Philosophy 338                                                                                                                                                     Spring 2004

PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
God: For and Against

MW: 2:30-3:45

Course Information and Syllabus

Instructor:         Dr. David Shoemaker (Dave)

Office Hours:    MWF, 10:00-10:45 and MW, 1:30-2:30 (or by appointment)
Sierra Tower 502

Office Phone:    677-7501 (if I’m not there, leave a voice mail message)

e-mail:              david.shoemaker@csun.edu (I check it repeatedly every day until around 5 p.m.)

website:            www.csun.edu/~ds56723/index.htm

  REQUIRED TEXTS:

             Philosophy of Religion, Fourth Edition, edited by Louis Pojman (pronounced “Poy-man”).
Coursepack (containing articles/stories by Lycan & Schlesinger, Gould, van Inwagen, and Clarke).

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

1.         To come to an understanding of the relevant issues and arguments surrounding several of the most deep and persisting of philosophical problems, e.g., God’s existence/non-existence, the nature of both God and religious belief, the role of evil, the possibility of miracles, and the meaningfulness of a religious life.

2.         To learn and be able to use the philosophical tools necessary for understanding, analyzing, evaluating, and debating the arguments employed with respect to these issues.

3.         To discuss, think, debate, and write about the issues and to reach (and be able to support) your own conclusions about them.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

1.   Attendance: Attending class is absolutely crucial to your understanding of the occasionally rather difficult readings.  And while we will discuss these readings in class, I will also present a lot of material there that won’t be found in the texts.  You will be responsible for all material covered in class.  To "help" you take responsibility for this material, therefore, I am requiring regular attendance.  I will take attendance every day in class (beginning the second week), and if you miss more than FOUR class periods, without reasonable excuse, that will constitute sufficient grounds for your receiving an F in the course (it's up to my discretion – if I don't fail you, I'll definitely subtract at least two points for every class period you've missed [over the allowed four] from your overall grade point total, which gets very damaging very fast).  I will be taking attendance every day, so make sure you’re here (on time) to sign in.  If you have a reasonable excuse for missing a class period, please let me know in advance, if possible, to get it excused.  If you miss a class for some unforeseeable reason (where you can’t let me know beforehand), let me know why you did so (with documentation, if available) afterwards to get it excused.  Whether or not your excuse is reasonable is up to me.  IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY – NOT MINE – TO MAKE SURE YOUR INITIALS ARE ON THE ATTENDANCE SHEET EACH DAY YOU ARE HERE.  IF THEY ARE NOT, YOU WILL BE COUNTED ABSENT.  In addition, if you show up more than TEN minutes after the class period has begun, I’ll count that as ½ day’s absence.  I believe God would want it this way.

2.   Exams: There will be a total of TWO exams given during the semester.  The first exam (tentatively scheduled for 3/24) will be an essay exam covering the material discussed during the first part of the course (Pascal, Fideism, and the arguments for the existence of God).  The second exam (scheduled for 5/19) will also be an essay exam covering only the material discussed in the last half of the course.  You must (duh!) take both exams.  The exam questions will make reference to specific information from the lectures and the readings, so be sure to study the assigned readings carefully and to keep abreast of what happens in lecture.  THERE WILL BE NO MAKE-UP EXAMS.  I have a special format for these exams, which eliminates the need for make-up exams (as I will explain in class).  Each exam will be worth 30% of your overall grade.  If I do not have two exam grades for you by the end of the semester, you will receive an F for the course.  All grading in the course will be done on the plus/minus grading system, with the following translation from points to letter grades: 98-100=A+; 92-97.9=A; 90-91.9=A-; 88-89.9=B+; 82-87.9=B; 80-81.9=B-; 78-79.9=C+; 72-77.9=C; 70.71.9=C-; 68-69.9=D+; 62-67.9=D; 60-61.9=D-; <60=F.

