Philosophy of the Human Person
Phil 1311
Instructor: Elliot Polsky
Email: polskye@stthom.edu
Office and Hours: The Cloud, By appointment
Course Description
What in the world is philosophy? And who are you, human being, to ask? Stick around, and, hopefully, we’ll discover not only interesting, but accurate answers to these questions. This course is both introductory and topic-specific. As an introduction, the course will familiarize you with philosophical argumentation and the written work of influential philosophers, as well as provide a narrative of the development of philosophy from ancient times to contemporary. As topic-specific, the course will explore the subject of the human person. Are human beings bodies or do they have bodies? Does the soul exist, and, if so, what is it? What makes human beings different from other animals? Can any animal survive death? What exactly are the senses and how do they work? How do they differ from imagination, will, and thought? What sorts of necessities are involved in being human and in what sense can we say that we are free? All of these questions and more will be discussed in this course. Because the course does double duty as an intro and a detailed look at the human person, not everything we will read will have the human person as its immediate subject, but everything we will read will have some important connection to it. One of our tasks will be to discuss what exactly those connections are. Hopefully, we’ll not only gain in knowledge of the history of philosophy, but in human wisdom. The English word “philosophy” is from the Greek word “φιλοσοφία”—“the love of wisdom.” At the very least, we hope to lead you to possess a little bit of that love—to develop a taste for thinking carefully, for questioning things that have always seemed obvious to you, and for imagining different possibilities.
Required Texts
Plato: Five Dialogues (2nd Edition). Trans., G.M.A. Grube. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. (2002). ISBN13: 978-0872206335
All other reading materials are available via links in the schedule.
Assignments and Academic Policies
Assignments: There will be 5 kinds of graded assignments over the course the the semester. Each is detailed below. The deadline for each assignment can be found in the learning module in which the assignment appears.
Papers: There will be five short paper assignments over the course of the semester, one for each week of the course. Each paper is worth 100 points and is weighted equally (10% of the final grade each). They are graded for substance (understanding the prompt, answering the prompt, producing good arguments, etc.), as well as for the quality of writing (grammar, usage, organization, style, etc.). For the sake of fairness, do not exceed the length limit of any assignment, or your score will be penalized. You should not make use of outside sources for any assignment. Papers are due on Blackboard at the time designated on the paper prompt. Late work will be penalized. If you fail to turn in any one of the five paper assignments the principle instructor may choose to fail you for the course, regardless of what your scores are on the other assignments.
Final Exam: There will be a cumulative final exam in short answer format worth 100 points and weighted at 20% of the final grade.
Message Boards: There will message boards for most of the assigned readings. Each Message Board will present you with a topic or a question to discuss. Your replies to the message board are public and can be seen by the professor and the other students in the class. You must post one reply to each message board topic, as well as reply to at least one post by another student. Your response to each message board topic is worth 100 points. The Principle Instructor may lower your score for your reply to a particular topic, if you do not post a reply to at least one student’s reply to that particular topic. The scores for the message boards over the course of the semester are weighted at 15% of your final grade.
Journal Entries: There will be Journal entries for most of the assigned readings. Each Journal entry will present you with a topic or a question to discuss. Your replies to the journal entries can only be seen by yourself and the instructor. Your response to each journal entry is worth 100 points. The scores for the journal entries over the course of the semester are weighted at 15% of your final grade.
Summary and Rubric:Papers count for 50% of your grade (10% each), the final for 20%, the message boards for 15%, and the journal entries for 15%
A 93 – 100
A- 90 – 92.99
B+ 87 – 89.99
B 83 – 86.99
B- 80 – 82.99
C+ 77 – 79.99
C 73 – 76.99
C- 70 – 72.99
D+ 67 – 69.99
D 60 – 66.99
F 0 – 59.99
Disabilities: If you have a disability that may require special assistance, please contact Counseling Services/Disability Services, which is located on the second floor of Crooker Center. You may also call Debby Jones or Rose Signorello at (713) 525-6983 or (713) 525-3162.
Academic Integrity: Students are expected to comply with the University of St. Thomas’s Academic Integrity policy (A.02.11). The penalty for academic dishonesty is a failing grade for the entire course. Be especially careful to know the definition of plagiarism and avoid all forms of it, including having others do your work for you or merely syntactically or terminologically altering the work of others (e.g. plugging in a few different words into a paragraph written by someone else). You will not get a second chance with cheating. Cheat and you fail.
Intellectual Property Policy: Do not make the content of this course public in any format or medium. If you violate intellectual property rights, you will find yourself in trouble with the university.
