Philosophy 341 Syllabus

Although one cynical reaction to the world around us is to think of morality as empty words, the actions of individuals and even of whole societies are nevertheless influenced by moral judgments. (Have you never been influenced by concerns about whether what you are doing is right or wrong? -- and if you have, why suppose that others haven't?) Furthermore (although further cynical qualms are possible here), our moral judgments concerning actions and social policies are influenced by reasoning and argument.

This course will give us the opportunity to think deeply about four controversial and difficult moral issues: 1) surrogate motherhood, 2) abortion, 3) inequalities of income, wealth, and health, and 4) health care. In addition, to provide some perspective and depth in our consideration of the particular issues, we shall spend some time with ethical theory.

The overall goal is to enable all members of the class to reflect on their views and through this reflection and the criticisms of others to reach better articulated and justified conclusions. This requires both cultivation of skills of argumentation and criticism and familiarity with the considerations that support different sides of these issues. More specifically the course aims:

1. To provide some solid knowledge of the moral arguments concerning surrogate motherhood, abortion, inequalities, and health care. By providing this knowledge the course should help you to develop and to deepen your own views on these matters and to see through simplistic and shallow arguments. The moral arguments you will be studying should challenge your convictions or permit you to refine them.

2. To provide an introduction to moral argument and to moral theory in general: This course should help you to see how rational argument in morality works and to appreciate the force and limits of such arguments. The course should also help you to appreciate what moral theory is, how it can be important in your life and in society in general, how it can be valid and powerful, even though not always capable of producing consensus.

3. To provide an introduction to the nature of argument and of informal logic in general: To appreciate what can be said concerning moral issues such as abortion, one must be able to tell the difference between good and bad arguments, and one needs to be able to present and criticize arguments effectively. To the extent that this course helps you to make and criticize arguments, it should be valuable for you, quite apart from its particular subject matter.

4. To help you to develop your abilities to present and to criticize arguments both in discussion and, in particular, in writing: Every good essay, regardless of the subject matter, is an extended argument for some thesis or conclusion. The only thing special about philosophy essays is the extent to which one focuses upon the logic of the argument. This course should help you to write more sharply organized, focused and effective essays.It is hard to separate bad writing and sloppy thinking.

The extent to which these course goals can be achieved is, of course, largely up to you, but it is important that you appreciate what the teaching assistants and I are trying to accomplish. If you cannot see how any particular lecture or reading assignment relates to the goals of the course, ask about it. In abstract matters it is especially important and especially difficult to be clear on what the point is. Keep asking "So what?" Since this course is more concerned with mastering skills than with acquiring information, it demands your active participation, and I think that the interest and importance of the issues we will be addressing will reward that participation.

1. This course does not aim to provide pat answers to questions such as "Is abortion morally permissible?" It is not Sunday School. I don’t intend to preach, and if I get carried away, I hope you’ll jump on me. I have my own views concerning the issues, and in some cases, I feel confident that I've got some good answers. Yet I shall not be concerned to convert anybody. What is important in the course is intellectual honesty and the sort of perseverance that makes one struggle to bring one's convictions and the weight of argument into accord. The course should help you rationally to make up your own mind concerning surrogate motherhood, abortion, inequalities, and health care, and it will not espouse a set of "correct" positions.

2. This course does not aim to provide a thorough or precise introduction to moral theory. Although you should learn some moral theory, the subject is a deeper one than it might appear from the introductory material we will consider.

All of the course readings will be available electronically on the Learn@UW site for the course. Please download each of the readings and print it. You'll grasp the material much better if you read a printed version than if you try to read it on a computer or tablet screen.

To avoid distracting other students, I ask that those who want to use their computers or to send or receive text messages during class sit near the back of the lecture hall (behind the TAs) and that the rest of the class sit in the front of the room.

In addition to the learn@uw site, there is a public web site for the course at this link. You will find useful documents there.

I STRONGLY urge you to download and print out the essays that are posted on the Learn@UW site. You will have a more difficult time mastering the material, if you attempt to read the essays on your computer.

I hope to make this course as accessible as is feasible to anyone with a disability. Please let me know as early in the course as possible if you need accommodations in the curriculum, instruction, or assessments in this course to enable you to participate fully. I will attempt to maintain confidentiality of any information you share with me.

There will be two essays, three quizzes, homework assignments, and a final examination. Your semester grade will depend on the essays (40%), the quizzes (10% each), the final (25%), and the homework assignments (5%). Active participation in discussion sections will be rewarded with extra credit.

