Phil 323
Problems in Philosophy of Religion
Dr. Deborah Achtenberg

Spring 2019
9:00-10:15 a.m.
Tues., Thurs.

Introduction

Part 1
Fear and Trembling (1843)
1-20; 21-45; 46-58; 59-109

temporary handout

Genesis 22.1-24, The Binding of Isaac (the Akedah)

“Søren Kierkegaard,” Patrick Gardiner, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy 

“Søren Kierkegaard,” William McDonald, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Tragic Hero – Knight of Faith (handout) 

Søren Kierkegaard
(1813 – 1855)

approx. 4 classes

Explanation #1

Athens and Jerusalem (1937)
49-67; 69-126
Genesis 2.4-3.24, Garden of Eden

Lev Shestov
(1866 -1938)

approx. 4 classes

“the philosophy that bows down will-lessly and helplessly before the material and ideal ‘data’ discovered by reason and that permits them to pillage and plunder the ‘one thing necessary’–this philosophy does not lead man towards truth but forever turns him away from it” (67).

Paper #1

Part 2
“Ways to Know God” (1946)
89-93, 97-111, 113-114 (new page numbers!)

The law of issue and return:  “every be-ing issues from God as from the First and returns to him again.  Flowing forth again after reuniting implies not a separation but an inclining to what lies below in order to raise it up” (85).

“Positive theology is based on the parallelism in being between Creator and creature….  Negative theology rests on the fact that alongside this likeness lies a greater unlikeness….” (89).

Notes on God (handout)

Edith Stein
(1891 – 1942)

approx. 3 classes

Explanation #2

“Jerusalem and Athens: Some Preliminary Reflections” (1967) 
147-173

Leo Strauss
(1899 -1973)

Paper #2

Part 3
“Temptation of Temptation” 30-50 (1964) 

Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 88a: 
Hebrew (Yeshiva University)
English (Soncino Talmud)

Emmanuel Levinas 
(1906 – 1995)

approx.  3 classes

Explanation #3

“Faith and Knowledge”
42-60; 60-82; 83-101 (1994)

Jacques Derrida 
(1930  – 2004)

approx. 4 classes

Paper #3

Course topic:  reason and revelation

Course goals:  through reading some influential 19th and 20th century philosophers, students will achieve familiarity with those philosophers’ views on the relation between and relative importance of reason and revelation; in class discussions and papers, students will learn to analyze, explain, compare and evaluate different views on these topics; in general, students will learn how to read different types of writing in philosophy of religion, will increase their understanding of the relation between and relative importance of reason and revelation, and will increase their understanding of how to write an essay on a text. 

Course requirements: 
Readings as assigned
Participation in discussion
3 explanation assignments
3 papers (five to seven pages)

Course texts: course texts are available from the university bookstore and from local and online distributors.  Students are required to utilize hard copies of all course texts.  There are no exceptions to this requirement.    

Part 1
Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling, C. Stephen Evans, trans., Cambridge University Press (paperback)
Lev Shestov, Athens and Jerusalem, Ramona Fotiade, trans., Ohio University press (paperback)

Part 2 
Edith Stein, “Ways to Know God:  The ‘Symbolic Theology’ of Dionysius the Areopagite and its Objective Presuppositions,” Walter Redmond, trans., in Knowledge and Faith: The Collected Works of Edith Stein (vol. 8), ICS Publications (online)
Leo Strauss, “Jerusalem and Athens: Some Preliminary Reflections” in Leo Strauss: Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy, University of Chicago Press (online)

Part 3
Emmanuel Levinas, “Temptation of Temptation,” Annette Aronowicz, trans., in Nine Talmudic Readings, Indiana University Press
——– “Desacralization and Disenchantment,” Annette Aronowicz, trans., in Nine Talmudic Readings
Jacques Derrida, “Faith and Reason,” Gil Anidjar, trans., in Acts of Religion, University of Chicago Press

Attendance:  Much of the important work in this course goes on in class.  Students are expected to be in attendance except in cases of illness, emergency, religious holiday or university-sanctioned extracurricular activity, to be present for the entire seventy-five minute period and not to make appointments that conflict with class sessions.  Graded assignments are based, in part, on class discussion and are expected to reflect familiarity with topics discussed.  As a result, it is to your disadvantage to miss class.

