Philosophy Statement
The general education component of the associate degree introduces students to the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, applied sciences, and technology. It exposes students to different areas of study; demands the acquisition and use of reading, writing, and critical thinking skills at appropriate post-secondary levels; imparts a sense of our shared cultural heritage and how to function as responsible, ethical individuals in a complex society; and instills a level of intellectual curiosity and self-awareness conducive to life-long learning and personal growth.
Together with other Mt. San Antonio College degree requirements, the general education component of the associate degree prepares students to 1) meet UC or CSU transfer requirements and function successfully in a baccalaureate degree institution or 2) enter the work force as a competent, productive citizen and 3) live a richer, more rewarding life.
General education is the distinguishing feature of higher education. It is a broadly-based core of humanistic knowledge and abilities, acquisition of which is the distinctive characteristic of the educated person. General education courses emphasizes the ability to reason, to examine issues from different perspectives, to challenge authority, and to communicate ideas logically and confidently. They instill open-mindedness, respect for differences among people, and knowledge of self. They provide an understanding of the human condition and of human accomplishments and encourage a lifelong interest in learning.
General education courses are not primarily skills-based, nor are they limited to, or more appropriate for, majors in a specialized field of study.
Courses that fulfill general education requirements must:
1. Require post-secondary level skills in reading, writing, computation, and critical thinking.
2. Improve students' abilities to:
communicate oral and written ideas effectively;
define problems, design solutions, critically analyze results;
work effectively and cooperatively with others; work independently;
development and question personal and social values, make informed choices,
and accept responsibility for one's decisions;
function as active, responsible, ethical citizens;
acquire the curiosity and skills essential for life-long learning.
3. Impart understanding, knowledge, and appreciation of:
our shared scientific, technological, historical, and artistic heritage,
including the contributions of women, ethnic minorities, and non-Western cultures;
the earth's ecosystem, including the processes that formed it and
the strategies that are necessary for its maintenance.
human social, political, and economic institutions and behavior, including their interrelationships;
the psychological, social, and physiological dimensions of men and women
as individuals and as members of society.
Courses that fulfill general education requirements must fall into one of the content categories
listed below:
A. Communication & Critical Thinking
B. Science & Math
C. Humanities
D. Social Sciences
E. Life Long Understanding & Self-Development
* Criteria for inclusion in each of the above categories are itemized below.
A. Communication & Critical Thinking
These courses emphasize both the content and form of communication. They teach students the relationship of language to logic, as well as how to analyze, criticize, and advocate ideas, to reason deductively and inductively, and to reach sound conclusions, Courses fulfilling this requirement:
provide understanding of the psychological and social significance of communication;
illustrate how communication operates in various situations;
focus on communication from the rhetorical perspective; reasoning, advocacy, organization, accuracy; the discovery, critical evaluation, and accuracy, and reporting of information: Reading, listening, speaking, of information; reading, listening, speaking, and writing effectively; provide active participation and practice in written and oral communication.
B. Science and Mathematics
These courses impart knowledge about living and non-living systems, and mathematical concepts and quantitative reasoning with applications. Courses fulfilling this requirement:
promote understanding and appreciation of the methodologies and tools of science;
emphasize the influence of scientific knowledge on the development of civilization;
impart appreciation and understanding of basic concepts, not just skills;
offer specific inquiry into mathematical concepts, quantitative reasoning and applications.
C. Humanities
These courses cultivate intellect, imagination, sensibility, and sensitivity. They encourage students to respond subjectively as well as objectively, and to develop a sense of the integrity of emotional and intellectual responses. Courses fulfilling this requirement:
study great work of the human imagination;
increase awareness and appreciation of the traditional humanistic disciplines such as art, dance, drama, literature, and music;
impart an understanding of the interrelationship between creative art, the humanities, and the self;
provide exposure to both Western and non-Western cultures;
may include a foreign language course that contains a cultural component
as opposed to a course that focuses on skills acquisition.
D. Social Sciences
These courses explore, at the micro and macro-level, the social, political, economic institutions that underpin society. Courses fulfilling these requirements:
promote understanding and appreciation of social, political, and economic institutions;
probe the relationship between these institutions and human behavior;
examine these institutions in both their historical and contemporary context;
include the role of, and impact on, non-white ethnic minorities and women;
include both Western and non-Western settings.
E. Life-Long Understanding and Self-Development
These courses facilitate an understanding of human beings as integrated physiological, social and psychological organisms. Courses fulfilling this requirement:
provide selective consideration of human behavior, sexuality, nutrition, health,
stress, implications of death and dying, and the relationship of people to the social and physical environment.
