NEW EXPERIMENTAL COURSE PROPOSAL FORM
College: [ HUMANITIES ]
Department: [ PHIL ]
1. Course Information for Schedule of Classes
Subject Abbreviation and Number: [PHIL 396C]
Course Title: [ Contemporary Continental Philosophy ]
Units: [ 3 ] units
Course Prerequisites: [ ] (if any)
Course Corequisites: [
] (if any)
Recommended Preparatory Courses: [
] (if any)
2. Course Description for Schedule of Classes: Notes: If grading is NC/CR only, please state in course
description. If a course numbered less than 500 is available for graduate credit, please state “Available for graduate credit in the catalog
description.”
[ Prerequisite: Completion of the Lower Division writing requirement. An introduction to
contemporary European continental philosophy through some of its most important texts
and figures. Students will develop an understanding of the basic tenets and concerns that
define the philosophical movements representative of contemporary continental philosophy,
including phenomenology, existentialism, critical theory, hermeneutics, post-structuralism,
psychoanalysis, French feminism, postcolonialism, and/or postmodernism. ]
3. Date of Proposed Implementation: (Semester/Year): [Fall] / [2016] Comments
4. Course Level
[X]Undergraduate Only
[]Graduate Only
[]Graduate/Undergraduate
5. Course Abbreviation “Short title” (maximum of 17 characters and spaces)
Short Title: [ CONTINENTAL•PHIL • • • • • • • ]
6. Basis of Grading:
[]Credit/No Credit Only
[]Letter Grade Only
[X]CR/NC or Letter Grade
7. Number of times a course may be taken:
[ X ] May be taken for credit for a total of [1] times, or for a maximum of [3] units
[ ] Multiple enrollments are allowed within a semester
8. C-Classification: (e.g., Lecture-discussion (C-4).)
[ 3 ] units @ [C] [4]
9. Proposed Course Uses: (Check all that apply)
[ X ] Own Program:
[ X ]Major
[ X ]Minor
[ ] Requirement or Elective in another Program
[ ] General Elective
[ ] Community Service Learning (CS)
[ ] Cross-listed with: (List courses) [
]
[ ]Masters
[ ]Credential
[X ]Other
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10. Justification for Request: Course use in program, level, use in General Education,
Credential, or other. Include information on overlap/duplication of courses within and
outside of department or program. (Attach)
11. Estimate of Impact on Resources within the Department, for other Departments and
the University. (Attach)
(See Resource List)
12. Course Outline and Syllabus (Attach) Include methods of evaluation, suggested texts, and
selected bibliography. Describe the difference in expectations of graduates and undergraduates for all 400
level courses that are offered to both.
13. Indicate which of the Program’s Measurable Student Learning Outcomes are
addressed in this course. (Attach)
14. Methods of Assessment for Measurable Student Learning Outcomes (Attach)
A. Assessment tools
B. Describe the procedure dept/program will use to ensure the faculty teaching the
course will be involved in the assessment process (refer to the university’s policy on
assessment.)
(For numbers 14 and 15, see Course Alignment Matrix and the Course Objectives Chart
15. Record of Consultation: (Normally all consultation should be with a department chair or
program coordinator.) If more space is needed attach statement and supporting memoranda.
Department Chair/
Concur
Date:
Dept/College:
Program Coordinator
(Y/N)
[ 8/24/2015 ]
[ ENG/HUM ]
[ Jackie Stallcup ]
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Consultation with the Oviatt Library is recommended for experimental courses to ensure
the availability of appropriate resources to support proposed course curriculum.
Collection Development Coordinator
Date
Please send an email to: collection.development@csun.edu
[ 8/24/2015 ]
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16. Approvals:
Department Chair/Program
Coordinator: Tim Black
College (Dean or Associate Dean):
Educational Policies Committee:
Graduate Studies Committee:
Provost:
Date:
Date:
Date:
Date:
Date:
[ 8/24/2015
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ATTACHMENT I
Question 10: Justification for Request
Although there is a bit of overlap, especially when providing a background for contemporary
continental philosophy, between the proposed course and PHIL 341 (Kierkegaard and Nietzsche)
and PHIL 342 (Existentialism), no course such as the one proposed here is currently offered in
the Department, which means that our students do not have the opportunity at this point to hear
from us about this extremely influential and significant aspect of philosophy. Philosophers who
are working on the Continent and who worked there in the 20th century are among the most
important voices in philosophy today, as so it is vital that our students have the opportunity to
encounter and engage with this branch of philosophy.
