FYS 031: Science Fiction and Philosophy Fall Meeting times and location: MW 12:30 1:45, Aliber 0102; W 6-8:50, Harvey Ingham 0007

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1 FYS 031: Science Fiction and Philosophy Fall 2016 Meeting times and location: MW 12:30 1:45, Aliber 0102; W 6-8:50, Harvey Ingham 0007 Professor: Martin Roth, Department of Philosophy and Religion Contact information: martin.roth@drake.edu; phone: x3748. The best way to reach me is by . Office hours: MW 11-12, T 11-2, or by appointment; Medbury 208 Peer Mentor and Academic Consultant (PMAC): Ashley Blazek (ashley.blazek@drake.edu) Required texts: Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick; all other course readings will be made available as.pdf files or links (through Blackboard). Course description: You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You ve just crossed over into the Twilight Zone. Science fiction and philosophy each has a venerable history of using the strange and fantastic to examine and challenge the familiar, and in this course we will use works of science fiction short stories and films to introduce and explore a number of longstanding philosophical issues. The topics to be considered in this class include knowledge and reality, free will and determinism, and the relationship between mind and body. Learning Objectives: The primary aim of this course is to help students become better critical thinkers, readers, and writers. As such, the course is concerned more with developing skills than it is mastering content. Specifically, this course should foster your ability to: 1. Clearly identify and state relevant problems, questions, or issues. 2. Develop and defend reasonable solutions, answers, or positions on a problem, question, or issue. 3. Provide careful and well supported interpretations of important claims. 4. Effectively communicate a position on an issue. 5. Identify assumptions that inform our reasoning about a problem, question, or issue and make those assumptions explicit. 6. Recognize the ways in which a position may be challenged and acknowledge that reasonable alternatives to a position may exist. 7. Discover and evaluate sources of information or evidence.

2 Evaluation: Your course grade will be determined by the following factors: 1. The quality of your papers (65% total): (a) Paper 1 (around 1200 words): 15% (b) Paper 2 (around 1800 words): 20% (c) Paper 3 (around 2400 words): 30% Topics, requirements, and evaluation criteria will be distributed well in advance of each paper. Papers will be assigned and turned in via Blackboard. The first paper will be assigned sometime in the middle of September. The second paper will be assigned sometime in the middle of October. The third paper will be assigned around the end of November. Writing Workshop: Each student is required to attend a session with a Writing Workshop tutor. These sessions should be used to work on the second paper, and failing to attend a tutoring session will lower your grade on that paper. More details about this will be provided when the second paper is assigned. To schedule an appointment, visit this link: 2. The quality of your participation (35%): While attendance ( showing up ) is necessary for participation, attendance is not equivalent to participation. Participation requires activity, including asking and answering questions, engaging others in conversation, articulating a position or an objection to a position, and sharing and responding to short writing assignments and other in-class work. Short writing assignments: In preparation for both class discussions and the longer papers, you will be asked to produce written work for many of the days we meet (about one page, typed and double-spaced). Often these assignments will ask you to respond to course readings, but sometimes they will ask you to respond to in-class discussions. You will be expected to bring a hard copy of your work to class (and turn it in at the end of class), so make sure you have reliable and timely access to a working printer. I will not accept assignments turned in by . Because your participation is being evaluated, there is no additional penalty for missing class. As a corollary, there are no excused absences: you cannot participate if you are not here, regardless of the reason for the absence. In order to receive credit for a short writing assignment, you are required to attend class the day the assignment is due.

