Syllabus

PHIL 3600 -- Philosophy of Religion
Section 001
Fall 2014
MWF 2:00-2:50
HUMN 125

Professor
Chris Heathwood
heathwood@colorado.edu
Office: HLMS 192
Hours: Wednesdays 3:00-5:00, and by appointment

Teaching Assistant
Alex Wolf-Root
Alexander.Wolfroot@colorado.edu

Office: HLMS 15
Hours: Wednesdays 12:00-1:00, Thursdays 3:30-4:30, and by appointment

Course Description
In analytic philosophy of religion, we attempt to answer fundamental questions concerning important doctrines of major world religions, especially the Abrahamic religions, and especially the doctrines concerning God, as God is typically understood in those traditions.  We attempt to answer questions about

If we tried to cover all of these topics, our study of each would be superficial.  So instead, to allow us to investigate the ones we do cover more deeply, we will be covering only a few of them.

After laying out some definitions of God, our first main topic will be divine omnipotence.  We'll gain an appreciation for why the notion of omnipotence is problematic, and we will explore and assess the solution offered centuries ago by St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274).

Our next topic will be the dilemma of freedom and foreknowledge.  We will investigate whether God's omniscience implies that no one has free will.  If it does imply this, this seems to render some mainstream religions internally inconsistent.  Our focus will be on the kind of solution offered centuries ago by William of Ockham (1287–1347) as it is developed in a challenging paper by the leading contemporary philosopher of religion, Alvin Plantinga.

If not too many students in the class have already studied this, we will next look at the relationship between God and morality, and in particular at the Euthyphro argument, due to Plato (~428–347 BC), for the view that it is not plausible to base morality in God's commands.

Then we will move on to arguments for God's existence.  We'll study three.  We'll being with Pascal's wager, due to the French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623–1662), which attempts to show that it is prudent to believe in God.  Then we'll study the most famous version of the ontological argument, due to St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109).  Ontological arguments attempt to prove that God exists simply from the definition of God.  We'll conclude our examination of arguments for God's existence with a fascinating modern version of the argument from design call the fine-tuning argument.  According to this argument, certain astonishing facts about the law of physics provide strong evidence that those laws were chosen by an intelligent designer.

Our final topic for the course will be a kind of master argument for atheism, and the many issues this argument raises, such as the different kinds of possible evidence for God's existence, the notion of self-evidence, the problem of divine hiddenness, and the notion of faith.

This is a course in the philosophy of religion.  It is not a course in comparative religion, the history of religion, or the sociology of religion.  Though these are important questions, we will not be asking what the religious beliefs of some group are, or how they differ from the beliefs of some other group, or what cultural circumstances might have led them to adopt their religious views.  We will instead be trying to figure out the answers to questions like the questions described above.

This is a challenging course, especially for non-majors.  Much of the reading is difficult and must be read slowly and more than once.  Many of the ideas and arguments presented in lecture and in the readings are unfamiliar, difficult, and technical.  You will be expected to know the material thoroughly, to think about it deeply, and to write clearly and precisely about it.  You are supposed to have taken at least two courses in philosophy at the university level to be eligible to take this course.  If you haven't, but you still think this course is appropriate for you, please talk to me about that.

One interesting feature of philosophy -- and indeed one that attracts many of us to it -- is a willingness to question everything.  In the context of the philosophy of religion, this means a willingness to entertain the possibility that some of our most cherished beliefs are wrong.  We thus need to be ok with openly discussing the possibility that God does or does not exist.  This can make some people uneasy, but I hope that my mentioning it now will help to mitigate that.  On the flip side, we get to discuss deeply in this class some of the most important questions that we as humans face, questions concerning the nature and existence of God.

Course Website
The course website, which you should check regularly, can be found here:

     http://spot.colorado.edu/~heathwoo/phil3600/.

There you will find:

Readings
No book is required!  We will supply the readings via the course website.  Some of these will require a password, which I will give you in class.

Class Mates
So that you will have someone from whom to get the notes and any other pertinent information should you miss class, introduce yourself to two of your classmates, and get their email addresses and phone numbers.

Course Requirements
1. Technology.  You must have an email account and regular access to the internet, and you must check your colorado.edu email address and the course website frequently.

