Though teaching philosophy online undeniably presents pedagogical challenges, it also provides unique opportunities to craft assignments that cultivate philosophical skills. Two summers ago, I redesigned an online introductory philosophy course for my own use and for the general use of my department at the University of Oklahoma. In an attempt to diversify the topics presented, we opted to organize the class around modules, self-contained units focused on specific sub-areas of philosophy, among which instructors can choose depending on their expertise and interests. Most students taking this course at Oklahoma are STEM majors fulfilling general education requirements or students working full-time who have returned to school later in life. In either case, for many students this is the first class that requires them to write a paper. One of my primary goals when designing this course was, accordingly, to ensure that students would gain the skills required for philosophical writing, in addition to receiving a general orientation to our field.
In each of the course’s four modules, or ‘units,’ students are assigned a short, 2-page paper in which they address a question related to the unit. At the end of the semester, they choose one of these papers to workshop with the instructor and their peers via a discussion board, with the goal of expanding it to 5-page final paper. The writing workshop includes a lesson on writing introductions and conclusions and outlining philosophical arguments, as well as an activity about incorporating feedback. In addition to the major assignments, which teach the basics of philosophical writing, I built in several ancillary activities that mimic activities we might have done in-person had the class met offline. These include a citation exercise, which makes academic standards accessible to students new to the undergraduate environment, and argument analysis exercises.
In one of the latter exercises, students read a philosophical paper and, for each section of the argument, are asked, first, to compose a summary in their own words of what has been argued and, second, to identify the function or purpose of this section within the paper as a whole (these might include “setting up a problem,” “provides evidence for the author’s point,” “summarizes an opposing view,” etc.). Students are then asked to come up with a question they might have for the author after reading each section. This exercise fulfills two purposes: it teaches students how to read philosophical essays, and it provides a blueprint for students of how to arrange a philosophical argument.
If you are considering teaching a version of this course, I would recommend taking steps to ensure that you have adequate time to give the feedback necessary to help students improve from paper to paper and that your students have the time they need to put that feedback to work in their writing. Although the unit papers are short, they are frequent: a new one is due every few weeks. To mitigate the load in the fall and spring semesters, I only require my students to turn in two of the four papers — although they are encouraged to write as many of the unit papers as they would like. This course has also been taught as a summer course, fit into four intensive weeks, but to do so, substantial changes had to be made to the syllabus, including turning the unit papers into essay exams and using one essay answer to form a paper for the final.
Here is the syllabus.
Introduction to Philosophy Online Syllabus
Course Description:
This course will introduce students to a variety of fundamental philosophical questions through the close reading of primary sources, both historical and contemporary. The course is designed to help you learn and develop the skills needed to address, engage, and perhaps ultimately attempt to answer such questions. These skills include (a) careful reading of philosophical works, (b) critical evaluation of arguments, (c) the clear and effective written presentation of a philosophical view, and (d) the rigorous but charitable interpretation of presented arguments. To facilitate this, we will engage the assigned readings through close reading, lecture, discussion, and debate.
Course Delivery Method:
This course is delivered completely online. Assignments and activities will be listed on and facilitated via the Canvas course management system, available online at canvas.ou.edu.
Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Describe and distinguish key philosophical concepts in the main subfields of philosophy.
- Read and comprehend philosophical texts, both historical and contemporary.
- Explain and defend a position on some philosophical question.
- Be able to write clear and concise explanations and arguments that are pertinent to philosophical problems.
REQUIRED MATERIALS
- Robert C. Solomon & Kathleen M. Higgins,The Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy, Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace. You may use either the 8th, 9th, or 10th edition. Just be sure to complete the correct assignments for your edition.
In addition to the paper version, this book is available in electronic editions. You can purchase the electronic editions by chapter (and some of the sections you need are available for free). Thus, you may be able to save a significant amount of money by obtaining the required chapters online. You may also spread the expense across the term by paying for each chapter as you need it. To obtain the electronic version go to the publisher’s website. In either case, you will see some options to the right of the screen, including to purchase the paper copy, rent the paper copy, rent the ebook, or purchase individual chapters.
