OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH ANIMALS

GNST 1200 FRESHMAN SEMINAR: SPRING 2001

Bob Corbett, instructor

MEETS:

BELOW YOU WILL FIND INFORMATION ON:

• Course Objectives
• Readings
• Course Requirements and Grading
• Syllabus

• Course Objectives (short version).

  In quite recent years a new and strong philosophical challenge has been mounted concerning philosophers' views of our relationships with animals. This has been led by Peter Singer, an Australian Utilitarian, who has put forward a strong view of animal rights. Singer based his views on a Utilitarian argument that harm is harm, and there is no sufficient reason for not giving serious and due consideration to pain that animals suffer in their relationships with humans. Tom Regan followed shortly with a different more Kantian argument for animal rights, and the philosophical world was off and running. It hasn't slowed down yet.

  This course will aim at familiarize you with the main arguments in these movements and of the arguments of their critics as well. Additionally we will look at some very specific issues such as the eating of meat, keeping of pets and maintenance of zoos. It is hoped that the students will not only have a decent sense of the main arguments in contemporary philosophical literature, but that they will also develop their own philosophically defended views on this subject.

• Readings

  We will read:

  • Several essays by leading philosophers who are active in the most important "schools" of thought concerning animals.
  • The whole of: Rogers, Lesley. MINDS OF THEIR OWN: THINKING AND AWARENESS IN ANIMALS Boulder: Westview Press, 1997.
  • Several other essays which individual students will read for personal projects.

• Course Requirements and Grading

  Specific course requirements will be:

  1. Regular attendance is expected. Missing excessive classes will be penalized.
  2. 5 specific precis of specifically readings or topics.
  3. 1 paper on our visit to the Schonbrunn Zoo.
  4. 2 oral presentations to the class concerning readings outside of assignmed class readings which are relevant to the class assigned readings.
  5. Class participation.
  6. Mid-term and final exam.

  Grading: While I will grade each individual assignment, the grade of the course will not be mere the sum of the individual grades. Rather, I will take into account an overall sense of quality in the general tone of one's work. However, the sum of one's individual grades will certainly be a strong indication of where one stands. In a rough sense the assigments will be valued in this fashion:

  Grading

  • Attendance: This will be only a negative possibility. You begin will full credit.
    • If you miss more than 2 classes your grade will be lowered one full letter grade.
    • If you miss more than 3 classes your grade will be lowered two full letter grades.
    • If you miss more than 4 classes your grade will be lowered three full letter grades.
    • If you miss 6 classes you will receive a grade of F.
  • General work required and graded
    • 5 written precis: 25%
    • Zoo paper: 5%
    • 2 oral presentations: 10%
    • Class participation: 10%
    • mid-term exam: 25%
    • final exam: 25%
    • total:
    • ......................100%

    Two important additional notes:

    1. On-time work is crucial. Each assignment will have a due date and NO LATE WORK will be accepted for credit. Period. None. So please face that issue as we get started.
    2. I will only give a grade of incomplete in a very unusual circumstance, one in which the student was doing all work in a timely and acceptable fashion and then some major catastrophe strikes, one for which the student can give evidence of and which is seriously debilitating. Even then, an incomplete would be negotiated toward the shortest reasonable time to fulfill the work with no extensions. In only the rarest occasions would a grade for a fulfilled incomplete ever be higher than a C.

    Basically the point is: there are time deadlines. Stay with them.

• The Syllabus

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