Text messaging during class is strictly prohibited.  First-time offenders will be asked to leave their phones on my desk for the remainder of class; repeat offenders will be excused from class.  When you get to class, turn your cell phone OFF.

I prefer that you don't use a computer in class; students who use laptops in class do less well in college, as do those who sit near them. (See also.)  But if you must, you may use it only for taking notes.  No web-surfing, emailing, IM-ing, facebooking, etc.  If you use a laptop, disable the wifi.

2. Reading Quizzes (20%).  There will be quite a few "pop" quizzes throughout the semester.  These quizzes are designed to test that you are doing and understanding the readings.  For each reading, there will be a set of reading questions posted on the website.  Most or all of the questions on the pop quizzes will be taken directly from these reading questions.  Furthermore, the quizzes are open-note.  Thus, as you are doing each reading and taking notes on it, you should write down your answers to the readings questions in your notes.  Then bring these notes with you to class, since most or all of the answers to the pop quiz questions will be right in your notes!  You are permitted to use only notes that you yourself created from doing the reading; you cannot copy your classmate's notes.  Though the pop quizzes are open-note, they are not open-book or "open-reading."

Let me put all of this another way.  There will be quite a few pop quizzes throughout the term.  But you will be getting all (or most all) of the questions in advance.  And you will be permitted to answer them in advance, and to bring those answers in with you to look at when you take the quiz.  Thus, there is really no reason why you shouldn't ace every pop quiz.

3. Two Papers (40%).  Two papers are required.  The first will be due about 1/3 of the way through the term, and the second will be due about 3/4 to 4/5 of the way through the way of the term.  See below for specific (tentative) due dates.  You will be given a set of paper topics for each paper, from which you can choose, though you can also come up with your own topic.  We'll have more to say about papers in class, and there is a set of paper guidelines, which you should get to know well.  Late papers will be penalized unless you have a legitimate, documented excuse; the penalty is 1/3 of a letter grade per day late (see the paper guidelines for more details).

4. Two Exams (40%).  There will be two exams: a midterm exam and a non-cumulative final exam.  Each exam has two parts, and will take place over two class periods.  The first part of each exam will consist of very-short-answer questions (e.g., multiple choice or true/false questions); the second part will consist of short-answer questions (questions that can usually be answered in a sentence to a paragraph).  For the second part of each exam you'll need to bring a bluebook.  Both parts of both exams will take place in class, and will be closed-note and closed-reading.

To help you prepare, and to give you an idea about the sorts of questions you can expect, a study guide will be made available before each exam.  We will also have a review day before each part of each exam where we will take your questions about the study guide.  You must come prepared for these review sessions by having already written out your own answers to the questions on the study guide.

If you miss any exams during the semester, you will be permitted to take a makeup exam only if you have a legitimate, documented excuse (e.g., non-trivial illness, death in the family, religious obligation).  If you need to miss an exam, you need to let us know in advance, by email.

Grading
Your final grade for the course is determined according to the following scheme:


Reading Quizzes
20% 100 points
First Paper 20% 100 points
Midterm Exam 20% 100 points
Second Paper 20% 100 points
Final Exam 20% 100 points
TOTAL
100% 500 points

There are no "extra-credit" opportunities. So there's no need to ask if you can "do extra credit" to boost your grade.  If you want to get a good grade, don't miss class, always arrive on time, always do the reading, take notes on readings and in class, ask questions when you have them, contribute to class discussions, start working on your papers early, start working on the study guides for exams well in advance, work on these study guides by actually writing out your answers to the questions on them (as you would have to do if it were a question on the real exam), come to the review sessions having already put a lot of work into the study guides, come to office hours when you are confused about the material, and arrange study groups with your classmates.

We will use a standard "non-curved" grading scale, as follows:



438-449
B+
388-399
C+
338-349
D+

463-500
A
413-437
B
363-387
C
313-337
D
0-299
F
450-462
A–
400-412
B–
350-362
C–
300-312
D-


Since we don't grade on a curve, it is theoretically possible for everyone to get an A (and also for everyone to get an F).  But assuming that grades are distributed throughout the spectrum of grades in the normal way, the average grade in the class will probably be about a B–.