Attendance is required and will be taken at the beginning of each class session.  It is the student’s responsibility to sign the roll sheet in each class.  Students may miss three classes without penalty.  Five points will be subtracted from the final course grade for the fourth class missed and two points for each class missed after that.  Exceptions will be made in the case of illness, emergency, religious holiday or university-sanctioned extracurricular activity.  A written excuse or other evidence must be provided for exceptions to be made.

Missed classes: If you miss class, contact one of your fellow students to find out what we did in your absence and to get notes on the class you missed.  Once you have done that, you are invited to talk to the instructor about what you missed.  Please do not email the instructor to find out what you missed in class or—really!—to tell the instructor that you will not be attending. 

Spring break: March 16-24, 2019 

Explanations:  The explanations will not be essays but will be assignments in which you explain a concept or passage found in one of the readings.  They will be in finished form and without errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation.   

Papers: The papers will be essays.  They will be five to seven pages long.  Papers are due as scheduled on the course outline.  You need use no books other than the course texts to write the papers.  

In an essay, you state a thesis, explain it and argue for it.  The basic structure of an essay is:  an introduction in which you state your thesis, the body of the essay in which you explain and argue for your thesis, the conclusion in which you summarize or highlight what you have done in the essay.

 Essays will be typed or word-processed, double-spaced and in ten- or twelve-point type.  They will be in finished form and without errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation.  They will have a title and a title page.  Pages will be numbered.  There will be no extra spaces between paragraphs.  All quotations will be accompanied by a reference in parentheses.

Block indent passages that are more than three lines long.  When you block indent, you do not need quotation marks (the block indentation serves to show that the passage is a quotation).  In addition, block-indented quotations do not need to be in italics.  

In general, put the author’s ideas in your own words, and then cite the passage in which you find those ideas, for example:  

For Kierkegaard, ethical principles are universal and what is universal applies to everyone and at every time:  “The ethical as such is the universal, and as the universal, it applies to everyone, which may be expressed from another angle by saying that it is in force at every moment” (46).  From the ethical standpoint, it is a sin to assert that you as a particular individual matter more than a universal principle:  “As soon as the particular individual wants to assert himself in his particularity over against the universal, he sins” (46).

 In general, you should have very few ellipses in quotations.  In addition, quotations should include complete sentences.  Here’s an example of what not to do:

For Kierkegaard, ethical principles are universal and what is universal applies to everyone and at every time:  “The ethical…is the universal, and…applies to everyone…in force at every moment” (46).  From the ethical standpoint, it is a sin to assert oneself as a particular individual against the universal:  “…wants to assert himself in his particularity over against the universal, he sins” (46).

Do not start your paper with a broad general claim about the paper topic, for example:  “The relation between reason and revelation has been discussed by human beings since the beginning of history.”  Such statements do not further your goals in writing an essay, namely, to state, explain and argue for a claim.  Every sentence in an essay, from the beginning to the end, fulfills one of those functions.  So, jump right in at the beginning and start fulfilling those functions and, at the end, make sure every part of your essay clearly fulfills one of those functions.

Essays will be evaluated on the following basis:

1. Do you have the parts mentioned above (introduction, body, conclusion)?
   
2. Do you fulfill the functions mentioned above (state thesis, explain argue for it, summarize or highlight)?  Do you argue against objections?
   
3. Is the thesis you are writing about an interesting and important one?  Does your explanation of the thesis show that it is an interesting and important one?
   
4. Do you explain basic concepts and terms in your essay and make them clear to the reader?  Do you explain text that you have quoted so that the reader can understand it and also can see how you understand it?
   
5. Are your arguments clear and convincing to the reader?
   
6. Do you use specific examples from the text you are writing about to make your arguments stronger?  Do you use direct quotations from the text you are writing about to make your arguments stronger?
   
7. Does your conclusion summarize or highlight what you have done in the essay?
8. Is the essay typed or word processed, double-spaced and in ten- or twelve-point type?  Does it include a title and a title page?  Are the pages numbered?  Does the essay have no extra space between paragraphs?  Is it in finished form and without errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation?  Are all quotations accompanied by a reference in parentheses?  Do you follow the other instructions regarding format given above?

Evaluation:  Grades will be based on the explanations and papers, weighted equally (1/2 each).  Excellent class participation may raise your grade somewhat over the mathematical average, at the discretion of the instructor.  Any points for non-attendance will be subtracted as described above.

