PHICYBER: Course Requirements

[Note: this page is included for information only, and is available as an example from the 1999 course]

For those PHICYBERnauts enrolled for university credit, three options are open for your formal class responsibilities, in addition to your required participation in, and contribution to, PHICYBER dialogue:
1. You can write an essay for each topic assigned, to be submitted to me, at Dr. Ron Barnette;
2. You can write a 15-20 page research paper of your choice, with my approval and advice;
3. You can develop a personal website, which articulates a theme chosen for philosophical expression---see me for details.

Note: Click here for sample summer, 1999 assignments.

(Examples of previous summer discussion questions)

Here are the essay topics for assignment option 1, and which might serve as ideas for the other options:
Assignment #1: Discuss the topic of Socrates and the Internet. What would Socrates have to say about the Net, and Why? Would he agree with the format for Philosophy? Disagree? Explain.

Reading: Plato's famous dialogue of the trial of Socrates, who was accused, among other things, of corrupting the youth. Off the Valdosta Philosophy Resources Website, at http://www.valdosta.edu/~rbarnett/phi/resource.html you will find an excellent site on the last days of Socrates, from Clarke College; here is the online version of the Apology for you.

Assignment #2: What, according to J.S. Mill, is the proper role of government? What individual liberties should the state allow, and disallow? Explain.

Reading: read _On Liberty_ and define Mill's case, as you understand it. It can be found in our Resources Website, at: http://www.valdosta.edu/~rbarnett/phi/resource.html

Assignment #3: My friend, Dr. Lawrence Hinman, has the best website on ethics on the Internet. I want you to go to his website for information on Assisted Suicide, and develop your position on whether doctors, such as Dr, Kovorkian, should be allowed to help patients die. Good luck.
Hinman's Ethics Update page will give you access to the relevant information you might want to use.

Censorship on the Internet is the new topic for debate, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation has a nice website devoted to their perspective. Check it out and research other points of view, as you address this critical issue.

Our next topic for analysis and debate concerns the topic of Free Will and Foreknowledge, a philosophical issue that has been debated for some time. Does the existence of an all-knowing being necessarily preclude your having the ability to choose freely, and thus be responsible for your actions? Here's an essay I wrote which makes such a case---take a look and send me your critical responses? Good luck!

Extending the topic on free will, I want us next to explore examples of a familiar argument that runs:"Since my actions are the products of environmental factors I have confronted over the course of my life, not under my control, my acts are not truly done freely by me, for I couldn't have done otherwise than to react as I do to my environmental conditions." Personal responsibilty is thus denied--or at least diminished significantly. We see this line of thought in a variety of areas, including some very famous legal cases. Can you think of some? Check here for an interesting idea on the concept of free will, along with an educational interactive tool.

Cheers from cyberspace.
Dr. B