Jan 30                        What is philosophy?                               What Is Philosophy?

                                 Philosophical Branches

                                 Metaphysics and Epistemology

                                 Subjectivity and Objectivity         Subjective/Objective Reading

                                 Philosophy of religion

                                 (“natural a/theology”),

                                    Theology, Religious Studies

                                 Abrahamic religions             Comparing Eastern and Western Religions

                                 The Western God

Feb 6                         Methods of Philosophy

                                 Logic tools                                                Logic Pretest

                                                                                    Consistency and Validity (Tutorial 1)

                    Open concepts      Open and Closed Concepts and the Continuum Fallacy

                                 Wholes and parts        The Fallacies of Composition and Division

Feb 13                        Divine attributes

                                 Divine omnipotence                                   IV.C (all)

                                 Must the Western God obey laws of logic?    Short essay assignment

                                 God and time                                            Intro to IV.A.1

                                 What does “P knows X” mean?                               Intro to IV.B.1

                                 What does “God knows everything” mean?

                                 Knowledge and embodiment  

                                 The free will debate                                   Free Will and Determinism

                                 Divine omniscience and human

                                   freedom                                                 IV.B.1 (Augustine)

                                 Can God create a world in which humans

                                   have free will and always choose good?

Feb 20 – Mar  6           Traditional args for God

                                 (natural theology) and counterarguments

                                 Cosmological argument                             I.A.1, I.A.2, I.A.3

                                 Teleological argument                                I.B (all)

                                 Ontological argument                                 I.C.1 and I.C.2

Mar 13                       Does religious experience justify belief?                             

                                 Descriptions of mystical experiences                       II.1

                                 William James                                           II.2

                                 Sigmund Freud                                          II.3

                                 Pojman’s critique                                       II.5

                                 The “God gene”                From Winston’s The Story of God

Mar 20                       Immortality                          

                                 Substance dualism                                    VI.1 (Plato)

                                                                                                Notes on Descartes

                                 Other views of personhood                         Philosophy of Mind notes

                                 Personal identity in an afterlife                               VI.2

                                                                                                Notes on Perry 1

                                                                                                Notes on Perry 2

Apr 3                         Atheist arguments

                                 The problem of evil                                   Dostoevsky

                                                                                                III.5 (Mackie)

                                                                                                Notes on Mackie

                                                                                                III.3 (Hick)

                                                                                                III.4 (Madden and Hare)

                                 Other atheist analyses of religion                Feyerabend, Marx

Apr 10                        Faith and Reason

                                 Foundationalism/Evidentialism                    VII.A.1 (Flew et al)

                                                          Notes on Flew, Hare, and Mitchell

                                   Flew: no evidence possible

                                   Hare: What counts as evidence?

                                   Mitchell: faith as maintaining relationship

                                 Plantinga: Who’s irrational?        Theism, Atheism, and Rationality

Apr 17                        Rejecting foundationalism/evidentialism:

                                   Pragmatic justifications                            VII.B1, VII.B.3

                                   Fideism                                                  VII.C.1, VII.c.2

Apr 24                        Rejecting foundationalism/evidentialism

                                   Religious belief as properly basic              VII.C.3 (Malcolm)

                                                                                                VII.D.2 (Plantinga

May 1                         Religious pluralism

                                   Is there one true religion?                        IX.1 (Hick)

                                                                                                IX.2 (Plantinga)

                                                                                                IX.5 (Runzo)

May 8                         Catch-up

May 15                       DEAD WEEK

May 22                       Final Exam Week

GENERAL INFORMATION

My office hours in Spring 2006 are Monday and Wednesday 9:30 to 10:50 AM, and Tuesday 12:30 to 1:30 PM. No appointment is needed for office hours. If you want to see me at some other time, please make an appointment.

My office is Music 4 (in the Music Department, near the campus theater). My office phone number is 408-741-2549. You can leave a voice message at this number. If you want me to get back to you, be sure to indicate how and when I can contact you. If you do not specify a time (within regular business hours, please), I will return your call during my next office hour.

My e-mail address is sandy_lafave@yahoo.com

I will NOT return calls or email for information that is available in this syllabus.

EXPECTATIONS REGARDING STUDENT CONDUCT

Attendance is required. If you are late and miss roll, you are counted absent. If you are counted absent for more than five class meetings, the maximum grade you can receive is D, regardless of your grades on assignments. Exceptions to this policy require documentation of extreme emergency.

I make important announcements and give handouts at the beginning of the class session. Announcements are not repeated — either in or out of class — for the benefit of latecomers.

