Introduction to Chinese Philosophy (PHL/THL351)

Fall 2004

Core B International/Global Studies

Certified Writing Course

Policy Sheet and Syllabus

Required Texts:

Optional Texts:

This course is designed to explore the theory and practice of Chinese philosophy. The course will introduce the development of Chinese philosophy from ancient to modern times. The contributions from a few main schools, such as Confucianism, Daoism, and Moism, will be carefully discussed. Not much Buddhism will be involved since PHL/THL 353 Introduction to Buddhism covers that. The basic doctrines and moral principles held by different Chinese philosophers will be examined. The course will also involve some comparative studies. Students are encouraged to find out the similarities and differences between Chinese culture and Western culture.

To help students learn to:

• Differentiate between Western and Chinese thinking structures
• Identify the common values held by both Western and Eastern philosophers
• Open a wide worldview from the perspective of Eastern wisdom to look at the world of today.
• Discover the relationship and conflicts between modern Chinese society and Chinese traditional values.
• Recognize the contributions of Chinese philosophy to the world civilization.
• Apply the concepts of the arts of living in Chinese philosophy to our daily lives and consider this application through discussion and written personal reflections.
• Synthesize research on one issue that is discussed by Chinese philosophers and remains an important issue in our contemporary society

The overall goals of this class are for students to gain an awareness and understanding of positive and negative aspects in traditional Chinese culture and thinking, to open a common discourse between Chinese philosophy and Western philosophy, and to learn the valuable doctrines and theories of Chinese culture. I hope that some of these Chinese values will help students solve problems that they might face in real life.

Two exams: Exam material will be taken from lectures, handouts, and reading assignments. Exams will include objective questions as well as a written portion including some definition and short answer/essay questions. Reviews for each exam will be given in class.

Written Assignments: Criteria for each paper will be identified in my web-notes. Please read them carefully. Your final paper must be rewritten to show that you have improved your writing.

There are three types of written assignments:

All written assignments will be graded on the following criteria:

Content:

Thoroughness—how completely the issues are analyzed

Documentation—how correctly are concepts attributed to sources

Writing Mechanics:

Spelling/Typing—how accurate are the spelling and typing

Organization—how logical is the flow of the paper

In addition to those items required for a grade of B. The paper shows an exceptional degree of understanding of the issues discussed in the course. An especially thoughtful reflection on the student’s capacity of critical and creative thinking is evident. The paper demonstrates insight into the relationship between the issues in the course and the student’s mission and future responsibilities.

The paper should demonstrate the student’s understanding of the relevant concepts and clearly articulate the student’s philosophical inquiry to these concepts/issues. The assignment is well organized. Paragraphs contain topic sentences and are coherent and appropriate in length. Sentences are smooth and carefully crafted. Transitions connect sentences and paragraphs so the writing is not choppy. There are virtually no errors in punctuation, spelling, grammar, and usage. The paper avoids triteness and generalizations. The thesis statement is clearly delineated. The introduction presents the issue and outlines its significance. Terms are adequately defined. The writer shows an understanding of the topic. Conclusions are well supported and follow from the argument. The paper is tight, not wordy. The bibliography is correctly displayed and refers to a sufficient number of current sources. Sources are correctly cited.

The paper demonstrates a basic understanding of the concepts and issues involved. The student has basic skills to do a philosophical reasoning but the application of course-related concepts and issues is sometimes inadequate. The paper shows research beyond the level of assigned texts in the course. The work is well organized, but the paragraph structure may sometimes be disjointed. The paper contains no more than a few awkward passages. There are some errors in punctuation, spelling, grammar and usage. The language is too general, but none of these errors is glaring or highly distracting. The sources cited may be limited in number or somewhat out-of-date. There may be some errors in format in the citations and bibliography.

The relevant concepts and issues from the course materials are presented, but some inaccuracies may exist. The student’s skills of reasoning are discussed, but sufficient detail or clarity may be lacking. Application of course-related concepts and issues is often inadequate. Research is at the level of the assigned texts for the course. The work is adequately organized, though some paragraphs may be disjointed or misplaced. Generally, it shows that the writer has followed a logical plan. The writing is competent but wordy, general, or imprecise. Sentences may at times be awkwardly constructed, but their meaning is clear. Paragraphs do not develop topic sentences. Errors in grammar, punctuation and spelling are distracting. Errors in citations and in the bibliography are more extensive.

The student’s description and discussion of the relevant concepts and issues contains major errors or is omitted form the paper. The student fails to demonstrate significant thoughtfulness about his or her personal critical and creative thinking. The paper lacks a clear thesis. The language is frequently muddled and unclear. The technical errors in writing are numerous and highly distracting. The writer’s understanding of the topic is in question. Bibliography and citations are missing or incorrect.

a. Good preparation

c. Good understanding and personal thinking

d. Good skills of leading a discussion

The schedule for student presentations will be arranged at the fifth class.