Twentieth- and twenty-first-century continental philosophy, which includes movements such as
phenomenology, postmodernism, post-structuralism, and deconstruction, and prominent figures
such as Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Gadamer, Heidegger, Foucault, Derrida, and Habermas, is
largely constituted as a response to several historical events and forces that called into question
the prevailing philosophical, political, religious, and moral orders. Thus, we see a kind of
collective disenchantment emerge: disenchantment with aspects of the Enlightenment, with
institutional forms of religion, with the forces of industrialization and capitalism, and with
reductive modes of scientific thought. More than disenchantment, however, much work by
continental philosophers is an attempt to grapple with certain ethical horrors and evils that
erupted upon the world-stage in the twentieth century. The evils associated with or encoded
within totalitarianism, capitalism, war, torture, oppression, colonialism, racism, sexism,
misogyny, genocide, the Holocaust, and so on, led 20th-century thinkers (and not just from the
Continent) to grapple with the questions not only of how such evil can exist, but how these evils
might be reflections of ways of thinking and a set of values long held to be sacrosanct in the
Western philosophical tradition itself. A course like the one described in this proposal is
absolutely necessary in our curriculum. In addition, the Department has just hired two tenuretrack faculty, along with at least one tenured member of the Department, whose specialties
overlap with the material covered in this course and who are eager to teach a course like this in
our Program.
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ATTACHMENT II
Question 11. Estimate of Impact on Resources within the Department, for other
Departments and the University.
This course will be folded into the regular rotation cycle of Philosophy course offerings along
with other course offerings in the Program. The course will be taught by qualified faculty in the
Department and, in all likelihood, in any given semester, by one of at least three tenured or
tenure-track faculty in the Department, each of whom specializes in continental philosophy. No
additional equipment is needed at this time.
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ATTACHMENT III
Question 12. Course outline and syllabus
SYLLABUS: CONTEMPORARY CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is designed to introduce students to some of the core ideas and major figures of
twentieth-century continental philosophy. Twentieth-century (and possibly twenty-first century)
continental philosophy is largely constituted as a response to several historical events and forces
that called into question the prevailing philosophical, political, religious, and moral orders. Thus,
we see a kind of collective disenchantment emerge: disenchantment with aspects of the
Enlightenment, with institutional forms of religion, with the forces of industrialization and
capitalism, and with reductive modes of scientific thought. More than disenchantment, however,
much work by continental philosophers is an attempt to grapple with certain ethical horrors and
evils that erupted upon the world stage in the twentieth century. The evils associated with or
encoded within totalitarianism, capitalism, war, torture, oppression, colonialism, racism, sexism,
misogyny, genocide, the Holocaust, and so on, led 20th-century thinkers (and not just from the
Continent) to grapple with the questions not only of how such evil can exist, but how these evils
might be reflections of ways of thinking and a set of values long held to be sacrosanct in the
Western philosophical tradition itself.
On this view, one can read de Beauvoir’s Second Sex as, in part, a response to the systematic
mechanism whereby woman is barred from the construction of her own identity by men via
various “philosophical” and “scientific” justifications. The work of Emmanuel Levinas can be
fruitfully understood not only as a critique of Hegel’s philosophy, or of Husserlian and
Heideggerian phenomenology, but as a visceral rejection of a “totalitarianism” that informs and
pervades Western philosophy that finds concrete expression in the incomprehensible evil of the
Holocaust. Additionally, Foucault tackles the way in which the modern era of supposedly more
benign and “humane” forms of power and technology actually cloaks far more efficient and
dominant modes of control over the modern subject. The work of these thinkers was not solely a
critical project, however. In critiquing and exposing the frequently unjust and violent
commitments and unethical valuations that guided the previously dominant forms of
philosophical thought, the 20th-century continental thinkers opened up space for fresh ways of
thinking and developed positive ethical philosophies. Hence, Adorno would counter instrumental
rationality with “aesthetic reason,” Irigaray opposes the patriarchal “othering” of women with an
ethics of sexual difference, and Foucault would become concerned with an ethics of “care of the
self.” This course could include certain films in addition to literature as a way to illustrate
difficult philosophical ideas in a more vivid and accessible way.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
1.
