KCHU 228 INTRO TO PHILOSOPHY FINAL PROJECT Your final project is due on April 7 th and will count for 15% of your final grade. You will decide what your goals are for this project. You will design how the project will be carried out. You will also play a role in determining how your project is to be graded. Follow your interests. Use your talents. Above all, use this as an opportunity to stretch yourself and seek a deeper understanding of an unfamiliar topic. The Instructors Requirements for the Project 1. Your project must focus on some philosophical topic of interest to you and one that you can explore from different perspectives. (If you feel passionately about some particular position or viewpoint you must show that you have examined opposing viewpoints and/or considered critiques of your own) 2. Your educational goals (see below) should be realistic and significant (they should not be simple questions that can be addressed in one evening by cracking open your textbook) 3. Your Sub-Projects must take enough time and effort to produce that they warrant 15% percent of your overall class grade for the semester. Drafting and Submitting a Project Proposal (Due: 3/3/09) Once you have decided your goals for the project and how you might personalize your project to suit your own interests and talents (See below for details) you need to submit a project proposal to be approved by your instructor. Your Proposal MUST include 1. A list of your four personal education goals that you think can satisfy the instructor s project requirements 2. Your list of sub-projects that will demonstrate to your instructor that you have put effort towards fulfilling those goals. Be sure to describe the nature of your project in as much detail as you are able. 3. Include times that you would be available for a 10 minute interview with your instructor sometime either on Feb 27, March 3, 4, 5 th. Your instructor will contact you soon afterward to arrange a meeting time. During this interview you and your instructor will agree upon how you will be graded, how your progress will be assessed and you will both sign a contract specifying terms for your grade. Setting Your Own Goals and Personalizing the Project
STEP 1: Set Educational Goals You must choose at least 3 educational goals for your project. These goals should express what you want to learn, understand or take away from the project when you are done. They should be stated loose enough to allow you some freedom and creativity in how you choose to fulfill them. But they should be specific enough that they are realistic and attainable. Example of appropriate educational goals: I, Socrates Johnson, have chosen these 3 educational goals for my project 1. I want to learn more about critical thinking and logic. I m interested especially in the idea of a logical fallacy. 2. I d like to be able to tell when people in the media, teachers, etc are committing logical fallacies. 3. I d like to know how often ordinary people like myself and my friends are persuaded by arguments, or hold beliefs based on logical fallacies Step 2: Devise Sub-projects that will meet those goals You will use these goals to create a series of sub-projects to be completed over the course of the semester. Sub-projects are simply defined as something tangible that you can submit for a grade. You do not need to have a different sub-project for each goal. Sub-projects might be more traditional assessments like an essay or a journal, or they can be something more out of the ordinary like a recorded interview, artwork, scrapbook with commentary. As Long as you can meet the requirements set by your instructor you have as much freedom as you need in choosing what goals you want to set and how you choose to fulfill them. Tailor your project to fit your interests. Examples of acceptable subprojects The size and scope of your project should also be designed to fit your needs. Here are some examples of different ways in which your project might be designed, based off of a specific set of educational goals that Socrates Johnson made for his project Mr. Johnson could choose to do Several Small Sub-Projects
Example: Sub-Project1: Read a few articles or a short book on identifying logical fallacies, and write a short 2 page review of the book (or articles) to prove I read it. Sub-Project 2. I will make a scrapbook of Grand Rapids Press Public Pulse letters to the editor. I ll try to find as many logical fallacies as possible. Identify what the fallacy is and add my own opinions. Ill do this with a few of the big editorials as well. Sub-Project 3. I ll write a 3 page paper reflecting on what I've learned from this exchange and how it relates to my own religious or philosophical perspectives. Or Mr. Johnson could do a larger project and whatever extra activities are needed to reach the instructors requirements. Example: Sub-Project 1: I Joined (or started for that matter) a philosophical/political book-club and attended their meetings for most the semester. I've kept a journal logging