Late papers and explanations will lose a letter grade for each class session they are late.  Exceptions will be made only in the case of serious illness, emergency, religious holiday or university-sanctioned extracurricular activity.  A written excuse or other evidence must be provided for exceptions to be made.  Explanations and papers will be submitted on Canvas by midnight on the due date.  Papers submitted after that will be considered late.

Students will be held responsible for knowing what goes on in class.  Absences will not excuse you from knowing due dates of explanations or papers.  

The grading scale is:  94-100, A; 90-93 A-; 87-89 B+; 84-86 B; 80-83 B-; 77-79 C+; 74-76 C; 70-73 C-; 67-69 D+; 64-66 D; 60-63 D-; below 60, F.

It is the instructor’s policy that cheating, plagiarism or submission of written work for this course which was submitted in another course merits a course grade of ‘F’.

Course links:  The course outline and class assignments are posted on the world wide web.  They can be accessed through my personal academic website: <deborahachtenberg.com/courses/prs19co>.  They will also be distributed in class.  My site can also be accessed through the Canvas homepage for this course.

Canvas: The Canvas homepage for this course features a link to the online syllabus.  Almost all information you need for the course is on the syllabus, so consult it frequently.  In addition, explanations and papers will be submitted and returned on Canvas, absences will be recorded on Canvas, and grades will be calculated on Canvas.  Finally, the instructor does not use Canvas messaging for most communication to or from students and does not check it regularly.  

Use of the internet:  Use of the internet for research purposes is appropriate.  However, students should use their own ideas in papers they write.  In addition, they should be aware that papers plagiarized from internet sources can easily be detected.

Internet resources:

• Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (the on-line edition of Routledge’s encyclopedia of philosophy) 
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (another good on-line encyclopedia of philosophy, this one from Stanford University)
  
• Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper (In addition to suggestions I will make in class, you may find this webpage from Jim Pryor at NYU’s Department of Philosophy helpful.)
  
• Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (the electronic version of Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged, published in 1961, with updates)
  
• Oxford English Dictionary (the electronic version of the OED with the latest new and revised entries)

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a serious offense.  You plagiarize when you use someone else’s words or ideas without attribution.  When you do this, you are putting forward someone else’s work as if it were your own.  

Changing a few words in a phrase or sentence is not enough to avoid plagiarism.  (1) Instead, when you utilize someone else’s exact phrases, put them in quotation marks and cite in parentheses the person whose words you have used.  (2) It is fine to paraphrase someone, but when you do, you must say so.  You can make it clear by saying “As Kierkegaard says…” or “According to Shestov…”.  (3) Finally, do not utilize even short phrases from another person’s work without a citation.  If you follow these three guidelines, you will find it is easy to use sources in your own writing without being academically dishonest.  

Class format: This class will be a combination of lecture and discussion.  Discussions generally will have a focus rather than being general discussion or debate.  Students will be expected to respond to questions asking them to reflect on the texts and the issues raised, to speculate in a thoughtful way when not sure, and in general to participate in discussion.

Class discussions will refer to the course text.  Students will need to bring the course text to class if they are to benefit from lectures and discussions.

Web surfing and sending or reading email or text messages during class are not allowed.  In addition, please refrain from carrying on extensive side conversations during class discussion, please silence cell phones before class and please do not eat during class.

Studying: Many students will find that they do better work in this course if they study together with other students.

Time-sensitive communications:  In the unusual case of need for a time-sensitive communication, the instructor will contact students by email utilizing student email addresses available on MyNevada.

My office hours are Tuesday and Thursday, 10:45-11:30 a.m., or by appointment (101A Jones).  You are invited to come by to discuss the course topics, your progress in the course or your progress at UNR.  I look forward to meeting with you for such discussions.  Please contact me as much as possible in person or by phone so that I can get to know you better!

Please note that I do advising in person, not by email. Please try to meet with me during my scheduled office hours, if possible.  If you cannot, and wish to make an appointment to see me at another time, call 784-6742 (my office), see me before or after class, or drop by my office and see if I am there, to make an appointment.

Please use email sparingly, primarily in unusual or emergency circumstances:  <achten@unr.edu>.  I want to get to know you, and the best way for that to happen in the short time we have together is for us to meet in person.