In the end, students should sum up the contribution that the study of philosophy may make toward a complete education and approach to life. Students will be challenged to analyze the larger, logical structure of texts in order to locate key arguments, conclusions, and terms. In addition, students are encouraged to integrate their own experience. As we approach each text, the instructor will represent the most sympathetic construction possible, postponing more wholesale criticism until the concluding session on each figure. This method is designed to encourage deeper engagement with each thinker as students challenge the instructor to help make sense of the material.
Critical questions are welcome at all times.
It is the chief value of philosophy students to state the reasons why they disagree. For this reason, each student should come to each class prepared with questions or comments on specific passages in the readings. Students will thus be able to present their contribution or question when the instructor calls on them. Class participation grades will reflect the instructor s assessment of overall preparedness and interest. The unexamined life is not worth living.