PHIL 1100 -- Ethics
Section 003
Fall 2015
MWF 12:00-12:50
MCOL E155

Professor
Chris Heathwood
heathwood@colorado.edu
Office: HLMS 192
Hours: Wednesdays 2:30-4:30, and by appointment

Teaching Assistant
Bodhi Melnitzer
Shane.Melnitzer@Colorado.EDU
Office Hours: Mondays 2:00-4:00, and by appointment
Location: Innisfree Poetry Bookstore & Cafe, 1203 13th St.


Course Description
This course provides an introduction to ethics by way of a study of doctrines and arguments primarily in the normative ethics of behavior (the theory of right and wrong) and practical ethics.  We will conclude with the meaning of life.  Our goals are to understand some important theories and positions in these areas, to understand and evaluate important arguments for and against these views, to develop the ability to extract, explain, and evaluate arguments from philosophical texts, and to come to our own reasoned views on these topics.  Our topics will include simple logic, divine command theory, cultural relativism, utilitarianism, the trolley problem, deontology, slave reparations, vegetarianism, abortion, and the meaning of life.

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

     http://spot.colorado.edu/~heathwoo/phil1100/.

Here you will find:

• this syllabus
• course readings
• brief summary of what we did each day (check this first if you miss a class)
• reading questions
• lecture slides
  
• study guides for exams
• guidance on papers
• paper guidelines topics
• and more.

Readings
There will be no book!  All readings are online and are or will be linked below on the course schedule.  You will need a password to access some of them, which I will give you in class.  Although there is no book, you will need a clicker, which can be purchased at the CU Bookstore.  More on clickers below.

Lecture Slides
I will be using slides in lecture, which I will make available via links on the course schedule below.  But the availability of these slides is no substitute for good note-taking.  Many important details are not on the slides!

Class Mates
So that you will have someone from whom to get the notes and 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 stop; repeat offenders will lose points.  When you get to class, please turn your cell phone OFF and put it away.

The use of laptops is also prohibited.  This is because students who use laptops in class do less well in college, as do those who sit near them.  (See also: "Why students using laptops learn less in class even when they really are taking notes" and "Attention, Students: Put Your Laptops Away.")

If you simply must communicate with someone from the outside world during class, that's fine; please just leave the room to do so.

2. Exams: 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.  Furthermore, we will 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 part of any exam 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.

3. Papers: 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.  Specific due dates will eventually be put on the course schedule below.  You will be given a topic or set of topics for each paper, from which you can choose.  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. Clicker Questions: Most lectures after the first week will feature clicker questions.  You answer them using your i>clicker device, which you can purchase at the bookstore.  You will receive credit simply for participating in the clicker questions (i.e., you don't need to get the right answer to get the points [there isn't even always a "right answer"]).  Occasionally, a student forgets his or her clicker, or the batteries die.  Thus, I give each student two free passes on clickers: the first two times you miss clicking-in, you will get the points anyway.  Absolutely no free points after that -- no exceptions.  If you miss clicking-in simply because you miss class, that will use up your free passes.

Clicking-in for an absent classmate by using his/her clicker on his/her behalf is a form of cheating.  Cheating will earn you an F for the whole course.  See the Honor Code section below.

If you have not already done so, you need to register your clicker immediately.  Otherwise, we can't match your name to your clicker, and you won't be able to receive any clicker points.

5. Reading Quizzes:  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, and to give you an incentive never to miss class (the quizzes are unannounced).  For each reading, there will be a set of Reading Questions posted on the website.  All of the questions on the pop quizzes will be taken directly from these reading questions.  Furthermore, these quizzes are open-note.  Thus, as you are doing each reading and taking notes on it, you should copy down each question in your notes and then write your answer to it, which you can find by studying the reading.  Then bring these notes with you to class.  All of the answers to the pop-quiz questions should then be right in your notes!  So, yes, there is no reason that you all shouldn't ace all of the reading quizzes.

Quizzes are not restricted to readings that were due on the day of the quiz.  They might cover readings that were due on earlier days.

You are permitted to use notes only that you yourself created from doing the reading; you cannot use or copy a classmate's notes.  Though the pop quizzes are open-note, they are not open-book or "open-reading."

There might be a couple of short homework assignments.  If there are, they will be lumped in with your quiz grades.

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