Course Requirements

Grade Evaluation

Judgment about the progress of your work is based on the quality and depth of critical and constructive thinking exhibited on tests. Your course grade is determined by averaging the points you achieve from the following scores:

Test 1:

Philosophy of Life

Test 2:

Philosophy of Religion

Test 3:

Philosophical Ethics

Your final course grade is assigned according to your final average of these three scores. There is no comprehensive final exam given in this class. The day of the final will be used for make-up work approved in advance. Our course is essentially performance based and consists of a progressive series of concepts to be learned and mastered. For this reason, few students can do well in this course by ``cramming'' before exams. Normally, the course is not difficult if you attend class, keep up with the reading and homework daily, and do not attempt to learn a large amount of information at one time. These are the keys to doing well in the course.

Tests

Tests are usually a combination of objective, short answer and essay questions. The subject-matter is primarily based on the reading and homework assignments, especially the questions at the beginning of the readings. If you understand the questions at the beginning of the readings, you will do well on tests.

The tests are neither based on memorized facts nor based on objective information derived from memorized arguments. Instead, the emphasis given in tests is on the operation and active transformation or manipulation of the concepts learned. Occasionally, some particularly difficult optional questions are included for extra credit.

On essay questions, be sure to answer with complete sentences; answers provided as lists of phrases or the names of concepts, alone, do not reflect an understanding of the subject and will be given little, if any, credit. Example tests and lecture notes are online at ...

http://philosophy.lander.edu/intro/

Test Review Worksheets are provided in Section A Appendix of this syllabus and form a good basis for studying for tests.

Grade Evaluation

The number of hours advised to study given below is usually an accurate guide to how well you will do in this class. If you study only before tests or try to complete tests without prior reading and, your doing well in the course is unlikely. Many students assume they can do well in philosophy without careful reading because they have been able to do so in other high school or college classes. Since these students have become habituated to passing courses without much study, they are often alarmed to discover our philosophy course is substantially different from what they have expected.

A

(above 90 points) reflects approximately two hours study per class hour; a great deal of time, thought, and effort; and mastery of the subject.

B

(80 or above but below 90 points) reflects approximately one and one-half hour study per day, above thought and effort; and superior achievement.

C

(70 or above but below 80 points) reflects approximately one hour study per class, average time, thought, and effort; and average achievement.

D

(60 or above but below 70 points) reflects cramming for examinations; minimum time, thought, and effort; below college level work; a less than adequate grasp of the course content; and less than satisfactory achievement.

F

(below 60) reflects a few hours of study before tests, little or no understanding of course content and unsatisfactory achievement.

FA

reflects attending fewer that 75% of classes.

INC

can only be given in cases of sudden illness or other emergency situation. To be considered for an INC, email the instructor prior to the final test.

*

If, toward the end of the semester, the mitigating circumstances of substantial hardship caused you to receive low grades, you may petition for withdrawal or retroactive withdrawal from the course. Talk to your adviser for information about this option.

Online Quizzes

Online quizzes are provided as study aids only and may be used for self-testing. They are entirely optional and from no part of your grade in this course.

WebCT Discussion Board

The WebCT discussion board is not used in this class. Instead, we will be using the Philosophy Forum discussion board on the philosophy server at ...

http://philosophy.lander.edu/cgi-bin/forum.pl

for which you will need to register as described below.

Philosophy Forum

The Philosophy Forum discussion board is used in our class for the posting of questions of any kind, reading comments, and replies to comments. Be sure to read all messages for your course on the Philosophy Forum since one purpose of the Forum is class discussion of the philosophy readings. Often discussion of the test questions are a significant help in writing tests.

Signing up for the Philosophy Forum discussion board is a completely separate procedure from WebCT and is explained here.

1. On the Philosophy Homepage on the Web at http://philosophy.lander.edu/ (notice that there is no ``www'' in this URI or Web address), click on the ``Philosophy Forum" link.
2. From the Philosophy Forum page, click on the ``Register'' tab at the top of the page.
3. Fill in a username of your choice and your email address--taking care to remember the username you have chosen. In a few moments, a password will be sent to your email address. If you cannot find the email from Philosophy Forum in your Inbox, check to see if the message arrived in the Bulk Mail Folder in your email program. See Figure 1 for a screenshot of the register page.

   Figure 1: How to Register for Philosophy Forum discussion board

   
   

4. Click on the ``Register" button, and a login page will load. Log in with your username your have chosen and the password you have just received via email. Be sure to take note of your password--perhaps, by saving or printing out the email message. Next, click the ``Login" button. See Figure 2.

Figure 2: How to Login to the Philosophy Forum discussion board

Philosophy Forum Troubleshooting

Lost Password: If you lose or forget your password to the Philosophy Forum, click on the Login link on the upper-right of the Philosophy Forum Homepage. At the bottom of the Login page in a box labeled ``Request Password.'' Fill in your username in the username bar, and click the ``Request'' button. Your password will be sent to you via email.

Forgotten Username: If you have forgotten your username to the Philosophy Forum, click on the Login link on the upper-right of the Philosophy Forum Homepage. At the bottom of the Login page in a box labeled ``Request Password,'' fill in your account's email address in the username bar, and click the ``Request'' button. Your username will be sent to you via your account's email.

