Day
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Topic
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Handouts
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Readings
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Assignments
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8/27 (W)
|
Introduction |
Syllabus
Participation Rubric
Opening Survey
|
No readings
|
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8/29 (F)
|
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Validity
and Soundness
|
No readings
|
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9/1 (M)
|
Do we have
a moral obligation to donate to charity?
|
Reconstructing Arguments
Answers to Bonus Questions
|
"Famine,
Affluence and Morality" by Peter Singer
Reading
Questions
|
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9/3 (W)
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Reading Questions |
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9/5 (F)
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"Rights
and the Duty to Bring Aid" by John Arthur
Reading
Questions
|
Mini-Paper
1
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9/8 (M)
|
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"Famine,
Affluence and Empathy" by Michael Slote
Reading
Questions
|
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9/10 (W)
|
When, in general, should we morally do one thing, as opposed
to another? |
Historical
Philosophers
Normative
Ethics |
Excerpts
by Jeremy Bentham and J. S. Mill
Reading Questions |
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9/12 (F)
|
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Anarchy, State and Utopia
by Robert Nozick (excerpts)
Reading
Questions
|
Mini-Paper
2
|
9/15 (M)
|
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"Groundwork
for the Metaphysics of Morals" by Immanuel Kant
(excerpts)
Reading
Questions
|
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9/17 (W)
|
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"Kantian
Approaches
to Some Famine Problems" by Onora O'Neill
Reading
Questions
|
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9/19 (F)
|
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Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle
(excerpts)
Reading
Questions
|
Mini-Paper
3
Sample
1
Sample
2
|
9/22 (M)
|
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"On
Virtue Ethics" by Julia Driver
Reading
Questions
|
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9/24 (W)
|
What kinds of things are moral obligations? |
Class
Notes
|
Euthyphro by Plato (excerpts)
Reading
Questions
|
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9/26 (F)
|
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Debate
Instructions
Debate Groups |
Mini-Paper
4
Sample
1
Sample
2
What
Students Thought Made for Good Writing
|
9/29 (M)
|
|
Debate
Peer Assessment
|
No New Readings
|
Mini-Paper
5
|
10/1 (W)
|
|
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No New Readings
|
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10/3 (F)
|
Do we have a moral
obligation to refrain from eating meat?
|
Class
notes
|
"The
Basic Argument
for Vegetarianism" by James Rachels
Reading
Questions
|
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10/6 (M)
|
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|
"The
Moral
Significance of Animal Pain and Animal Death" by Elizabeth Harman
Reading
Questions
|
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10/8 (W)
|
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Class Notes
|
"The
Least Harm Principle May Require that Humans Consume a Diet Containing
A Large Herbivores, Not a Vegan Diet" by Steven L. Davis
Reading
Questions |
Mini-Paper
6
Sample 1
Sample
2
Sample
3
|
10/10 (F)
|
Class Canceled
|
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10/13 (M)
|
Can skeptical arguments sucessfully show that we are
ignorant about various things? |
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Note: we will have a practice quiz today!
Meditations
on First
Philosophy by Rene
Descartes (excerpts)
Reading
Question
|
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10/15 (W)
|
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|
Reading Questions |
|
10/17 (F)
|
|
Class
Notes
|
An Enquiry on Human
Understanding by David Hume (excerpts)
Reading
Questions
|
Mini-Paper 7
Sample
1
Sample
2
|
10/27 (M)
|
|
|
No new readings -- we're going to catch up on the reading
questions from 10/17
Comic on
today's topic (not required reading)
|
|
| 10/28 (T) |
There will be a screening of Inception at 7:30 PM in
DeBartolo 140. You are welcome to attend, but not required to. |
|
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10/29 (W)
|
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Class Notes
|
"Skepticism
and the Veil of Perception" by Michael Huemer (excerpts)
Ancient Philosophy by
Julia Annas (excerpts)
Reading
Questions |
|
10/31 (F)
|
Do we and our society produce and maintain ignorance in
unjust ways? |
|
"Agnotology:
A Missing Term to Describe the Cultural Production of Ignorance (And
Its Study)" by Robert N. Proctor
Reading
Questions
|
Mini-Paper
8
Sample
1
Sample
2
|
11/3 (M)
|
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"White
Ignorance" by Charles W. Mills
Reading
Questions
|
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11/5 (W)
|
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Epistemic Injustice by
Miranda Fricker (excerpts)
Reading
Questions
|
|
| 11/7 (F) |
How strong
are the arguments for and against the existence
of God?
|
|
Summa Theologica by
Thomas Aquinas (excerpts)
Reading
Questions
|
Prospectus
Due |
| 11/10 (M) |
Prospectus discussion |
|
Prospectuses
Reading
Questions
|
|
11/12 (W)
|
|
Cosmological
Argument Slides
|
"An
Examination of the Cosmological Argument" William Rowe
Reading
Questions
|
|
| 11/14 (F) |
|
|
"On
the
Problem of Evil" by Stephen Law (excerpts)
Listening
Questions
|
Mini-Paper
9
Sample 1
Sample 2
|
| 11/17 (M) |
|
|
"Response
to the Problem of Evil" by William Lane Craig
Watching
Questions
|
|
| 11/19 (W) |
If the arguments for the existence of God are not decisive,
is it acceptable to believe in God anyways? |
Class
Notes
|
Pensees by Blaise
Pascal (excerpts)
Reading
Questions |
Mini-Paper
10
Sample 1
Sample
2
|
| 11/21 (F) |
|
|
"The
Logic
of Pascal's Wager" by Ian Hacking
Reading
Questions
|
|
| 11/24 (M) |
|
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"The
Ethics of Belief" by William K. Clifford (excerpts)
Reading
Questions
|
Rough
Draft Due |
| 12/1 (M) |
Rough
Draft discussion
|
|
Rough Drafts
Reading
Questions
|
|
| 12/3 (W) |
|
|
See Previous
|
|
| 12/5 (F) |
|
|
"The Will
to Believe" by William James (excerpts)
Reading
Questions
|
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| 12/8 (M) |
Quiz
|
|
No readings
|
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| 12/10 (W) |
Concluding
discussion (last class day)
|
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No readings
|
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12/18 (R)
|
Salon |
|
No readings
Description
of Salon
|
Final
Draft Due
|