1 Assignments and grading
1.1 Assignments
You have effectively one assignment in this course, but it has a few parts. Simply put, over the course of the semester you’re going to compile a portfolio of argument summaries and interpretations. You’re going to complete one for each of the four units on the course outline. Then at the end of the semester you’re going to do two things. You’re going to compose a submit a longer, expanded version of one of your portfolio entries, and you’re going to complete an oral assessment in which I choose one of your portfolio entries at random and ask you about it.
1.1.1 Addendum: Handing work in (8/28)
Print it out, bring it to class, give it to me. As a fallback, in case of emergencies, email it to me.
1.1.2 Addendum: The portfolio and the fourth commentary (8/28)
In order for you to take the oral exam, you need to submit all four of your commentaries by the deadline of the fourth commentary (December 11 December 1). That means your fourth commentary can’t be late, and it also means, if you missed a deadline and grace period for an earlier commentary, you still have to complete it, and submit it with your final portfolio, on or by December 11 December 1. For your final portfolio, I want hard copies of all four commentaries. You have until the 15th to complete your final, so it doesn’t need to be included with your portfolio, but you do need to tell me which commentary it is a revision/expansion of.
1.1.3 Addendum: Deadlines and grace periods (9/18)
Every deadline has a ten-day grace period. During the grace period, work may be handed in without penalty. After the grace period, work will not be accepted.
The end of the grace period is not a deadline past which extensions are possible. The grace period is the extension.
1.1.4 Addendum: December deadlines (9/18)
I have moved all December deadlines forward ten days.
1.1.5 Unit commentaries
For each of the four units in the course, you’re going to complete a 500–700-word commentary. Each commentary should focus on one text while also situating that text within the unit’s larger philosophical problem.
A complete commentary:
- describes the problem the author is confronting or attempting to resolve;
- explains how the author resolves or otherwise confronts that problem;
- uses specific textual evidence to motivate this explanation; and
- describes how the author’s response resolves the problem they address or leaves it unresolved.
I grade unit commentaries for completion only. For details on deadlines and substane, see the course outline.
1.1.6 Expanded essay and memo
You’re going to take one of your unit commentaries and substantially revise it into a 1,200–1,500-word comparative essay by introducing a second thinker. The essay should explain a philosophically significant difference, development, or conflict between those thinkers, and should also explain the philosophical or historical significance of that contrast.
Your essay should be accompanied by a 150–250-word memo explaining how the second thinker altered your original account, and what remains difficult to figure out or unresolved about the issue you cover in your expanded essay.
The expanded essay and memo are due with your final portfolio on December 15 December 5.
1.1.7 Oral exam
At the end of the semester, you’ll complete a seven-minute oral exam covering a unit different from the one used for your comparative essay. You’ll explain the unit’s central philosophical problem, compare two responses to it, describe the significance of the difference, and respond to my questions (historical and philosophical) about those figures and the problem they address.
The oral exam is intended to assess your understanding, not your quality as a performer. Confidence, speed, eye contact, polish and other intangibles are not grading criteria.
Oral exams will take place during finals week, December 14–18. It is likely we’ll need to make use of time outside of our finals exam time for this purpose. We’ll discuss scheduling of the oral exam as the end of the semester nears.
1.2 Grading
Your grade will break down like this:
- Unit commentaries: 30%
- Commentaries, four of them, are each thus the equivalent of 7.5% of your final grade, with no partial credit.
- Revised essay and revision memo: 40%
- Your essay and memo will be graded out of a possible total of 20 points; each point is 2% of your final grade.
- Oral defense: 30%
- Your defense will be graded out of a possible 10 points; each point is 3% of your final grade.
1.2.1 Rubrics
Evaluation for each of the assignments will follow these rubrics:
1.2.1.1 Unit commentaries
Commentaries are graded for completion; you get either a 1 (worth 7.5% toward your final grade) for a completed commentary or a 0 (worth 0%, of course). A complete commentary:
- engages directly with a relevant text (as specified in the commentary assignment);
- addresses the specific issue described in the commentary assignment; and
- answers the specific question or prompt described in the commentary assignment.
Commentaries must be at least 500 words to be accepted for completion.
1.2.1.2 Expanded essay and revision memo
Your expanded essay should be the single most sophisticated piece of philosophical work you do in this course this semester, and you should deliberately view it that way. You’re going to pick one of your commentaries, add a second figure, and compose a full-fledged essay in which you:
- describe a problem or issue or question and why resolving it is difficult;
- describe and explain the views of your two authors on it;
- describe and explain a philosophically significant difference, development, or conflict between the two thinkers, and
- describe what about the problem or issue or question remains unresolved.