3.   Reading Questions: In order to ensure that you are reading the required material, I will assign Reading Questions for all of your readings, and these will simply ask for short answers (e.g., one typed page) on some issue(s) in the assigned readings.  These are due at the beginning of class on the due date; no late papers will be accepted, simply because we'll be discussing those texts in class the day they're due.  If you enter class a bit late, turn it in immediately.  Your total scores on these will constitute 20% of your overall course grade.  This is a fairly easy way to get an A+ for this portion of the course.  There will be a total of twelve possible Reading Questions, which gives you plenty of chances to get a high score (as you'll see below).  Here is how the grading works on these questions.  You will be asked to write up a paragraph or two (in your own words) in answer to the question given about the reading.  The idea is that these questions should be easy to answer if you've actually read the entire selection (which will generally be pretty short).  There will be one of these due almost once a week, and they are available on the website.  I will grade each one according to the following evaluative schema:

Check-plus – reserved for those entirely correct answers that also reveal a genuine understanding of/insight into the material (worth 3 points);

Check – reserved for those answers that get the general idea of what's going on and don't include anything significantly mistaken (most of you will get this score most of the time) (worth 2 points);

Check-minus – reserved for those answers that (a) have at least one significant mistake, (b) are utter bullshit, or (c) are incomplete in an important way (i.e., they don't address one or more parts of the question asked) (worth one point);

Zero – reserved for those answers that (a) are completely, utterly wrong, (b) are plagiarized, i.e., they are not written in your own words, or (c) are simply not turned in on time or at all (worth no points). 

      At the end of the semester, I will add up all your points on the reading questions and then use the following translation schema to map them onto a 100 point scale (you can easily do this on your own by simply multiplying your total by five): 20 = 100; 19 = 95; 18 = 90; 17 = 85; 16 = 80; 15 = 75; 14 = 70; 13 = 65; 12 = 60; 11 = 55; 10 = 50; 9 = 45; 8 = 40; 7 = 35; 6 = 30; 5 = 25; 4 = 20; 3 = 15; 2 = 10; 1 = 5; and 0 = 0.  Obviously, if you get checks across the board on only ten of the reading questions, you'll get a 100 for this portion of the course (at which point you’re done – no extra points will be given on these), but on the other hand, if you don’t turn any in (or turn very few in) it will significantly lower your overall course grade.

4.   Debates: There are four scheduled student debates throughout the semester – you will be required to participate in one of them.  For each debate, there will be at least two members on both the Affirmative side and the Negative side of a topic I will provide.  Each side will present its own view, engage in cross-examination of the other side, present a rebuttal, present a summary, and then respond to questions from the students in the audience.  The precise format for the debates can be found on my website (click here) (they will be modeled along the lines of Lincoln-Douglas debates).  I will moderate the debates, and once they are over, the students in the classroom (along with me) will grade you according to a rubric I will provide.  I will then average all of the scores and this will constitute your grade on the debate, a grade that will count for 20% of your overall course grade.  You will be required to keep a work-log, documenting the dates/times you worked on the project leading up to the debate.  You are to turn that in on the day of the debate, and it must be signed by the other members of your team (this form is provided online -- click here).  All members of a team will receive the same grades on these, unless it turns out your contribution was either significantly more or significantly less than your teammates’.  If you do not participate in some way on a debate, you will receive an F for the course.  In addition, if you miss a class on the day a debate is scheduled, that will count as FOUR missed class periods (which is all you are allotted for the entire semester).  Do not miss class on these days. 

5.   Participation: Discussion is crucial to the doing of philosophy, and I am counting on you to provide it.  Talking with each other about these sometimes difficult and/or controversial topics is a sure-fire way to understand them better (and it also makes for a livelier class period).  So my hope is that you will contribute your two cents whenever you are struck by an idea, objection, question, or problem.  NO RELEVANT REMARK IS OUT OF BOUNDS IN THIS CLASS.  As an added incentive for your participation, I will take into account your regular contributions to the ongoing discussion in borderline grade cases.  For example, if your final overall average is a B+ (88 or 89, say), I will kick your grade up to an A- if you have participated regularly in discussion (up to 2 points tacked onto your overall course average).  However, if you do not participate, or if you look at me with a surly expression all quarter, I will not grade you down for that, as much as I might like to.

PROVISIONAL SYLLABUS
(any changes will be announced in class)