What Do You Really Know About Justice

MW 10:10am-11:05am Humanities 205

Instructor: Dr. Alberg Office: TLC 2254

Office hours: TR 8:30-9:30; MWF 9:00-10:00 jalberg@westga.edu

Meetings by appointment are welcome

Texts

Robert C. Solomon and Mark C. Murphy, What is Justice?: Classic and Contemporary Readings, (NY: Oxford, 2000).

Learning Outcomes

1) An understanding of the basic questions that have been asked about justice since ancient times.

2) An understanding of current question concerning justice and our legal system

3) An ability to distinguish and explain Classical and Modern sources on justice

4) An increased ability to use the critical thinking skills that we will learn in that course

Course Requirements

The success of this class will depend upon your careful reading of the texts and class participation. There will be several ways to participate, including online discussions.

For each reading the student will submit an analysis of the passage that gives the argument indicators, the main conclusion, intermediate conclusions, the reasons and the basic structure of the argument.
There will be a final three page paper in which the student will write: "Justice is... The reasons I hold this are... Justice is not... The reasons I oppose this are....

Argument analyses 60%

Final paper 30%

Participation 10%

Attendance Policy

You are expected to attend each class and to turn you homework in on the assigned day. No late assignments will be accepted.

You have four excused absences. After that a half grade will be deducted for each additional absence.

Date	Reading	Class Activity	Assignment Due
August 14		Syllabus; Explain Argument Analysis
August 16	Plato 21-34	Discuss	Reading Notes posted on-line
August 21	Continue	Discuss
August 23	Aristotle 34-44	Discuss	Argument Analysis #1
August 28	Continue	Discuss
August 30	Aquinas 49-55	Discuss	Arg Analysis #2
September 4	No Classes
September 6		Movie: Man for All Seasons
September 11		Cont. Movie
September 13	Hobbes 63-73	Discuss	Arg Analysis #3
September 18	Continue	Discuss
September 20	Rousseau 81-94	Discuss	Arg Analysis #4
September 25	Continue	Discuss
September 27	Rawls	Discuss	Arg Analysis #5
October 2	Nozick 212-15	Discuss	Arg Analysis #6
October 4	Special Lecture
October 9	No Classes
October 11	Bentham 215-20	Discuss	Arg Analysis #7
October 16	Kant 221-24	Discuss	Arg Analysis #8
October 18	Solomon 251-61	Discuss	Arg Analysis #9
October 23	Continue	Discuss
October 25		To Kill a Mockingbird
October 30		To Kill a Mockingbird
November 6	Bedau 269-74	Discuss	Arg Analysis #10
November 8	Van de Haag 274-76; Camus 276-77	Discuss	Arg Analysis #11
November 13	Rawls 281-88	Discuss	Arg Analysis #12
November 15	Dworkin 288-95	Discuss	Arg Analysis #13
November 20	Nagel 295-301	Discuss	Arg Analysis #14
November 22	No Class
November 27	MacIntyre 309-15	Discuss	Arg Analysis #15
November 29	Evaluation		Final 3 page paper

Grading

The success of this class will depend upon your careful reading of the texts and class participation. There will be several ways to participate, including online discussions.

For each reading the student will submit an analysis of the passage that gives the argument indicators, the main conclusion, intermediate conclusions, the reasons and the basic structure of the argument.
There will be a final three page paper in which the student will write: "Justice is... The reasons I hold this are... Justice is not... The reasons I oppose this are....

Argument analyses 15 60%

Final paper 30%

Participation 10%

Plagiarism (adapted from the English Department website)

Although there are many forms and variations of plagiarism and academic dishonesty, in general, the English Department, in agreement with the State University of West Georgia's policy on academic dishonesty , defines plagiarism as using the words and/or ideas of another without properly giving credit to the source(s).

It should be noted that unintentional plagiarism is plagiarism nonetheless.

In addition to obvious methods of plagiarism such as intentionally representing someone else's words as one's own, other acts such as "making up" sources, turning in work done in fulfillment of another course, or receiving excessive assistance are all forms of academic dishonesty, and subject to the penalties for plagiarism .

The University policies for handling Academic Dishonesty are found in the following document: <http://www.westga.edu/~engdept/writing/general_policies.html>

Special Needs:

If you have a registered disability that will require accommodation, please see me at the beginning of the semester. If you have a disability that you have not yet registered through the Disabled Student Services Office, please contact Dr. Ann Phillips in 137 Parker Hall at (770) 836-6428.