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Phil 2 SyllabusPhilosophy 2: Social and Political Philosophy
Fall 2009
Instructor: Cynthia Kaufman Office: F21t Phone: 408.864.8887
Web address: www.faculty.deanza.fhda.edu/kaufmancynthia
Email address: kaufmancynthia@fhda.edu
Office Hours: M,T,W,Th 10:30-11:20 and by appointment
In this class, we will explore a variety of questions relating to politics and society. We will look at concepts such as freedom, democracy, justice, individualism, and social responsibility. Through a careful reading of some key texts, we will look at how these questions have been investigated by others and we will try to pose our own answers to them. The class involves serious reading and writing and requires active participation.
Readings:
The following books are required. The first three can be bought at the camps book-store, picked up used or at the library, or found on line. If you use an on line source, you must be ready to print some pages to bring to class for in class exercises. Don’t worry about which translation you use.
Plato, The Republic.
(Available on line at: http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.html)
John Locke, The Second Treatise of Government
(Available on line at: http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/locke/locke2/locke2nd-a.html)
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
(Available on line at: http://www.wattpad.com/23902-Tao-Te-Ching-Muller)
Course Reader (Buy a voucher at the bookstore and take it to De Anza College Printing Services, located at the west end of campus)
Requirements:
Students will be expected to come to class having completed all of the day's assigned readings and to participate in class discussions.
There will be four short papers (two pages each). The first three papers will be turned in in two stages (rough and polished drafts). Both drafts must be turned in on time. These papers can be rewritten for the possibility of a higher grade.
Students will be expected to answer daily study questions and to write approximately one page per week of reflection on the week's work. These are both due at the beginning of every class.
Attendance and Classroom policies:
I reserve the right to drop any student who misses more than three classes. You must process your own drop paper work to be sure you are dropped. Any student considering dropping should talk to me before doing so, I may be able to make accommodations to deal with major life crises.
Do not have your cell phone on in class. If you have some sort of personal emergency that requires you to answer your phone in class, please clear it with me that day.
Please do not use your computer for anything but note taking in class.
Grading:
Grading is on the following point system:
Group Work: 100 points
Daily Assignments: 100 points distributed as follows:
Questions: 5 points Journal: 5 points
Papers: 200 points each
700-720 C-: 730-760 C: 770-790 C+: 800-820 B-: 830-860 B: 870-890B+: 900-920 A-:930-1000A
*Any papers submitted electronically will automatically lose ten points.
Daily Assignments:
Journal: You will be expected to do journal writing to reflect on the work we do over the week. The writing does not need to be polished. I suggest that you begin by thinking of an idea that interested you and that you write about why the idea was interesting. The best journal entries are ones that draw out the significance of the idea and discuss its relevance to you. You will be expected to turn in one page a week of journal writing
Study Questions: You will also be asked to turn in answers to study questions every other class meeting. These also do not need to be polished or typed.
The study questions and journal can be done back to back on one sheet of paper, but do not put them on the same side of one piece of paper. Each assignment should be labeled with the due date at the top of the page.
PAPERS:
The papers will take the readings as a starting point. You will have to decide on a specific topic related to what you found interesting in the readings. In all of the papers you will be expected to explain a major concept encountered in the reading and convince the reader to agree with your view on the idea.
Format:
* All papers must be typed. Rough drafts do not need to be typed.
*Double-space everything, including indented quotations.
*Underline or italicize titles of books.
*If a quotation is four lines or less, include it within the body of your essay and surround it with quotation marks.
*If a quotation is longer than four lines, indent the entire quotation ten spaces from the left and omit quotation marks.
*Never plagiarize. If you use ideas from a written source or from a friend, acknowledge your source. If you take more than three words in a row from another source, identify it as a quote.
GROUP PARTICIPATION:
Group participation will be graded by the members of the group. You will grade each member of the group on the quality of their work in the following areas: 1- Preparation for class discussions, 2- Contribution to class discussions, 3- Attendance, 4- Facilitation of the group process (encouraging others to speak, keeping the discussions on track), 5- Peer critiques.
Students will only see the grades after they have been averaged.
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