Adapted from CSU Executive Order 595 and Title 5 section 40405.1
PHILOSOPHY STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
INTRODUCTION TO LOGIC:
PHIL 3
SLO 1: Students will be able to classify arguments (Inductive/Deductive).
SLO 2: Students will be able to evaluate arguments (Strong/Weak, Cogent/Uncogent, Valid/Invalid, Sound/Unsound) and identify fallacies.
PHIL 3H
SLO 1: Students will be able to classify arguments (Inductive/Deductive).
SLO 2: Students will be able to evaluate arguments (Strong/Weak, Cogent/Uncogent, Valid/Invalid, Sound/Unsound) and identify fallacies.
INTRO TO PHILOSOPHY:
PHIL 5
SLO 1: Students will be able to identify philosophical schools of thought and the ideas of major philosophers.
SLO 2: Students will be able to apply philosophical knowledge to contemporary issues.
PHIL 5H
SLO 1: Students will be able to identify philosophical schools of thought and the ideas of major philosophers.
SLO 2: Students will be able to apply philosophical knowledge to contemporary issues.
CRITICAL THINKING:
PHIL 8
SLO 1: Students will be able to classify arguments (Inductive and Deductive).
SLO 2: Students will be able to evaluate arguments (Strong/weak, Cogent/Uncogent, Valid/Invalid, Sound/Unsound) and identify fallacies.
SLO 3: Students will be able to apply problem solving skills to both personal and social issues.
CRITICAL THINKING AND WRITING:
PHIL 9
SLO 1: Students will be able to classify arguments in writing (Inductive and Deductive).
SLO 2: Students will be able to construct and to evaluate arguments in writing (Strong/weak, Cogent/Uncogent, Valid/Invalid, Sound/Unsound) and identify fallacies.
SLO 3: Students will be able to develop a thesis statement that advances a clear argument.
PHIL 9H
SLO 1: Students will be able to classify arguments in writing (Inductive and Deductive).
SLO 2: Students will be able to construct and to evaluate arguments in writing (Strong/weak, Cogent/Uncogent, Valid/Invalid, Sound/Unsound) and identify fallacies.
SLO 3: Students will be able to develop a thesis statement that advances a clear argument.
ETHICS:
PHIL 12
SLO 1: Students will be able to identify philosophers (such as Aristotle, Kant, Nietzsche, Sartre) and their ethical systems.
SLO 2: Students will able to compare and contrast various ethical systems (including Deontological, Teleological, Virtue Ethics).
PHIL 12H – Honors
SLO 1: Students will be able to identify philosophers (such as Aristotle, Kant, Nietzsche, Sartre) and their ethical systems.
SLO 2: Students will be able to compare and contrast various ethical systems (including Deontological, Teleological, Virtue Ethics).
WORLD RELIGIONS:
PHIL 15
SLO 1: Students will be able to identify the five major world religions and their founders.
SLO 2: Students will be able to compare and contrast a variety of religious themes.
PHIL 15H
SLO 1: Students will be able to identify the five Major World Religions and their founders.
SLO 2: Students will be able to compare and contrast a variety of religious themes.
HISTORY OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY (Ancient):
PHIL 20A
SLO 1: Students will be able to identify the major philosophers and the philosophical schools from ancient times to the beginning of the Renaissance period.
SLO 2: Students will be able to compare and contrast philosophical systems of thought from ancient times to the beginning of the Renaissance period.
PHIL 20AH
SLO 1: Students will be able to identify the major philosophers and the philosophical schools from ancient times to the beginning of the Renaissance period.
SLO 2: Students will be able to compare and contrast philosophical systems of thought from ancient times to the beginning of the Renaissance period.
HISTORY OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY (Modern):
PHIL 20B
SLO 1: Students will be able to identify the major philosophers and the philosophical schools from Renaissance to contemporary times.
SLO 2: Students will be able to compare and contrast philosophical systems of thought from Renaissance to contemporary times.
PHIL 20 BH
SLO 1: Students will be able to identify the major philosophers and the philosophical schools from Renaissance to contemporary times.
SLO 2: Students will be able to compare and contrast philosophical systems of thought from Renaissance to contemporary times.
SPECIAL PROJECTS:
PHIL 99
SLO 1: Students will develop conceptual competence, demonstrate vigor of logical inquiry, and produce clarity of expression.
Measurable Objectives for Philosophy Courses
PHIL 3 - Introduction to Logic
The student will:
1.Identify different uses of language and use them appropriately.
2. Recognize good reasoning from bad reasoning.
3. Identify and correctly label the fallacies used in everyday speech, as well as in politics, advertising, and literature.
