Final Exam

Just a reminder: the final exam is Monday, December 19th, in our normal classroom at 11:00 a.m. You'll have 50 minutes to take it.

Religion and Free Will Journal Guideline

Worth: 15% of your overall grade

New Due Date: the beginning of class on Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

Assignment: The assignment is to keep a journal during our section on philosophy of religion and free will. I want you to write several short journal entries about the various arguments for and against the existence of God, as well as an entry on our section on free will. We’ll be going over all these topics in class during the next few weeks. Each entry should be around two paragraphs long.

This assignment is a chance for you to do philosophy. I want you to demonstrate that you understand what we are reading and discussing. (Present each argument in your own words.) In addition to this, I want you to critically evaluate each argument we read and discuss. (Are any premises questionable? Does the argument provide enough support for its conclusion?) It is also a chance for you to give your opinion on these arguments, and defend your opinion with good reasons.
You should have the following journal entries, in this order:

1) An entry explaining and evaluating the cosmological argument (Aquinas reading).

2) An entry explaining and evaluating the ontological argument (Anselm & Guanilo readings).

3) An entry explaining and evaluating the design argument (Hume reading).

4) An entry explaining and evaluating the problem of evil argument (Sober and Augustine readings).

5) A philosophy of religion wrap-up entry where you discuss your thoughts about God after reading these philosophers and discussing this in class. Has your opinion about God changed? Have your reasons for your opinion changed?

6) An entry on free will (Nagel, Sober, Maimonides, Aristotle, and Hospers articles). Do you think we have free will? Why or why not? Consider the various arguments for and against free will we’ve studied in class, as well as the various theories (libertarianism, hard determinism, and compatibilism).

There is no length requirement. (Again, the suggestion is around two paragraphs per journal entry.)

Midterm

Just a reminder that the midterm exam will be held on Monday, November 7th. It's worth 20% of your overall grade.

There are a variety of questions on the midterm:  different types of argument evaluation, some short answers, a mini-essay, and extra credit. It covers everything we've gone over in class so far:

• Philosophy
  -Definitions
  -Doing philosophy
• Arguments
  -Evaluation: truth and support tests
  -Types: arguments from example, arguments by analogy, causal arguments, arguments from authority, deductive arguments
  
• Knowledge
  -Definition: Plato says true belief doesn't equal knowledge
  -Skepticism
  -Descartes: uncertain of childhood beliefs, senses, and reasoning; certain he's thinking and he exists
• God Stuff
  -Cosmological Argument: Aquinas's uncaused 1st cause version
  -Ontological Argument: Anselm's version, Guanilo's criticism
  -Design Argument: arg by analogy version, inductive version, Hume's criticisms of the analogy & inductive versions, abductive version

10/26 Class Canceled

I'm sick, so Wednesday's class is canceled. This confuses a few things logistically, so here are the changes:

• The midterm will be moved back to Wednesday, November 2nd. 
• We'll be reviewing for it in class on Monday, October 31st.

New Due Date: Paper #1

Just a reminder that the deadline for the first paper has been pushed back.  It's now due at the beginning of class on Friday, October 14th. 

If you're looking for more stuff on external world skepticism for the paper, this entry on skepticism might be helpful. It's a bit more accessible than other entries in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and it includes several attempts to combat arguments for skepticism, including the fallibilist and contextualist strategies we'll discuss in class on Wednesday.  You don't have to use this source, but if you do, be sure to cite it.

Group Presentation Research

Here are some helpful starter links on your topics for your group presentations. I don't expect you to read them all, but you should at least browse them to see what you might be interested in specifically regarding your topic. 

Team Philosophy of Mind
[dualism: intermediate, advanced] [identity theory] [functionalism: intro, advanced] [consciousness: lengthy overview, intermediate, advanced] [what's it like to be a bat?] [zombies!] [panpsychism?] [why are most scientists physicalists? (audio)] [the extended mind] [more topics] 

Team Philosophy of Art/Aesthetics
[beginner] [intermediate] [defining art] [judging art] [music] [conceptual art] [philosophers' views on art]


Team Personal Identity
[intermediate] [advanced] [summary of "A Dialogue on Personal Identity & Immortality"] [identity in general] [Ship of Theseus] [personal identity & ethics] [cool video] 

Pascal's Wager
[beginner (plus lots of links)] [intermediate] [advanced] [fun links] 

Team Faith and Reason
[intermediate] [nonevidentialism] [evidentialism: intermediate, advanced] ["Believing Without Evidence"] ["The Ethics of Belief"] ["The Will to Believe"] [Flew, Hare (reply), & Mitchell (summary)] [lots of links] 

Team Meaning of Life
[intermediate] [religion links] [Camus's "Myth of Sisyphus"] [Nagel's "The Absurd"] ["Love and Death"] [42?] 

Team Rationalism vs. Empiricism
[advanced] [Chomsky's "Poverty of the Stimulus" argument for rationalism] [Pinker for rationalism] [counterexample to Chomsky? (more) (rationalist responses)] [Chomsky's mistake (video dialogue)] 

Team Pragmatism
[intermediate] [advanced] [other theories of truth] ["Believing Without Evidence"] [William James] [James's "The Will to Believe"] [criticism: "The Ethics of Belief"] [John Dewey] [Charles Sanders Pierce] [pragmatist feminism] [Richard Rorty]

Group Presentations

Here are the group assignments. If you're not in a group yet, let me know as soon as possible so we can get you in one.

