Philosophy 496, Psychology 475H
Fall 2012
CC208, MWF 10:20 am - 11:15 am
Professor: Craig DeLancey
Email: craig.delancey@oswego.edu
Offices: DeLancey, CC 212A.
Office Hours: MWF 11:30 a.m. -- 12:30 p.m., and by appointment


Introduction
History and Current Systems in Psychology, and the Joint Seminar in Philosophy and Psychology, is an intellectual issues course in the General Education Curriculum and the capstone course for the SUNY Oswego Psychology majors and Philosophy Psychology majors. The course will trace psychology's development as a science through an examination of the ways in which fundamental philosophical assumptions appear in, influence, and illuminate the scientific study of the mind. In so doing, we will be examining the way in which selected systems and theories of psychology have addressed such basic problems as self-knowledge, the unconscious, the mind-body problem, free will versus determinism, cognition, consciousness (phenomenal experience), and moral development and behavior.

Because the course is a capstone course, it will also be testing your abilities and retention in several key outcomes of the Philosophy-Psychology degree:

Texts
There is no unified textbook for this course. We will be assigning readings of original works of major contributors to the literature on the philosophy and psychology of the mind. These include the following texts available at the bookstore:

For each of these texts we will have a focus upon an influential thinker but also a school of psychology. You will in each case be asked to assess and be able to speak and write in answer to the questions:
Course Requirements

Attendance and Class Participation: This course is designed as a seminar. It is not my intent to deliver lectures, rather to lead our seminar in discussing the issues presented by our readings. It is essential that you attend each class session and participate actively in discussions. Participation and attendance will be taken into account in calculating final grades. If attendance and participation is consistently high, your final grade will be raised by 1/2 a letter grade (e.g., a B to a B+). If attendance is poor, this will lower your grade by 1/2 a letter grade. If attendance is very poor, you will not pass this course.

Reading Assignments: Readings will be assigned and announced in class and will form the basis for co-operative participation assignments. We will be examining the readings in detail during class meetings. In order to participate and contribute as a seminar member you will need to be prepared by completing the required readings for each class meeting. You will need to devote quality time to your readings for this course. Come to class with questions and well thought-out comments concerning your readings. It generally helps to write these down.

Homeworks and Debates: I will often assign a short written homework. Also, as we transition from one thinker to another, I will ask two of you to defend one thinker's approach against the approach of the other thinker. That is, defend Descartes against James, or James against Freud, and so on.

One homework assignment will be to write a resume and post it on LinkedIn; and also to proof the resumes of your peers.

Exams: There will be at least two standardized-style tests, and also a midterm and a final exam. There will also be periodic in-class "objective" quizzes to monitor your fact-based understanding of the material.

Presentation: You will be required to make a class presentation. This will be on one of our eight topics, though we typically get settled in before assigning these, so we'll double up on some of the later topics.

Your presentation should explain and expand upon a section of one of our primary text readings. You must include at least one outside reading in your presentation. Presentations should run approximately 30 minutes with time for discussion. Most students use PowerPoint or prepare some kind of visual aid or activity. Make sure you explain the relevance of your topic for understanding the broader treat of the topic with at least one outside reference incorporated into the analysis. Finally, conclude with five questions for class discussion. These questions should be handed out one class meeting prior to the day of presentation to help facilitate discussion. Your formal paper can be a written version of your presentation.

Term paper: You will be required to write a term paper. This can be on your class presentation topic. The idea will be to place one of our thinkers (or another, if you prefer) in context of the development of psychology.

One portion of the term paper grade will be your proofing and reviewing another student's draft.

All assignments must be handed in, when required, in hard copy.

Grading
Final grades will be based on:
If you miss an exam and have an excused absence for the day you miss the exam, you may make it up, by special appointment with me, when you are able to come back to class. It is your responsibility to arrange any make-up exams as soon as you know you are going to miss the exam. Otherwise you may lose the opportunity to take the test, since I cannot give make-up exams after the class has gone over the answers.

Here is how you secure an excused absence: Only prior notification with credibly documented or easily verifiable reasons (e.g., medical visits to Mary Walker, documented participation in official sporting events, etc.) will result in excused absences. You must notify in writing, call, or email me prior to your absence from class. You must notify the Philosophy Department secretary or the Psychology Department secretary before you are going to be absent. However, you must make sure she knows your name, the number of the course, the date, and your easily verifiable reason, along with a request to forward the information to me. It is better to give your information to me, except when you are unable to communicate with my phone or email for some reason.

Please hold onto all of your assignments and exams. Sometime before the end of the semester we recommend that you ask us to review the grades that I have recorded to make sure that I have not made any mistakes. I'm only human and can make typos in recording grades!

College Policy on Intellectual Integrity
Intellectual integrity on the part of all students is basic to individual growth and development through college course work. When academic dishonesty occurs, the teaching/learning climate is seriously undermined and student growth and development are impeded. For these reasons, any form of intellectual dishonesty is a serious concern and is therefore prohibited.

Intellectual integrity on the part of all students is basic to individual growth and development through college course work. When academic dishonestly occurs, the teaching/learning climate is seriously undermined and student growth and development are impeded. For these reasons, any form of intellectual dishonestly is a serious concern and is therefore prohibited.

The full intellectual integrity policy can be found at www.oswego.edu/administration/registrar/policy_text.html#cpii.

The disabilities statement
The Office of Disability Services is available to assist students who have a legally documented disability or students who suspect that they may have a disability. If you have a disabling condition that may interfere with your ability to successfully complete this course, please contact the Office of Disability Services (dss@oswego.edu or see www.oswego.edu/dis.)

Schedule
We will frequently update an online schedule of readings and assignments. It is your responsibility to check the www pages for the class at least every other day!

Office Hours
In addition to my listed office hours, I encourage you to make appointments. I am available quite a bit, but have trouble predicting times because of lots of irregular meetings. Please try to come to office hours with specific questions in mind. You can of course come with a general request for help, but it is always helpful if you spend a little time thinking about how I can best help you out.