REFLECTION PAPER #1
What is your view of the world? More specifically, among your beliefs
and convictions, what are some of the most important, the ones that
shape your understanding of the world, of your fellow human beings,
and of yourself -- the ones that most fundamentally guide your life?
You should give some of your reasoning about why these claims are
important, and have some discussion of how they influence the way you
go about your life, but don’t worry too much in this first assignment about
giving rigorous arguments or precise accounts. Just try to put down on
paper the gist of your worldview. You’ll want a description of it sufficiently
good that you can refer back to it at the end of the course to see how your
participation in this course has influenced you.
Reflection Paper #2
Read Lewis Carroll's classic work, What the Tortoise Said to Achilles
(it can also be found here, here, and here) and write a reflection paper
on it:
1) Your paper should briefly summarize the problem in which the Tortoise
has mired Achilles.
2) It should also discuss this problem, giving your own thoughts about it,
with your reasons for taking the view you do. Some questions you might
ask yourself as you read Carroll's story: What does the story tell us about
logic and reasoning? What is the relationship between logic and real-life
reasoning? Is there a solution to the problem presented in the story? If you
give a valid argument and someone refuses to recognize it as valid in the
way the Tortoise does, how would you go about showing that it is valid?
How important is validity to actual argument? If you think Achilles makes
a mistake in his responses to the Tortoise, what is it?
Reflection Paper #3
EITHER:
(a) For your first page, draw a mind map, concept map, visual diagram,
symbolic picture, or some other drawn representation of the philosophical
ideas found in the Gorgias or one of its major arguments. Then write a
page to a page and a half explaining your representation, using evidence
from the dialogue itself to support your claims about its reasoning.
OR
(b) Boethius’s Consolation has a number of poems that make philosophical
points. Write your own philosophical poem, on some topic found in the
Consolation or on any other related topic (just a few examples: death,
happiness, the good life, God, philosophy, suffering, fortune, justice),
expressing your perspective on that topic. Then write a page and a half
briefly explaining the perspective expressed in your poem and defending it
from objections that others might make against it.
REFLECTION PAPER #4
For your last reflection paper write about whether this course in philosophy
has contributed anything to your worldview (especially those points you
mentioned in your first reflection paper). If not, discuss what it would have
had to do to make such a contribution. If so, how has it contributed? End
with some thoughts about how you might apply philosophical ideas/approaches
to your life in the future (or else how you might continue the refinement of your
own philosophical ideas). This paper is due with your portfolio (December 13).