1. Required Texts

Robert Solomon, The Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy, 7th ed. (Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998).
Texts on the web: Choose “Course Readings” from Philosophy
Department Home Page, located at the following address: http://www.phil.tcu.edu/

2. Course Overview
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to philosophy by means of film as well as the work of various important philosophers. The course offers students a dynamic way of learning about the fundamental philosophical topics and philosophical problems through the critical evaluation of important philosophical texts and films. The particular questions students will explore include: What is human nature? What is the self? Are humans free or causally determined like robots? What can we know? What is the nature of morality? What is the value of civil liberty and civil disobedience? What is the nature of happiness and authenticity?

3. Course Requirements
3.1. Graded Material
1. Response Papers: 200 pts. (20 pts. each, best ten out of eleven)
2. Two Term Papers: 300 pts. (150 pts. each)
4. Short Essay Tests: 400 pts. (100 pts. each, best four out of five)
5. Quizzes: 100 pts. (10 pts each, best 10 out of 11)
Total points possible: 1000

3.2. Response Papers
You will be required to write eleven short critical response papers roughly two paragraphs each. Topics will be announced in class. The papers must be double-spaced, typed (if not, the total points possible for the paper is ten points). Late response papers will receive half the points they would have otherwise, unless accompanied by an official excuse. We will not accept any late response paper more than one week beyond the due date.

3.3. Quizzes
Short quizzes may be given at any time. Quizzes may cover assigned web readings, film content, assigned text readings, or topics discussed in the previous class. No make-ups allowed, but missed quizzes will not count against those students with official excuses.

3.4. Term Papers
You will be required to write two short term papers. Topics will be announced in class. The papers are to be original work, involving explanation and philosophical criticism of a particular philosophical view as it is expressed in film. The papers must be double-spaced, typed, and about three to four pages in length. You will not be required to use any outside sources; the papers should reflect your ability to summarize and discuss a particular position concisely and critically. (See Solomon, Appendix I: Writing Philosophy, for some tips on how to write philosophy papers.) Be sure to check grammar and spelling! Any paper not meeting these requirements will receive a grade no higher than the equivalent of a 'C'. Your papers are due on the assigned day. Late papers will not be accepted. In the case of an emergency, you will need to supply written documentation.

3.5. Tests
Five essay tests will be given as scheduled. Each one will contain five questions, from which you will choose four. Only the best four out of five test grades will be counted. Make-ups are only given for those with official excuses.

3.6. Students with Disabilities
Students with disabilities needing academic accommodations should contact and provide appropriate documentation to the Coordinator for Students with Disabilities (Center for Academic Services) as soon as possible. (See attached document for more information.)

3.7. Attendance Policy
You are required to come to class. Since you are tested only over material covered in class, and since some of what we shall be teaching you does not occur in the text, coming to class and taking good notes is a necessity!

3.8. Plagiarism and Cheating
I strictly uphold the TCU Academic Conduct Policy published in the TCU Undergraduate Studies Bulletin or on the web at http://www.reg.tcu.edu. Anyone caught cheating, plagiarizing, etc. will face receiving an ‘F’ for the course, or worse!

4. Schedule of Lectures and Readings
NOTE: Changes to this schedule may be necessary, and if so, will be announced ahead of time in class.
1/18: Syllabus and Course Overview
1/20: General Discussion: Philosophical Methodology
Reading: Solomon, pp. 3-23.
1/23: What is Knowledge?
Reading: Plato, Theaetetus. Solomon, pp. 108-113. Response Paper Due.
1/24: FILM 1: The Waking Life, Richard Linklater
1/25: Film Discussion: Knowledge and Reality.
1/27: What is Real?
Reading: Solomon, pp. 120-6. Response Paper Due.

1/30: How Far Knowledge?
Reading: Solomon, pp. 145-63
1/31: FILM II: The Matrix, Andy and Larry Wachowski
2/1: Film Discussion: Knowledge and Reality
2/3: Test I
2/6: Personal Identity
Reading: Solomon 184-93. Response Paper Due.
2/7: FILM III: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubric
2/8: Film Discussion: The Mind
Reading: Solomon, pp. 196-202
2/10: Functionalism
Reading: WEB: Searle on Minds and Machines. Response Paper Due.
2/13: Free Will.
Reading: Solomon, pp. 227-40.
2/14: FILM IV: Run Lola Run, Tom Tykwer
2/15: Film Discussion: Free Will and Causal Determinism
2/17: Summary: The Self.
2/20: Test II
2/21: FILM V: Crash, Paul Haggis
2/22: Film Discussion: Ethics and Race
2/24: Ethics: For Ethical Relativism
Reading: WEB: Benedict. Response Paper Due.
2/27: Ethics: Against Ethical Relativism
Reading: WEB: Stace
2/28: FILM VI: Crimes and Misdemeanors, Woody Allen
3/1: Film Discussion: Ethical Principle or Ethical Nihilism?
3/3: Ethics: Aristotelian Virtue Ethics: Virtue as Human Excellence
Reading: WEB: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics. Solomon, pp. 267-8.
Response Paper Due.
3/6: Ethics: Aristotelian Virtue Ethics: Virtue as Human Excellence
Reading: WEB: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics.
3/7: FILM VII: Dr. Strangelove, Stanley Kubric
3/8: Film Discussion: Sacrificing Interests for the Greater Good?
Reading: WEB: Bentham, Principles of M/L. Solomon, pp. 264-6.
3/10: Ethics: Consequentialism
Reading: WEB: Mill, Utilitarianism. TERM PAPER ONE DUE.
3/13-3/17: Spring Break
3/20: Ethics: Non-consequentialism
Reading: WEB: Reading: WEB: Kant, Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals.
Solomon, pp. 261-3/.
3/21: Test Review. No Film
3/22: Test III
3/24: American Philosophical Association Meeting: No Class
3/27: Civil Disobedience and Justice
Reading: Plato, Crito; Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from the Birmingham City Jail.
Response Paper Due.
3/28: FILM IX: Berkeley in the Sixties, Mark Kitchell
3/29: Film Discussion: Civil Disobedience
3/31: The Individual and the State
Reading: WEB: Mill, On Liberty. Response Paper Due.
4/3: The Individual and the State
Reading: WEB: Devlin
4/4: FILM X: The People vs Larry Flynt, Milos Foreman
4/5: Film Discussion: A Matter of Harm?
4/7: Test IV
4/10: Meaning of Life: Authenticity
Reading: WEB: Sartre, “Existentialism is a Humanism” Response Paper Due.
4/11: FILM XI: The Thin Red Line, Terrence Malick
4/12: Film discussion: Choice and Authenticity
4/14: No Class.
4/17: Meaning of Life: Meaning of Life: And Now For Something Completely Different …
Reading: WEB: Nietzsche, The Gay Science, Beyond Good and Evil.
Response Paper Due.
4/18: FILM XII: The Addiction, Abel Ferrara
4/19: Film Discussion: Existentialism and Addiction
4/21: Meaning of Life: Being in the World
Reading: WEB: Heidegger, Being and Time
4/24: Meaning of Life: Life is Absurd
Reading: Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus. Response Paper Due.
4/25: FILM XIII: Trainspotting, Danny Boyle
4/26: Film Discussion: The Absurdity of Repetition.
4/28: Meaning of Life: Happiness
Reading: WEB: “On the Meaning of Life” and “On Happiness and the Meaning of Life”
5/1: Summary and Evaluation
5/2: Test Review: No Film
5/3: Test V
5/10: Final paper due in the Philosophy Department office (215 Reed) no later than 3:00PM, Wednesday. (Graduating seniors must turn in papers by 10AM.)