Course Title: Senior Seminar Grade: 10-12
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
For the most part, our primary and secondary education systems approach all academic disciplines in the same manner. The teacher/textbook presents a certain content that is called “Geometry” or “Spanish” or “U.S. History” and the students are expected to master/memorize it. It is not until we get to college (and sometimes even graduate school) that we learn that there is no absolute content for the disciplines that make up what we call the liberal arts (History, Literature, Philosophy, Sociology, Etc.). Both the works that are studied in these fields and the methods employed to analyze and interpret them are generated through a process known as argumentation. One of the main purposes of this course is to teach students the process of argumentation and to encourage them to master it themselves. To this end, we will undertake a thorough survey of western philosophy followed by a more cursory consideration of ethics, ethical systems, and contemporary social issues.
Text: Sophie’s World
Author: Jostein Gaarder
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux , NY
Copyright: 1994.
Text: Introducing Ethics
Author: Dave Robinson and Chris Garratt
Publisher: Icon Books UK/Totem Books USA
Copyright: 2005
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
1. To develop reading, analytical, and writing skills through a close examination and assessment of various philosophical and moral systems, assertions, and hypotheses.
2. To acquire a working knowledge of western civilization’s major philosophers and philosophical systems from the Pre-Socratics to Postmodernism.
3. To improve inquiry and discussions skills
4. To develop and/or improve self-assessment skills.
5. To work toward discovering or developing answers to such questions as the following:
- Who or what is God?
- What is the soul?
- What is the meaning of life?
- What does it mean to be an ethical person?
COURSE METHODS:
This is a lecture/discussion course that will be taught in the Socratic fashion. For the most part it will be taught as a colloquium, with each of us developing our own questions and bringing our own insights to bear on the same topics. Students will create content and discussion questions, as well as keep all lecture, powerpoint, and discussion notes, in the composition books.
MATERIALS:
Our primary text for the first part of the course will be Sophie’s World. However, I will liberally supplement it with readings from important philosophers, poets, and novelists. We will also use art and architecture as sources. Our primary text for the second part of the course will be Introducing Ethics, and it will also be liberally supplemented without outside readings.
ASSIGNMENTS:
There will be frequent composition books checks, all of which will be preceded by self-assessments. There will also be occasional quizzes, short papers, a Sophie’s World Test, and possibly one or two graded Paideia discussions.
TIME SCHEDULE:
Weeks 1-9: Survey of Western Philosophy
Weeks 10-12: Ethics and Contemporary Social Issues
STUDENT EVALUATION:
Daily Grades: Content and Discussion Questions, Reading Quizzes, Short Papers
Major Grades: Composition Book Assessments, Sophie’s World Test
All students are required to take the Trimester Exam.
