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This course challenges each of us to work together in actively practicing philosophy. As a result, time is set aside during every class meeting for you to engage in discussions with your classmates, either in small groups or with all of us together as a class.

The more you are able to meaningfully engage in our class discussions, the more you will learn and the better you may perform.

Here’s What I Want You to Do

First and foremost, arrive on time to each of our class meetings prepared to work with your classmates. Since every class meeting will have some form of group discussion, if you are late or absent, you will not only fall behind on material but also deny your classmates the opportunity to work with and learn from you.

In addition, do yourself a favor and find a notes buddy. A notes buddy is someone you can contact if you’d like to look over their course notes. This is extremely helpful if you are late or absent, or if you believe you might not have fully understood something that I presented during class. In any of those cases, reach out to your notes buddy and catch up on anything that you might have missed from class. Of course, as their notes buddy, you should also be ready and willing to share your notes with them, as needed.

Notes buddies are not assigned. Instead, on the first day of class, I encourage you to exchange university email addresses with at least one of your classmates. That way you have someone you are comfortable contacting when you’d like to compare notes.

This is important because if you miss class for any reason, make sure you contact your notes buddy. If you have specific questions after you’ve completed the relevant reading and reviewed the relevant notes from your notes buddy, let me know!

Make things easier for yourself—and for your classmates—by showing up on time to each of our class meetings.

Throughout all this, I also expect that everyone is mentally present during our class discussions, so do give each other your undivided attention. Out of respect for everyone else, please try to avoid distracting behavior like sleeping in class, chatting while I am trying to speak, using a phone or laptop without permission, arriving late, leaving the room during class, and doing homework for another course.

Given the wide variety of group discussions you will participate in, be sure to pay careful attention to my instructions and let me know if you have any confusions about what is expected from you.

Finally, two very important points to always keep in mind:

• Philosophy is a full-contact sport, but conducted as cooperative processes. You and your classmates must wrestle together with difficult ideas and issues, while not attacking each other. Disrespectful behavior will not be tolerated.
• To get the most out of our class meetings, please do not confuse this cooperative style of learning with mere conversation or informal, organized chatting.

Here’s Why I Want You to Do It

There is so much group discussion for this course for the simple reason that philosophy is an activity. An activity is only learned through continual practice. That is why this course is structured around the principle of experiential learning, which demands you engage in continual discussion with your classmates.

In that way, group discussion is an essential way for you to continually progress towards achieving these five learning outcomes for this course:

Here’s How You’ll Earn Philosophy Experience Points

For every group discussion, your group as a whole is assessed together, based on overall completeness and collective effort. Unless you are told otherwise, each class meeting will have at least 80 philosophy experience points worth of discussions and activities. (Days with guest speakers count triple, for 240 points.) These points are meant to be easily earned if you show up on time, pay attention, remain in the classroom, stay on topic, and do your part. However, students unable to fully participate—for instance, because they are late, absent, or unprepared—will earn 0 points.

Beyond that, anyone engaging in distracting behavior (sleeping in class, chatting while I am trying to speak, using a phone or laptop without permission, arriving late, leaving the room during class, doing homework for another course, and so on) may have philosophy experience points deducted from their point total.

I estimate that it will be possible to earn a maximum total of around 5,000 philosophy experience points through group discussion. Given the unpredictable nature of group discussions in a course like this, I cannot be more precise about this until the end of the semester. However, if the actual total possible points for group discussion adversely influences course grades, then I will update the course’s grading scheme accordingly.

Image: Chatterina / ChatGPT.

What If You Miss a Class Meeting?

Missing a group discussion under any circumstances does not excuse you from that activity. However, keep in mind that this course’s grading scheme is extremely flexible in how you may earn philosophy experience points. Furthermore, a philosopher’s stone may be used to make up for missing most group discussions. So occasionally missing a class meeting may not have significant impact on your final course grade.

In any case, if you miss a class meeting for a reason that is excused according to the university attendance policy, you may have the opportunity to earn missed philosophy experience points by completing a make-up activity. The nature of this opportunity will depend on the precise class meeting missed, as some group discussions (such as those involving guest speakers) are unique without any meaningful equivalent. However, even if the absence is excused, you must reach out to me via email with your documented excuse within 72 hours of the absence. Otherwise, you will not be allowed to make up the missed group discussion.