- Texts by various authors, linked to the library website.
GRADING POLICY
Breakdown:
The course will be graded using a weighted system as follows. Each assignment within each category will be of equal weight with the other items in that category:
Assignment Categories Percentage
Homework 30%
Discussions 20%
Unit Papers 30% (15% each)
Paper Workshop 5%
Final Paper 15%
Total 100%
Grading Scale:
A = 90% – 100%
B = 80% – 89%
C = 70% – 79%
D = 60% – 69%
F = Below 60%
Criteria for Evaluation:
Substantive content and the quality of the student’s writing will be considered in all written assignments, including discussion board postings. Substantive content includes closely following instructions for the content of the assignment. The quality of writing covers clarity of expression and organization, appropriate use of references and academic writing style, use of inclusive language, and correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
ASSIGNMENTS OVERVIEW
Course Assignments:
Weekly Homework Assignments: Each week you will complete several short assignments related to that week’s readings. These assignments will include summarizing the readings, creating your own philosophical examples, and outlining arguments. Each assignment will be worth 10 points, and the total will be out of 270 points. Weekly homework assignments are worth 30% of your final grade.
Discussions: Each week you will discuss the question of the week with your classmates. There will be 14 discussions in total. Each week you will be required to write one original post due by Friday and respond to two of your peer’s post by Sunday evening. In the first week, we will discuss what counts as a successful discussion. Your original post is worth 10 points and each response to a peer 5 points for a total of 280 points. Discussions are worth 20% of your final grade.
Unit Papers: In philosophy, a good way to credential yourself before critiquing a position is first to articulate clearly and accurately what the position is and what it is responding to (i.e., the question to which the position is an answer). For each unit paper, you will write a paper in which you pick one of the questions from the unit and answer it using the concepts that we discussed.
Throughout the course, we will practice writing philosophically, including completing exercises to prepare you for your first unit paper assignment. For every day that a paper is late, the grade will be lowered by half a grade level. So, if your paper was 95% but was submitted a day late, it will be lowered to 90%. I will not accept unit papers more than a week late.
As you saw in the grade breakdown, you are only required to write 2 unit papers. However, to accommodate growth in your writing, I will allow you to write up to 4 papers and then I will only take the highest 2 grades into account when calculating your final grade (i.e., if you write 3 papers, I will drop the lowest grade, and if you write 4 papers, I will drop the lowest 2 grades). This means that if you write the first two unit papers and are satisfied with your grades, then you do not need to write the next two. However, I highly, highly recommend that you plan on writing at least three of the unit papers, as this will be the best way to improve your writing in preparation for the final paper. Furthermore, I strongly encourage you to write your papers earlier in the semester to allow more time to work on your final paper. Each paper will be due on Friday a week after the Unit is finished. Each Unit paper is worth 15% of your grade.
Formatting Details: 2 pages (about 600 words), double-spaced, 12-point font. Please use a professional font, such as Times, Arial, or Cambria. 1-inch margins. You must cite any sources you use, including the textbook. You may use APA or Chicago style, so long as you are consistent throughout. You need to decide whether you want to use in-text citations. You also must include a bibliography. Citations are not complete without page numbers for books.
Final Paper: For your final paper, you will rework one of your shorter unit papers using my feedback, developing it into a complete 5-page term paper. You will need to decide which unit paper you want to rework into your longer paper about a month before the paper is due. Submitting your choice on Canvas is worth 5% of the paper’s grade. (Please notice on the schedule that the fourth unit paper is not due until after the required date to decide on a topic for your final paper.)
For this paper, we will complete a week-long workshop designed to support you in transforming your paper from the shorter unit paper to the final paper. To participate in this week, you will need the unit paper you have chosen as well as my feedback on it. This workshop is worth 5% of your final grade. (So the final paper is 15% + 5% = 20% total.)