Course Schedule (subject to change)

Wk.
Date Topic

Readings (due on date listed; subject to change)

1
M 8/25 Introductions, Roll, Syllabus  
  W 8/27 Finish Syllabus
The Nature of God
Hand Out Questionnaire
Rowe, "Introduction" (2007)

F 8/29 The Nature of God
Rowe, "The Idea of God" (2007), pp. 4-11
Also read this syllabus from top to bottom
Questionnaire Due

2
M 9/1 NO CLASS -- LABOR DAY
W 9/3 Review Questionnaire Results
Rowe, "The Idea of God" (2007), pp. 11-18
  F 9/5 Two Definitions of God
Slides for Topic 1 - Nature of God

3
M 9/8 Omnipotence Aquinas, excerpt from Summa Theologica (1274)
Frankfurt, just footnote 3 from "The Logic of Omnipotence" (1964)
W 9/10 Omnipotence Mavrodes, "Some Puzzles Concerning Omnipotence" (1963)
Frankfurt, the rest of "The Logic of Omnipotence" (1964)
  F 9/12 Omnipotence
Clarke, from A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God (1705)
Re-Read Rowe, "The Idea of God" (2007), first six paragraphs of the "Omnipotence and Perfect Goodness" section (pp. 6-9)
4
M 9/15

Finish Omnipotence
Slides for Topic 2 -
Omnipotence

 
W 9/17 Freedom and Foreknowledge
Augustine, excerpt from On the Free Choice of the Will (c. 395)
Plantinga, "On Ockham's Way Out" (1986), pp. 235-237 (2/3 of the way down)

  F 9/19 Freedom and Foreknowledge

Plantinga, "On Ockham's Way Out," pp. 237-239 (1/4 of the way down)
Edwards, from Freedom of the Will (1754), read just p. 52 (starting at §12)

5
M 9/22 Freedom and Foreknowledge
 
  W 9/24 Freedom and Foreknowledge Plantinga, "On Ockham's Way Out," pp. 239-243 (1/4 of the way down)
  F 9/26 Writing a Philosophy Paper Plantinga, "On Ockham's Way Out," §II (pp. 243-251)
read the Philosophy Paper FAQ
read the First Paper document
6
M 9/29 Freedom and Foreknowledge Plantinga, "On Ockham's Way Out," §IV.

W 10/1 Freedom and Foreknowledge Plantinga, "On Ockham's Way Out," §V.
F 10/3 Freedom and Foreknowledge First Paper Due
Begin working on Study Guide for Midterm Exam

7
M 10/6 The Problem of Evil

Rowe, "The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism" (1979)

W 10/8 Review for Midterm Exam  
  F 10/10 Midterm Exam, Part 1  
8
M 10/13 Return Part 1; Review for Part 2  
W 10/15 Midterm Exam, Part 2  BRING A BLUEBOOK!
  F 10/17 return midterms; return papers
Pascal's Wager
 
9
M 10/20 Pascal's Wager Pascal, excerpt from Pensées (1660)
W 10/22 Pascal's Wager Hacking, "The Logic of Pascal's Wager" (1972)

F 10/24 Pascal's Wager  
10
M 10/27 Handout for Pascal's Wager  
  W 10/29 Ontological Argument

Anselm, excerpt from the Proslogion (1077), with an introduction by editors Pojman and Rea
  F 10/31 Ontological Argument
Handout for Anselm
Gaunilo, Anselm, Gaunilo's criticism and Anselm's rejoinder (1077)
11
M 11/3 Ontological Argument
Kant, excerpt from The Critique of Pure Reason (1789)

W 11/5 Ontological Argument
Handout for Kant
Heathwood, "The Relevance of Kant's Objection to Anselm's Ontological Argument" (2011)
  F 11/7 Ontological Argument
12
M 11/10 The Fine-Tuning Argument Ananthaswamy, "Is the Universe Fine-Tuned for Life?" (2012)
Collins, "God, Design, and Fine-Tuning" (~2002), §§I-II
OPTIONAL: Maudlin, "The Calibrated Cosmos" (2013)
W 11/12 The Fine-Tuning Argument
Collins, §III