Students will develop an understanding of the work of 19th-century philosophers and
thinkers who were influential in the formation of 20th-century continental philosophy.
6
2.
3.
4.
5.
Students will develop an understanding of the basic tenets and concerns that define
the philosophical movements representative of 20th-century continental philosophy.
(These movements may include phenomenology, existentialism, critical theory,
hermeneutics, post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, French feminism, postcolonialism,
and/or postmodernism.)
Students will develop an understanding of the work of important 20th-century
continental philosophers through a critical examination of their work. (These
philosophers may include Husserl, Bergson, Heidegger, Adorno, Lacan, de Beauvoir,
Sartre, Derrida, Levinas, Irigaray, Kristeva, Deleuze, Zizek, Badiou, and/or Marion.)
Students will articulate various claims and positions on significant issues in
contemporary continental philosophy, articulate differences between those claims and
positions, and critically evaluate those claims and positions.
Students will state and defend philosophical positions in writing.
COURSE MATERIALS
 The Continental Ethics Reader. Eds. Matthew Calarco & Peter Atterton. Routledge,
2003.
 Supplemental readings: Selections from Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble and Giving an
Account of Oneself, Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks.
COURSE ACTIVITIES
1. PARTICIPATION (20%): Students are required to participate in class discussions and
evaluate critically the material presented. Since the success of the class depends in part
on the willingness of students to become actively involved in the subject, a significant
portion of the final grade is determined by participation. Students who raise questions
during lectures and participate in class discussions and group dynamics will be rewarded
with a participation grade proportional to their contribution to the class.
2. READING RESPONSES (20%): In order to facilitate class discussion and participation, I
will hand out a reading guide for a particular reading or set of readings. The reading
guide will consist of a few questions regarding central ideas and points that the author(s)
makes in the assigned text(s) as well as asking you to respond with your own thoughts or
arguments. You must type a response to these questions and come to class prepared both
to share and to hand in your response. I will frequently call on individual students to
share their responses to one or more of the questions and you must be prepared to do so.
3. PAPERS (x2, 20% each): Students will write two 4-5 page papers. For each paper I will
provide a prompt that focuses on a select passage or section of text from a work that we
have studied. The paper will then require two things. First, you will need to accurately
and faithfully explain the central concept, argument, or theme in the passage that I have
assigned. Second, you fill need to critically evaluate this concept/argument/theme by
asking whether it helpful, coherent, clear, justified, and/or reasonable and providing
strong justification for your response.
4. EXAM (20%): There will be one exam consisting of short answer and essay questions in
this course. This exam is designed to determine whether the basic positions and concepts
of the philosophers studied have been sufficiently understood.
COURSE OUTLINE
7
DATE
READING
Week 1
1. Introduction to Course & Syllabus
2. The 19th-century context in Europe
THE BACKGROUND: 19th CENTURY
CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY
1. G. W. F. Hegel: Selection from The Phenomenology of
Spirit (Master/Slave dialectic) & Philosophy of Right
2. Soren Kierkegaard: Selections from Concluding
Unscientific Postscript (“Truth and Subjectivity”) & Fear
and Trembling (“Teleological Suspension of the Ethical”)
3. Karl Marx: Selection from the Communist Manifesto &
1844 Philosophic & Economic Manuscripts (“Estranged
Labor”)
4. Friedrich Nietzsche: Selections from The Birth of
Tragedy, Genealogy of Morals, and Twilight of the Idols
PHENOMENOLOGY
1. Edmund Husserl: Selection from Cartesian Meditations
2. Martin Heidegger: Selection from Being & Time
EXISTENTIALISM
1. Martin Heidegger: Selection from The Question
Concerning Technology and “Letter on
Humanism”
2. Jean-Paul Sartre: Selection from Being and
Nothingness & Existentialism is a Humanism
3. Frantz Fanon: Selection from Black Skin, White Masks
4. Simone de Beauvoir: Ethics of Ambiguity & selection
from The Second Sex
5. Emmanuel Levinas: Selection from Totality and Infinity
& from Basic Writings
POSTSTRUCTURALISM
1. Jacques Derrida: Selection from Of Grammatology &
The Gift of Death
2. Michel Foucault: Selection from Discipline and Punish
FRENCH FEMINISM
1. Simone de Beauvoir : Selection from The Second Sex
2. Julia Kristeva: Selection from Powers of Horror
(“abjection”) & Tales of Love (herethics)
FILM: Ingmar Bergman’s The Silence or David Lynch’s
Lost Highway
Luce Irigaray: Selection from This Sex Which is Not One
& Ethics of Sexual Difference
Luce Irigarary: Ethics of Sexual Difference (cont.)