Persistent lateness, talking in class, sleeping in class, leaving early, etc., show disrespect for me and also for your classmates. Your grade is also likely to be affected. For example, I am far less inclined to award the higher grade on a “borderline” answer if the student has been frequently late, absent, or disruptive, on grounds that such a student is simply less likely to have produced the better answer.

All students are expected to know the rules regarding plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious violation of the academic code. It is cause for expulsion in many schools. Ignorance is not an excuse. Other teachers may not enforce the rules; that is also NOT an excuse. If you are unclearwhat constitutes plagiarism, educate yourself! Look closely at all the eye-opening examples here. Students are often surprised to learn that what they consider standard practice is actually plagiarism.

Any direct quote or close paraphrase without proper citation — any use of anybody else’s words without giving proper credit — is plagiarism. In addition to the usual kinds of plagiarism (stealing sentences, paragraphs, papers, etc. from books or journals or web sites), it is also plagiarism to “answer” an essay question by cutting and pasting sentences from the study guide for this class. Remember I wrote the study guide. If you cut and paste from the study guide, you are plagiarizing my own sentences back to me. I will notice.

Any student who violates the academic code (e.g., by cheating or plagiarism) will, at minimum, receive a final course grade of F. This rule is rigidly enforced.

According to the catalog, instructors may drop students “... when accumulated hours of absences exceed ten percent of the total number of hours the class meets during the semester.” I may exercise this option. But the main responsibility lies with you. If you want to drop the class, it is YOUR responsibility to do so.

The last day to drop with a W is usually about one month before the end of the semester. Check the Schedule of Classes for the exact date.

Two exams, one worth 15%, the other worth 20%

Term Paper (20%)

Final Exam, worth 25%

Important deadlines:

Term papers must be argumentative essays, 10 pages minimum, typed double-spaced. You may write a standard prose essay or a dialog.

The page count refers to pages of text. Cover sheet, works cited, etc. do not count as text. Illustrations, cartoons, pictures, etc. do not count as text.

If your paper comes out too short, it is probably not detailed enough.

If your paper comes out longer than the minimum required, that’s not a problem: please continue to double-space and use a normal font size.

The term paper gives you an opportunity to explore more advanced and technical problems in the philosophy of religion than we have time to consider in the mainstream class.

The following topics (among others) are acceptable:

1.      Using the readings in Pojman section I.A, critically analyze the kalām cosmological argument

2.      Critically analyze the arguments of Pike and Plantinga in Pojman section IV.C on omniscience and human freedom.

3.      Using the reading in Pojman I.C.3, clearly explain Norman Malcolm’s defense of the ontological argument.

4.      Using the readings in Pojman IX, describe Plantinga’s defense of religious exclusivism and the counterarguments and modifications offered by Hick and Basinger.

5.      What is Swinburne’s response to Hume on miracles? In your own words, give Hume’s arguments against miracles. Critically analyze Hume’s arguments against miracles, and also critically analyze Swinburne’s attempts to refute Hume. 

6.      Recent work in the biology of the brain seems to demonstrate a biological or evolutionary basis for religion.  Read one or more books listed here, and critically analyze the arguments.  Do such works constitute a naturalistic foundation for the claim that, e.g., women are more religious than men?  Book-smart people are less religious than others?

7.      Swinburne attempts to prove that there are reasonable inductive arguments for the existence of God. State (paraphrase in your own words, as much as possible) Swinburne’s arguments for God and critically analyze them .

8.      State and critically analyze the arguments of Davis and McCann on God and time.

If you would like to write your term paper on a different topic, please check with me. In general, it is NOT acceptable to write a term paper for this class on topics already covered in class, e.g., you could not simply summarize standard arguments for or against the existence of God. It is also not acceptable to write a paper for this class that is outside philosophy of religion, e.g., a paper summarizing the beliefs of Buddhists, or a paper about Bible scholarship, or a paper on the religious aspects of abortion or some other ethical issue.

Demonstrated familiarity with techniques and vocabulary of argument analysis.

Essays should also demonstrate familiarity with the techniques and vocabulary of argument analysis. In other words, you must appropriately analyze and critique the arguments and counterarguments in the reading, using, for example, the Critical Thinking Checklist. You must note and explain logical and factual errors and obvious fallacies. The dialog format (like DR) is always acceptable for essays in this class.

I assign essays so you can demonstrate skill and clarity in marshaling, presenting, and criticizing arguments. You are not expected to present original arguments or break any new ground. You are not required to “state your own personal views.” Please do not feel compelled to make one author or position come out “the winner”; the issues we will be discussing are often complicated, and every contributor may say at least some worthwhile things.

