The Life and Death of Socrates
Los Angeles Valley College, Fall 2009
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Instructor |
Christopher Pallotti |
E-mail |
pallotc@lavc.edu |
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Phone Web-site |
818-947-2600 ext 8190 filosofia.pageout.net |
Drop-in hours |
Mon: 12:45-1:45 |
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Day/ Time |
M/W 9:40-11:05 CC-207 |
Office |
CC-226 |
I see myself as a facilitator of learning. My
goal as a facilitator is to assist you—my student—in any way possible to help
you succeed and to reach your goals. All
of us have strengths and weaknesses; let’s work together to harness out
strengths and to nurture our weaknesses.
Please let me know if I can be of help to you. I am most interested in seeing you engage
with the class and the class material.
Please visit me during my drop in hours if you have any concerns.
The course Introduction to Philosophy will be a mini-tour of the highlights of the literary and intellectual traditions of the Western heritage in philosophy. We will read primary sources as preparation for our main task in this course, which will be to ask and to try to answer the following profound and enduring questions: Does life have meaning? Does God exist? Do we possess free will? What is truth? What is a “good” life? What do we owe each other? What do we really know? By reading the classic thinkers, we will see how their concerns are still largely our concerns. Finally, we will pursue an ongoing critique of the philosophical enterprise in general by asking of what value is philosophy.
Abel, Donald C., Fifty
(
1.) acquire knowledge of the basic tenets and history of Western philosophy
2.) begin thinking about the source of their beliefs in a critical way
3.) see philosophy as a discipline that can inspire wonder, change & personal growth
Attendance and participation: students
who come to every class—on time will receive extra credit. 25-every class—on time, 20-1 absent/late,
15-2 absent/late. Your presence in the
classroom is crucial to your learning experience as is participation in
lectures; both are highly encouraged.
Barring emergencies or prior engagements, leaving class early is counted
as an absence. Coming to class late will
also take you out of the running for attendance extra-credit. Both behaviors are rude and disrupt the
atmosphere of learning. If you must do
either, exit/enter quietly from the back of the class.
Test days: Do not miss test days, as make-up tests
are given only for extenuating
circumstances i.e. severe illness. Please be sure to call beforehand to
reserve the privilege of getting a retest.
Extra credit: Since academic excellence includes
ambition, students having difficulty with the material can raise their grade
with extra credit. We can discuss the
form and content of extra credit (10
points) later on in the course.
Note on academic behavior: LA Valley College students are expected to maintain high standards of honesty and ethical behavior. All assignments submitted in fulfillment of course requirements must be the student's own work. If you are having trouble grasping the material, do not hesitate to contact me.
3 exams: 100 points each. Exam
questions are drawn equally from assigned readings, lecture, and class
discussions. Exam format: multiple choice, T/F, &
short answer/essay. The final is
comprehensive, but will mostly cover material from section 3.
8 short in-class homework assignments: 12.5
points each. These will be done in small-groups. All the below readings are required, however,
only the ones with asterisks will be a connected to the in-class assignments. The questions that come on the in-class
assignment are in your text, just prior to the assigned reading; do the reading
and answer the questions before class so as to get the most points on the
in-class assignment as you can. Be sure
to divide the work among the whole group.
Not showing up and missing these assignments can have a significant
negative impact on your grade; it is highly advisable that you come for and do
all of them.
1 mini-presentation—details and prompt to follow shortly. 50 points
How to
succeed in this class:
a.) pay attention in lectures and write everything that is on the board as
well as everything I say.
b.) do the homework and know that the purpose of studying is to answer and
to generate questions. Generating
questions while reading makes your learning experience more fruitful and personal. Do the readings and come to class with
questions.
c.) give yourself time to absorb and to memorize the material.
Campus Services:
Writing Skills Center: Humanities 100, (818) 947-2810,
writingtutor@lavc.edu.
Disabilities: DSPS, Campus Center, Room 100, (818) 947-2681/ TTY (818)
947-2680, dsps@lavc.edu
Financial
Aid is available! Call (818) 947-2412.
Go to
the Financial Aid Office in the bungalow between Campus Center and the North
Gym
Website
address: lavc.edu/studentservwebsite/financial/index.html
Topic
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Required
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What is Philosophy? |
Plato Euthyphro 4-21* Russell The Value of
Philosophy 21-27* |
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Introduction to Ethics |
Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics 390-401 |
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Kant “Groundwork” 408-420 |
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Mill Utilitarianism
420-430 |
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Exam 1 Oct 5, 2009 |
Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil 431-440* |
First Section: Introduction to Philosophy and Introduction
to Ethics
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Intro to Political/Social Philosophy |
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Plato Crito 493-504 * Plato Republic—lecture |
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Aristotle Politics 1-5
Powerweb |
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Hobbes Leviathan 505-515* |
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State of Nature/Social Contract |
Locke “2nd Treatise”
515-528 Marx Manifesto 537-548 |
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Social Justice |
MLK “Letter” 559-574* Rawls Theory of Justice 575-586
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Exam 2 Nov 9, 2009 |
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Second Section: Social and Political
Philosophy
Final Section: The Philosophy of
Religion and Epistemology
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Introduction to the Philosophy of
Religion |
Med Period—How to Please God & How to Understand His Existence Augustine Confessions—lecture |
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Rationalizing faith |
Anselm “Proslogion”
31-37 Aquinas Treatise
on God 37-45 |
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Design argument |
Paley Natural Theology 45-52 * |
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Intro to Epistemology |
Plato Republic 123-132 * Descartes “Meditations” 226-234
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Final Exam |
December 14, 2009 9:30 – 11:30 |
“...each of us is grazed at least once, perhaps more than once, by the hidden power of this question, even if he is not aware of what is happening to him. …“Why is there anything rather than nothing? Why is there anything rather than nothing?" is first in rank for us because it is the most far reaching, second because it is the deepest, and finally because it is the most fundamental of all questions.”
Heidegger, An Introduction to Metaphysics
"From the invisible inside, where I could neither see nor want the very thing I have always been scared to have revealed on the scanner, by 'analysis' — radiology, echography, endocrinology, hematology — a crural vein expelled my blood outside that I thought beautiful once stored in that bottle under a label that I doubted could avoid confusion or misappropriation of the vintage, leaving me nothing more to do, the inside of my life exhibiting itself outside, 'expressing' itself before my eyes, absolved without a gesture, dare I say of writing if I compare the pen to the syringe, and I always dream of a pen that would be a syringe, a suction point rather than that very hard weapon with which one must inscribe, incise, choose, calculate, take ink before filtering the inscribable.”
Derrida, Circumfession
“So there is a sense in which ethical knowledge is more solidly founded in our natural constitution than knowledge of science: we acquire it with less effort of will and mental labour, as we acquire language.”
Colin McGinn, Ethics Evil and Fiction
“Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.”
Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach
“Look back at the eternity that passed before we were born, and mark how utterly it counts to us as nothing. This is a mirror that Nature holds up to us, in which we may see the time that shall be after we are dead. Is there anything terrifying in the sight--anything depressing--anything that is not more restful than the soundest sleep?”
Lucretius, On the Nature of Things
The extreme obscurity of some philosophers, including Kant, Hegel, and Heidegger, was due in part to an attempt—not conscious, to be sure--to hide something from themselves. They were afraid of something that kept them--even Kierkegaard, who had a wealth of insights--from contributing as much as they might have done to the discovery of the mind. What they were afraid of was the discovery of their own minds.
Walter Kaufmann, Goethe Kant and Hegel