As with unit papers, for every day that the final paper is late, the grade will be lowered by half a grade level. So, if your paper was 95% but was submitted a day late, it will be lowered to 90%.
Details: 5 pages (about 1,500 words), double-spaced, 12-point font. Please use a professional font, such a Times, Arial, or Cambria. 1-inch margins. You must cite any sources you use, including the textbook. You may use APA or Chicago style, so long as you are consistent throughout. You need to decide whether you want to use in-text citations. You also must include a bibliography. Citations are not complete without page numbers for books.
Tentative Course Schedule
Week 1 Welcome and Introduction to Philosophy
Readings: Solomon & Higgins. “How to read a philosophy paper” & “Doing Philosophy” & Chapter 1: “What is philosophy”
Mini Lecture: What are philosophical questions?
Assignments: Introduction Discussion, What are Philosophical Questions?, Practice Discussion
Unit 1 Metaphysics
Week 2 Do I Have Freedom?
Readings: Solomon & Higgins Chapter 7: “Freedom” & Sartre, “Being and Nothingness,” excerpts (Part IV. Chapter 1, Part 1)
Mini Lecture: Intro. to Free will & Determinism
Assignment: Topic 1.1 Discussion, Closing Questions (from textbook), Thought Experiments
Week 3 Do I Have Freedom? (Part 2)
Readings: Derk Pereboom (2014) “Free Will Skepticism and Criminal Behavior,” excerpt from Free Will, Agency, and Meaning in Life, & Solomon & Higgins, Appendix A: “Writing Philosophy”
Optional Video: The examined Life series “Do we have free will?”
Mini Lecture: Free Will, Science, & Religion
Assignments: Topic 1.2 Discussion, Getting Started on Unit 1 Paper
Week 4 Who am I, Really?
Readings: Solomon & Higgins, Chapter 6: “Self” & David Ho (1999),“Selfhood & Identity in Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism: Contrasts with the West,” Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior25 (2): 115-139.
Optional Video: The Examined Life Series “What makes me?”
Mini Lecture: Self and Identity
Assignments: Topic 1.3 Discussion, Sci-Fi Movie Plot, Citation Exercise, Unit 1 paper due
Unit 2 Epistemology
Week 5 What is Knowledge and Why is it Valuable?
Readings: Solomon & Higgins, Chapter 5: “The Search for Truth” & Linda Zagzebski (2003), “The Search for the Source of Epistemic Good,” Metaphilosophy34 (1-2): 12-28.
Mini Lecture: Knowledge and the Meno Problem
Assignments: Topic 2.1 Discussion, Closing Questions (from textbook), Paragraph Analysis of Zagzebski’s article.
Week 6 How Can I Know Anything?
Readings: Hilary Putnam (1981), “Brains in a Vat,” excerpt from Reason, Truth, and History(Cambridge University Press), & Rene Descartes,“Meditation on First Philosophy.” Excerpts from The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, vol. II, eds. John Cottingham, Robert Stoothoof, & Dugald Murdock (Cambridge University Press).
Mini Lecture: Skepticism
Assignments: Topic 2.2 Discussion, Teach a Friend: Brain in the Vat, Is there an external World?
Week 7 How Do I Come to Have Knowledge?
Readings: Jennifer Lackey (2008), “The Nature of Testimony,” in Learning from Words: Testimony as a Source of Knowledge(Oxford University Press) & Miranda Fricker (2007), “Testimonial Injustice,” in Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing (Oxford University Press).
Mini Lecture: Testimony & Epistemic Injustice
Assignments: Topic 2.3 Discussion, Nature of Testimony, Court of Law Thought Experiment, Unit Paper 2 due
Unit 3 Aesthetics
Week 8 What is Art?