Judith Butler: Selections from Gender Trouble and Giving
an Account of Oneself
Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari: Selection from Anti-
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Week 14
Week 15
ASSIGNMENT
Reading Response #1
Reading Response #2
Reading Response #3
Reading Response #4
Reading Response #5
Reading Response #6
Paper #1 is due
Reading Response #7
Reading Response #8
Reading Response #9
Reading Response #10
Reading Response #11
Reading Response #12
Paper #2 is due
Reading Response #13
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Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia.
Slavoj Žižek: Selection from In Defense of Lost Causes
Finals
Week
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Exam
Adorno, Theodor, and Max Horkheimer. 1989. Dialectic of Enlightenment. Translated by John
Cumming. London: Verso.
Agamben, Giorgio and Dawsonera. 2005. State of exception. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
Allen, Amy. 2013. The politics of our selves: power, autonomy, and gender in contemporary
critical theory. New York: Columbia University Press.
Askay, Richard, and Jensen Farguhar. 2004. Apprehending the Inaccessible: Freudian
Psychoanalysis and Existential Phenomenology. Evanston, Ill: Northwestern University Press.
Badiou, Alain. 2001. Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil. Verso.
Baudrillard, Jean. 1998. The consumer society: myths and structures. London: SAGE.
Bauman, Zygmunt. 2013. Modernity and the Holocaust. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Beauvoir, Simone de. 1974. The Second Sex. Translated by H. M. Parshley. New York: Vintage.
Beauvoir, Simone de. 2000. The Ethics of Ambiguity. Citadel.
Benhabib, Seyla. 1995. Feminist contentions: a philosophical exchange. New York: Routledge.
Critchley, Simon. 2001. Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford and New
York: Oxford University Press.
Critchley, Simon, and William Schroeder, eds. 1998. A Companion to Continental Philosophy.
Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Deleuze, Gilles and Felix Guattari. 2009. Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Penguin.
Derrida, Jacques. 2007. The Gift of Death, 2nd edition. University of Chicago Press.
Derrida, Jacques. 1973. Speech and phenomena, and other essays on Husserl’s theory of signs.
Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Fanon, Frantz. 2008. Black Skin, White Masks, revised edition. Grove Press.
Fanon, Frantz. 2005. The Wretched of the Earth, reprint edition. Grove Press.
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Foster, Hal. 2002. The anti-aesthetic: essays on postmodern culture. New York: New Press.
Foucault, Michel. 1989. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason.
London: Routledge.
Foucault, Michel. 1995. Discipline and Punish, 2nd edition. Vintage.
Foucault, Michel. 2005. The Hermeneutics of the Subject, reprint edition. Picador.
Foucault, Michel and Paul Rabinow. 1986. The Foucault Reader. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Gadamer, Hans-Georg. 1989. Truth and Method. 2nd rev. ed. Translation revised by Joel
Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall. New York: Continuum.
Geuss, Raymond, 1981. The idea of critical theory: Habermas and the Frankfurt School,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Glendinning Simon. 2004. “What is phenomenology?” Think, 3(07).
Glendinning, Simon. 2006. The idea of continental philosophy: a philosophical chronicle.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Glendinning, Simon, general editor. 1999. The Edinburgh encyclopedia of Continental
philosophy. Edinburgh University Press.
Gutting, Gary. 2001. French philosophy in the twentieth century. Cambridge ; New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Habermas, Jürgen. 1987. Knowledge and Human Interests. Translated by Jeremy J. Shapiro.
Cambridge, U.K.: Polity.
Habermas, Jürgen. 1991. Theory of Communicative Action. 2 vols. Translated by Thomas
McCarthy. Cambridge, U.K.: Polity.
Habermas, Jürgen and Steven Seidman. 1989. Jürgen Habermas on society and politics: a
reader. Boston: Beacon Press.
Hegel, G. W. F. 1977. Phenomenology of Spirit. Oxford University Press.
Heidegger, Martin. 1993. Basic Writings. Harper.
