Assignments and Assessment
Attendance, Participation, and Professionalism (15%)
In this class you are held to a standard of professional conduct relative to your position as students. You will come to class having done the relevant preparatory work (usually reading the assigned texts), which will allow you to be an engaged and active member of the learning experience. This might involve participating directly in discussion, either whole-class or small group Where this is something you are not comfortable with, being active might involve demonstrating that you are an engaged listener. It is also expected that you will turn in work on the day that it is due; complete short in-class assignments; and communicate with me about any problems you might be having with the course so that we can work together towards a satisfactory solution that will help you get back on track (I try to be quite responsive over email, so please do not hesitate to reach out). Meeting these standards of professionalism will help the class run smoothly and will promise that we will get a lot out of our time together.
Engaged Viewing (15%)
A central element of our course is engaging with the TV series Severance. As such, you are expected to be a philosophically and critically engaged viewer of each episode. What’s each episode about? How is the narrative developing? What are the important motives and values for each character? To be so engaged, you must stay off of your phone during the viewing experience; take notes; and generally be actively invested in what you are watching.
Five Reading Quizzes (15%)
These will be 12-15 question quizzes – consisting of multiple choice and true/false questions assessing for reading completion and comprehension. I will post the quizzes on Wednesdays at 5pm, and you will have until the following Monday to complete them.
Episode Reflections (20%)
For each episode of Severance we watch I will ask you to complete an Episode Reflection. These will consist of a set of standard questions we will ask about the philosophical content of each episode, as well as more open-ended reflection questions where you will get a chance to practice analyzing episodes in preparation for the Focused Episode Analysis Paper.
Personal Identity Exam (15%)
This will be an in-class exam consisting of multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions pertaining exclusively to Module 2 on Persons and Personal Identity.
Final (not an exam) (20%)
There are two options for the final:
· You can write a mini (~2-page) argumentative essay about one of the readings from the semester consisting of a brief introduction with thesis statement; brief explanation of the reading you will discuss; and then your critical argument about some aspect of the reading
You can conduct a philosophical interview with a friend, family member, roommate, co-worker, and so on in which you (a) ask them a set of philosophical questions and record their answers (in your own words) and then (b) write a ~300-word reflection on the experience