PHIL 100W Knowledge and Reality

Spring Semester 2012 | Day | Surrey Campus

INSTRUCTOR   K. Schmor

REQUIRED TEXT

• Exploring Philosophy, 4th edition, Steven M. Cahn, OUP, 2011
• Writing Philosophy: A Guide for Canadian Students  Lewis Vaughn and Jillian Scott McIntosh, OUP 2009
• i>clicker*
• Additional readings posted online through WebCt
  

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Why believe in God? Will you continue to exist after the death of the body? Do you have free will? If you're able to even ask such questions, then you're probably a person. But what exactly is a person? Are all humans persons? Presumably you have a mind. And presumably inside your skull there's a brain. Are minds and brains the same thing, or are they two different things? Can we know the answers to any of these questions? If so, how?

All of the above questions (and others like them) will be addressed in this course. They are philosophical questions. Part of the burden of this course is to teach you a set of tools that can be used to make genuine progress in our attempts to answer them. At the same time, learning to apply these tools will also give you the opportunity to hone your critical reading, thinking and writing skills. These skills are quite general; they can be applied not only to the specific philosophical questions we'll be engaged with in this course, but to our reasoning on almost any other topic. As such, this course will teach you something about the nature of good reasoning, what is to reason clearly and effectively at all.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

• Attendance & Participation - 10%
• Tutorial quizzes - 15%
• First paper assignment - 20%
• Second paper assignment - 25%
• Final exam - 30%

NOTE: Philosophy 100 has no prerequisites and may be applied towards the Certificate in Liberal Arts, the W-requirement, and the Breadth/Humanities requirement.

*NOTE: As you may know, i>clickers can be used in different classes. If you already have one, don't buy another. If you don't already have one, buy one knowing that you can use it in other courses. You do not need to own the one you use, but you do need one (the same one) that you can bring to every lecture. Once term is underway, you will go online to link the clicker to your student id to receive credit for its use in this class. So, borrowing one is fine, but it is your responsibility to ensure you have it when you need it (every lecture) and that you have logged on to link ("register") it for this class. You cannot share one with somebody else registered in this class - in any given class, a particular clicker can only be linked to one student. However you get your clicker, it must have a visible original serial number on the back in order for you to link it to your student id.