Heidegger, Martin. 1962. Being and Time. Translated by John Macquarrie and Edward
Robinson. New York: Harper and Row.
Heidegger, Martin. 2001. Zollikon Seminars: Protocols, Conversations, Letters. Edited by
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Medard Boss. Translated from the German and with notes and afterwords by Franz Mayr and
Richard Askay. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press.
Held, David. 1990. Introduction to critical theory: Horkheimer to Habermas, Cambridge: Polity.
Holland, Nancy J., and Patricia Huntington, eds. Feminist Interpretations of Martin Heidegger.
University Park: Pennsylvania State University, 2001.
Irigaray, Luce. 1993. An Ethics of Sexual Difference. Translated by Carolyn Burke and Gillian C.
Gill. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
Kearney, Richard, ed. 1994. Twentieth-Century Continental Philosophy. London and New York:
Routledge.
Kearney, Richard, and Mara Rainwater, eds. 1996. The Continental Philosophy Reader. London:
Routledge.
Kierkegaard, Soren. 1986. Fear and Trembling. Penguin.
Lacan, Jacques and Alan Sheridan. 2001. Écrits: a selection. London: Routledge.
Laclau, Ernesto. 1996. Emancipation(s). London: Verso.
Lévinas, Emmanuel. 2008. Basic Philosophical Writings. Indiana University Press.
Lévinas, Emmanuel. 1979. Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority. Translated by
Alphonso Lingis. The Hague: Nijhoff.
Lloyd, Moya. 2005. Beyond identity politics: feminism, power & politics. London: Sage.
Lyotard, Jean-François. 1984. The postmodern condition: a report on knowledge. Manchester:
Manchester U.P.
Marchart, Oliver. 2007. Post-foundational political thought: political difference in Nancy,
Lefort, Badiou and Laclau. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Marcuse, Herbert. 1972. An essay on liberation. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books.
Marcuse, Herbert. 1964. One-dimensional man: studies in the ideology of advanced industrial
society. Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Marx, Karl and Frederic Engels. 2014. Communist Manifesto. International Publishers Co.
McNay, Lois. 1994. Foucault: a critical introduction. Cambridge: Polity.
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McNay, Lois. 2000. Gender and agency: reconfiguring the subject in feminist and social theory.
Cambridge: Polity Press.
McNeill, William, and Karen Feldman, eds. 1997. Continental Philosophy: An Anthology.
Oxford: Blackwell.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. 1962. Phenomenology of Perception. Translated by Colin Smith. New
York: Humanities Press.
Moran, Dermot. 2000. Introduction to phenomenology. London: Routledge.
Moran, Dermot and Timothy Mooney. 2002. Routledge phenomenology reader. London:
Routledge.
Mullarkey, John and Beth Lord, eds. 2009. The Continuum companion to continental philosophy.
London; New York: Continuum.
Nancy, Jean-Luc. 2000. Being singular plural. Stanford University Press.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. 2003. Genealogy of Morals. Dover.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. 1992. Being and Nothingness: A Phenomenological Essay on Ontology.
Translated by Hazel E. Barnes. New York: Washington Square Press.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. 2007. Existentialism is a Humanism. Yale University Press.
Schmidt, Lawrence K. 2006. Understanding Hermeneutics. Stocksfield: Acumen.
Schroeder, William Ralph. 2005. Continental philosophy: a critical approach. Malden, MA:
Blackwell.
Solomon, Robert C. 1988. Continental philosophy since 1750: the rise and fall of the self.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Solomon, Robert C. and David Sherman, eds. 2003. The Blackwell guide to continental
philosophy. Malden, MA : Blackwell.
Sturrock, John. 2003. Structuralism. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Weedon, Chris. 1987. Feminist practice and poststructuralist theory. Cambridge, MA:
Blackwell.
West, David. 1996. An Introduction to Continental Philosophy. Cambridge, U.K.: Polity.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. 1958. Philosophical Investigations. Translated by G. E. M. Anscombe.
2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell.
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Wolfreys, Julian. 2007. Derrida: a guide for the perplexed. London: Continuum.
Žižek, Slavoj. 2007. The Parallax View. MIT.
Žižek, Slavoj. 2008. In Defense of Lost Causes. Verso.
Žižek, Slavoj. 2009. The Sublime Object of Ideology. Verso.
