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Course Syllabus: PHIL 263-05: Critical Inquiry into Cultural IssuesGod(s):

Totally Online

Term and Dates: Spring 2013, Class inclusive dates Jan.22 to May 13,2013Instructor: Dr. Alessandro Tomasi

Contact Info:atomasi111@gmail.comand atomasi@ric.eduPlease, indicatein your subject header that you are in one of my classes (give course andsection number). Also, please include your name in the email.

Dept of Phil Phone: 401-456-8012

Availability:Iwill be active in the discussion forums and other work areas inBlackboard at least five days each week. That will be where most of our classinteraction will happen. Communication, when in the blackboardenvironment, benefits the entire class. Email should be reserved forconcerns of a personal/sensitive nature.

Required Texts:(G) Robinson, T. (ed.), God, Hackett Readings in Philosophy, 2002.(GQ) OMalley, W., God: The Oldest Question, Chicago: Loyola Press,

2000.

Course Description: This course is ENTIRELY ONLINE. Western and non-Western concepts of divinity are examined. Topics include polytheism,monotheism, monism, atheism, gender, and the God(ess). Students examinetheir own ideas in the context of various philosophical and religioustraditions. 4 credit hours. Prerequisite: Gen. Ed. Core 1, 2, 3. Fulfills Gen. Ed.Core 4.

Course Format and Requirements: The course is divided into 6assignment periods. For each assignment period there is a readingassignment and discussion questions. During each assignment period,

students are required to post messages that answer the discussionquestions. Rules for the quality and quantity of the messages are describedbelow. Deadlines for each assignment period are listed in the Schedulebelow. In addition to participation in class discussions, students will berequired to take five quizzes and a final examination. Instructions on allthese requirements are given below in the grading information section.

mailto:atomasi111@gmail.commailto:atomasi@ric.edumailto:atomasi111@gmail.commailto:atomasi@ric.edu

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Final Grade Calculation:

Assignments Percent

Online Participation (6 assignments: 6% eachassignment)

36%

Quizzes (3 quizzes: 14% each) 42%

Final Examination 22%

TOTAL 100%

Undergraduate Grading System:

Grade

NumericalEquivalent

A 93-100

A- 90-92

B+ 87-89

B 83-86

B- 80-82

C+ 77-79

C 73-76

C- 70-72

D+ 67-69

D 63-66

D- 60-62

F 0-59

I Incomplete

F Incomplete/Failure*

W Withdrawn

Grading System:

NOTE: There is no extra credit available in this class. The only things forwhich you can receive credit in this class have been listed under the GradingSection.

NOTE: Makeup Exam Policy: Students are expected to take all exams andposts when scheduled. In the event of illness or extraordinarycircumstances, the student must contact the faculty member andprovide documentation to request an exception and approval to take amakeup exam. If the request is not approved, the grade will berecorded as a zero.

Online Participation is graded according to the number ofacceptable messages (messages include initial answers to the studyquestions AND replies to other students messages) posted by the studentduring each assignment period. Each assignment is worth 6% of your totalgrade. The course is divided into 6 assignments, for a total of 36% of yourfinal grade. The grade for one assignment period is determined by thefollowing formula:

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Messages are judged according to both their quantity and quality. Criteria forthe quality of the message are stated below.2. Although you are free to post more, no more than 2 messages will becounted per day. The purpose of the rule is to insure that messages aredistributed over the assignment period in order to allow for replies.

3. At least half of the total number of your messages must be posted duringthe first half of the assignment period. For assignments that last 2 weeks(as2-5), the half-point deadline is each Sunday (midnight). For assignments 1and 6, see schedule below.4. At least one third of the messages must be replies to other studentsmessages. Replies are evaluated using the same (expect for one: see point 3below, about length) criteria used to evaluate other types of messages.

Quality of Messages: In order to be counted toward your assignment grade, amessage must:(1) contain a relevant quote from the reading assignment. Messages that do

not contain quotes from the text are not counted. All quotes must be placedin quotation marks and set off from the rest of the text of the essay by atleast one empty line above and below the quote.(2) contain a commentary on the quoted passage and a reason andjustification for the statement or claim that the comment is making.(3) be at least 300 words in length, for your initial responses to the studyquestions, and be at least 200 words in case of replies to other studentscontributions. Long quotes over three lines in length are not counted indetermining message length.(4) attempt to answer the main discussion question in part or in whole.(5) contain quotations that are short and relevant. The commentary should

interpret the quote.(6) contain good grammar, syntax, punctuation and spelling.

