Teaching Assistants:
Evan Lam (eclam@ucsc.edu)
Ben Roome (broome@ucsc.edu)
Rob Trumbull (rtrumbul@ucsc.edu)
Philosophy is unlike many other disciplines in that it is not at all obvious how it should be introduced. This course will essentially be a course about Socrates (c. 469–-399 BC), the ancient Athenian philosopher who is in a certain way the intellectual ancestor of all later philosophers. One of the things we will need to think about as we go on is how, and to what extent, that could be considered an introduction to the subject.
Participation in discussion sections (good participation will be possible grounds for raising course grade, especially if it is on a borderline).
Beginning with the day of the third class session, there will be two short assignments every week, to be done on-line via the “Tests & Quizzes” section of the course on ecommons. Each assignment will contain a single multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank question designed to help you focus on details of the reading, and one or two short answer questions. In the later part of the course, some of the assignments will be designed to prepare you to write the final paper (e.g. to choose and revise a thesis and introductory paragraph). All of these short assignments together will be worth 60% of the course grade, based on a point score which will be translated into a letter grade on a curve to be determined.
A final
paper
(5-7 pages) is due (via e-mail to you TA and cc to me) on Wed.,
Mar. 21, and will count for 40% of the grade. Please send in MSWord
or a format easily convertible to MSWord. The final paper assignment
will be available on-line (with links from this syllabus and from
my main course page) as soon as I know what
it is.
All assignments are due by midnight on the due date.
Plato, Euthydemus, tr. Mary P. Nichols and Gregory A. McBray (Focus/R. Pullins, 2010) (ISBN 1585103055).
Plato, Meno, tr. George Anastaplo and Laurence Berns (Focus/R. Pullins, 1998) (ISBN 0941051714).
Thomas G. West and Grace Starry West, eds., Four Texts on Socrates: Plato's Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito and Aristophanes' Clouds (Cornell, 1998) (ISBN 0801485746).
The above texts should be available at the Literary Guillotine, and they will also be put on reserve at McHenry. Readings not from texts on the above list are available on ecommons.