Philosophy and Worldview PHL 101

Instructor: Alan Humm [ ]

Fall 2014 : Th 1:30-4:30 PM

Your first responsibility in this class is to show up prepared to discuss. You should read the assigned materials, but most importantly, you should be thinking critically about them. Active participation in class will be rewarded at grade time to the tune of about 15% of your final grade. Also, we will have a very short non-cumulative evaluation every other week. Those grades will together represent 45% of your final grade. Normally this will only take the first 20 min. of class and class will continue afterwards. You will be preparing a final paper that will ultimately represent 30% of your grade, but broken down into two parts. You will provide a first draft about 2/3 into the semester, which I will return the following week with comments and suggestions. In the unlikely event that it is perfect (it has happened), you are done with writing for this class. Otherwise you are expected to rewrite responding to my comments. The grading breakdown will be, 1st draft: 10%, final written version: 20%.

The final will consist of a single essay which you will have selected from a list of questions that I will give to you late in the semester. This is take-home, due the day of the final. However, also on the final day, we will have the last of the short quizzes, so, sorry to say, you will still have to show up that day.

Paper target is 10-15 pages. Potential topics will be distributed during the first class session. However, the specific topic of the research paper will be of you own choosing, although it should be related to the course. If it doesn't come from the distributed list, it will require my approval. Because there will be oral presentations, no two individuals will be allowed to write on the same topic, so if you have a favorite, nab it quickly. You should let me know what you are writing on by the third week of class.