General Information

Contact Information

Professor:: Abe Stone (abestone@ucsc.edu)[1]Please feel free to contact the instructor and/or your TA with questions about the substance of the course (philosophical issues, questions about the meaning of the texts, questions about paper topics, etc.). On administrative issues (grades, lateness/extensions, due dates, section times, etc.) please try your TA ﬁrst.
Oﬃce:: Cowell Annex A-106
Phone (oﬃce):: 459-5723
Push notiﬁcation:: Notify Abe
Website:: http://people.ucsc.edu/~abestone/courses
Open Facebook group:: UCSC Phil 11 Fall 2015
Oﬃce hours:: Tues. 4–5pm, Thurs. 10:45-11:45am
Teaching Assistants:
James Gray: (jwgray@ucsc.edu)
Sean Hunter: (ghunter@ucsc.edu)
Abe Joyal: (ajoyal@ucsc.edu)

Discussion Sections

Section	Time	Place	TA
01A	Wed. 8:00–9:10 am	Crown Clrm 202	Abe J.
01B	Wed. 12:30–1:40 pm	Soc Sci 1 149	Sean
01C	Wed. 3:30–4:40 pm	Crown Clrm 202	Abe J.
01D	Wed. 5:00–6:10 pm	Crown Clrm 203	Sean
01E	Wed. 6:30–7:40 pm	Crown Clrm 203	Sean
01F	Thu. 8:30–9:40 am	Soc Sci 1 149	Abe J.
01G	Mon. 2:00–3:10 pm	Stevenson Acad 151	James

Course Description

Philosophy is unlike many other disciplines in that it is not at all obvious how it should be introduced. This course will essentially be a course about Socrates (c. 469-399 BC), the ancient Athenian philosopher who is in a certain way the intellectual ancestor of all later philosophers. One of the things we will need to think about as we go on is how, and to what extent, that could be considered an introduction to the subject.

Course Requirements

Participation in discussion sections (good participation will be possible grounds for raising course grade, especially if it is on a borderline).

Beginning with the day of the third class session, there will be two short assignments every week, to be done on-line via the “Tests & Quizzes” section of the course on eCommons. Each assignment will contain a single multiple choice or ﬁll-in-the-blank question designed to help you focus on details of the reading, and one or two short answer questions. In the later part of the course, some of the assignments will be designed to prepare you to write the ﬁnal paper (e.g. to choose and revise a thesis and introductory paragraph). All of these short assignments together will be worth 60% of the course grade, based on a point score which will be translated into a letter grade on a curve to be determined. Note that, although the eCommons system will be set up to accept late submission of these short assignments, no credit can be given for multiple choice or ﬁll-in-the-blank questions after the correct answers have been announced.

A ﬁnal paper (5–7 pages) is due, as an attachment via the “Assignments” tool on eCommons, on Tuesday, December 8, and will count for 40% of the grade. Please submit it in MSWord or a format easily convertible to MSWord.

You can ﬁnd answers to some commonly asked questions about my assignments and grading in my FAQ.

All assignments are due by midnight on the due date.[2]That is, technically: at 12am, or 0:00 hours, on the day following the listed due date.

Texts

Plato, Euthydemus: , tr. Mary P. Nichols and Gregory A. McBray (Focus/R. Pullins, 2010) (ISBN: 1585103055)).
Plato, Meno: , tr. George Anastaplo and Laurence Berns (Focus/R. Pullins, 1998) (ISBN: 0941051714).
Thomas G. West and Grace Starry West, eds., Four Texts on Socrates: Plato’s Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito and Aristophanes’ Clouds: (Cornell, 1998) (ISBN: 0801485746).

The above texts should be available at the Literary Guillotine, and they will also be put on reserve at McHenry. Readings not from texts on the above list are available on eCommons. Note this includes the ﬁrst two readings, so if you are not, or not yet, oﬃcially enrolled in the course, please let me know and I will make sure you have access to the eCommons site.