Course Director: Dr. Alexandru Manafu alexman@yorku.ca  I prefer live communication over email. If you must email me, then do it me from the same email address that's associated with your Moodle.
Office Location:  S414A Ross
Office Hours:  I prefer live communication over email. If you must email me, then do it me from the same email address that's associated with your Moodle.

This course aims to help you develop your own personal worldview and be able to formulate it clearly and defend it rationally. We will consider some of the most simple, yet the most important and difficult questions a human being can ask: Is there a God? What is right or wrong? What is the relationship between my mind and my body? Do I have free will? What can I know? What is beauty? What is justice? What is the meaning of life? During this course you will be exposed to some of the answers these questions have received from philosophers across the centuries, and you will work toward constructing your own informed answers.

Philosophy Here and Now. Powerful Ideas in Everyday Life. by Lewis Vaughn, Third Edition. OUP 2018, ISBN-13: 9780190852344. Available at the University Bookstore.  Students opting for older editions are informed that some of the material may not be found in those editions and they are responsible for covering any potential missing material.

“My Worldview 1.0” essay: 10%

5 Sections (of 8 possible): 30%

“My Worldview 2.0” essay: 20%

Fall term exam (on Moodle): 15%

Winter term exam (on Moodle): 15%

Tutorial participation: 10%

Penalty points:

1% off if you email me from an email address that’s different from the one you have on Moodle.

1% off for every email that does not respect email etiquette.

1% off if you ask me a question whose answer was given by me in class, or is demonstrably in the course outline or on Moodle.

NOTE: The grading scheme above will be respected strictly. For ethical reasons, I do not revise the grades of students, nor do I allow students to do extra work to boost their marks, or bump up student’s grades. The main reason for this is my commitment to treat all students equally, and the fact that I like to stick to the grading scheme above.

All assignments will be submitted on Moodle and Turnitin, where they will be subjected to a plagiarism check.

ANY ASSIGNMENT WITH A TURNITIN SCORE ABOVE 15% WILL BE INVESTIGATED.

Depending on the case, the assignment will incur a penalty and/or the Course Director together with the Undergraduate Program Director will open a formal AH (academic honesty) case.

Following the investigation of your assignment, any point above a 15% Turnitin score will be translated into a 1 point of penalty. For example, an assignment with a Turnitin score of 17% will incur a penalty of 2 points (out of 6% allotted to the assignment), so that the new maximum grade for that assignment will be 4%.

As a result of the AH case that will be opened you risk EXPULSION FROM THE UNIVERSITY. If your assignment has a Turnitin score of 15% or more you can revise your assignment and resubmit it, as long as the deadline has not yet passed.

For information on what counts as plagiarism please see the Senate Policy on Academic Honesty, as well as talk to myself or your TA. Also, approach me or your TA for tips on how to avoid a high Turnitin score. One good tip is to avoid long quotes and uses paraphrases instead.

NOTE: The grading scheme above will be respected strictly. I do not typically go back and revise the grades of students, nor do I allow students to do extra work to boost their marks. The main reason for this is my commitment to treat all students equally, and the fact that I like to stick to the grading scheme above.

Lectures and tutorials

By the end of this course, you will:

• Become familiar with the big philosophical questions and how they were answered by a number of philosophers;
• Be able to summarize, analyze, and engage critically with the various philosophical positions;
• Be able to formulate your own philosophical positions and defend them with cogent arguments;
• Learn to appreciate unfamiliar ideas and points of view and expand your intellectual horizons;
• Become aware of the value and relevance of philosophy for the modern individual and make significant steps toward constructing your own informed worldview.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION THAT EVERY STUDENT MUST READ:

PLAGIARISM IS A SERIOUS ACADEMIC OFFENCE AND IT WILL NOT BE TOLERATED IN THIS COURSE! IF YOU ARE UNSURE WHETHER YOUR WORK IS SAFE TO SUBMIT, EMAIL ME OR YOUR T.A.

ALL YOUR ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE SUBMITTED THROUGH TURNITIN, A PLAGIARISM-CHECKING SERVICE THAT OUR UNIVERSITY SUBSCRIBES TO AND THAT WILL BE ACCESSIBLE TO YOU THROUGH MOODLE.

EXCERPT FROM SENATE’S POLICY ON ACADEMIC HONESTY:

2.1.3 Plagiarism is the misappropriation of the work of another by representing another person’s ideas, writing or other intellectual property as one’s own. This includes the presentation of all or part of another person’s work as something one has written, paraphrasing another’s writing without proper acknowledgement, or representing another’s artistic or technical work or creation as one’s own. Any use of the work of others, whether published, unpublished or posted electronically, attributed or anonymous, must include proper acknowledgement.