Readings: Solomon & Higgins, Chapter 11: “Beauty,” & Cynthia Freeland(2002), “Introduction,” But is it art?: Intro. to Art Theory (Oxford University Press).
Lecture: What is Art?
Assignments: Topic 3.1 Discussion, Closing Questions (textbook questions), Defining Art
Week 9 Can I Have Real Emotions about Fictional Beings?
Readings: Colin Radford & Michael Weston (1975), “How can we be moved by the fate of Anna Karenina?” Aristotelian Society Supplementary,49 (1): 67-93, & Kendal Walton (1978), “Fearing Fiction,” Journal of Philosophy 75 (1): 5-27, & David Novitz (1980), “Fiction, Imagination, and Emotion,” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism38 (3): 279-288.
Mini Lecture: The Paradox of Fiction
Assignments: Topic 3.2 Discussion, Work of Fiction Activity, Respond to Walton’s Argument
Week 10 What is the Truth about Fiction?
Readings: Dimitria Electra Gatzia & Eric Sotnak (2014), “Fictional Truths and Make-Believe” Philosophia 42 (2): 349-361, & Tamar Szabó Gendler (2011) “Is Dumbledore gay? Who’s to say?: Truth in Fiction and Authorial Authority,” The Philosophers’ Magazine (52): 94-97.
Mini Lecture: Truth in Fiction
Assignments: Topic 3.3 Discussion, Teach a Friend: Fiction, Interviewing an Artist, Unit paper 3 due
Unit 4 Philosophy of Religion
Week 11 Is there a God?
Reading: Solomon & Higgins, Chapter 3: “The Search for Truth.”
Video: Examined Life Series, “Does God exist?”
Mini Lecture: Conceptions of God(s)
Assignments: Topic 4.1 Discussion, Closing Questions (from textbook), Arguments for God’s existence
Week 12 If There is a God, Why Do So Many Bad Things Happen in the World?
Readings: Paul Draper (1989), “Pain & Pleasure: An evidential problem for Theists,” Noûs 23 (3): 331-350, & Eleonore Stump(2010), “Suffering, Theodicy, and Defense,” in Wandering in Darkness: Narrative and the Problem of Suffering (Oxford University Press).
Mini Lecture: The Logical and Evidential Problem of Evil
Assignments: Topic 4.2 Discussion, The Problem of Evil, Interview the Author
Week 13 If There is a God, Why Do So Many Bad Things Happen in the World?
Readings: Marilyn McCord Adams and Stewart Sutherland (1989), “Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God,”Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes 63: 297-323,& Michael Bergmann (2012), “Commonsense Skeptical Theism,” in Reason, Metaphysics, and Mind: New Essays on the Philosophy of Alvin Plantinga, Kelly James Clark and Michael Rea (eds.) (Oxford University Press).
Mini Lecture: Responses to the Problem of Evil
Assignments: Topic 4.3 Discussion, Paragraph Analysis of Adams’s paper, Convincing Arguments, Unit paper 4 due
Week 14 What is the Value of Philosophy?
Reading: Matthew Beard (2014), “Love, Wisdom, and Wonder: three reasons to celebrate philosophy,” from the blog The Conversation.
Mini Lecture: What is the value of Philosophy?
Assignments: Topic 5.1 Discussion, Applying skills of Philosophy
Week 15 Writing Workshop
Readings: Various resources and handouts about thesis statements and introductions.
Mini Lecture: Writing a Philosophical Paper
Assignments: Writing an Introduction & Conclusion, Expanding your Papers, Incorporating Feedback
Week 16 Final paper due
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Jewelle Bickel
Jewelle Bickel is a Ph.D. candidate in philosophy at the University of Oklahoma. She expects to defend her dissertation, “Intellectual Virtue and Reasonable Disagreement,” in July 2019. Jewelle has served as a teaching assistant and instructor in philosophy at the University of Oklahoma and as a Lecturer in Theology at Yale Divinity School.