my reading and some discussions I've had with other people in the club. I have a list of logical fallacies and every time I hear one I write it down to include in my journal. Sub-Project 2: I've written a paper summarizing what I did and how I learned from it to include with my Journal Or Mr. Johnson could try a single, ambitious project that incorporates all personal educational goals and the instructor s project requirements. Example: Project: A friend and I are making a half an hour mini-documentary that explores how common fallacious reasoning is in everyday life. It s supposed to be funny but also informative, so we try to teach people what common fallacies like Ad homonym, straw-man, and the slippery slope fallacy by explaining them and finding everyday examples. We re going to do street interviews and ask people questions about current events topics to see how many examples of bad reasoning we can find. We already had a hilarious phone interview with a telemarketer. We also got kicked out of the mall for having a camera. I really wanted to do something that concerned advertising but I knew that filming on private property without permission was a dumb idea. Instead we re thinking of doing a short segment on the Kendall College Promotional materials! Or he could do something else that fulfills instructor s project requirements
Be creative. If you have an idea discuss it with me and if it fits the requirements Ill either approve it or offer suggestions on how to modify your idea in order to satisfy the requirements. Contracting For Your Grade For your final Project you are given the privilege and responsibility not just to design your own project but also to choose how you will be graded. After submitting a project proposal you and your instructor will discuss and come to agreement on a suitable grading rubric for your project. Once both parties have reached an agreement a contract will be signed specifying what is expected of the student and what grade they are entitled to upon fulfillment of those expectations. Modifying your contract You may discover that for some reason your project goals were unrealistic, not applicable or that some other set of goals is preferred, you can request a meeting with your instructor by email to review and revise your project goals and modify your contract. If you think you might need to modify your contract you should contact your instructor as soon as possible. The last possible date to request a meeting is April 1 st.. Guidelines for acceptable Group Projects Generally people will be expected to have their own individual projects, but in some cases (especially more ambitious projects) having a small group working on a project together may be permissible. If you and a couple of your classmates are considering such a project you must contact your instructor by email with a short explanation of who will be participating and what you have in mind (this does not have to be a full project proposal). Once getting approval you may have an extra week to collaborate together and submit a project proposal due no later than March 10th. Some guidelines must be observed for group projects: 1. Groups cannot be larger than three people. 2. Your project proposal must specify how you will ensure that every one contributes equally. 3. You must agree to a collective grade. Individual members will not receive their own personalized grades.
BUT I CAN T THINK OF WHAT TO STUDY? CLASSIC PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES/TOPICS: Do we have free will? (or examine specific positions on the matter such as, determinism, compatibilism,) Is there a God? (or examine the Ontological argument, Design Argument, Cosmological Argument, etc) What is the nature of the Self? (or specific views such as Descartes Ego or Hume s bundle theory, Buddhist perspectives, etc.) The mind body problem (or specific positions such as dualism, functionalism, behaviorism, etc.) EPISTEMOLOGICAL THEORIES AND TOPICS (Rationalism, empiricism, Science, Science vs. Pseudoscience, skepticism, postmodernism, etc.) ETHICAL THEORIES Divine Command Theory (i.e. morals come from God) Egoism (i.e. do what s right for you) Utilitarianism (i.e. weigh the pros and cons) Virtue Ethics (i.e. focus on developing character) Natural Law/Natural Rights Ethics (i.e. morals come from the natural order of things)
ETHICAL DEBATES Abortion, Euthanasia, Affirmative Action, Treatment of Animals, Cloning, Stem- Cell Research, Foreign Aid, Issues surrounding multiculturalism, globalism, etc. FAMOUS PHILOSOPHERS Ancient Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Diogenes, Middle Ages Augustine, Aquinas, Ockham, Spinoza Enlightenment-1900 Francis Bacon, Hobbes, Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, Mill, Emerson, Thoreau, William James, Nietzsche, Marx, Hegel 1900 s Dewy, Popper, Russell, Khun, Sartre, Camus, Foucault Contemporary Migdilley, Dennett, Searle, Grayling, Singer, Rawls, Chomsky (linguistics), Scruton, Feminist Irigaray, Le Doeuff, de Beauvoir