Catudal's Winter 2021 Courses

PHIL 101 Introduction to Western Philosophy 
Zoom Meeting Days and Times
Section 003 (CRN: 22665): Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30 p.m. to 1:50 p.m.
Section 004 (CRN: 23362): Tuesdays and Thursday, 11:00 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.
Winter 2021

Course “Essentials”

Readings and lecture topics for each class are available from the PHIL 101 calendar page. The readings and topics will be addressed during Zoom meetings. You should complete the reading(s) for a given day before participating in the Zoom meeting for that day. So, do the readings first and join the Zoom session second.

Be sure to register for the Zoom meetings for this course. The advanced registration link was sent to your Drexel email account at 7:30 a.m.on Thursday, January 4th.

This website is best viewed with the Google Chrome browser which you can download here for Windows, Mac or Linux. Though other browsers will work fine, some may distort certain features of the website.  A printer-friendly .pdf version of the syllabus is available by clicking here.   You should install a .pdf reader (if you don’t already have one) before attempting to download the syllabus. (You can get the latest version of Adobe Reader as a free download by clicking here.)

In addition to sections that describe the course, identify readings, explain grading method and list assignments, the syllabus contains the course calendar (see §5 in the syllabus). Note, however, that the official version of the course calendar is the web version, found by clicking on the “PHIL 101 Calendar” menu link (above), and not the version found in the printer-friendly syllabus. This is because the web version will reflect all changes as they become necessary during the quarter—and you can be certain that some changes will be made. The web version of the course calendar is the most important document you will use this quarter as it contains links to all readings and assignments. (You might want to bookmark the page!)

Our text for this course is an anthology titled The Imprint of Ideas: Readings in Western Philosophy (13th Edition, August 2020). It includes 29 selections spanning the history of Western philosophy from Plato to Donna J. Haraway. Each selection is available to you at no cost from the calendar page. These selections are challenging, some more than others; but please make every effort to read them. They are among the very best that Western philosophical culture has produced. The Table of Contents can be reviewed here.

Be sure to also read the policies governing activities in the course (click on “Policies,” above). These policies may seem a bit onerous, but in 40 years of teaching I have found that most students like to know the “rules of the game” before the game starts. Note that I am always open to amending any one of the policies given good reasons to do so. Indeed, the policies have benefitted greatly from student input over the years.

J.N.C.

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