PHIL 243: Social and Political Philosophy 1

Sections 13 and 15

Instructors
Dr. Bill Wringe (Philosophy)
Dr. John William Day (Faculty Academic English)

Information for students studying in Fall 2023

NB: Materials on this document relate to the parts of this course taught by your philosophy instructor,
Dr. Bill Wringe. Please consult documentation from your FAE instructor for issues relevant to his part
of the course.

About this course

This is a 6-credit course for 2nd year students in FEASS, who have no prior experience of studying
philosophy. There are 6 class hours per week: 3 taught by a philosophy instructor (me) and 3 by an
instructor from FAE (John William Day). There will be assessment tasks from both instructors, and the
assessment of the two parts of the course is equally weighted. In order to do well in the course you will
need to do well in each of the two components; poor performance in one component may lead to your
failing the course as a whole.

Class hours
Your classes with your philosophy instructor will be split into a 2-hour session and a 1-hour session.

Section 13: Weds 15.30-17.20 and Thurs 10.30-11.20

Classes with your FAE instructor will be on Mondays and Thursdays
Section 23: Tues 15.30-17.20 and Fri 15.30-16.20
Classes with your FAE instructor will be on Wednesdays and Fridays
As a general rule, the 2-hour classes discussion-based. For the discussion classes you will normally
need to do some reading before the class, as well as a small amount of written preparation (which will
not normally be assessed.) For the one-hour classes, you will not usually need to come specially
prepared, although you should bring a copy of the text we are studying and your written notes for the
course to date. The 1-hour class will often introduce some of the material that we will discuss later.
You should regard it as something to help with the reading, not as an alternative to it.
Although you are expected to attend all 3 hours of the philosophy component (as well as all 3 hours of
the Academic English component), your participation and attendance grade for this component will
mostly reflect your performance in the 2-hour classes.
Learning and Teaching Methods

The course is reading, writing, and discussion intensive (see below). In the FAE part of your course you
will focus on developing the skills which you will need for a course of this sort; in the philosophy part
of the course you will be using them to engage with philosophical issues which arise from the texts we
are studying in the course as a whole. In order to make sure that your learning in the two parts of the
course is well-integrated the texts used for the development of skills by the FAE instructors will be
selected from the texts which you will be using for the philosophy part of the course.
Reading: During the course of the semester, we will be studying 5 major philosophical texts: Plato's
Plato's Republic and 5 Early Dialogues; Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics; Lucretius' On the Nature of
The Universe; Cicero's On Duties.
We will spend approximately two weeks on each text. You will need access to these texts during the
class. If you are attending the class in person, you should have a physical copy of the text with you.
Printed copies are often more useful in class discussion, but the most important thing is to have a copy
of the same edition of the text that everyone is using
It is helpful for us all to be using the same editions of the required texts, since it means that in
discussion we can all easily find a passage that someone is referring to. We will be using the editions
published by Hackett for Plato’s 5 Early Dialogues and Republic, and Lucretius’ Nature of the
Universe; Cambridge for Cicero On Duties and Oxford for Nicomachean Ethics.

Writing: During the semester, you will need to write 2 ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAYS for your
philosophy instructor. In your essays you will typically need to a) demonstrate your knowledge and
understanding of relevant parts of the texts we have studied - where this will require knowledge of both
the main views put forward in the texts and of the arguments used to defend these views; b) make some
attempt to give a reasoned evaluation of the views put forward in the text; c) argue for a view of your
own related to the question set and defend it from objections.
There will also be a short, written exam (in-class) at the end of the semester. This will require the same
kinds of skills as the argumentative essays. It will carry less weight than the in-semester essays
The instruction you receive from your philosophy instructor will be aimed at enabling you to acquire
the skills and knowledge required to perform these tasks successfully. Since being familiar with the
content of the texts is only one of the skills you need to acquire during the course of the semester, this
will not be the only thing your instruction will focus on during the semester: you will also need to learn
about philosophical argument in general and about the arguments put forward in each of the texts we
study; as well as learning to develop your own critical responses to the material put forward in the
texts.
Discussion: Discussion is an important skill in philosophy, and this course is organized to allow an
opportunity to develop and practice your discussion skills. Effective discussion requires an ability to
present your own views and to listen to and respond to the views of other members of the class. (This
means, in particular that when another member of the class is talking, you should be listening to what
they have to say.) I shall assess your abilities in discussion both directly on the basis of your
contributions in class, and indirectly on the basis of a discussion portfolio.
 DETAILED SYLLABUS
Week beginning
WEEK(0-1): A Philosophical Toolkit - Arguments 18/09
TEXT: Photocopies
WEEK (2): What Is Justice 25/09
TEXT: Plato, Republic Bks 1-2
WEEK(3): Is Justice Good for Us 2/10
TEXT: Plato, Republic Bks 3-4
WEEK(4): Justice and Obeying the Law 9/10
TEXT: Plato: Crito in 5 Dialogues
WEEK(5): Matters of Life and Death 1 16/10
TEXT: Plato: Phaedo in 5 Dialogues
WEEK (6/7): Essay-Writing Technique and Preparation/Tutorials 23/10, 30/10

WEEK (8): Virtue, Happiness, Pleasure 1 6/11

TEXT: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics Bks 1-2
WEEK(9): Virtue, Happiness, Pleasure 2 13/11
TEXT: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics Bks 1,10
WEEK (10): What There Is and What There Isn't 20/11
TEXT: Lucretius, On the Nature of Things Bk 1
WEEK(11): Matters of Life and Death 2 27/11
TEXT: Lucretius, On the Nature of Things Bk 3
WEEK(12): Justice and Everyday Life 4/12
TEXT: Cicero: On Duties Bk 1-2
WEEK(13): Is Justice Still Good For Us? 11/12
TEXT: Cicero: On Duties Bk 2-3
WEEK(14): PREPARATION OF DISCUSSION PORTFOLIOS AND END OF
SEMESTER ESSAY 18/12
 Assessment
The assessment for the part of this course taught by your philosophy instructor consists of two term-
papers of 1500-2000 words, and one final exam, as well as an assessment of your class participation,
weighted as follows: 1st term paper 30% (of which 5 for the outline); 2nd term paper 30% (of which 5
for the outline); participation 20% oral+ 10% homeworks/discussion portfolio; final exam 10%.