4. Employ logical rules to organize their thoughts, solve personal problem as well as academic problems.
5. Analyze and diagram ordinary language arguments to outline their structure and consistency.
6. Classify arguments as inductive or deductive and determine validity and strength, soundness and cogency.
7. Reformulate natural language into symbolic form to determine its validity with truth tables.
8. Define terms and evaluate definitions employing the rules of definitions to avoid or detect ambiguity, vagueness, and circularity.
PHIL 5 - Introduction to Philosophy
The student will:
1. Analyze the ideas of the "major" philosophers, primarily in the Western tradition, although including some Eastern philosophers as well.
2. Evaluate critically philosophical theories in written essay.
3. Develop a "logical" philosophical argument.
4. Conduct literary research that examines the impact of major philosophers in the Western tradition.
5. Analyze "primary" philosophical texts.
PHIL 8 - Critical Thinking
The student will:
1. Demonstrate writing, reading, thinking and communication skills through critical self-reflection.
2. Apply problem solving skills to both personal and social issues.
3. Construct and evaluate logical arguments.
4. Distinguish between truth, knowledge, and opinion by determining what are legitimate and reliable sources of information.
5. Apply scientific methods including both lab and field techniques.
6. Analyze language and its uses as an effective tool of communication as well as its misuses as tools of manipulation.
7. Make use effectively of more complex conceptual models such as classification, analogy, analysis, and synthesis.
8. Recognize and avoid fallacies such as ad hominem, slippery slope, red herring and numerous others.
9. Critically evaluate the techniques used by the media including journalism and advertising.
10.Construct arguments that utilize both the rational and creative faculties.
PHIL 9 - Critical Thinking and Writing
The student will:
1. Distinguish in speaking, listening and reading the logical and nonlogical uses of language in written and oral discourse.
2. Utilize the principles of deductive and inductive logic to analyze, criticize and evaluate ideas and the assumptions on which they are based in written and oral discourse.
3. Differentiate fact from judgment, belief from knowledge, and the various modes of inquiry which characterize different areas of human thought.
4. Develop critical thinking habits by recognizing common logical errors and/or fallacies of language and thought that occur in the advocacy of ideas.
5. Write a sequence of shorter argumentative essays leading developmentally to the composition of substantially larger essays, all of which require analysis, criticism and synthesis of information and ideas.
6. Recognize the importance of receiving evaluation of written compositions with respect to quality of writing style and content accuracy as a means of improving communication.
7. Identify and respect alternative view points and contributions originating in diverse cultural, gender, ethnic, religious or scientific contexts.
PHIL 12 - Ethics
The student will:
1. Analyze the ideas of the "major" philosophers in Western and Eastern traditions.
2. Critically evaluate ethical theories.
3. Develop logical, ethical arguments.
4. Research, develop, and apply ethical arguments to contemporary ethical issues.
5. Analyze primary ethical and philosophical texts.
PHIL 15 - Major World Religions
The student will:
1. Research a wide diversity of world religions.
2. Analyze religions, objectively and critically.
3. Compare/contrast a variety of religions of world experiences.
4. Critically analyze various information about religions being studied in order to formulate an informed objective opinion.
5. Identify the positive and negative aspects of the religions being studied.
PHIL 20A History of Ancient Western Philosophy
The student will:
1. Identify and know the scientific, intellectual and philosophical origins of the Western tradition.
2. Explain when and how mythology concerning the natural world gave way to rational and scientific conceptions.
3. Identify when and how Greek philosophy turns its focus from the Natural World to the Human World of Society, Culture and Ethics in Socrates.
4. Evaluate the great philosophical systems of Plato and Aristotle as enduring solutions to issues raised by both the Pre-Socratics and Socrates himself.
5. Appraise the great synthesis between Christianity and philosophy, or faith and reason, performed by the great Christian thinkers such as Augustine, Anselm, and Aquinas from the end of the Roman Empire to the end of the Medieval period.
PHIL 20B History of Modern Western Philosophy
The student will:
1. Identify philosophy's focus changes from the Renaissance to the Twentieth Century.
2. Recognize and define the origins and sources of Modern Scientific revolution in Renaissance times as a guide to understanding the great philosophical currents of the 17th and 18th Century: Rationalism and Empiricism.
3. Evaluate the philosophy of Immanuel Kant as a synthesis of two philosophical currents: Rationalism and Empiricism.
4. Evaluate the contribution of Rationalism to world philosophy and its influence in American educational, political and social systems.
5. Assess the two major trends in contemporary philosophy: the Analytic tradition and the Existentialist tradition.
| Last Updated: 10/19/22 |