The existence and quality of each of these parts is worth roughly a fifth of your essay grade, with the revision memo worth the final fifth.
In the revision memo, you will describe:
- how the incorporation of the second thinker changed your essay; and
- what relevant issues or questions, to your mind, remain unresolved.
Essays will be graded out of 20 points (each point worth 2% of your final grade), with each of the four components and the memo worth 4 points each. For each component:
| Points | Description |
|---|---|
| 0 | You didn’t do it |
| 1 | You did it at all |
| 2 | You did it fairly well |
| 3 | You did it very well |
| 4 | You did it exceptionally well |
Revised essays must be at least 1,200 words to be accepted; revision memos must be at least 300 words.
1.2.1.3 Oral exam
During your oral exam I’ll ask you about one of the units not covered by your expanded essay. You’ll describe the unit’s central philosophical problem, compare two responses to it, defend the significance of the difference, and respond to questions I pose about these.
Your oral exam will be graded for evidence of preparation. You should be ready with responses to each of these questions for each of the three units not covered by your expanded essay.
Your oral exam will be graded out of 10 points (each point being worth 3% of your final grade), along the following lines:
| Points | Description |
|---|---|
| 0 | You weren’t prepared |
| 1–2 | You were barely prepared |
| 3–4 | You were slightly prepared |
| 5–6 | You were prepared |
| 7–8 | You were well prepared |
| 9–10 | You were exceptionally well prepared |
1.2.2 Grading scale
Your final percentage grade will be rounded up to the nearest integer and your letter grade will be based on the following scale:
| Percentage | Letter grade |
|---|---|
| 95–100 | A |
| 90–95 | A- |
| 87–90 | B+ |
| 83–87 | B |
| 80–83 | B- |
| 77–80 | C+ |
| 73–77 | C |
| 70–73 | C- |
| 67–70 | D+ |
| 63–67 | D |
| 60–63 | D- |
| < 60 | F |
2 Policies
2.1 Attendance
I don’t monitor it, but you’re going to find that being in class is essential for completing the work, and that there is no substitute.
If you miss class for any reason, you don’t need to tell me about it. Check the calendar to keep abreast of what’s going on. Generally, I’ll put anything of significance on the calendar, but I’d recommend you make a friend in class in case you want a more thorough rundown of what you missed.
2.3 How I interpret policies
I interpret rules under a guiding thought about fairness: that policies should be applied in the same way for everyone; that everyone should have the same shot. I never think in terms of how the interpretation of a policy affects you or any other student individually; I always think in terms of how it affects the class as a whole.
When you ask for a rule to be relaxed, then, I’m not thinking about whether to relax the rule for you, but whether it would be fair to relax the rule for everyone (or everyone similarly situated). Most of the time this comes down to the simple question whether the policy should even exist, and if your classmates have already been acting in accordance with the policy, then to suspend it after the fact would be unfair to them for the diligence they’ve demonstrated.
2.4 University and other policies
2.4.1 Important note about a possible work stoppage during the semester
The California Faculty Association (the union that represents all CSU faculty, including lecturer faculty, tenure-line faculty, coaches, counselors, and librarians) is in the midst of a difficult contract dispute with the CSU system-wide administration. In response to the CSU management’s stance, it is possible that the faculty union will call a strike or other work stoppage this term. I promise to inform the class as soon as possible of any disruption to our class meeting schedule. For further information about the issues involved in the strike, please see the resources at www.calfac.org and www.cfabargaining.org.
2.4.2 Missed classes for university-approved activities
If, while representing the university in an official curriculum-related, university-approved activity, you are required to miss classes, reach out to me to discuss next steps. Absence from class for official curriculum-related, university-approved activities does not relieve you from responsibility for any part of the course work required during your period of absence.
2.4.3 Academic integrity
Cheating is intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information or study aids in any academic exercise. When completing any work for this course—written or otherwise—assume that external assistance (e.g., books, notes, calculators, cell phones/cameras, other electronic devices, use of artificial intelligence, conversation with others) is prohibited unless I specifically say otherwise. You may not allow others to conduct research or prepare any work for you without advance authorization from the instructor. This includes but is not limited to the services of commercial term-paper companies or web sites. Substantial portions of the same academic work may not be submitted for credit in more than one course without authorization.
Fabrication is intentional falsification or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise.