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ATTACHMENT IV
Question 13: Program’s Measurable Student Learning Outcomes Addressed
COURSE ALIGNMENT MATRIX
Directions: Assess the how well (course) contributes to the program’s student learning outcomes by rating each course objective for that course with an I, P or D.
I=introduced (basic level of proficiency is expected)
P=practiced (proficient/intermediate level of proficiency is expected)
D=demonstrated (highest level/most advanced level of proficiency is expected)
SLO 3: Respond critically and
analytically to philosophical
SLO 1: Develop a
positions, arguments, and
SLO 2: Read
critical understanding
methodologies, including
and
of the work of central
positions, arguments, and
comprehend
thinkers in the
methodologies involved in
philosophical
Western philosophical
the investigation of
texts.
tradition.
significant issues in
epistemology, metaphysics
and value theory.
SLO 6: Apply the basic
concepts essential to a
SLO 5: Write wellcritical examination and
organized philosophical evaluation of
SLO 4: Defend
essays in which they
argumentative discourse,
their own
clearly and effectively
where this includes
philosophical
present and defend
learning how to determine
positions and
their own philosophical whether an argument is
arguments.
positions and
valid and whether it is
arguments.
sound.
CO 1. Students will develop an understanding of the work of 19thcentury philosophers and thinkers who were influential in the
formation of 20th-century continental philosophy.
I, P
I, P
I, P
I, P
CO 2. Students will develop an understanding of the basic tenets
and concerns that define the philosophical movements
representative of 20th-century continental philosophy. (These
movements may include phenomenology, existentialism, critical
theory, hermeneutics, post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, French
feminism, postcolonialism, and/or postmodernism.)
I, P
I, P
I, P
I, P
CO 3. Students will develop an understanding of the work of
important 20th-century continental philosophers through a
critical examination of their work. (These philosophers may
include Husserl, Bergson, Heidegger, Adorno, Lacan, de
Beauvoir, Sartre, Derrida, Levinas, Irigaray, Kristeva, Deleuze,
Zizek, Badiou, and/or Marion.)
I, P
I, P
I, P
I, P
14
CO 4. Students will articulate various claims and positions on
significant issues in contemporary continental philosophy,
articulate differences between those claims and positions, and
critically evaluate those claims and positions.
I, P
I, P
I, P
I, P
I, P
I, P
CO 5. Students will state and defend philosophical positions in
writing.
I, P
I, P
I, P
I, P
I, P
I, P
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ATTACHMENT V
Question 14: Methods of Assessment for Measurable Student Learning Outcomes
A. Assessment tools
There are a number of assessment tools available for this course. First, class participation is a
good indicator of students’ understanding of, and engagement with, the readings.
Next, reading responses help students to identify ideas and arguments, and to articulate their own
observations or criticisms on those issues. These reading responses also help the instructor to
calibrate the difficulty of the material, as well as the need for more detailed introductions,
contextualizations, handouts or other additional supporting materials.
The papers and the exam should each reflect the progress made since the first draft and interview,
and demonstrate to which extent the student has achieved the five course learning objectives. The
rubric included below will be used to evaluate the papers. In general, the exam and the papers
will be evaluated according to the following criteria: the work (a) must be well organized and
readable, (b) must demonstrate the student’s ability to provide charitable and reasonable
interpretations of the philosophical arguments we encounter, (c) must demonstrate the student’s
ability to provide reasonable critical evaluations of those arguments, and (d) must demonstrate the
student’s ability to present and defend his or her own reasonable and persuasive philosophical
arguments.
Course Objectives
Assessment of Student Performance
CO 1. Students will develop an understanding of the
work of 19th-century philosophers and thinkers who were
influential in the formation of 20th-century continental
philosophy.
Participation, reading responses, papers, exam.
CO 2. Students will develop an understanding of the
basic tenets and concerns that define the philosophical
movements representative of 20th-century continental
philosophy. (These movements may include
phenomenology, existentialism, critical theory,
hermeneutics, post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, French
feminism, postcolonialism, and/or postmodernism.)
CO 3. Students will develop an understanding of the
work of important 20th-century continental philosophers
through a critical examination of their work. (These
philosophers may include Husserl, Bergson, Heidegger,
Adorno, Lacan, de Beauvoir, Sartre, Derrida, Levinas,
Irigaray, Kristeva, Deleuze, Zizek, Badiou, and/or Marion.)