For each term-paper, you will be required to write an outline to my specification. Your outline will be
graded. It will also form the basis for any feedback I give you. Your oral participation grade will be
assessed on the basis of your contribution to discussion in discussion-based classes

For your discussion portfolio, you will hand in a set of written answers to 5 questions chosen from the
weekly discussion questions (one on each philosopher). Your answer to each will need to reflect your
knowledge of the text and your critical response to it, and show some awareness of the main points
raised in class discussion. This will contribute to your participation grade.

Since this is intended as part of the assessment of your participation during the semester, I will usually
only allow you to submit answers to discussion questions where there is evidence that you have been
present in class, and prepared for discussion beforehand.

Use of Chat GPT and other forms of AI

In their written work, students should be aware of and comply with the Philosophy departments
statement on the use of AI in the preparation of written assignments, reproduced below:

The Philosophy department considers unauthorized use of artificial intelligence (AI) writing programs
on any writing assignment in Philosophy classes a form of plagiarism: presenting something you did
not write as if you wrote it. ChatGPT, which produces written responses to prompts provided to it by a
human user, is one such program, but there are also others. AI writing can be easily identified as such,
and Philosophy faculty members will actively work to identify instances of AI writing on written
assignments in their courses. If Philosophy faculty members identify such cases, they will treat them as
instances of plagiarism and, therefore, a disciplinary issue.

Students in Philosophy classes are required to research and write their own work. AI writing programs
do not give meaningful readings of philosophical texts, and many times, the writing produced by these
programs either contains incorrect information or is so vague that it is critically useless. Furthermore,
using AI technology in an essay does not help a student to satisfy departmental learning outcomes. If
you have any questions about best practices for writing, please feel free to contact your professors in
the department.
 Essay-marking Criteria for Phil 243

During the course of the semester I will be telling you about the criteria for grading specific
pieces of work. However, you may also find it useful to read the following general remarks in
order to give you some idea of what I will be expecting of you in your written work
In forming my judgment of the quality of your essay (and other written work) will pay
particular attention to the following :
Content: Knowledge and understanding of the relevant texts, philosophical
concepts and theories.
Argument: Quantity and quality of reasoning used in support of or in criticism
of the positions discussed. Consistency and coherence, depth of analysis.
Clarity: Use of language, essay structure.
Independence. The extent to which you think for yourself, rather than just
reproducing what you have read and heard; imaginative use of examples.
Relevance: Have you answered the question? Is everything you have written
relevant to the conclusion you tried to establish.
In assessing a student’s work, I typically consider the following questions:
A. About the thesis: Is the thesis clear? Does the thesis answer the question fully?
Does the way that the thesis is formulated provide evidence that the author has
reflected on the material he/she has read, and on material presented in lectures and
discussed in discussion based classes.
B. About material used to support the thesis: Does the writer attempt to show that the
thesis he/she is putting forward should be accepted on the basis of appropriate
evidence – including appropriate material from the texts we have discussed in class –
put forward in the form of arguments? Are the arguments put forward convincing? Do
they take appropriate account of a range of objections, by formulating those objections
clearly and providing some sort of response to them.
C. About the use of written texts
Do the arguments the writer puts forward demonstrate adequate knowledge of views
put forward in the text which are relevant to answering the question set, and of
arguments that might be used to support them. Is there evidence that the writer
understands the arguments (whether or not he she agrees with them) – for example, by
being able to express them in their own words? Is the writer able to back up claims
that they make about views expressed in the text by means of detailed reference to the
text? Is there evidence that the writer has reflected on the views and arguments put
forward in the text – eg by considering a range of objections to views put forward in
the text, by analysing the text in an independent manner, or by relating different parts
of the texts in an interesting and independent manner.
D. About writing, language and structure: Is the language used in the paper sufficiently
good from the point of view of grammar and vocabulary for the main ideas of the
paper to be understandable without undue difficulty? Is the language clear? İs the
structure of the paper sufficiently clear for it to be possible to identify a thesis,
arguments in support of that thesis, and where appropriate, objections and replies to
 these arguments.
E. About the writer: Does the essay appear to represent an attempt to answer the
question set in an independent and critical manner ? Is the writer capable of showing
appropriate detachment from the view they are advancing – eg by discussing
appropriate objections in a fair minded manner, and by using appropriate academic
language throughout? Does the essay appear to represent the best efforts of the student
to formulate and present their own answer to the question, using material presented in
lectures readings and class and (where appropriate) discovered via independent
research in an appropriate and critical fashion.
Essays which do all or most of the above well or extremely well will typically receive
grades in the A range; essays which do all adequately, or some well or very well and
others inadequately will typically receive grades in the B range; essays which make
some attempt to all or most of the above, and do some of them adequately will
typically receive marks in the C range; essays which display marked inadequacies in
one or more of these areas will typically receive marks in the D/F range.

Please note the statement on use of AI earlier in this document.