F 11/14 Handout for Fine-Tuning Argument Collins, §§IV-V
13
M 11/17 Arguments for Atheism Hawthorn, "Arguments for Atheism" (1999), §1

W 11/19 Arguments for Atheism Hawthorn, §§2.1-2.3
F 11/21 Handout for Hawthorn Second Paper Due (no reading due)
M 11/24 - F 11/28:  T H A N K S G I V I N G   B R E A K
14
M 12/1 Arguments for Atheism
Hawthorn: re-read §1.4 and §2.2; read §2.4 and §3

W 12/3 return/review papers
finish
Arguments for Atheism

Start working on Study Guide for Final

  F 12/5 FCQ's; Course Wrap-Up Continue working on Study Guide for Final
15
M 12/8 Review for Final Exam  

W 12/10 Final Exam, Part 1  

F 12/12
Return Part 1; Review for Part 2  
Fin
W 12/17 Final Exam, Part 2 (Wednesday, December 17, 7:30 p.m., in our room)  BRING A BLUEBOOK!

Academic Integrity
All students of the University of Colorado at Boulder are responsible for knowing and adhering to the academic integrity policy of this institution. Violations of this policy may include cheating, plagiarism, aid of academic dishonesty, fabrication, lying, bribery, and threatening behavior. All incidents of academic misconduct shall be reported to the Honor Code Council (honor@colorado.edu; 303-735-2273). Students who are found to be in violation of the academic integrity policy will be subject to both academic sanctions from the faculty member and non-academic sanctions (including but not limited to university probation, suspension, or expulsion). Other information on the Honor Code can be found at colorado.edu/policies/honor.html and honorcode.colorado.edu.

Anyone caught violating CU's academic integrity policy (in any way) will automatically receive an F for this course, and may be subject to expulsion from the university. I take cheating very seriously.

Disability Services
If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability, please submit to me a letter from Disability Services in a timely manner (for exam accommodations provide your letter at least one week prior to the exam) so that your needs can be addressed. Disability Services determines accommodations based on documented disabilities. Contact Disability Services at 303-492-8671 or by e-mail at dsinfo@colorado.edu. If you have a temporary medical condition or injury, see the Temporary Injuries page and discuss your needs with us.

Religious Observances
Campus policy regarding religious observances requires that faculty make every effort to reasonably and fairly deal with all students who, because of religious obligations, have conflicts with scheduled exams, assignments, or required attendance.  Please let me know well in advance about any such conflicts, and we'll work together to resolve them.  For more information about the university’s policies on these matters, see colorado.edu/policies/fac_relig.html.

Classroom Behavior
Students and faculty each have responsibility for maintaining an appropriate learning environment. Those who fail to adhere to such behavioral standards may be subject to discipline. Professional courtesy and sensitivity are especially important with respect to individuals and topics dealing with differences of race, color, culture, religion, creed, politics, veteran's status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and gender expression, age, disability, and nationalities. Class rosters are provided to the instructor with the student's legal name. I will gladly honor your request to address you by an alternate name or gender pronoun. Please advise me of this preference early in the semester so that I may make appropriate changes to my records. See policies at colorado.edu/policies/classbehavior.html and at colorado.edu/studentaffairs/judicialaffairs/code.html#student_code.

Discrimination and Harassment
We at CU Boulder are committed to maintaining a positive learning, working, and living environment. The University of Colorado does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, creed, religion, sexual orientation, or veteran status in admission and access to, and treatment and employment in, its educational programs and activities. (Regent Law, Article 10, amended 11/8/2001). CU Boulder will not tolerate acts of discrimination or harassment based upon Protected Classes or related retaliation against or by any employee or student. For purposes of this CU Boulder policy, "Protected Classes" refers to race, color, national origin, sex, pregnancy, age, disability, creed, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or veteran status. Individuals who believe they have been discriminated against should contact the Office of Discrimination and Harassment (ODH) at 303-492-2127 or the Office of Student Conduct (OSC) at 303-492-5550. Information about the ODH, the above referenced policies, and the campus resources available to assist individuals regarding discrimination or harassment can be obtained at hr.colorado.edu/dh/.