LECTURES Attendance at lecture is optional, and after each lecture, I will post the powerpoint slides on the learn@uw site. Although it will be harder to master the material without attending lecture, it should be possible. My expectation is that most of the students who come to lecture will be engaged with the course material and eager to participate. With the TAs help, I will keep track of who speaks up, and students who actively participate in lecture by asking or answering questions will receive extra credit.

DISCUSSION SECTIONS Section attendance is also optional, but if you miss no more than two discussion sections during the semester, you will receive one point of extra credit toward your semester point total, and if in addition you are an active and helpful contributor to discussions in section you will receive a point of extra credit. (You thus have the possibility of earning two points of extra credit if you both attend regularly and participate actively and helpfully.)

INTRODUCTORY PAPER The introductory essay should be no more than 1000 words in length. It counts for 10% of your semester grade. It is designed to give you an opportunity to try your hand at writing a philosophy essay without the anxiety of having much of your grade depend on the result. It counts for only ten percent of your grade. A first version is due promptly at the beginning of class on Tuesday, September 22, and a revised version is due one week later, Tuesday, September 29.Your grade depends entirely on the revised version, but if you do not hand in a preliminary version on time, there will be a 10% penalty.

TERM PAPER The term paper counts for 30% of your semester grade. It should be no more than 1800 words and it is due at the beginning of class on Tuesday, November 8. The term paper is due fairly early in the semester in order to make it possible for you to rewrite it and to submit a revised version, if you choose. Unlike the introductory paper, the first version you hand in will be graded. Revising the paper is optional. The optional revision is due on Thursday, December 8. If you submit a revised version, your grade will be a weighted average of your grades on the two versions with the first version having twice the weight of the revised version. (In other words, if you do not submit a revised version, the first version counts for 30% of your semester grade. If you do submit a revised version, then the first version counts for 20% of your semester grade, and the revised version counts for 10%.)

DEBATES We will begin the consideration of each of the four issues with which this course is concerned with a debate on that issue. Those who participate in the debates will receive credit for the initial homework assignment on the issue debated and two points of extra credit, provided that they do a competent job in the debate. See below for further information about the debates.

QUIZZES After we complete the discussion of surrogate motherhood, abortion, and income and wealth distribution, there will be a quiz on that issue. Each quiz will last for approximately 45 minutes and will count for 10% of your semester grade. The dates of the quizzes are:

• Logic and surrogate motherhood: September 29; Tentative repeat quiz on October 8
• Kant and abortion: October 25;
• Utilitarianism, libertarianism, and income and wealth inequalities: November 22.

FINAL EXAMINATION The final examination will serve both as a quiz on the health care issue and as a cumulative test of your mastery of the course material and skills. It will count for 25% of your semester grade.

HOMEWORK

• There will be eleven homework assignments, which are listed in the outline of class assignments below.
• The homework assignments must be handed in during class or placed in Dan Hausman's mail box by 2:30 on the due date in order to count as on time.
• Homework may not be submitted via email.
• Your homework grade depends on how many of the assignments you successfully complete. The assignments will not otherwise be graded. The homework will count for 5% of your semester grade. For details see below in the syllabus.
• I will read a sample of each homework assignment and email comments to students.
• Homework that is more than four classes late or that is handed in after the last lecture in the semester will not be accepted. Provided that no assignment is more than four classes late, you will have during the semester an allowance of six classes of late homework, without any penalty. So, for example, your homeworks could count as on time if six of your homework assignments were submitted one class late, or one were 3 classes late, one two classes late, and one one class late.
• If you need to miss class and do not want to use up one of your late allowances, you should feel free to hand in your homework in advance of the due date.
• In 25 years of teaching this course, I have only twice had students who had legitimate excuses for handing in homework assignments later than this allowance covers. If you turn out to be the third exception, I will make allowances, but note that you have a choice between either taking advantage of the generous system of allowances for late homework or providing excuses for every late homework assignment. You cannot make use of the allowance and then in addition approach me with explanations for additional delays in handing in homework.
• Please do not send me explanations for late homework unless there are such major problems that the allowances are not adequate..
• Homework should be submitted directly to me, not to your TA.
• Further details can be found near the end of the syllabus.

At the beginning of the discussion of each of the four issues with which the course in concerned, there will a debate on a specific resolution concerning the issue. To compensate participants in the debates for their efforts, they will receive credit for the homework assignment due on the date of the debate -- provided that they do a competent job in the debate. Debaters will also receive two points of extra credit toward their semester grade. There should be three debaters on each side. The debate team members will need to decide how to divide up and organize their presentation. I do not expect debaters to do extensive research beyond doing the assigned reading on the topic. These debates can be fun, and they valuable to the whole class, not just to the participants. Their success depends (of course) on you.

