Seminar
Requirements
Philosophy
383—From Neurons to Selves
Michael Taber
Spring 2025
Because the readings will be the
springboards for our discussions, and because our discussions will be the
primary focus of the seminar, you will be required to keep up with the
readings.
Your evaluation for the seminar will be
based on the following, with their point values (out of a semester total of
200):
As this is an upper-division seminar, you are expected
to contribute to making this a seminar. This means more than you being
present, more than you speaking only when called upon, and more than speaking
up on your own only once every few weeks. It also does not mean merely talking
often, as if the more sound waves created, the better.
Students can expect the Engaged Learning element of
this course to focus on engagement with the readings by addressing
instructor-composed handouts and questions while doing the readings, and to
share their insights with the class.
Work due on a given class day is due at
the start of class, unless otherwise noted. Missing a tutorial costs one full
grade, even if the paper is turned in on time. Late (even barely late)
work loses the point equivalent of one full grade (=10%), and a further grade
for each additional twenty-four hours of lateness. Keep in mind this cost when
deliberating about taking more time in which to complete a paper.
Final letter grades for
the course will correspond to the following percentages:
A- 90–92 A 93–100 A+
**
B- 80–82 B
83–86 B+
87–89
C- 70–72 C 73–76 C+ 77–79
D- ** D 60–66 D+
67–69
F 0–59 ** =
doesn’t exist at SMCM
Attendance
policy
Executive summary:
Don’t hit the two-week mark!
You have sensibly chosen
a small college. If you had wanted to be facelessly anonymous, you could have
chosen to enroll at Enormous U. Directly relating to each other about matters
of (I’m sure you’ll come to agree) great importance to us as individuals and as
members of communities is the best of college experiences.
This course is
structured as a seminar. That means we use real-time, in-person discussions to
explore, understand, and even disagree about the text assigned. Even though I
have guideposts for the discussions, the presence or absence of individuals in
a class on a given day will shape how that day’s conversation unfolds and what
new understandings we develop as a class. Missing class isn’t just about
missing the content. In this course, it’s not just about “what we go over,” but
“HOW” we go over it that’s critical for your learning. That’s why showing up
matters.
For at least this
reason, regular attendance at, and participation in, the class are central to
this course. (Besides, it’s well-nigh impossible to do well in this course
without regular attendance, and difficult without regular participation.)
For this course,
everyone is allowed three absences (excused or unexcused) per semester. Having
a fifth absence—excused or unexcused—will result in failing the course, despite
the quality of the rest of the student’s work. (Arriving
to class more than 20 minutes late or departing from class more than 20 minutes
early counts as an absence.)
(Students using an
approved ADA accommodation for “modified attendance policy” will be granted one
extra absence; so the grade wouldn’t be affected even
with five absences, but would automatically become an F upon the sixth.)
So because this is a Tu/Th class, you get two weeks’
worth of absences. And you fail the course if you exceed that. (Or if you hit
your sixth class, if you have an approved ADA accommodation for modified
attendance policy.)
The one exception to
the preceding paragraph is for students who are forced by quarantine rules to
stay away from classes. In such cases, the student should contact the
instructor ASAP—and in any case, prior to the first class missed due to
quarantine.
The first recourse
students should use to catch up when absent—for any reason—is to look for a
communication from their Back-Up
Buddy, a system to be explained and signed up for in class. Students can
also contact the instructor for added assistance, of course.
As I hope is obvious—or
soon will be once the semester starts—the fact that you are allowed these absences without any
automatic loss of grade should not be interpreted as a recommendation to actually use said absences. Not only do you want to
avoid imprudently and prematurely emptying your bank account only to find out
that you’re getting walloped with some virus near the end of the semester, but
your ability to make sense of the material, your ability to become fluent in
philosophically informed ways of thinking, and your ability to succeed in your
assignments would be unhappily compromised in proportion to your number of
absences.
Tutorials
The papers will be
run as paired tutorials. You will be scheduled in pairs to read your paper to
me and to the other student. We will discuss your paper with you, interrupting
you more than once. Then the other student will read their paper in the same way.
So that we may follow along as you read, ensure that the other student has
access to your paper. Realize that it is your paper which will be graded, not
your reading of it or your answering any questions
which I or the other student may bring up. The purpose of having you read the
paper to me is that I can give you most comments directly and suggest ways to
improve your future work. This is much easier for me to do and much more
helpful to you than having you read my comments in dried ink on a dead piece of
paper. Because I will have to schedule many tutorial sessions, I am canceling
class for the days during which the tutorials will be held.
Writing
Since writing is
central to the course, both in reading others' and in creating your own, respect
for writing will manifest itself even at the level of writing mechanics. You
will be expected to take stylistic and mechanical concerns most seriously in
your three papers. As a motivational aid to this end, you will be allowed two
grammatical, spelling, or punctuation mistakes per page (partial pages counting
as full), after which you will lose one point for each mistake. For example, if
you have a 24-point paper of five pages, and you have made thirteen mechanical
errors, then you will receive a 21 for the paper. N.B.: the same mistake
(not just similar) repeated will count as one mistake. You will be allowed to
submit a revised version with the mechanical errors corrected, and in these cases you will be assigned the average of your original and
revised grade.
You might consider spending a bit of time
at my writing site. Few would fail to benefit.