Note to Students: Students are expected to meet the standards ofcollegiate academic writing in all Conferences and other assignments. It isyour responsibility to express yourself clearly and properly. This usuallyrequires rewriting and polishing a text several times. Experience shows thatwaiting until the day an assignment is due to produce a first draft often leadsto disappointing outcomes for students and instructors.

Messages that do not conform to the above criteria will not be counted

toward the total number of messages that a student posts. Students will beinformed if a message is not acceptable. In that case, students are free toresubmit the message after making the appropriate changes. Messages mustbe revised within 3 days of the posting of the rejection message.

An acceptable message must have the following qualities:

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It must be clear. Any reader or I should not be forced to "interpret" yourwriting. Check your grammar. If I find any ambiguity due to poor syntax orgrammar, your message will not be accepted.It must be concise. Get to the point. Give an answer and provide it withreasons. Messages should be brief, but not fragmented. As a rule, each

message should deal with one basic point regarding the study question.It must be complete. When a judgment is made it must be supported byreasons. An excellent message must show the reasoning behind any of youranswers. You need to explain why I should agree with you. You should notassume that your answers, or parts of them, are self-evident.It must be convincing. A good message is one that contains compellingreasons to accept it. This does not mean that a good message necessarilycontains correct answers. In many cases, "correctness" is a matter of degree.An answer, or analysis, may be worse than another without necessarily beingincorrect.

Concerning Replies:Your replies are meant to either improve, or correct, orsimply add (or perform all of these functions) to the information offered inthe message replied to. In your reply to a message, it is not enough to giveyour alternative way to answer a question. You also need to give reasons forwhy your answer improves or adds to the message you are replying to. Thus,in some cases, if no mistakes or weaknesses are found, some research willbe necessary to make your reply a worthy contribution to the ongoingdiscussion.

If someone told you "the earth is flat", would you try to convince him that heis wrong by just saying, "no, the earth is round"? You need to give reasons

for why he should NOT think the earth is flat and for why he should think theearth is round. Then this flat-earth person either will be convinced or willreject your reasons by giving others of his own, showing why you are wrongand he is right. We are working with reasons, therefore, not merely withconclusions. It is by giving reasons that I can also evaluate yourunderstanding of the material we are studying.

Replies are also acceptable in which you agree with something said in theoriginal message. However, such messages must add something to theoriginal message, showing both that this is in fact an addition to the originalmessage and why this addition is important. In a reply you are always

directly addressing part or whole of the original message.

When replying to a message, do the following:

1. choose a message from another student (possibly one which has notbeen replied to already).

2. check for mistakes or weaknesses of any kind (both formal, e.g.grammar, syntax, and so on, and substantial, e.g. mistakes in content).

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If you find any problem, describe and explain it in your reply, alsoproviding a solution. If you do NOT find any significant problem, thenwrite: I did not find any significant problem. If the instructor findssignificant problems in the initial message, then your reply will NOT becounted towards your assignment grade.

3. interpret, comment, correct, revise, add information, and so on.

NOTE: if one of your messages receives a critique from another student inwhich significant problems are found, then you CAN and SHOULD revise yourinitial message. Acceptance of your initial message will depend on yourrevisions. Revisions can be posted within two weeks from the day thecritique was posted.

REMEMBER that in a reply you are ALWAYS directly addressing part or wholeof the original study question AND the author of the message you arereplying to. Address the author explicitly (e.g. Dear John/Joanna, etc. etc.).

Quizzes and Final Exam:Detailed instructions about the quizzes and the final exam will be provided atthe beginning of the semester (see in Assignments folder). Quizzes and FinalExam will be made available for a period of time (usually, 2 days before thedue date) during which you can decide when to take it. Once you start thequiz or final exam, however, you will have a limited number of minutes tofinish it (usually, 50 minutes). The questions will be multiple-choice andtrue/false questions and will be chosen by Blackboard randomly from a largepool of questions.

Assignments & Schedule:

More detailed instructions concerning the quizzes, the readings and thestudy questions will be given in the appropriate conference area.

