Philosophy 381: Metaphysics in Science Fiction

1. Read one of the many available science fiction magazines from Prof. Goddu.

2. Summarize every story listed in the table of contents. The summaries do not need to be very long--just enough to the report reader an idea of the plot and overall jist of story.

3. For any story that has philosophical merit, explain cleary and precisely why. [Any story that deals with the topics we discuss in this course automatically counts as having philosophical merit. Stories that raise epistemological and ethical concerns also have philosophical merit, but are of less interest to me. (Regardless, you should still indicate that these stories have philosophical merit and explain why.)]

4. If possible, briefly describe how much philosophical merit the stories have. Does the story deal directly with a philosophically interesting topic or does something philosophically interesting happen in the story only tangentially? For example, a story who main plot device is a malfunctioning matter transporter that duplicates objects is of very high philosophical merit, whereas a story that involves a matter transporter that is used as a matter of course with no discussion of the implications for the presistence of objects transported is of low philosophical relevance.

5. Reports should be typwritten. Your name must appear on the report. The title of the report should be: Summary and Philosophical Merit Evaluation of: Issue Title, Month, Year.

6. Each complete report handed in (along with the returned magazine) will entail 1/3 of a percentage point being added to your final grade over and above the fulfillment of the requirements. Hence, doing 3 reports will add 1 point to your final grade; 6 reports, 2 points, etc.

7. For Honors students: To gain honors credit for this course, a minimum of 3 reports must be completed (no bonus added.) Extra credit can be achieved by completing additional reports beyond 3, with each such report earning 1/3 of a percentage point of extra credit.

8. Failure to return any borrowed magazine will result in a 3% deduction in your final grade for each magazine!

Due: All reports (and borrowed magazines) are due back to Prof. Goddu by Monday, December 11 at noon.