PHIL 3211 Philosophy of Law, FA2024 D056

Four-sentence paper #2 is now graded and you can see my feedback on Brightspace. I’m not planning to announce this every time but I wanted to share that you can view my comments and marks by clicking on “Turnitin Online Grading” (or something to that effect–I can’t see what this looks like from a students’ perspective). Everyone should have had a comment or two. We can discuss in class tomorrow.

Please note, you can and should submit these papers late if you did not submit on time. The sooner the better.

Dr. M

The test will be will be administered on Brightspace and will be available from 2:30-3:45pm. You can take the test on any computer—you can take it in class, but you don’t need to come to class. You should receive an announcement to your email at 6:00pm when it becomes available. You can also find it by navigating to “Quizzes” in Brightspace after 2:30pm.

The exam is open book and open notes. I recommend that you study carefully for it by filling out the study sheet ahead of time. Most of the questions require understanding concepts, not simply repeating answers from the study sheet.

Do NOT plagiarize from the internet. Utilizing answers from class materials and lectures is acceptable. Plagiarism from the internet is grounds for a zero score on the test.

You can start it any time within the normal class period (2:30-3:45pm) and will receive a full 75 minutes to take the test. It is possible to pause the test and come back later, but the clock will keep ticking and you only have 75 minutes total to take the test. You will not be able to resume after 3:45pm.

If you need a special exception you need to contact me. If for some reason you don’t contact me and also don’t take it at the appointed time, you will need a documented excuse (either medical or related to bereavement) for permission to take it at another time.

Don’t forget to download the review sheet and fill it out before the test! And let me know if you have any questions.

Dr. M

4-sentence Paper 2 is due on Brightspace on Tuesday, 10/15 by midnight. This paper should critique some claim made by Scott Shapiro in the short section we outlined in Analytical Outline 2. If you were not present in class and so did not do the analtyical outline, you may critique any of the claims made by Shapiro in the assigned reading for 10/7/24. 

You can see instructions for the 4 Sentence Paper on the assignment page. 

Our next analytical outline exercise will occur next class (this coming Monday, 10/7). Reading and understanding the assigned section (Scott J. Shapiro, “Austin’s Sanction Theory.” Ch. 3 in Legality (2011) (pp 51-62 only)) ahead of time will be immensely helpful to you in completing this in-class assignment. I will assign a smaller portion from this reading for you to outline in class.

You can find instructions for the analytical outlines on the Analytical Outline page. You will also want to take into consideration my comments on the first Analytical Outline.

Because this is an in-class assignment there is no way to complete it if you are not present. In cases where a student has an excused absence (generally only for medical reasons or bereavement), students should talk to me about how to make up for the missing grade.

See Zoom link on Brightspace.

Write a 4-sentence paper responding to one of the arguments given by Louis Seidman in the piece (“Let’s Give Up on the Constitution”) we outlined in class today. Please use one of the points or arguments you identified in your analytical outline. If you did not do an outline or did not record any of Seidman’s points or arguments in your outline, you will have to look at the original piece again to find one of his arguments.

Before you begin be sure to carefully read the 4-sentence Paper Assignment.

We will compose our first analytical outline in class this Wednesday, 9/11. Please read the assigned reading in preparation for that class. We discussed the format for the analytical outlines today in class. As a reminder, you can look at the Analytical Outline Page.

Because this is an in-class assignment there is no way to complete it if you are not present. In cases where a student has an excused absence (generally only for medical reasons or bereavement), students should talk to me about how to make up for the missing grade.

The essay we practiced on in class was “Prohibit Assault Weapons.”

 

I’m Dr. MacDougall, your professor for Philosophy of Law (PHIL 3211). There are two things I want you to know before our first meeting on Wednesday August 28.

1. Most of our written interactions, class updates and materials, are available here on our OpenLab site. Please join our OpenLab section as soon as possible. You will be required to join in order to participate in online discussions. You can also see the schedule and assignments there.

2. This class is an Open Educational Resource (OER) course. That means there is no textbook, and all readings are freely available online. This saves you money and means you can store all our readings on your hard drive, indefinitely! You can find links to class readings on the schedule page.

Let me know if you have any questions. I’m looking forward to meeting you.

Dr. MacDougall