Instructor: Dr. Charles Wallis	Phone:
Office: MHB 908	Email: charles.wallis@csulb.edu
Wallis' Office Hours:  T,TH 11am-12pm and by appointment

Readings and Schedule (Approximate):

 

 

 

 

 

 

Final (and paper for grads) due during finals period for this class: Thursday,
December 12, 2019 12:30pm-2:30pm
University Finals Schedule
 

Undergraduate Evaluations: I base evaluations upon the following: (1) 10 Beachboard Quizzes (35%), (2) 5 approximately one page (200-250 words) short answer assignments (35%) assigned during the term,  (3) 10 randomly taken attendance points (10%), and (4) 5-7 page final paper on topic of student choice in consultation with instructor (20%: 2% paper proposal; 2% Preliminary Sources; 4% paper fair participation; 12% paper grade) due during the finals period for the course.  I will post the questions for the short answer assignments on the news feed for the course as well as in an email by 11am on Wednesday the week of the assignment.  Short answers should be submitted to the dropbox by the following Friday by 8pm.   Students should submit their short answers to beachboard dropbox where they will be run through turnitin.  In general, I will post quizzes on beachboard by 11am on Wednesday the week of the assignment.  You must complete and submit the quiz before 8pm on the following Saturday.  Some independent assignments have links from the syllabus to the relevant material.  During the term there will be 2 optional extra credit Beachboard quizzes (Mid-term & Final) that students can take to earn extra credit points to be added to their raw quiz scores.  Also, during the term there will be 2 optional extra credit Beachboard quizzes on writing skills that students can take to earn extra credit points to be added to their raw short answer scores.

Graduate Evaluations: I will base graduate evaluations upon the following: (1) 10 Beachboard Quizzes (30%), (2) 5 approximately one page tests/research assignments (30%) assigned during the term,  (3) 10 randomly taken attendance points (5%), and (4) 12-15 page final research paper on topic of student's choice in consultation with instructor (35%: 3.5% paper proposal; 3.5% Preliminary Sources; 5% paper fair participation; 23% paper grade)) due during the finals period for the course.  I will post the questions for the short answer assignments on the news feed for the course as well as in an email by 11am on Wednesday the week of the assignment.  Short answers should be submitted to the dropbox by the following Friday by 8pm.   Students should submit their short answers to beachboard dropbox where they will be run through turnitin.  In general, I will post quizzes on beachboard by 11am on Wednesday the week of the assignment.  You must complete and submit the quiz before 8pm on the following Saturday.  Some independent assignments have links from the syllabus to the relevant material.   During the term there will be 2 optional extra credit Beachboard quizzes (Mid-term & Final) that students can take to earn extra credit points to be added to their raw quiz scores.  Also, during the term there will be 2 optional extra credit Beachboard quizzes on writing skills that students can take to earn extra credit points to be added to their raw short answer scores.

Make-up exams: I try to be flexible with regard to deadlines for assignments.  For instance, I generally permit extensions of deadlines, make-up exams, etc.. for serious illness, personal tragedies, and religious holidays not recognized in the University calendar.  In some cases, I may require a physicians' note for illness.  If you cannot meet a deadline,  it is your responsibility to send me an e-mail  within 4 hours either prior to or after the deadline.  Your message must include contact information, such as a telephone number or e-mail address where I can reach you to arrange appropriate accommodation.

Cheating and Plagiarism: The CSULB Policy on Cheating and Plagiarism will be followed strictly. (See 2005-6 Catalog, pp. 75-6.) Students who have any questions or uncertainty whatsoever about this policy are responsible for meeting individually with the instructor to discuss the policy. All tests and papers are submitted to Turnitin for evaluation.  Students discovered cheating or plagiarizing on any exam, quiz, or other course element will be FAILED for the COURSE and will be reported to the Office of Judicial Affairs for possible probation, suspension, or expulsion.

Withdrawals: I follow the university policy on withdrawals.  I have no disinclination towards signing withdrawal forms up until the last date allowed by the university policy.   

Disabilities: I am happy to accommodate any students with disabilities.  It is the student's responsibility to inform me of their disability and need for accommodation.  The office of Disabled Student Services (5-5061) serves as an information source and evaluates students’ needs.  DSS often proctors tests for students with disabilities.

Goals: I have six basic goals for this course: (1) Students learn to formulate their own views on various philosophic questions.  (2) Students learn to develop their views through: (a) research into the philosophic and cognitive science literature, and (b) understanding as well as explicating the relationships between their own views and the positions/information in the academic literature.  (3) Students learn to read and evaluate scholarly journal articles from the philosophical literature.  I emphasize development of the following abilities; the ability to extract arguments from a text, evaluate those arguments by challenging either their assumptions or logical form, the ability to identify a thesis and relate the elements of a paper to the development of that thesis, and the ability to place a book or article a larger historical and/or disciplinary context. (4) Students gain significant insight into the historical development, intellectual movements, particular theories, investigative methodologies of philosophy of science as well as interactions between philosophy and science (especially cognitive science) in addressing fundamental questions. (5) Students should show a grasp of the practical implications and real-world instances of philosophical questions and theories, including a sense of the potential impact of such theories. (6) Students improve their writing abilities, particularly with respect to their ability to write concise, highly organized, and self-contained expositions of theories, arguments, empirical findings, as well as the interrelationships between theories, arguments, and empirical findings.

 

Web Resources: This web site contains the syllabus, lecture slides from lectures already given, links, and test questions.  Lecture slides and links are not required course material, nor are they an adequate substitute for class attendance. They are posted solely to further aid students in their studies.  However, students often comment upon the usefulness of this material and I strongly encourage students to visit the site at least once.

Need some help with your writing? Try the Style and Writing Tips page.

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