Assignments

Reading Assignments

We will read from our course texts every week and discuss them. We will follow the reading schedule on the course website. Any changes will be announced by the professor and reflected on the reading schedule. You should come to class ready to identify or summarize relevant passages from the texts for that day.

I thus highly recommend taking notes on the readings so you can use them to participate in class. This is helpful to everyone: it ensures that those very comfortable with speaking make comments and ask questions that are well thought through, and it makes it easier for those who aren’t normally comfortable speaking impromptu to be heard.

Presentations & Quizzes

Every student will be assigned to a presentation group and course unit at the beginning of the semester. Each group will present once during the semester, at the end of the unit to which they’ve been assigned.

The presentation should present and defend the author's view(s) (goal 5) and reasoning (goal 6) in a creative and memorable way. The presentation should raise an interpretive and evaluative question for class discussion. The group will create and administer a short quiz (vetted by the professor one class period in advance). Quizzes will assess the other students’ understanding of the author’s views (goal 1) and authors’ reasoning for those views (goal 2).

Quizzes may be made up or retaken at the end of the semester on April 29th and may have different, more difficult questions. (If a quiz is not taken in class the day of the presentation, or on 4/29, the student will not receive credit- no exceptions.)

Discussion & Group Work

Every class period we will have class-wide discussion and discussion activities in smaller groups. We will talk about different interpretations of the texts, reasons for those interpretations, and your own critical evaluation of the text for the week. As the semester progresses we’ll compare ideas and reasoning from various texts and come up with our own reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with the authors. (goal 7)

Papers

There are two required papers for the course. The Interpretive Paper must be turned in no later than Monday, March 4^th. The Reflection Paper must be turned in no later than Tuesday, April 30^th.

To earn credit for these papers, the papers must be properly and consistently formatted in MLA, Chicago, or APA style, not littered with grammatical and spelling errors that distract from content, and clearly organized and written in the style of a philosophy paper (as per the course website resources). I recommend that students make appointments with the writing center before submitting the paper.

Interpretive Paper. This assignment is an opportunity to critically engage with the text and develop a line of argument for your interpretation of it. The paper should be 1200-1500 words. You will defend your interpretation of an author’s reasoning in response to a prompt.

You should identify an interpretive question about what the author’s view or reasoning is, present possible interpretations, and then give a sustained argument defending the interpretation of the author you think is most well-supported by the text and philosophically charitable (goals 3, 5, 6).

Here is the guide for writing this paper.

Reflection Paper. This second paper will give you the chance to think creatively about our core questions as they apply today alongside one of the course authors. This paper should be 2000-2500 words. In it you may respond to a prompt to present one of the course author’s arguments and incorporate it in an original line of reasoning for your own view.

You should clearly identify the question your thesis answers, juxtapose the course author’s view or reasoning with yours, or draw a connection between the author’s discussion and your contemporary view (goals 3, 4, 5, 6).

The papers will be submitted in hard copy and on Sakai/USAOnline using Turnitin.com. No late papers will be accepted.