College Writing 2: Writing in Philosophy (Ethics)
Spring, 2014
Sari Kisilevsky
course days and time
office hours: Tues. 3-5, PH 350G
email: through Blackboard
Course Overview
Philosophy proceeds through debate. Beginning with Plato’s dialogues, philosophical writing, like philosophy itself, is a conversation. Great writers in philosophy make great philosophers by engaging in dialogue with their interlocutors. The best writings engage with the broadest range of viewpoints, holding their ideas up for scrutiny from all perspectives, and responding to as many opposing voices as possible. In this course, we will be reading philosophical writings whose contributions to philosophy is marked by their scope, depth, clarity and force of argumentation.
Your task as philosophical writers is to contribute to this conversation. This involves staking out your own positions on matters of philosophical controversy and situating them relative to the other positions in a debate. This includes both those that support of your point of view (in full or in part), and potential challenges.
You will do this by learning to articulate and defend clear, precise and specific theses on matters of philosophical controversy; identifying your interlocutors and situating these theses within a dialectic; motivating your theses to your interlocutors (and motivating their positions, in turn); providing arguments in support of your positions and identifying and assessing potential counter-evidence; and analyzing your arguments against those of your detractors so as to arrive at a clear, convincing and plausible defence of your position.
The lectures and assignments in this class are designed to help you to achieve these writing goals. They aim to familiarize you with the basic methods and standards of philosophical writing and the key concepts involved in philosophical discourse (premises, conclusions, arguments, soundness, validity, dialectic), and to instruct you in their use through the introduction and reinforcement of these concepts in a sequenced step-wise manner, and through frequent in-class writing workshops.
College Writing 2: Writing in Philosophy is a second semester, discipline-based writing seminar that includes a special focus on writing in philosophy. Students should come to each class, prepared to write, to revise their own work, and to think constructively about the work of their peers.
Learning Objectives:
This course aims to teach students to:
- learn to identify and evaluate another thinker’s position on a matter of controversy
- learn to articulate and defend their own position on a matter of controversy
- learn how to critique and revise their own writing
- learn to use writing to situate a position within a debate and to assess its significance relative to other positions within the debate.
Evaluation:
Pre-Lesson Homework: There are 28 classes in the semester. Each class includes a brief homework assignment. You are responsible for handing in 20 of the 28 homework assignments, on the day that they are due. Each homework assignment is worth 2%, for a total of 40% of your final grade. If you miss one, you can submit the next one. I will not accept late submissions.
Assignments: There are three formal writing assignments for this class. They are worth 15% each, for a total of 45%.
Informal Writing Assignments: There are six informal writing workshops. These workshops are meant to aid you in the successful completion of your formal writing assignments, but they are not meant to be “perfect” assignments. They are worth 5% of your final grade.
In-class Participation: There is a lot of discussion in this class and your participation is key for the success of the class, and for your success in it. It is worth 10% of your final grade.
Course Policies:
Submission of Work:
1. All submitted work is formal written scholarship. It must include your name and class number, and an appropriate title. Your work must be written in full, grammatically well-formed sentences. Multiple pages must be stapled together. Footnotes or endnotes must be properly formatted, including full references and pinpoint citations.
2. All use of materials that do not come directly from your head needs to be properly cited. Failure to fully cite all material used constitutes an academic offence and will be treated as such. For more information about citation formats, consult the Queens College Writing Center, or the Purdue Online Writing Lab (available online). For information about what constitutes an academic offence, see the College Bulletin.
3. The only excuses for a late assignment are illness or emergency. You must provide official documentation for this (a doctor’s note or a letter from the registrar) specifying that you could not fulfill your work requirements on the dates that they were due. You do not need to include your reasons for lateness; you are entitled to your privacy on this. Late assignments submitted without official documentation will be docked 2% per day.
4. In-class participation: There is a very heavy emphasis on discussion in this class. You are expected to come to class prepared and participate in class discussions. I will often call names off the roster.
Classroom and Online Environment:
There is a lot of discussion of controversial issues in this class. The classroom is like any other professional environment. You should always maintain a professional attitude towards others. This includes:
- Making sure that your cell phones are off before you enter class.
- Paying attention when other people are talking. This means no texting, emailing, surfing the internet, or playing games during class.
- Not interrupting other people when they are speaking.
- Use of respectful language: no slurs, no swearing, and avoiding stereotypes.
- Treating your fellow students with respect even when you disagree.
Resources:
The textbook for this class is Exploring Ethics, 2nd ed. Steven Cahn, ed. (ISBN 10: 0199757518). There will be additional readings, not included in the text, posted on Blackboard. The location of the readings is indicated on the Schedule of Classes, listed below.
