PHIL151 section 001 -- Spring 2015

Click here for the syllabus.

Scroll to bottom for newest entry.  Please check this page frequently for announcements, assignments, web links of interest, and so on.

To begin with, here are some sites you ought to get to know.  Our department web site includes this list of student research tools (with some amusements at the bottom).

Why is philosophy important at all?  Socrates offers one answer in the "Apology," or "Defense Speech of Socrates," which is in our textbook.  He explains there that "the unexamined life is not worth living."  Here is another approach to thinking about the value of philosophy: Ayn Rand's essay  "Philosophy: Who Needs It?", based on a speech she made to the senior class at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1974.  Note that the answer is "everyone."  This essay isn't so much a plug for her own views as much as a plug for philosophy generally as a vital activity.

Alternatively...

Regarding the academic honesty policy mentioned in the college catalogue: Why it's wrong to cheat

Max Shulmans's short story "Love is a Fallacy" is quite funny, and therefore worth reading, but as an added bonus, its treatment of logical fallacies is accurate and helpful.  Give it a read.

Your first midterm exam is Thursday, March 5th.   Study guide here.  For after Spring break, start reading Part 6 (we will do part 5 after part 6, per the syllabus).

Second midterm exam is Thursday April 9th.  Study guide here.  For Tuesday 4/14, read chapter 30 of your book.

Readings for Part 7 - read for Thursday 4/16.  The Artist the Art World Couldn't See by Tom Wolfe and Poetics, Book I by Aristotle.

Your final exam is Thursday, May 7 at 8:00am.  Study guide here. Have a great summer, hope to see some of you in another class sometime.