Schedule:
Week 1: An Introduction to Logic, A Primer to Aristotle’s Doctrine of Nature and of the Soul
Learning Module Contents:
Class 1 (1/13) Introduction to the Course; Argumentation: an Ongoing Discussion
Class 2 (1/15) Parmenides: Fragments* (.pdf)
Class 3 (1/17) Anaxagoras: Fragments and Testimonies* (.pdf)
Week 2: Aristotle on Nature
Class 4 (1/20) Martin Luther King Day (no class)
Class 5 (1/22) Democritus/Leucippus: Fragments and Testimonies* (.pdf)
Class 6 (1/24) No class (Funeral)
Week 3: Plato on the Soul; Aristotle on the Soul
Class 7 (1/27) Aristotle: Categories, Chapters 1-5* (.pdf)
Class 8 (1/29) Plato: Euthyphro
Class 9 (1/31) Plato: Apology 17a-30b
Week 4: St. Thomas on the Essence and Powers of the Soul, Part 1
Class 10 (2/3) Plato: Apology 30b-42a
Class 11 (2/5) Aristotle: Physics Book 1, Chapters 1-4* (.pdf)
Class 12 (2/7) Aristotle: Physics Book 1, Chapters 5-9* (.pdf)
Week 5: St. Thomas on the Essence and Powers of the Soul
Class 13 (2/10) Aristotle: Physics Book 2, Chapters 1, 3* (.pdf)
Class 14 (2/12) Aristotle: Physics Book 2, Chapters 4-6* (.pdf)
Class 15 (2/14) Aristotle: Physics Book 2, Chapters 8-9* (.pdf)
Week 6: Immortality of the Soul; The Harmony and Cloak Objections; The Death of Socrates
Class 16 (2/17) Plato: Phaedo 57a-77a
Class 17 (2/19) Plato: Phaedo 77a-95a
Class 18 (2/21) Plato: Phaedo 95a-118a
Week 7: Predecessors’ Accounts of Soul; A Hylomorphic Account of Soul;
Class 19 (2/24) Aristotle: De Anima, Book 1, Chapters 1-2* (.pdf)
Class 20 (2/26) Aristotle: De Anima, Book 2, Chapters 1-3* (.pdf)
Class 21 (2/28) Aristotle: De Anima, Book 2,
Week 8: Happiness; The function Argument; Virtue
Class 22 (3/2) Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics Book 1, Chapters 1-6* (.pdf)
Class 23 (3/4) Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics Book 1, Chapters 7-13* (.pdf)
Class 24 (3/6) Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics Book 2* (.pdf)
Week 9: The Sin of the Devil; The (Un)nature of Evil; The Reality of Virtue
Class 25 (3/9) St. Anselm: On the Fall of the Devil Chapters 1-8* (.pdf)
Class 26 (3/11) St. Anselm: On the Fall of the Devil Chapters 9-16* (.pdf)
Class 27 (3/13) St. Anselm: On the Fall of the Devil Chapters 17-28* (.pdf)
(3/16-21) Spring Break (no class)
Week 10: Subsistence of the Soul; Incorruptibility of the Soul; Soul as the Form of the Body
Class 28 (3/23) St. Thomas: Summa Theologiae I, Q.75, prologue, A.1-3* (.pdf)
Class 29 (3/25) St. Thomas: Summa Theologiae I, Q.75, A.4, 6-7* (.pdf)
Class 30 (3/27) St. Thomas: Summa Theologiae I, Q.76, prologue, A.1, 8* (.pdf)
Week 11: Internal and External Senses; Passive and Active Intellect; Sentient and Intellective Appetite
Class 31 (3/30) St. Thomas: Summa Theologiae I, Q.78, prologue, A.3-4* (.pdf)
Class 32 (4/1) St. Thomas: Summa Theologiae I, Q.79, prologue, A.1-3, 6* (.pdf)
Class 33 (4/3) St. Thomas: Summa Theologiae I, Q.80, prologue, A.1-2* (.pdf)
Week 12: Irascible and Concupisible Powers; Will and Necessity
Class 34 (4/6) St. Thomas: Summa Theologiae I, Q.81, prologue A.1-3* (.pdf)
Class 35 (4/8) St. Thomas: Summa Theologiae I, Q.82, prologue, A.1-4* (.pdf)
Class 36 (4/10) East Break no class
Week 13: Free Choice; Doubting Everything
Class 37 (4/13) Easter Break no class
Class 38 (4/15) St. Thomas: Summa Theologiae I, Q.83, prologue, A.1-4* (.pdf)
Class 39 (4/17) Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy, Meditation 1 and Objections* (.pdf)
Week 14: Cogito, Cartesian Dualism; The Origin of Ideas and Sceptical Doubts; Skepticism about Personal Identity
Class 40 (4/20) Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy, Meditation 2 and Selected Objections* (.pdf)
Class 41 (4/22) Hume: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding Sections 2-4* (.pdf)
Class 42 (4/24) Hume: A Treatise on Human Nature 1.4.6 “Of Personal Identity”* (.pdf)
Week 15: St. Thomas on Killing; Violinists and Abortion?; An Argument in Favor of the Permissibility of Abortion
Class 43 (4/27) St. Thomas: Summa Theologiae 2-2, Q.64* (.pdf)
Class 44 (4/29) Judith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of Abortion* (.pdf)
Class 45 (5/1) Mary Warren: On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion* (.pdf)
Week 16: An Aristotelian Argument Against the Permissibility of Abortion
Class 46 (5/4) Patrick Lee and Robert George: The Wrong of Abortion* (.pdf)