3 General Expectations: 1. What I will expect from you: (a) You actually read the assigned material. (b) You read it more than once, and read it with a careful, critical and questioning mind. (c) You come to class prepared to ask questions about the readings and offer your evaluations of the readings. (d) You treat the beliefs of others seriously and adopt the attitude that they may have something meaningful and important to offer, even if you ultimately disagree with it. (e) You foster a spirit of collaboration and the sense that we are working towards the common goal of figuring out what it is best to believe about the course topics. (f) You recognize that disagreement does not require being disagreeable. I encourage you to challenge each other (and me!), but please do so in a way that respects the person you are challenging. (g) You give your best effort when completing assignments. 2. What you can expect from me: (a) I will foster an atmosphere that is conducive to an intelligent, respectful, and fair exchange of views. (b) I will equip you with the tools to engage critically with the content of the course. (c) I will provide helpful feedback on the work you do for the course. (d) I will help you satisfy the expectations I have of you. Course Content: We will engage three kinds of texts : short stories, films, and philosophical essays. Which stories, films, and essays we end up engaging and in what order will in large part depend on your interests and input. Below you will find a list of stories and films we might read/watch, organized around philosophical themes to which these pieces speak (some pieces speak to several of the themes, so the categories are not meant to be exclusive. For example, The Matrix touches on all three themes). The list is merely suggestive and certainly open to revision. Regardless of what we end up reading, please make sure to bring the relevant readings to class. I prefer that you bring hard copies of the articles to class, but you are permitted to access them electronically (e.g., on a laptop). Knowledge and Reality: The Remarkable Case of Davidson s Eyes, by H.G. Wells

4 The Author of the Acacia Seeds, by Ursula Le Guin Swarm, by Bruce Stirling Mimsy Were The Borogoves, by Lewis Padgett Understand, by Ted Chiang With Morning Comes Mistfall, by George Martin I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon, by Philip K. Dick The Matrix (movie) Vanilla Sky (movie) Mind, Self, and Identity: Nine Lives, by Ursula Le Guin X: A Fabulous Child s Story, by Lois Gould Evidence, and Robot Dreams, by Isaac Asimov EPICAC, by Kurt Vonnegut The Winter Market, by William Gibson The Immortal and Funes, The Memorious, by Jorge Luis Borges We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, by Philip K. Dick Being John Malkovich (movie) Memento (movie) Total Recall (movie) Ex Machina (movie) Free Will and Determinism: Minority Report, and Adjustment Team, by Philip K. Dick Aristotle and The Gun, by L. Sprague de Camp Love Is The Plan The Plan Is Death, by James Tiptree, Jr. Minority Report (movie) Adjustment Bureau (movie) Gattaca (movie) I have not listed any philosophical essays here. There are two reasons for this. First, which essays we read will depend on which stories we read/films we watch. Second, I don t want the works of philosophy to prefigure your reading of the stories/viewing of the films. Rather, I want to use the philosophy to support, complicate, augment, or clarify your initial interpretation of the fiction and/or your initial attempt to develop a position on the issues in question. Calendar Notes: -Class will not meet on Monday, September 5 th (Labor Day) -On Monday, September 12 th, the class will attend a library instruction session in Cowles 201 (this will replace one of our regular class sessions). Please go directly to Cowles 201 on that day. -Class will not meet on Monday, October 17 th (Fall Break)

5 -Class will not meet Wednesday, November 23 rd (Thanksgiving) Academic Honesty: One expectation I have of you deserves special attention: academic honesty. What does this mean? It means, first and foremost, that you do not plagiarize, which is what happens when you represent the ideas of others as your own. The most straightforward example of plagiarism is word-for-word copying, with proper citation not given. Subtler forms include slightly altering the language of others while conveying a point or argument that is not yours. Other examples of academic dishonesty include cheating on an exam and fabricating data/evidence. Academic honesty is the foundation without which academic life makes no sense. As such, if you are determined to have been academically dishonest, you will automatically fail the assignment and quite possibly fail the course (and perhaps face even harsher punishment, e.g. probation or expulsion). Thus, I offer the following advice: if you are unsure whether you are violating Drake s regulations governing academic honesty, ASK ME. Furthermore, I strongly encourage you to familiarize yourself with Drake s regulations governing academic honesty: ons/ Content found on Internet sites (such as Wikipedia and other on-line encyclopedias) is not considered common knowledge; as such, using material from such sources without proper citation constitutes academic dishonesty. Disabilities: If you require academic accommodation because of a disability, please discuss this with me during the first week of the semester. Accommodations are handled though Student Disability Services (Old Main 107). You can contact Michelle Laughlin (the director of SDS) by phone (x 1835) or michelle.laughlin@drake.edu. Further Information: 1. Cell phones and other noisemaking devices should be put in a quiet setting prior to the beginning of class. 2. Use of laptops is permitted, but do not browse the Internet during class (unless given permission). 3. I will notify the class (by ) whenever I post notes, assignments, or announcements to Blackboard.