Course Description
Philosophy 330
Metaphysics I
Winter 2009
Metaphysics is sometimes defined as the branch of philosophy that is concerned with fundamental questions about the nature of reality. In this course we will consider five main topics: (1) personal identity, (2) the nature of time, (3) the doctrine of temporal parts, (4) the problem of freedom and determinism, and (5) the mereology of physical objects. The aim of the course will be to educate students about some of the most interesting theses and arguments concerning these topics, so that the students may arrive at their own considered opinions regarding the relevant issues.
Text
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Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics, edited by Theodore Sider, John Hawthorne, and Dean Zimmerman (Blackwell Publishers, 2007). Available at the Western Associated Students Bookstore, The College Store, and Amazon. |
Course Requirements
- Pop quizzes (collectively worth 30% of final grade)
- Midterm exam (worth 30% of final grade)
- Final exam (worth 40% of final grade)
Pop Quizzes
There will be approximately seven pop quizzes during the quarter. They will be designed to determine whether you have done the reading carefully. Doing the reading carefully involves (a) reading the relevant essay several times, taking notes, while figuring out what the main theses and arguments are, as well as (b) figuring out what are the best objections to those theses and arguments. (Here are some good pointers on reading philosophy.)
You get 50 points for merely writing your name on a quiz, but any student who misses a quiz will get a zero for that quiz. Your two lowest quiz grades will be dropped, and your overall pop quiz grade will be the average of the remaining quiz grades.
Exams
Each exam in this class will consist of an essay question that is designed to test your knowledge of material from both the readings and class discussions. The essay question for each exam will be selected by me from a set of questions made available about a week before that exam.
Missed Quizzes, Rescheduled Exams, and Missed Exams
A student who misses a pop quiz will get a zero on that quiz (unless he or she turns in a Quiz Paper -- see below). But each student’s two lowest quiz grades will be dropped.
If you know in advance that you will miss class on a given day, you may choose to write a Quiz Paper (QP) for that day. A QP is a two-page (typed) paper in which you summarize the main thesis or argument from the reading and discuss an objection to that thesis or argument. Your QP must be turned in before class on the relevant day (hard copies only; no emailed papers will be accepted), and it will be counted if and only if it turns out that there is a pop quiz on that day.
In rare cases a student might be permitted to reschedule an exam, provided that he or she has a legitimate reason to do so and makes arrangements with me prior to the originally scheduled time for the exam. A student who misses an exam without making arrangements in advance to reschedule the exam will receive a zero on that exam.