The format for the debates will be as follows: Each team will have ten minutes to fifteen minutes to make its case. The team-members may divide up the time or choose one or two speakers to express their position. Then the floor will be open to give and take between the two teams, and all the debaters will be expected to participate. If I think it useful, I may direct some questions to the teams at the beginning of the give-and-take session. There is no definite time limit to this second round, but I will break off the exchange at some point to permit questions and arguments from the audience.

If my office hours, (Tuesdays 12:30-1:30; Wed. 1:30-2:30) are not convenient, see me after class to arrange another time to meet. My job is to help you to master the skills and material with which this course is concerned, so feel free to come see me.

Email can be a great convenience, but in a large class, it can get out of hand. Your TA will have his own guidelines, which you should be careful to respect. With respect to communicating with me, feel free to email me at dhausman@wisc.edu with any specific questions you have about substance, assignments or requirements. If the question and answer are relevant to others, I may post them anonymously on the course discussion page or send an email to the classlist. If you want to keep the discussion private, please let me know. Otherwise, in emailing me about any aspect of the course, you’ve given me permission to post your question. That way I can serve as many students as possible. Some questions are not appropriate. For example, "Could you please restate the last three lectures?" Some questions are of course better discussed in person than over email. I’ll do the best I can to be helpful.

Plagiarism is a serious offense, for which there is no excuse. All sources and assistance used in preparing your papers must be precisely and explicitly acknowledged. If you have any questions about what constitutes plagiarism, please come talk with me or with your TA. Ignorance of what constitutes plagiarism is not a defense. It is your responsibility to be sure. The web creates special risks. Cutting and pasting even a few words from a web page or paraphrasing material without a reference constitutes plagiarism. If you are not sure how to refer to something you find on the internet, you can always give the URL. It is generally better to quote than to paraphrase from material on the web, because in the absence of page numbers it can be hard to find passages that are paraphrased rather than quoted. The minimum penalty for plagiarism -- even of just a phrase -- is a zero on the assignment.

In my experience, plagiarism usually happens because it is 3 a.m. on the morning when a paper is due. Your rough draft is going nowhere. You're exhausted and increasingly desperate. And you've come across an obscure web page that says pretty much what you've been trying to say. And ... well you can fill in the rest, perhaps even what happens when you get caught. This is the time to stop and go to bed. Much better to talk with me or your TA and get some help, take the mild penalty for not handing the paper in on time, and write a paper that gives you some satisfaction and that doesn't risk expulsion from the University.

I do not usually devote my lectures to the exposition and discussion of the readings (though I am happy to entertain questions about how my lectures relate to the readings). Although I will cite and criticize specific arguments from the readings, the lectures usually present an independent perspective on the issues. Critically engaging with the arguments in the lectures is your most important task, but you may have a hard time understanding my arguments or exactly how they are relevant if you do not study the readings carefully. I selected the readings to represent a variety of different perspectives, and even when the readings are mistaken (as, in one regard or another, they often are), there are valuable lessons to be learned from understanding their mistakes. The examinations will ask not only that you have mastered the material in the lectures but that you be able to relate the arguments in the lectures to the arguments in the readings and to respond intelligently to questions concerning the important arguments in the readings.

Although you will not be able to understand completely the most difficult philosophical texts such as Kant's Groundwork, you should aim to master most of the readings, particularly those that address specific issues. Here are some detailed hints about how to do so:

1. Use your highlighter sparingly. It is much more useful to pencil in marginal notes summarizing or querying specific points than to highlight passages. Actively engaging the author is much more valuable than merely trying to assimilate the prose. And if you do highlight, only highlight a small percentage of the text. (There is not much point to highlighting everything, apart from adding color to the page!)
2. The assignments are usually short, and you should plan on reading the assignments at least twice. During the first reading you should ask yourself:
   • What is the author's position?
   • What is the general structure of the essay? Is it a collection of separate arguments, or does it aim to make one main argument?
   • What are the author's main assumptions? (Where is the author coming from?)
   • Against whom does the author take him/herself to be arguing? What is the context in which the piece was written?
   • What is the main line of argument (or what are the main lines of argument)?
   • What objections does the author address and how successful is the author in answering them?
   • How does the author's position relate to your views? To what extent does the author reinforce or challenge your views?
   • How do the author's arguments relate to the arguments developed in lecture and in other reading assignments? What criticisms would the author make of arguments developed in lecture or in other readings? To what extent is the position of the author open to criticisms made in lecture or in other readings?