Week Date Readings/Assignments1 Jan.22 27

Class Week: In thiscourse, the class weekbegins on Monday at

12:00 a.m.EST/EDT and ends thefollowing Sunday at11:59 p.m. EST/EDT.

First Assignment

Readings: GQ: ch.1, ch.6 and 7

Assignments:

BiographyConference Posts (at least 1 messageanswering 1 study question)

2 Jan.28 Feb.3 First AssignmentFirst Assignment ReadingsFirst Assignment Posts (post at least 2

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more gradable messages by the first-halfdeadline Feb.3)

3 Feb.4 10 First AssignmentFirst Assignment Readings

First Assignment Posts (second-halfdeadline Feb.10)

4 Feb.11 17 Second Assignment

Readings: Mircea Eliades The Sacredand The Profane (Handout) and DavidHumes Of Miracles (Handout)

Assignments:Second Assignment Readings

Conference Posts (first-half deadlineFeb.17)

5 Feb.18 24 Second AssignmentSecond Assignment ReadingsConference Posts (second-half deadlineFeb.24)

First Quiz Due Feb.24

6 Feb.25 Mar.3 Third Assignment

Readings: GQ: ch.2 and RichardDawkins The God Delusion: ch.3(Handout)

Assignments:Third Assignment ReadingsConference Posts (first-half deadlineMar.3)

7 Mar.4 10 Third Assignment

Third Assignment ReadingsConference Posts (second-half deadlineMar.10)

8 Mar.11 17 Spring Recess

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9 Mar.18 24 Fourth Assignment

Readings: GQ: ch.3 and 4 and G: Craig(5: up to p.65)/Schick (11: up to p.156)

Assignments:Fourth Assignment ReadingsConference Posts (first-half deadlineMar.24)

10 Mar.25 31 Fourth Assignment

Assignments:Fourth Assignment ReadingsConference Posts (second-half deadlineMar.31)

Second Quiz Due Mar.31

11 Apr.1 7 Fifth Assignment

Readings: G: James (22) and G: Berger(32)

Assignments:Fifth Assignment ReadingsConference Posts (first-half deadline

Apr.7)12 Apr.8 14 Fifth Assignment

Assignments:Fifth Assignment ReadingsConference Posts (second-half deadlineApr.14)

13 Apr.15 21 Sixth Assignment

Readings: G: Hick (19) and G: Buber (33)

Assignments:Sixth Assignment ReadingsConference Posts (post at least 2gradable messages by Apr.21)

14 Apr.22 28 Sixth Assignment

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Assignments:Sixth Assignment ReadingsConference Posts: (post at least 2 moregradable messages by the first-halfdeadline Apr.28)

15 Apr.29 May 5(Semester Ends)

Sixth Assignment

Assignments:Sixth Assignment ReadingsConference Posts: (second-half deadlineMay 5)

Third Quiz Due May 5

16 May 7 13Grades Due May 14

(noon)

Final Examination

Participation Policy and Additional Information

As ongoing collaboration and dialogue are essential for effective onlinecourse delivery, it is imperative that students participate regularly. Thosewho do not participate regularly according to the guidelines outlined abovemay receive no credit for participation, and are subject to course failureat the discretion of the instructor.

Use of TURNITIN: Please understand that in taking this course yourassignments may be submitted to Turnitin.com and reviewed for textualsimilarity suggestive of plagiarism. All submitted papers are subsequentlyincluded as source material in the Turnitin.com database for the purpose ofdetecting plagiarism in other submitted work. Please review Turnitin.comterms of use agreement should you have any questions.

Discussion Concerning Syllabus: Because this is an electronic classroomand we are not reviewing the syllabus orally, the student is encouraged todiscuss items within the syllabus. This discussion should clear up any

ambiguous or vague language that may be in the document. It also serves toclarify the students understanding of course, expectations, goals anddirection. If the student does not have questions or comments, then I willassume that there is understanding. There is no reason to feel intimidatedabout getting into a discussion. Post your questions and comments in theGeneral conference.

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Submission of Original Work: All work submitted must be written for thiscourse during the term in which the course is being completed. Work fromother courses or from other academic or non-academic settings, past orpresent, is not acceptable and may be subject to immediate failure. Ifstudents wish to submit extensively revised or expanded work previously

submitted in this or another course, they must obtain the approval of theclass instructor in advance.

Technical Help: Call the helpdesk at (401) 456-8803.