Midterm paper (5 pages, 25%). Come the second week of
class (that is, the week of Aug. 25), you'll sign up for a date to turn in your midterm
paper, starting in the fifth week of class and through the
end of the term. (Depending on enrollment, either one or
two students will turn in a paper each week.)
Your paper will be circulated to the class and to a designated
commentator as of the Thursday session of the week prior to its discussion session.
Midterm papers are to be submitted in printed
form to the instructor, and circulated electronically to
the class. (This means you also have to email me
a pdf.) The submitted paper must be accompanied by an outline of its
argument, on a separate sheet, stapled to the paper.
These outlines are to be executed on the model of the weekly assignments (see
below).
Papers submitted without an accompanying outline will not
be graded.
Papers with incomplete bibliographical information will not be graded.
You will be graded on your argument, on your control of
the content of your paper as exhibited in the discussion,
and on the in-class discussion. The grade for
the paper will be a holistic composite of the written submission and
the discussion.
Peer commentary (2 pages, 20%). This will be a commentary
on a fellow student's midterm paper, which you will read
to start off their paper's discussion session.
You'll turn in a hardcopy to the instructor.
Commentaries with incomplete bibliographical information will not be graded.
Because your fellow students are depending on you for the
session,
and your commentator is depending on you for his or her own
work, there is a severe penalty
for late midterm papers (to be described at the opening
session).
Commentaries
cannot be late. Please keep that in mind when
signing up for session dates.
Final paper (15 pages, 35%).
Students must submit an outline of the argument of the final paper
on Nov. 25 (by 4:00, by email or hardcopy in my mailbox);
if the outline is not submitted, the paper will incur a penalty
of one grade step.
These outlines have to include
an outline of the structure of the main argument (on the model of the
weekly assignments: see below), along with subsidiary outlines schematizing
subsidiary arguments (arguments for claims made in the main argument,
responses to objections, and the like); the main outline should show
where the conclusions of the subsidiary outlines are brought to bear.
I will supply further guidelines and models in class.
Prior to turning in the final paper,
students will schedule a meeting with the instructor to
discuss the submitted paper during the week of
Dec. 7. Because the grade for the final paper will be a
holistic composite of the written work and our conversation
during that meeting, without that meeting, the final paper
will not be graded. (If you will be
leaving for winter break earlier than that, plan to turn in your final
paper early -- enough to accommodate an earlier meeting.)
Papers with incomplete bibliographical information will not be graded.
Final papers are due
Dec. 5. Late final papers
will not be graded. All written work for the class must be in by
Dec. 5.
Midterm papers are due at the
beginning of class on the scheduled due date (i.e., they're
to be handed in in person, in class, at 2:00 on the Thursday
of the week before they're discussed). Final papers
are to be submitted by 4:00 on the due date to my mailbox,
which is located in the Philosophy Department Office, on the
4th floor of the Tanner Humanities Building (CTIHB).
In-class participation. (10%)
Participation is not
the same as attendance; come prepared to talk in class.
You will receive a midterm participation grade. Note
that this grade will reflect only your in-class discussion,
and not your overall performance in the class.
Given
the nature of this course, attendance is required, and
adjustments cannot be granted to allow
non-attendance. However, if you need to seek an ADA
accommodation to request an exception to this attendance
policy due to a disability, please contact the Center for
Disability and Access (CDA). CDA will work with us to
determine what, if any, ADA accommodations are reasonable
and appropriate.
Weekly argument outlines. (10%)
OK, this bit is a little complicated, but please bear with me.
During the first half of the semester (i.e., before Fall Break),
these assignments consist of an outline of an argument in the
readings. I will suggest passages, but you are free to outline
an argument of your own choice instead. (However, for
reasons of fairness, you can't select a passage that has already been
assigned for a previous week, or that was covered in class.)
I will provide models and a more detailed description of what
these outlines look like on the first day of class.
During the second half of the semester (i.e., after Fall Break),
a weekly assignment consists of two outlines: the
first, an outline of an argument in the readings (as during the
first half of the term), and the second, an outline of an
argument of your own that attacks the argument in the first outline.
The weekly assignments are
due two hours before Tuesday's class (i.e., noon sharp),
and may be submitted either to my mailbox (located in the Philosophy
Department administrative suite, on the fourth floor of CTIHB), or by
email (ascii text only, in the message buffer, please; no Word files or other
attachments). If you're turning it as hardcopy, if the
office isn't staffed, you can slide it under the door of my
office.
Due to aggressive spam filters,
if you submit your weekly assignments by email, you have to send them to
both of my email addresses, and retain a timestamped copy in your "Sent" box.
Late weekly assignments will not be accepted.
You
need to turn in ten of these; which weeks you skip is up to you;
however, you may not turn in more than one per week.
(So how many of each type of assignment you end up doing
will depend on when you choose to turn them in.)
You can turn in 11 if you want, and if you do, I'll drop the
lowest grade.
Students will be assigned moderator roles for the discussion
hours. Auditors, including any faculty attending the class, will
also be required to sign up for moderator -- and at the
instructor's request, commentator -- roles.
By coming to the class, you're agreeing to do this, whether
or not you're enrolled.
Classroom etiquette:
Please be on time. This is a courtesy to your fellow students;
allow plenty of time to get to campus or from your previous classes.
No phone, no laptops, no tablets, no e-book
readers, and briefly, no electronic devices. These must
be put away during class. If you take a call or text during class,
you will be asked to leave.
(Since you have to have the week's reading available in class, this
means that you have to own print copies of the required textbooks.
E-books won't work in this class.)
No audio recording. Your classmates are on the
spot and being graded for their oral performance.
Just as you can't copy their exams and take them
home, you can't record their in-class contributions.
No food. Beverages are okay.
It should go without saying, but I'm actually
required, by the College of Humanities, to say it
anyway: be civil and courteous to your fellow
students.
(Some of my fellow teachers distribute lengthy
handouts detailing what that entails. In this
class, you're expected to be adults, and so you
know what that entails. But if you have any
questions about it, I can refer you to one of those
documents.)