10 YEARS OF PHIL 1010

Ian Ravenscroft

PHIL 1010 Mind & World

• taught in first semester each year• enrolment of around 180–190 students• two one-hour lectures and a one-hour tutorial

per week.

Three kinds of problems

1. Most of the students are not only new to university, they are new to the discipline. They don't know what is expected of them, especially in terms of essay writing.

2. Most students are not intending to major in philosophy, and consequently there can be motivational issues.

3. Most students don't have a breadth of learning to bring to the topic.

Assessment expectationsThe students often don't know what a university essay is like, and in particular they don't know what a philosophy essay is like.

I give them a brief description of the university grading system, and three essays. Their job is to mark the essays.

Afterwards I run a debriefing.

Getting the reading done

Doing the reading is essential for progressing in the topic, but when I began teaching the topic I found that many students did not do the reading.

I introduced reading assignments. The reading assignments consist of ten short answer questions.

READING ASSIGNMENT 2READING: Richard Dawkins, "Making Tracks Through Animal Space" YOUR NAME: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ YOUR TUTOR'S NAME : _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ YOUR TUTORIAL DAY & TIME: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1. According to Dawkins, could the human eye have evolved directly from something which is not an eye? YES/NO2. Dawkins asks whether the human eye could have evolved directly from something he calls "X". What is the definition

of "X"? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _3. According to Dawkins, could there be a continuous series of Xs connecting the modern human eye to something

which was not an eye at all? YES/NO4. How many generations does Dawkins estimate there to have been between our earliest ancestor and ourselves? _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 5. Does Dawkins think it plausible that each member of a series of Xs terminating in the human eye assisted the survival

and reproduction of the animal concerned? YES/NO6. Does Dawkins think that a "five percent eye" might be of some use to the animal possessing it? YES/NO7. Under what light conditions might we be fooled by a stick insect? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 8. What is a "continuous variable"? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _9. What animal does Dawkins describe as having an eye like a "pinhole camera"? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _10. Does Dawkins think that there is any value in having "half a lung"? YES/NO

There are ten tutorials, ten basic readings, and ten reading assignments. These are carefully synchronized.

The reading assignments can only be submitted in tutorials, so the students have an additional motive to go to the tutorials.

Over 90% of the students submit nine or more reading assignments.

Making it work for students

Philosophy can be very hard, and very abstract. I try to use lively, concrete examples to get the point across.

For example, in the philosophy of mind we make use of the idea of a functional role. In the literature, this is usually discussed using the analogy of the physical implementation of mathematical algorithms.

I prefer to illustrate the idea of a functional role using the example of the way different sorts of mechanisms can function as mousetraps.

Thank you!