Team Philosophy of Mind (1st on Friday, December 9th)
Amber C., Ashley, Brenda, Erin, John, Laura

Team Philosophy of Art/Aesthetics (2nd on Friday, December 9th)
Elliot, George, Holly, Lois, Nzinga

Team Personal Identity (3rd on Friday, December 9th)
Ben, Dan Mc., Jeremy, Katie, Nick

Team Pascal's Wager (1st on Monday, December 12th)
Anthony, Dan Mo., Ryan, Steve

Team Meaning of Life (2nd on Monday, December 12th)
Andre, Amber D., Dillon, Helema, Kyle, Manny

Team Rationalism vs. Empiricism (1st on Wednesday, December 14th)
Dustin, Greg, Max, Zack

Team Pragmatism (2nd on Wednesday, December 14th)
Allwell, Blake, Celia, Derek, Tom

During the last week of the semester (December 9th, 12th, and 14th), groups of 4-6 students will present 10-15 minute presentations on specific topics that their members have researched on their own during the course. Students will choose to present on specific philosophical topics that we have not explicitly studied in class.

Each group must present on a different topic. There will be some time set aside in class for groups to research and prepare for their presentations; however, you should also meet outside class to work on this presentation. I will be helping you with your research, but you should research on your own, as well.

Groups are free to choose how to present their topic to the rest of the class. Be creative! Think about puppets, posters, songs, skits, whatever. Part of your grade will be based on how creative your presentation is. Remember, though, the rest of the class will probably not be familiar with the material you are presenting. I recommend incorporating class participation of some form into your presentation. At the end of each presentation, the group will answer questions from the rest of the class.

The presentation is worth 150 points (15% of your overall grade). Except in unusual circumstances, each group member shall receive the same grade. Attendance is mandatory for each day of the group presentations. If you don't attend on either the days your group isn't presenting (and your absence isn't excused), your own personal presentation grade will drop. Each day you don't attend will lower your grade by a full letter grade.

Paper #1 Guidelines

(Want tips on writing a philosophy essay? Check out here and here!)

New Due Date: at the beginning of class on Friday, October 14th, 2011

Worth: 50 points (5% of final grade)

Assignment: Write an argumentative essay on external world skepticism: the claim that we do not know anything about the physical world beyond our immediate sense experiences. In particular, choose one of the topics below. Papers must be typed, and must be between 500-800 words long. Write down the word count on the first page of the paper.

Possible Paper Topics
1. Criticize skepticism of the external world. Describe what you take to be the best argument for external-world skepticism. Then evaluate this argument. Exactly how is this argument bad? Be specific: what is/are its flaw(s)? How can we avoid giving in to the skeptic’s arguments that we don’t know anything about the world?
[NOTE: For this option, you don’t have to present a positive argument for the existence of the external world. Just explain why the skeptical argument you focus on is bad.]

2. Tell me why you’re not a skeptic: Present and defend an argument for the claim that we can know that there is an external world beyond our sense experiences. Be sure to consider and respond to objections to your argument that a skeptic would likely offer.

3. Defend external-world skepticism. Present an argument for external-world skepticism. Then consider and respond to objections to this argument. Pay special attention to your conception of knowledge: defend the conditions you believe are required for knowledge.

4. Explain and evaluate Nick Bostrom’s argument in “Do We Live in a Computer Simulation?”Do you think Bostrom makes a good case for external-world skepticism? Why or why not? Be sure to fully explain your evaluation of his argument, and defend your opinion.

5. Write something else on skepticism. (Sean must approve this topic by Wednesday, October 5th.)

Homework #1: Email Subscription

So why does this course have a blog? Well, why is anything anything?

A blog is a website that works like a journal – users write posts that are sorted by date based on when they were written. You can find important course information (like assignments, due dates, reading schedules, etc.) on the blog. I’ll also be updating the blog throughout the semester, posting interesting items related to the stuff we’re currently discussing in class. You don't have to visit the blog if you don't want to. It's just a helpful resource. I've used a blog for this course a lot, and it's seemed helpful. Hopefully it can benefit our course, too.

Since I’ll be updating the blog a lot throughout the semester, you should check it frequently. There are, however, some convenient ways to do this without simply going to the blog each day. The best way to do this is by getting an email subscription, so any new blog post I write automatically gets emailed to you. (You can also subscribe to the rss feed, if you know what that means.) To get an email subscription:

1. Go to http://2011cccphilosophy.blogspot.com.

2. At the main page, enter your email address at the top of the right column (under “EMAIL SUBSCRIPTION: Enter your Email”) and click the "Subscribe me!" button.

3. This will take you to a new page. Follow the directions under #2, where it says “To help stop spam, please type the text here that you see in the image below. Visually impaired or blind users should contact support by email.” Once you type the text, click the "Subscribe me!" button again.

4. You'll then get an email regarding the blog subscription. (Check your spam folder if you haven’t received an email after a day.) You have to confirm your registration. Do so by clicking on the "Click here to activate your account" link in the email you receive.

5. This will bring you to a page that says "Your subscription is confirmed!" Now you're subscribed.

If you are unsure whether you've subscribed, ask me (609-980-8367; slandis@camdencc.edu). I can check who's subscribed and who hasn't.