Participation, reading responses, papers, exam.
CO 4. Students will articulate various claims and positions
on significant issues in contemporary continental
philosophy, articulate differences between those claims
and positions, and critically evaluate those claims and
positions.
Participation, reading responses, papers, exam.
CO 5. Students will state and defend philosophical
positions in writing.
Participation, reading responses, papers, exam.
Participation, reading responses, papers, exam.
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Rubric for Papers.
4 = Exemplary; 3 = Accomplished; 2 = Competent; 1 = Marginal; 0 = Unsatisfactory
I. ARGUMENTATION
An exemplary paper:
AVERAGE SCORE: ____
4
3
2
1
0
An unsatisfactory paper:
Presents strong and well-developed arguments in support
of its central claims.
Fails to adequately defend its central claims.
Addresses any relevant counterarguments and also
anticipates and defuses potential objections to its central
claims and arguments.
Fails either to rebut relevant counterarguments or to
anticipate and defuse potential objections to its central
claims and arguments.
Is in many ways subtle, original, and/or insightful.
Is always trite, trivial, or unoriginal.
II. EXPOSITION
AVERAGE SCORE: ____
An exemplary paper:
4
3
2
1
0
An unsatisfactory paper:
Gives an accurate and charitable exposition and
interpretation of the pertinent texts and views, providing
textual support where appropriate.
Provides an incomplete, inaccurate, and/or uncharitable
exposition and interpretation of the pertinent texts and
views.
Fully explains key terms, concepts, and distinctions in an
illuminating way, using the author’s own words,
examples, and descriptions.
Fails to provide adequate explanations for key terms,
concepts, or distinctions.
III. INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION
An exemplary paper:
AVERAGE SCORE: ____
4
3
2
1
0
An unsatisfactory paper:
Has an introduction that motivates the project and defines a
sharp focus by clearly stating its central aim(s), e.g., a thesis
or controlling idea relating to the assigned topic.
Has an inadequate introduction, one that fails to
motivate the project or establish a clear focus by stating
a thesis or controlling idea that relates to the assigned
topic.
Has a conclusion that summarizes results clearly, explores
implications/limitations of those results, and leaves readers
with a sense of the paper’s importance.
Has an inadequate conclusion, one that fails either to
summarize results or to explain their implications,
limitations, and importance.
IV. ORGANIZATION
An exemplary paper:
AVERAGE SCORE: ____
4
3
2
1
0
An unsatisfactory paper:
Has a clear and logical organizational plan, wherein the
ordering of ideas, sentences, and paragraphs builds
naturally toward the achievement of its central aim(s).
Has an illogical or indiscernible organizational plan—
the paper is a hodgepodge of ideas.
Provides a user-friendly guide to the organizational plan by
using transitional words/phrases/sentences to show how the
various ideas, sentences, and paragraphs relate to the
paper’s central aim(s) and to each other.
Fails to provide a clear guide to the organizational plan,
e.g., by failing to use adequate transitions or jumping
from one idea or point to another without establishing
any connection between them.
V. WRITING (FOLLOW-UP Section)
An exemplary paper:
AVERAGE SCORE: ____
4
3
2
1
0
An unsatisfactory paper:
Exhibits a sophisticated (but unpretentious) writing style as it
presents its ideas clearly, concisely, and precisely, such that
what’s being said is almost never open to misinterpretation and
contains almost no unnecessary words, imprecision, or irrelevant
content.
Has a writing style that significantly detracts from the
argument, involving repetitive and simplistic sentence
structures, unnecessarily inflated language, imprecise
wording, and/or language that is unclear, wordy, repetitious,
or contains irrelevant content.
Contains virtually no errors in grammar, spelling, or punctuation,
and documents sources properly.
Is riddled with grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors
and/or fails to acknowledge sources properly.
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B. Describe the procedure dept/program will use to ensure the faculty teaching the
course will be involved in the assessment process (refer to the university’s policy on
assessment.)
We anticipate that the faculty teaching this course will collaborate with other faculty to
discuss and share data from student written work that can be used to demonstrate the
extent to which students achieve the SLOs for the course. Revisions of the course will
come from faculty experience, knowledge of the field, and observations of student
responses and performance in the course with regard both to course objectives and
program SLOs. The department chair, as well as its Assessment Liaison, will ensure that
all faculty who teach this course are involved in the assessment process.
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