I. (Somewhat) Independent Projects - details

II. Weekly writing - details

Schedule for handing in hard-copy (everyone posts every week)

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III. Assignments:
 
You will find all assignments below. The list is organized by the date the assignment is due.

May 27:
Everyone's project hard-copy is due at 10am. Some will present their project work; everyone is required to attend. A weekly essay is not required, but submitting one if you've missed others would be a good idea. Your self evaluation draft is due, in hard-copy. Please leave your project manuscript and self-evaluation in the box by my office door. The box will be brought to me at 4 pm.

May 23-24:
Read Sellars' "Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man " and be prepared for seminar discussion.

May 20:
Some will present their project work; everyone is required to attend.

May 17:
Read pp. 1-18 of Sellars' "Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man," in case there is time to begin discussion of this longer essay before next week.

May 16-17:
Read Sellars' "Being and Being Known" and be prepared for seminar discussion.

May 9-10:
Read Quine's "Two Dogmas of Empiricism" and be prepared for seminar discussion.

May 2-3:
Read Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and be prepared for seminar discussion. In addition, read at least one encylopedia article on Wittgenstein's "earlier" work.

April 29:
Write and post some part of your project, something from somewhere in the middle, and something in which you work closely with a text. Bring copies of what you write for each membe of your pod and one for Chuck.

Below this posting (in the same discussion site), post your revized outline and highlight where the written piece fits.

Please post the texts rather than links to files.

April 26:
Read Moore's "A Defense of Common Sense" and be prepared for seminar discussion.

April 25:
Read Moore's "Proof of an External World" and be prepared for seminar discussion. Reread Kant's preface to the second edition of The Critique...

April 22:
In our project workshop, we’re going to work on the rhetoric of your project essay, the design you use to move your audience from “common ground” to “your ground.”

An effective argument begins with premises that not only are true but also are statements that your intended audience accepts without much doubt or controversy (at least not initially).  So an important part of your design is choosing where to begin.  Often this takes the form of motivating your leading question or questions.  [Consider Descartes's Meditations… in this light.]

Of course you can arrive at a design only if you know where you are going.  Once you have the end point  [”your ground”] and the starting point [“common ground”] clearly identified, you can work out the path you’re going to take.  This will be your argument.

So, for Friday write up the following:

1. A clear statement of where your project will end up, of your central conclusion or conclusions.

2.What you assume about your audience (the audience you choose to write to): what are the important beliefs and values you assume you share with this audience?  [Your audience might be your pod-mates, or the PLR group, or some other group (not me, however)…]

3. A clear statement of where you are going to begin: what you will “stake out” as the “common ground” on which you and your reader will initially meet.

4. A complete sentence outline that shows the path you will take in leading your reader from where you begin to your destination.

Bring copies of all this to class on Friday for your pod members and for Chuck.

Weekly essays are due by 10am: everyone posts, and Group A hands in hard copy.

April 18-19:
Reread the previous assignment and the "Transcendal Logic - Introduction" (pp. 105-117), and pp. 129-150, pp. 175-203.

April 15:
By 10am, at the latest, post your project prospectus in the web-x discussion site found inside the folder for your "pod." Write an introduction to your project of at least 300 words, presenting your topic, questions, most important philosophical texts you will work with, bibliography you have found... Your aim is to convince others in your pod that you've gotten hold of something interesting, something they would like to know more about.

Bring six copies of your introduction to our 10am workshop - we will work on it and rewrite as necessary. Then post your introduction in the appropriate site by Friday evening.

Weekly essays are due by 10am: everyone posts, and Group B hands in hard copy.

April 12:
Read Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, "Translator's Preface" (pp. xvii-xxiii), the "Introduction" by Patricia Kitcher (pp. xxv-lix), the "Preface" to the second edition (pp. 15-40), the "Introduction" to the second edition (43-75) and all of the "Transcendal Aesthtic" (pp. 71-74). Use only the Pluhar edition and bring your copy to class.

April 11:
Read Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, "Sections 9-12" (pp. 165-211 in the Oxford edition) and be prepared for seminar discussion beginning on Monday morning.

Beauchamp's introduction to the Oxford edition (pp. 7-61) of the Enquiry... is well worth reading.

April 8:
We will organize project work into small groups, discuss and refine proposals, and write up the proposals so that they can be posted by Monday morning.

April 4-5:
Read Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, "Sections 1-8" (pp. 87-164 in the Oxford edition) and be prepared for seminar discussion beginning on Monday afternoon.

Monday we will continue our discussion of Descartes' Meditations...

April 1:
Bring both a hardcopy and a file copy of your first weekly essay (see Weekly writing - details). You can put the file copy in the Scratch folder of Calawa or bring the file on disc. At 11:30, we will go over to the GCC classroom (Library 4th floor), for an intro to Web-x. You will post your essay during that workshop.

Reread Meditations V and VI and read Parts V-VI of "Discourse on the Method..."

March 29:
Read "Meditations I - IV" carefully for the morning and afternoon seminars. Read "Meditations V and VI" quickly, so you know where Descartes is headed.

Read Parts II-IV of "Discourse on the Method..."

March 28:
Read Descartes's letter "to the most wise and illustrious...", his "Preface to the reader," and his "Synopsis of the six following meditations." Also read "Meditation I."

Read Part I of "Discourse on the Method..." We will not focus on this work primarily in seminar, but read it for background and further understanding of what Descartes is up to.

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