Forgotten Email Address: If you have forgotten your email address and you have posted to the Philosophy Forum at least once in the past, then find your message on the Philosophy Forum and click on your username. Your ``Profile Page' will load, and your email address will be displayed, if you chose not to hide it when you first registered for the Philosophy Forum.

Profile Page

When you log in to the Philosophy Forum discussion board for the first time, you can enter your name on your Profile page. To accomplish this, log in to the Philosophy Forum board and click on the ``Option'' link at the top of the page.

When the Profile page loads, you can also change your password to a more easily remembered password if you wish to do so. Choose a simple easily remembered password and record the password in your philosophy notebook or in the space provided below:

Username:
Password:

If you hide your email address, other students cannot respond to your posts by email. If you do hide your email address, be sure to check your official Lander email account for class-related communications daily even if you do not normally use that email account.

If you click ``Options,'' you can find out how many times you have posted as well as find out about other personal data. To do so, click ``Info'' on the same line as your username on the Profile page. Next, click on the ``Posts'' link for a list of all your messages.

Figure 3: How to Find Your Posts

How to Post to the Philosophy Forum

1. From the Homepage at philosophy.lander.edu click on the ``Philosophy Forum'' link toward the middle of the left-hand column.
2. When the ``Philosophy Forum'' page loads, click on the Philosophy Forum board of interest. In the screenshots presented here, the names of the discussion boards are default names only. The discussion board for this class are under the heading in bold font: ``OnCampus Philosophy 102 Introduction to Philosophy.'' Click on the blue link entitled ``OnCampus Philosophy Discussion/Post(SEMESTER, YEAR).
3. (You need to log in to the Philosophy Forum in order to post comments, but you need not log in just to read the messages posted. If you work on a public computer, be sure to log off the discussion board in order to prevent the possibility of someone else posting to the board under your name.)

   Figure 4: How to Post a Comment to the Philosophy Forum Board

   
   

4. If you wish to submit a comment to the Philosophy Forum, while on the Philosophy Forum homepage, click on the blue hyperlink ``OnCampus Philosophy Discussion/Post (SEMESTER, YEAR)'' under the black font ``OnCampus Philosophy 102 Introduction to Philosophy'' heading. When the ``OnCampus Philosophy Discussion/Post'' page loads, click on the ``Post Topic" link. See Figures 4 and 5.

   Figure 5: How to Submit a Comment

   
   

5. Type in the space provided the title of your comment in the ``Subject" bar and the text of the comment in the ``Message Body" area. For practice, you can use the ``Testing Lounge'' discussion board anonymously for practice.
   

Grades Online

You may access your grades online at any time on the philosophy server (not Lander's WebCT) with a username and password from this course (not your WebCT username and password).

Username: Your username for the course is the first letter of your first name followed by your complete last name in lowercase letters and without spaces. For example ``Lauren Bouchett Satterfield'' would have the login username of ``lsatterfield'' with no limitation of number of letters as with some login programs.

Password: Your password is your Lander L-number (without hyphen). Type an uppercase L followed by eight digits: e.g., Lxxxxxxxx.

Where to Log In: From the Philosophy Homepage click on the yellow ``Introduction to Philosophy" link under the gray heading entitled ``Class Grades" as in Figure 9. When the Grades Login page loads do the following:

Figure 6: Where to Find Grades Online

1. Choose your class from the descriptions in the drop-down box. If you log in incorrectly, be sure to re-select your class from the drop-down box because an incorrect login will re-set the class to a default philosophy course. See Figure 10.
   

   Figure 7: How to Log in for Grades

   
   

2. Enter your username exactly as described above.
   
3. The login process is case-sensitive--be sure to use lowercase letters for your username and a capital or uppercase ``L'' in your L-number password. If you obtain the result of ``bad login," check to see if the Caps Lock key is on, or you have confused the letter ``l'' with the number ``1'' or with the capital letter ``I.'' Occasionally, the number ``0'' is confused with the capital letter ``O.''

Extra Credit

Other than some occasionally offered intriguing problems on tests, no other opportunities for extra credit are offered in this class. Subjects and problems for this course have been chosen on the basis that they are the best and most important introduction to the beginning study of logic. ``Extra Credit'' problems are in addition to class requirements-not a substitute for, or a make-up of, missed class assignments.

Your Job

Our course is not difficult if you keep up with the assigned work.

A good place to see how to study in our course is the ``Notes on How to Study'' on the Web at

http://philosophy.lander.edu/study.html.

• Follow a study schedule.
• Take notes on posted comments.
• Take notes on the important points of the assigned reading.
• Answer all study questions.
• Make extensive use of the online lectures, sample problems, quizzes, and tests.

My Job

We will find that philosophy is quite essential in all fields of endeavor.

• I will attempt to create the conditions under which you can exercise your native curiosity.
• Class material will be varied, and I will try to use interesting examples.
• I will show practical applications for all the philosophical methods employed.
• I will provide online handouts and Web-based instructions for additional problem-solving support.

If I do my job correctly, our philosophy course will be one of the most valuable in your university career.