Grading: Your course grade will be based on the following assignments:

Exam1……………………………….100 points=20%

Exam 2………………………………100 points=20%

One short essay……………….……………………5%

Table…………………………………….…………6%

Summary 1……………………………………….…3 %

Summary 2………………………………………….3 %

Summary 3………………………………………….3%

Final Paper…………………………………………20% (The first draft: 5%; the final draft: 15%)

Activities/Participation: (20%)

6 questions……………….………….…….…………3 %

Quiz 1………………………….………25 points=3.5%

Quiz 2……………………………….…25 points=3.5%

Presentation……….……………….……………….10%

90 above=A,

85—89 =B+,

80—84 =B,

75—79 =C+,

70—74 =C,

61—69 =D,

below 60=F

Course Format and Learning Activities: The format of the class is lecture/discussion with group activities.

The learning activities in this course will include three steps:

1) From the first week to the third week, we will focus on the origin and development of the main schools in the history of Chinese Philosophy. We will read essays selected from Chinese philosophers’ works. Students will be encouraged to look at the difference between Chinese culture and Western culture at their philosophical roots, namely, not only looking at the sets of concepts, terms, and propositions in these two languages, but also looking at the thinking structures in these two cultures. Without knowing these differences, one cannot understand the thoughts from different cultures.

2) From the fourth week to the tenth week, students are required to read the materials before each class and bring at least one question. We will vote on which question we would like to discuss in the class. Each question will be examined and viewed from the perspectives of both Chinese philosophy and Western philosophy.

3) From the eleventh week to the fourteenth week, we will discuss the possibilities of keeping space open for a common discourse between classical Chinese philosophy and modern Chinese society, as well as between traditional Chinese philosophy and Western philosophy.

Each meeting of this class, in that period, will consist of one or two discussions, initiated by student participants or instructor. Initiating a discussion involves briefly surveying material to be discussed. The student or instructor who is initiating the discussion needs to contribute his or her understanding of the similarities or differences between two philosophers (one of them should be a Chinese philosopher, the other, a Western philosopher) based on his/her surveying. And then, the student or instructor identifies questions or issues that the seminar should address. Each student will, over the course of the semester, initiate one or two such discussions. Each discussion is about ten minutes.

Exams: Exams must be taken with the group. If you cannot take an exam due to an excused absence, you will not be penalized. You need to take the make-up exam within a week. "Travel Arrangements" are not an acceptable excuse for missing an exam. If you fail to take an exam for an unacceptable reason, you will receive a zero for that exam.

Class Attendance/Participation: The only way to succeed in college is to attend class. Your attendance and participation are very important in this class, as much of the learning and application of concepts take place in class. No more than two absences are allowed before your grade is affected. Each absence thereafter will result in 0.5 % deducted from your final grade. There may be exceptions at the discretion of the instructor for absences.

Missing a quiz counts as missing two classes. There will be no make-up quiz.

The instructor needs to be informed as soon as possible if your absence is related to extreme circumstances (family emergencies, hospitalization).

Academic Honesty Policy: You are expected to follow the college’s guidelines for academic honesty. I advise you to consult the undergraduate issue of the Creighton University Bulletin 2002, pp. 87-88, the Creighton University Handbook for Students, and the statement on academic honesty at the college’s Web site at http://puffin.creighton.edu/ccas/Students/students.html. If you have any questions concerning these guidelines, please see me. Unless you have specific direction or permission otherwise, I expect your work to be your own and not to be work submitted for any other course. If you are found guilty of a violation of academic honesty, your penalty will be at a minimum a zero on the relevant assignment and quite possibly an F for the course. In a very serious case I may recommend even stiffer penalties to the Dean. All cases in which a penalty is assessed for academic dishonesty must be reported to the Chair of the Department and to the Dean, who will put a record of the offense and penalty into the student’s permanent academic file.

The college has leased the services of Turnitin.com to discover cases of plagiarism. By taking this course, students agree that all required papers may be subject to submission for textural similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject to the terms of use agreement posted one the Turnitin.com Web site. Reasons that might trigger my submitting a paper for review include: lack of responsiveness to the assignment; a dramatic contrast in quality with other submitted work; use of vocabulary, concepts, or references that appear beyond the scope of the relevant student. Students who do not want their work submitted to Turnitin.com may make arrangements with me in advance to submit a draft of their paper and be questioned orally on their work.

Date Topic Reading Assignment and Due Date