Plagiarism is representing the words, ideas, or work of another as your own, in any academic exercise. You must identify every direct quotation by quotation marks, appropriate indentation, or other means of identification. Prompt acknowledgment is required when material from another source is paraphrased or summarized in whole or in part in your own words. Information obtained in one’s reading or research that is not common knowledge among students in the course must be acknowledged (this includes the use of artificial intelligence).
Facilitating academic dishonesty is intentionally or knowingly helping or attempting to help another to commit an act of academic dishonesty.
Cheating or plagiarism in connection with an academic program at a CSU campus is listed in Section 41301, Title 5, California Code of Regulations as an offense for which a student may be expelled, suspended or given a less severe disciplinary sanction. The full policy, including penalties, is in CSUN’s Academic Integrity Policy.
You are asked not to use generative AI at any stage of your work in this course—not for brainstorming, outlining, drafting, revising, or editing. Everything you submit, and everything done to prepare what you submit, should be produced by you.
The reason is not suspicion. The assignments here are built so that the work of producing them is the learning: attempting something, finding that the first attempt doesn’t hold up, and revising it is how the underlying skill gets built. Work that arrives without that process may look finished, but it leaves the skill unbuilt.
By “generative AI” I mean tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and also AI features built into other software—Grammarly, for example—that generate, rewrite, summarize, or translate text. If you aren’t sure whether something counts, ask before you use it.
If you use assistive technology as part of an approved accommodation, this policy is not aimed at you. Come talk to me and we’ll make the expectations clear.
2.4.4 Student support and resources
2.4.4.1 Disability accommodations (DRES)
If you have a disability and need accommodations, please register with Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES) or the National Center on Deafness (NCOD). DRES is in Bayramian Hall, room 110, and can be reached at (818) 677-2684 or dres@csun.edu. NCOD is on Bertrand Street in Jeanne Chisholm Hall and can be reached at (818) 677-2054, videophone (818) 435-3887, or ncod@csun.edu. If you would like to discuss your need for accommodations with me, please contact me to set up an appointment.
2.4.4.2 Basic needs (CSUN with A HEART)
If you are facing challenges related to food insecurity, housing precarity/homelessness, mental health, access to technology, eldercare/childcare, or healthcare, you can find guidance, help, and resources from CSUN with A HEART.
2.4.4.3 Mental health resources
University Counseling Services (UCS) is a mental health center for students enrolled at CSUN. UCS provides a range of high-quality mental health services including initial evaluations, short-term counseling and psychotherapy, Wellness Workshops, group treatment, psychiatric services, crisis/urgent care services, and case management. UCS is located in Bayramian Hall 520 and can be reached at (818) 677-2366, Option 1 (Option 3 after hours), or coun@csun.edu.
Call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline 24 hours a day. The older number, (800) 273-8255, still routes to the same service.
Reach the Crisis Text Line by texting START to 741741 (free, 24/7, confidential).
2.4.4.4 Learning Resource Center
Free tutoring is available on campus through the Learning Resource Center (LRC): tutoring in multiple subjects, one-on-one help with writing and grammar, and reading and writing workshops. Hours and appointments are on the Learning Resource Center site.
2.4.5 Disclosures under the CSU Nondiscrimination Policy (Title IX)
All faculty and staff (with few exceptions) are classified as a “responsible employee.” In the event that you choose to write, speak, or otherwise disclose about having experienced discrimination or harassment based on a protected status (including Title IX violations such as dating/domestic violence, sexual exploitation, sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, or stalking), and/or retaliation, and specify that this violence occurred while you or the perpetrator were a CSUN student, federal and state laws, and CSU policy, require that I notify our campus Title IX Coordinator/DHR Administrator within the Office of Equity and Compliance (equityandcompliance@csun.edu).
Someone from the Office of Equity and Compliance will contact you to inform you of your rights and options and connect you with support resources, including possibilities for holding accountable the person who harmed you. Know that you will not be forced to share information and your level of involvement will be your choice.
If you do not want the Office of Equity and Compliance notified, instead of disclosing the experience to me, you can speak confidentially* with:
- Campus Care Advocate:
- Klotz Student Health Center, Room 210
- Phone: (818) 677-7492
- Email: careadvocates@csun.edu
- University Counseling Services
- Bayramian Hall, 520 Phone:
- Phone: (818) 677-2366, Option 1
- Email: coun@csun.edu
*Note: If it is determined that an alleged perpetrator poses an imminent threat to the broader campus community or if person(s) under 18 years of age are involved, our Campus Care Advocate is required to notify our Department of Police Services.
For more information regarding your university rights and options, see the Office of Equity and Compliance or read the CSU Nondiscrimination Policy in full.