Syllabus

Professor Barbara Pearson

PHIL - 101  Introduction to Philosophy                     

 Office:  1019 Lincoln Hall,  Rm. 107                         Office Phone: 426 @ 3484

                                                                                   Home Phone:    384 - 5215

e-mail:   Bpearson@boisestate.edu

Course Description:  This course will introduce students to some representative issues in philosophy through the study of texts that are classics in the discipline.  We shall examine the views of Plato,  Anselm and Aquinas, Descartes, Hume, Marx and Nietzsche, Mill and James in some detail.  We will be concerned with questions about ethical behavior, justice, the proper arrangement of society, the existence of God, the nature of reality, and how we know what we claim to know, among other topics.

Required Texts:

The Republic,   Plato,  Grube translation   (Hackett)

Ten Great Works of Philosophy,   edited by Robert Paul Wolff   (Mentor Books)

The Communist Manifesto,   by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels  (International Publishers)

The Portable Nietzsche,    by Friedrich Nietzsche   edited by Kaufmann

(Penguin Books)

From Socrates to Sartre:  The Philosophic Quest,  T. Z. Lavine   (Bantam Books)

Course Requirements and Learning Objectives:

PHIL - 101 is designed to enable students to:

---  Understand and appreciate the western tradition of philosophic thought.

---  Understand basic concepts and arguments in selected areas of philosophy - for example, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, logic and aesthetics.

---  Strengthen skills in analysis, reasoning, and problem-solving through the reading and discussion of diverse philosophic texts.

---  Effectively communicate that understanding and exercise those skills in the composition of accurate, insightful, detailed, and well organized essays in response to questions appearing on examinations.

There will be three exams given, each worth 20% of the grade.  There will be a set of homework assignments, worth 20%, that will be due at the beginning of the   class period for which they are assigned.  The remaining 20% of the grade will be based on attendance, student participation, and in-class writing assignments.  Missed assignments or exams cannot be made up without a legitimate university excuse in writing or prior consent of the instructor.