Competent English skills

All assignments must demonstrate competent English writing skills, though these count somewhat less than clear presentation and analysis. You get up to 9 obvious technical errors (#1-20) per assignment with no penalty. However, if there are more than 20 obvious grammar or spelling errors, your grade will be lowered one letter; more than 40 errors, two letters; more than 60 errors, three letters, etc. Each instance of a misspelling counts as one error.

To see just how detailed the scrutiny of your work in this class will be, look at the sample graded papers.

Please be especially about the following:

• Avoid misspellings of authors' names (including mine — "LaFave"). Be especially careful about "Nietzsche," "Rachels," "Kierkegaard," "J. S. Mill" (not "Mills").

• Refer to both male and female authors in the same way. Do not, for example, refer to male authors by their last names and female authors by their first names.

• Avoid misuse of the apostrophe (possessives and contractions). For review, see Self Test on the Apostrophe. If you do not do well, go here for information on correct use of the apostrophe. Also look here for info on possessives.

• Avoid errors in singular-plural agreement. For more info, see Singular/Plural Matching (explanation)

• Avoid comma splices and other run-on sentences. If you think a sentence might be a run-on, rewrite it! Take the following self-tests to see if you need help with this subject:
  Self Test 1 on Run-ons;
  Self Test 2 on Run-ons;
  Self Test 3 on Run-ons (Comma Splices)

• Avoid sentence fragments. If you think you’ve written a fragment, rewrite! To see if you need help, take the following self-tests:
  Self Test 1 on Sentence Fragments;
  Self Test 2 on Sentence Fragments;
  Self Test on Fragments and Run-ons

• Avoid danglers. O'Conner has a whole chapter on danglers. Read it; it's a hoot! See here for another excellent explanation, and do the Self Test on Danglers.

• Avoid wordy, fat, redundant sentences. Most students need work on this! See Writing Concisely (explanation and selftests).

• Avoid passive voice. See Active and Passive Voice (explanation and selftest).

• Use parallel construction. See Parallelism (explanation and selftest).

• Beware: a spell checker checks spelling only — not usage. It flags what it can't find in its dictionary. Since all the following are legitimate English words, your spell checker won't notify you even if you confuse them. Nevertheless, I will count misuses in your technical-error total. You have been warned!

  accept / except

  affect / effect

  among / between

  amount / number

  cite / site / sight

  chord / cord

  complement / compliment

  compose / consist / comprise

  conscience / conscious

  desert / dessert

  disinterested / uninterested

  do / due ("The paper is due Friday. I know you can do it!")

  each other / one another

  e.g. / i.e.

  everyday / every day

  fewer / less

  imply / infer

  it’s / its

  know / no ("You're kidding! No way! You don't know this?")

  loose / lose

  posses (more than one posse, as in "We'll round up a posse, Sheriff")

  possess (have)

  principal / principle

  sole / soul

  ("Now that I'm dying, my sole concern is the fate of my soul!")

  than / then

  there / they’re / their

  udder / utter (Look this one up if you don't get it: it's too funny!)

  waver / waiver
  A waver is someone who waves. "Waver" is also a verb meaning to be unsteady.

  weather / whether

  who’s / whose

  your / you’re     
  Your is the possessive form of the pronoun you, meaning "belonging to you," while you're is a contraction of "you are." "The New Age guru said, 'You're your best friend.'"

• The following words occur commonly in philosophy papers. Spell these words correctly!

  accommodate
  acquaintance
  argument
  believe
  causal
  conceive
  consistency
  definition
  empirical
  existence
  inherent
  judgment
  knowledge
  necessary
  occurrence
  phenomenon (singular)
  phenomena (plural)
  philosophy
  principal
  principle
  separate
  supersede

• Please don’t attempt a dialog unless you can punctuate it correctly! In particular, note carefully the correct punctuation of direct address (when one character addresses another by name or by words such as “man,” “dude,” or “girl”). There’s an important difference between “I know Jane” and “I know, Jane”; and between “I know that girl” and “I know that, girl.” Because serious ambiguities can result from this kind of carelessness, you must use commas to separate the direct address word from the rest of the text, even when there is no apparent ambiguity. When the direct address word is embedded within a sentence, you need two commas, one before and one after: for example, “We all recognize, Lisa, that you are unusually intelligent.” It is your job to edit and proofread your papers.

Click for

• comprehensive online writing help (a really good site)

• online reviews of English grammar

• an online tutorial on writing an argumentative essay.

• Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper by philosopher Jim Pryor of Princeton University

• "Writing papers for introductory moral philosophy courses" by philosopher Joseph Hernandez Cruz of Williams College