating your own view. If you cannot think of anything to write, use the study questions on the reading schedule for ideas.
Click here to see a sample Discussion Preparation Report.
Email postings to the class list. I will ask one student to post his or her report on Email for each reading assignment (there will be a sign-up list). Each student should post a report at least one time during the semester. Beyond the minimum expectation of a single post, students will enhance their course participation grade by sharing ideas with the class through the Email discussion list.
Since the point of the papers is to help develop your own understanding of and perspective on the primary texts, not to report what other writers think, I ask the you use no secondary sources in the research or writing of your papers. Any use of any undocumented source in the research or writing of your paper constitutes plagiarism, which is a serious academic offense with very serious consequences. The penalty for plagiarism will be automatic failure of the course, and may also include other consequences as a result of the Universityís academic dishonesty policy (see the GU Catalogue under Academic Citizenship). If you have any questions about plagiarism do not hesitate to ask. Other forms of academic dishonesty (such as presenting work done by someone else as your own) will be dealt with in similar ways.
While you are not to use secondary sources, you should support your interpretations of the primary texts by reference to specific passages of those texts. Quotations that support your interpretations should be explicitly identified as such with quotation marks, and fully documented with parenthetical notes, footnotes, or endnotes. Since most of the papers for this class will be about a single primary text, you can usually refer to them with a simple parenthetical reference, such as this: (Sartre, 27).
Late papers will incur a penalty of my choosing, and will receive no written comments. See the schedule for due dates. If your paper is lost, you are responsible for providing a replacement copy. Always keep a disk or hard copy of any work you turn in.
Topic: Socratesí theory of human nature as depicted in the Phaedo
Socratesí theory of human nature focuses on identifying the soul
as the core of the person, and explores the relationship between the soul
and body. In your paper, you should explain what he believes soul
and body to be, how they are related, and what implications his view has
for understanding the objectives of human life. You should think
especially about his analysis of death, the discussion of immortality,
and the value he places on philosophy in pursuit of human happiness and
the purification of soul. Avoid merely summarizing the text or a
group of Socratesí arguments. Instead, develop a coherent and integrated
account that explains Socratesí view of human nature and critically considers
his reasons for holding that view.
Descartes paper
Topic: Descartesí dualist account of human nature
The heart of Descartesí theory of human nature is his account
of the nature of and relation between mind/soul and body. What sort
of thing does he believe the mind/soul to be? What sort of thing
is the body? How are mind and body related to one another?
As with your Plato paper, you should present an integrated account that
explains the main points of Descartesí view of human nature rather than
summarizing parts of the text, and critically reflect on the strengths
and weaknesses of Descartesí theory.
Scientific Naturalism paper (optional)
Topic: The science-based theory of human nature that has developed
from Darwin to the present
Since Descartes offered his dualistic account of human nature,
with the body consigned to a mechanical universe governed by deterministic
natural laws, increasing numbers of thinkers have argued that the material
realm is the only sphere of reality there is, and hence that human beings
are purely material, mechanical, and strictly governed by laws of nature.
What justifications are offered for these views? If humans are to
be understood materialistically, how are complex aspects of human reality,
such as thought, communication, and ethical behavior, to be explained?
In answering these questions, you may wish to focus on one proponent of
scientific naturalism, or to compare the approaches of several different
thinkers.
Sartre paper (optional)
Topic: Sartreís existentialist account of human existence
In explaining Sartreís account of human beings, you should consider
his emphasis on human freedom, his rejection of the idea of ìhuman nature,î
and his claim that ìexistence precedes essence.î In what sense are
we free, and in what sense limited? What is the relationship between
human consciousness and the self? How do human beings ìcreateî themselves,
and create the world they inhabit? How does Sartre use the opposed
conceptions of being-in-itself and being-for-itself to explain human existence?
What does it mean to say that human beings desire to be God?
A paper: carefully organized and clearly written paper that lays out
a specific philosophical problem arising from a primary text, surveys the
relevant views of the philosopher, exhibits the relevant details of the
philosopherís view from the text, and critically reflects on the philosopherís
handling of the problem. A truly excellent paper will read smoothly,
place the topic of the paper into a well-defined and informative context,
offer comment that goes beyond obvious observation.
B paper: generally clear treatment of a well-defined philosophical
problem that demonstrates understanding of the readings, facility in isolating
the significant issues, and helpful reflection with only moderate lapses
of exposition or interpretation and minimal grammatical, spelling, punctuation,
and mechanical distractions.
C paper: basically correct but superficial or undeveloped discussion
of a philosophical problem, with minimal critical reflection that frequently
explores only the most obvious and unsophisticated aspects of the problem
or fails to get beyond common misunderstandings of the text; suffers
some problems in the mechanics of writing, with misspellings or poor paragraph
structures.
D and F papers: failure to demonstrate basic understanding of the texts
or key issues, failure to develop a clear account of a problem, or overwhelming
difficulties in expression with numerous mechanical shortcomings.
As an alternative to the comprehensive final exam, students who have
at least a B average on their prior papers and/or exams will be allowed
to write a ìPosition Paperî on one of the Focus Themes. The task
of the position paper is to set out a particular philosophical problem,
survey the most important views on this issue that we have covered in the
class, and then set out and defend your own position on the issue.
For example, your position paper might cover the relation of human beings
to animals. In this paper you would set up the problem by explaining
the significance of the animal vs. human issue, explain some of the most
important views we have covered on this question (possibly those of Plato,
Aristotle, Descartes, and Darwin), and then explain and give arguments
for your own view. Position papers should be about 6 double-spaced,
typed pages, and must follow the same guidelines for course papers listed
above. Position papers will be due at the time scheduled for the
final exam; no late papers will be accepted. Students wishing
to do the Position Paper must get prior approval from the professor.
Back to PHIL 201 Philosophy of Human Nature Page
Back to David H. Calhoun's Home Page
Copyright 1998 by David Calhoun. This page last
updated on March 15, 1998.