During the second reading of the assignment, you should proceed more slowly and critically. Rather than asking, as suggested above, questions about what the author's purposes, organization, and argument are, you should try to assess all of these and particularly the author's arguments

Some recommendations on how to write badly: (adapted from Martin Hassel http://lacasahassel.net/cv/martin/howto.htm)

1. Begin with a sentence that is clear and direct:

Katha Pollitt vigorously condemns surrogate motherhood.

2. Change its verbs, adjectives, and adverbs into abstract nouns:

Katha Pollitt presents a vigorous condemnation of the acceptability of surrogate motherhood.

3. Make the sentence passive:

A vigorous condemnation of the acceptability of surrogate motherhood is presented by Katha Pollitt.

4. Use two words where one would do:

A vigorous and strong condemnation and critique of the acceptability of surrogate motherhood is presented by Katha Pollitt.

5. Use plenty of 'in regard to,' 'as to' and similar terms:

A vigorous and strong condemnation and critique in regard to the acceptability of surrogate motherhood under some circumstances is presented by Katha Pollitt.

6. Sprinkle with words that add little or nothing

An interesting and quite vigorous and reasonably strong condemnation and forceful critique in regard to the acceptability of surrogate motherhood under some circumstances is compellingly presented by Katha Pollitt.

7. Use negatives:

A not uninteresting and quite vigorous and not unreasonably weak condemnation or too timid critique in regard to the unacceptability of surrogate motherhood under some circumstances is not uncompellingly presented by Katha Pollitt.

8. Repeat the preceding steps: How awful can you make the sentence?

1. In a political debate, the point is to win, and one consequently tries to make the arguments of one's opponents sound as ridiculous and worthless as possible. In a philosophical debate (or in writing a philosophy essay), in contrast, the objective is to learn the truth. So you should try to make the arguments conflicting with your views as compelling as possible, before you answer them. If there are any objections to your position that you cannot answer, then you cannot be sure that you are right. Work hard at trying to see "the other side". (This is not to say that there are no mistakes and that both sides of every issue are always equally well supported. If the question was, "Should slavery be legal?" it is worth studying what can be said in the defense of slavery, even though there is in fact very little to be said in its defense.)
2. Although many sociological and economic facts are relevant to the issues you are addressing in your essays, be careful to keep your focus philosophical. If you aren't sure whether your papers are philosophical or not, check with me or with your TA.

When working on the final versions of your essays, feel free to come to your teaching assistant or me for help. You do not need to do further research, but you can consult with us if you want references for further reading.

There are some excellent resources on the web for writing philosophy papers. After consulting the brief writing suggestions in on the learn@uw site, I particularly recommend:

UW-Madison Writer's Handbook This excellent handbook is produced by The Writing Center here. Highly recommended!

www.sfu.ca/philosophy/writing.htm This is brief, clear, and helpful.

http://www.princeton.edu/~jimpryor/general/writing.html Excellent, but much lengthier.

www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/philosophy.html For those who are serious about philosophy.

www.cofc.edu/~portmord/tips.htm Contains lots of references for further study.

A terrific general source on writing is Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. The first edition is available on the web at http://www.bartleby.com/141/

An "A" paper typically has all of the following virtues, although in exceptional cases papers with five of the six virtues might merit an "A":

1. It has a well-defined thesis and a logical organization.
2. It shows good sense, intellectual honesty and struggle. It defends a defensible thesis and takes seriously objections to that thesis.
3. It is well-informed. If there are passages in the assigned readings for the course that are particularly relevant to the matters under discussion in the essay, these are cited and discussed. The paper shows an awareness of conceptual distinctions and clarifications developed in the course.
4. It is intelligent, logical, and careful. The argument is carefully articulated and developed. Obvious difficulties are anticipated and answered, and gaps are closed.
5. It is significant. The issues discussed, although detailed, are of some importance, and the essay makes their importance clear.
6. The paper is written in a lucid and grammatical style.

A "B" paper has the following virtues:

1. As before.
2. As before.
3. As before.
4. It is logical and not careless. The argument is well articulated.
5. It is not trivial. The essay provides some motivation for its topic.
6. The paper is grammatical.

A "C" paper has at least the following virtues:

1. It is orderly and has some focus.
2. It shows some serious concern with the issues it deals with.
3. It is not uninformed. Where relevant, it shows awareness of the content of the course.
4. There are some definite and cogent arguments in the essay.
5. The paper has some point.
6. The paper is readable and minimally grammatical.

A "D" paper:

1. Has some intelligible organization.
2. Shows some concern with the issues it deals with.
3. Shows minimal awareness of the course content.
4. Makes some relevant and sensible argument
5. Has some point.
6. Is comprehensible and minimally grammatical.