Discussion leading
Each of you will lead
15-20 minutes of a class session about one of the readings (your choice) for
that day (again, your choice). This is not a lecture, for your time should
instigate and incorporate discussion among the other students—even if you have to spend three minutes giving a mini-lecture about
this, or four minutes about that.
We all will have read
the piece you have selected, so your job is not to provide us with a review of
the reading. You might, however, make explicit for us what the problem is that
the author is trying to solve, what the author’s proposed solution is, what
some objections are (whether addressed by the author, or not) to that proposed
solution, what some tie-ins are to readings we have done or to other
discussions we will have had, etc.
In planning the arc of
your discussion, you are free to use an excerpt from the article, a video, a
podcast excerpt, a poem, a PowerPoint, a song, group work, etc.
Your leading should not
consist of simply reading notes, reading off PowerPoint slides (shudder!), or
something similarly disheartening. Nor is this an oral book report. That’s what
middle school was for. You have to remain true to the
material, while at the same time respecting your audience (which requires, at
the very least, keeping them awake!).
The sessions that are
available for leading are marked with asterisks on the course schedule. See the
key at the top of the
seminar schedule page.
Evaluation of the discussion
leading is based on:
· evidence of preparation—e.g.,
does your leading seem well organized? Does the timing and sequencing indicate
practice? (4 points)
· command of the material—e.g.,
do you correctly understand the author’s points? Does that come through? (8
points)
· quality of the manner of your leading—e.g., is your leading clear? Did you exert the leadership needed to
avoid becoming a mere traffic cop (“Next!”)? If there were available tie-ins
(internal tie-in: to a comment someone made 20 minutes ago; external tie-in: to
a reading from last week), did you avail yourself of them? (8 points)
Personal electronics
This seminar requires a
free-flowing exchange of ideas, between you and the authors, as well as among
us. The presence of electronic devices, replete with their glowing
notifications, creates a barrier to this flow. Therefore, the use of
electronics is allowed in class only in order to
access the readings online or by those with documented needs of which I’ve been
notified by official channels.
Because in class you
will need to have access to the readings, and because, for most of our books,
this will be on the Perusall site, you will need to
have a tablet or laptop in class—to be used, of course, only for class-related
activities.
Cell phones should be stowed away in any case, and not simply on the table—even
if turned upside down—even if powered completely off. “Why,” you ask? Well,
recent studies indicate the distracting effect of even a cell phone not
one’s own, laying on a nearby table.
In fact, of even a
drawing or a thought of a cell
phone. So I
hereby prohibit you during class even to think
of a cell phone! (I’ll keep mine away, too.)
(If a phone is the only
way you have of accessing the readings in class, fine…just give me a heads-up
so I know not to bark at you.)
As for note-taking, consult this
study, which found superior recall in
students who took notes by hand compared to those who took them by typing, and this
recent article sums up some of
the research findings.
Students with documented disabilities
“Following the Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, and
applicable state law, St. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM) does not
discriminate against any individual on the basis of
handicap or disability. As a result, SMCM will consider requests for reasonable
accommodations for students who self-disclose a disability or disabling health
conditions. Accessibility Services works with students, faculty, and staff to
promote access on our campus.”
The SMCM Office
of Accessibility Services
Academic integrity
Of sickness makes
sickness,
Contagion of
trust can make trust.
--Marianne
Moore, American poet
from “In Distrust of Merits” (1943)
The College’s definitions and policies about academic
misconduct are laid out here. Ignorance of such matters is no excuse.
Academic misconduct can result in automatic failure of the course, regardless
of how well a student has been doing on other assignments. In addition,
extra-course penalties may be pursued, like being prohibited from ever
re-taking the class.
“So, what about using a chatbot?”
Using AI, including platforms like ChatGPT or Bard, can be
helpful as a tool in studying for exams. There’s no guarantee that the info you
get from it will be accurate or to the point of the question. So you have to refuse to surrender your good judgment. It’s
ill-advised to parrot what a chatbot tells you the answer is, just as it is to
assume that the first hit on a Google search for “best Thai restaurant near me”
will delight your palate.
“OK, but what
about for writing papers?
AI can also be useful as a resource for getting clear on
some issues that you would need to understand in order to
write the paper, as would consulting Wikipedia or YouTube videos. In order,
that is for YOU to write the paper.
1.
It’s fine by me for you to use AI as a RESOURCE,
pre-writing.
AI can also be helpful as an editor, to do proofreading and
grammar- and spell-checking, and to improve the organization of a paper. I’m
not saying that the suggestions you get will always be correct, of course.
Don’t outsource your common sense. Also, be wary of missing an opportunity to
*learn* how a proposed revision of, say, a given wording is an
improvement. (Assuming, of course, that it is an improvement.)
2.
It’s fine by me for you to use AI as an EDITOR,
post-writing.
Where AI software should NOT be used is as an author.
For YOU are the author, and to represent the work of another (whether of
another person or of a software application) as if it were YOUR work is clearly plagiarism. As with using any other source,
you should not copy and paste into your paper any content you did not create.
3.
It’s def NOT fine by me for you to use AI as an AUTHOR,
doing the writing.
Good (and short!) tutorials on topics like samples of
acceptable and unacceptable paraphrases can be found at a page put up by
Indiana University: https://plagiarism.iu.edu/
Send
me mail: mstaber
at smcm dot edu
Go to the home
page for this course.
Go to Michael Taber's home page.
Go to the SMCM home page.