Schedule of Classes:
I. Introduction
1. Introduction
- Introduction to the main elements of philosophical writing that we will be covering (conclusion (thesis), argument, evaluation (analysis), structure, dialectic (motive)).
- Introduction to subject matter: what is ethics?
II. Elements of Philosophical Writing I: Conclusion, Argument, Evaluation
(Thesis, Analysis, Structure)
2. Lesson Plan on Identifying Conclusions (Thesis)
Readings: Singer, “Rich and Poor” (Blackboard)
3. Lesson Plan on Identifying Arguments
Readings: Singer, “Rich and Poor”
4. Lesson Plan on Structure
Readings: Singer, “Rich and Poor”
5. Lesson Plan on Evaluating Arguments (Analysis)
Readings: Singer, “Rich and Poor”
6. Writing Workshop: Sample version of Assignment I
Readings: Singer, “Rich and Poor”
Assign Assignment I (on Rachels, “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism”)
7. Lesson Plan on Identifying Arguments (Can also include Identifying Conclusions)
Readings: Rachels, “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism” (Cahn)
8. Lesson Plan on Evaluating Arguments (Analysis) (Can also include Structure)
Readings: Rachels, “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism”
9. Writing Workshop: Assignment I
Readings: Rachels, “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism”
Drafts of Assignment I due
II. Elements of Philosophical Writing II: Dialectic (Motive) – Introduction
10. Lesson Plan on Dialectic (Motive)
Readings: Rachels, “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism”
Assignment I Due
11. Lesson Plan on Dialectic
Readings: Rachels, “Active and Passive Euthenasia” (Cahn)
12. Lesson Plan on Evaluating Arguments (Analysis) (Can also use Lesson Plan on Identifying Conclusions or Lesson Plan on Identifying Arguments)
Readings: Rachels, “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism:” explain how to evaluate an argument within the context of a debate
13. Writing Workshop: Sample version of Assignment II
Readings: Rachels, “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism”
III. Elements of Philosophical Writing III: Dialectic (Motive) Advanced – Situating a Position Within a Debate
14. Lesson Plan on Dialectic (Can be combined with Lesson Plan on Identifying Conclusions (Thesis))
Readings: Thomson, “A Defense of Abortion” (Cahn)
15. Lesson Plan on Identifying Arguments (Note: Now we are identifying arguments within the context of a debate.)
Readings: Thomson, “A Defense of Abortion”
Assign Assignment II: Situating a Position Within a Debate
16. Lesson Plan on Structure
Readings: Thomson, “A Defense of Abortion”
17. Lesson Plan on Evaluating Arguments (again, within the context of a debate)
Readings: Thomson, “A Defense of Abortion”
18. Writing Workshop: Assignment II: Situating a Position Within a Debate
Readings: Thomson, “A Defense of Abortion”
Drafts of Assignment II Due
19. Lesson Plan on Dialectic (Can be combined with Lesson Plan on Identifying Conclusions (Thesis))
Readings: Nagel, “Moral Luck” (BlackBoard)
Assignment II Due
20. Lesson Plan on Identifying Arguments (Note: Now we are identifying arguments within the context of a debate.)
Readings: Nagel, “Moral Luck”
21. Lesson Plan on Evaluating Arguments (again, within the context of a debate)
Nagel, “Moral Luck”
22. Writing Workshop: Sample version of Assignment III: Taking a Stand in a Debate
Readings: Nagel, “Moral Luck”
23. Lesson Plan on Identifying Conclusions
Readings: Mill, Utilitarianism, ch. 2: What Utilitarianism Is (Cahn)
24. Lesson Plan on Identifying Arguments
Readings: Mill, Utilitarianism, ch. 2: What Utilitarianism Is
25. Lesson Plan on Dialectic (Can be combined with Lesson Plan on Identifying Conclusions (Thesis)) (Note: We are now identifying dialectics among philosophers engaged in a debate)
Readings: Williams, “A Critique of Utilitarianism” (Blackboard)
26. Lesson Plan on Dialectic (again, within the context of a debate)
Readings: Nagel, “War and Massacre” (Blackboard)
27. Lesson Plan on Evaluating Arguments (Note: Now we are evaluating arguments within the context of a debate.)
Readings: Nagel, “War and Massacre”
28. Writing Workshop: Assignment III: Taking a Stand in a Debate
Readings: Williams, “A Critique of Utilitarianism,” OR Nagel, “War and Massacre”
Drafts of Assignment III Due
End of Term: Assignment III Due