Requirements for Politics and Re

Requirements for Politics and Reason

Readings

The course will combine lectures with discussions. Students will be expected to have read the assigned material and to be prepared to discuss it in class. Since the lectures will be largely drawn from the my work it would be very helpful for students to have read this material before attending class. The reading for the course is contained in three course packs which will be available at Copywrite. The first contains excerpts from three books I have written, The Trouble With Liberalism; Discovery or Invention; and Politics and Reason. This course pack will be available for purchase at Copywrite at the beginning of the second week of classes. Students who would like to purchase unabridged versions o f the three books. The three books will also be on reserve in Atkins library and will be made available to students on computer disks in the Microsoft Word for Windows format. (I have a freeware program that will enable students who do have Windows but not Microsoft Word to read and print the files containing the three books. Students might also be able to convert the files into the format of their favorite word processor. The three volumes take up about 4 megabytes of hard disk space). All of the other readings will available in a second course pack at Copywrite which should be available at the end of the first week of class.

A third course pack, which will also be available at CopyWrite at the beginning of the second week of classes, contains outlines of the lectures and a number of class handouts. These outlines of the lectures are copies of the overheads that will be presented in class. They are meant to help you follow the arguments of the lectures, take further notes and review for examinations. They are not meant to be a substitute for the lectures. Because of the compressed nature of these notes, students will not find them understandable without having attended the lectures. Nor will they find the readings very helpful in understanding these notes, since the lectures contain a great deal of original analysis and terminology that is not found in the readings. Various changes in the content of the course will occur as a result of the development in my own ideas and in response to the questions and concerns of students. Thus I will undoubtedly be making some changes in the overheads I present in the course of the semester. And I will not necessarily follow the order of the overheads found there. Moreover, there will also be class discussions or lectures that are not outlined here. Students are responsible for all of this material.

Politics and Reason

Examinations and Papers

There will be two in-class essay examinations. A list of questions from which the examination questions will be selected will be made available to students one week prior to each examination. The mid-term examination is tentatively scheduled for February 27. There will be a comprehensive final examination at a time to be determined by the registrar. Students will have an option of writing a paper of about 15 pages in length in lieu of taking the final examination. Students who choose to write a paper will be free to write on any subject of their choosing relevant to the course, although the topic of the paper must be approved by the instructor. The paper may be an in-depth analysis of one of the theories presented in class or a comparative analysis of two or more of these theories. Alternatively, students might try to apply the ideas discussed in class to an analysis of some substantive theories, explanations or moral judgments made in any discipline within the social sciences or humanities. For students writing a final paper, a substantial outline or rough draft of the paper and a bibliography will be due the first week in April. The final draft of the paper will be due the day of the final examination.

Politics and Reason

Grades

The final grades for the course will be determined according to the following formula:

	Requirements for Politics and Reason Readings The course will combine lectures with discussions. Students will be expected to have read the assigned material and to be prepared to discuss it in class. Since the lectures will be largely drawn from the my work it would be very helpful for students to have read this material before attending class. The reading for the course is contained in three course packs which will be available at Copywrite. The first contains excerpts from three books I have written, The Trouble With Liberalism; Discovery or Invention; and Politics and Reason. This course pack will be available for purchase at Copywrite at the beginning of the second week of classes. Students who would like to purchase unabridged versions o f the three books. The three books will also be on reserve in Atkins library and will be made available to students on computer disks in the Microsoft Word for Windows format. (I have a freeware program that will enable students who do have Windows but not Microsoft Word to read and print the files containing the three books. Students might also be able to convert the files into the format of their favorite word processor. The three volumes take up about 4 megabytes of hard disk space). All of the other readings will available in a second course pack at Copywrite which should be available at the end of the first week of class. A third course pack, which will also be available at CopyWrite at the beginning of the second week of classes, contains outlines of the lectures and a number of class handouts. These outlines of the lectures are copies of the overheads that will be presented in class. They are meant to help you follow the arguments of the lectures, take further notes and review for examinations. They are not meant to be a substitute for the lectures. Because of the compressed nature of these notes, students will not find them understandable without having attended the lectures. Nor will they find the readings very helpful in understanding these notes, since the lectures contain a great deal of original analysis and terminology that is not found in the readings. Various changes in the content of the course will occur as a result of the development in my own ideas and in response to the questions and concerns of students. Thus I will undoubtedly be making some changes in the overheads I present in the course of the semester. And I will not necessarily follow the order of the overheads found there. Moreover, there will also be class discussions or lectures that are not outlined here. Students are responsible for all of this material. Politics and Reason Examinations and Papers There will be two in-class essay examinations. A list of questions from which the examination questions will be selected will be made available to students one week prior to each examination. The mid-term examination is tentatively scheduled for February 27. There will be a comprehensive final examination at a time to be determined by the registrar. Students will have an option of writing a paper of about 15 pages in length in lieu of taking the final examination. Students who choose to write a paper will be free to write on any subject of their choosing relevant to the course, although the topic of the paper must be approved by the instructor. The paper may be an in-depth analysis of one of the theories presented in class or a comparative analysis of two or more of these theories. Alternatively, students might try to apply the ideas discussed in class to an analysis of some substantive theories, explanations or moral judgments made in any discipline within the social sciences or humanities. For students writing a final paper, a substantial outline or rough draft of the paper and a bibliography will be due the first week in April. The final draft of the paper will be due the day of the final examination. Politics and Reason Grades The final grades for the course will be determined according to the following formula:	Midterm examination: 40%
Final examination/ paper: 60%
Active participation in class discussions will improve your final grade by up to one-half of a letter grade or 5 points on a hundred point grading scale.