Philosophy 375

Philosophical Issues of Race and Gender

 

Section 001                  TR 9:25-10:40                         Friends 307                              Fall 2007

 

Overview:   Philosophy 375 is a survey of philosophical issues associated with race and gender.  This course will focus on such questions as:  What are racism and sexism and why are they wrong?  How should we understand racial justice?  Is affirmative action an acceptable way of achieving racial justice?  Is race a biologically legitimate concept, or merely a “socially constructed” concept? To what extent (if any) are behavioral differences between men and women rooted in biology?  What does justice between men and women require?  Though our focus will be primarily philosophical, the course will of necessity cross disciplinary boundaries to consider issues in the social and natural sciences.  The goal is to equip students with the knowledge and skills to form well-reasoned answers to the course’s questions.

 

Instructor:  Craig Duncan  (cduncan@ithaca.edu)

            Office hours and location:  Dillingham 213, Wed 12-1 and Thurs 11-12

            Office phone:  4-3580

            Email:  cduncan@ithaca.edu

            Homepage:  www.ithaca.edu/faculty/cduncan

            Coursepage: http://webct.ithaca.edu

 

Required Course materials (and abbreviations):         

·        Lawrence Blum, “I’m Not a Racist But…”:  The Moral Quandary of Race  [B]

·        Susan Moller Okin, Justice, Gender, and the Family [O]

·        Jason DeParle, American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation's Drive to       End Welfare [D]

·        A coursepack available from the instructor [CP]     

 

 
Requirements
  • Two 5-7 page papers.  Each paper counts 10% toward your overall grade.  This first will due in-class on Thursday, Sept. 27th.  The second will be due in-class on Tuesday, November 6th.  The second paper will be a review of the DeParle American Dream book, so be sure to keep up with the reading assignments from that book.  (There will also be questions on the midterm about the DeParle book—another reason to keep up with the reading assignments.) Extensions on the paper deadline will be granted only in extraordinary circumstances; extension requests must be made in writing (email is OK) well in advance of the deadline.  Papers not turned in on time will instantly receive a deduction worth one-third of a letter grade.  This deduction will increase daily, adding up to a full letter grade deduction for a paper 5 calendar days late, with steeper deductions thereafter at my discretion.  (Note: These policies also apply to the 8-10 page paper described below.)
  • One 8-10 page paper:  An 8-10 page paper is due in-class on Tuesday, December 11th.  The paper grade counts 25% toward your overall grade. 
  • A mid-term exam:  This will take place on Tuesday, October 9th in class.  It counts 15% toward your overall grade.
  • A final exam:  This will take place on Wednesday, December 19th, from 8-10am in the usual classroom. It counts 25% toward your overall grade.
  • Participation:  Philosophy cannot be passively learned.  It requires active engagement, both with the texts and with individuals in the form of discussion.  For this reason class participation counts for 15% of your overall grade.  In order to get a good participation grade, you must have excellent attendance, do the assigned reading for each class period,  regularly take an active role in class discussions, AND prior to each class, submit your answer to a reading question posted on WebCT by the instructor.  (This will be explained in class; see also the WebCT instructions appended to this syllabus.)

 

Tentative Reading Schedule:

Please assume the following reading materials are assigned unless I tell you otherwise.   Readings labeled [W] are available on webCT.  See the list of required books above for the key to other abbreviations in the reading schedule below.

 

I.  Historical Background

 

Tr   8/30     In-class video

Tu  9/4       Ann Stubblefield, History in Black [CP]

 

II.  The Nature of Racism 

 

Tr   9/6       “Racism”:  Its Core Meaning [B, Ch. 1, pp. 1-22]

                  DeParle, American Dream, Ch. 1 (pp. 3-19)

Tu  9/11     “Racism”:  Its Core Meaning [B, Ch. 1, pp. 22—32]

                  Griggs v. Duke Power Co [W]

                  Washington v. Davis [W]

                  DeParle, Ch. 2 (pp. 20-37)

Tr   9/13     Andrew Altman, The Idea of Institutional Racism [CP]

                  DeParle, Chs. 3-4 (pp. 38-81)

Tu 9/18     Can Blacks Be Racist?  [B, Ch. 2]

                  Varieties of Racial Ills [B, Ch. 3]

                  DeParle, Ch. 5 (pp. 85-100)

Tr   9/20     Racial Discrimination and Color Blindness [B, Ch. 4]

                  DeParle, Ch. 6 (pp. 101-122)

 
III.  The Nature of Race and Racial Identities

 

Tu  9/25     “Race”:  What We Mean and What We Think We Mean [B, Ch. 5]

                  “Race”:  A Brief History, with Moral Implications [B, Ch. 6]

                  DeParle, Ch. 7 (pp. 123-137)

Tr   9/27     Do Races Exist?  [B, Ch. 7]

                  5-7 page paper due

Tu  10/2     Jared Diamond, Race Without Color [W]

                  Ian Hacking, Why Race Still Matters [W] 

                  DeParle, Ch. 8-9 (pp. 138-172)

Tr   10/4     Racialized Groups and Social Constructions [B, Ch. 8]

                  Should We Try to Give Up Race? [B, Ch. 9]
                  DeParle, Ch. 10 (pp. 175-195)

 

Tr   10/9     MIDTERM EXAM

 

IV.  Explaining Racial Inequality

 

Discrimination

Tr   10/11   Brooke Kroeger, When a Dissertation Makes a Difference [W]

                  David Wessel, Racial Discrimination is Still at Work [W]

                  Margery Austin Turner, et al., Discrimination in Metropolitan Housing Markets:                               Executive Summary [W]

James Heckman and Peter Siegelman, A Summary of Our Main Argument [CP]
Brian Barry, The Making of the Black Gulag [CP]

DeParle, Ch. 11 (pp. 196-207)

In-class Video

 

Biological Explanations and Their Critics

Tu 10/16   Charles Murray and Richard J. Herrnstein, Race, Genes, and I.Q.—An Apologia [W]

                  James J. Heckman, Cracked Bell [W]

                  Thomas Sowell, Ethnicity and IQ [W]

                  Richard Nisbett, Race, IQ, and Scientism [W]

                  APA Task Force, Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns, pp. 28-31 (“Summary and                               Conclusions”) [W]

                  DeParle, Ch. 12 (pp. 208-221)

 

Tr   10/18   FALL BREAK – read DeParle, Chs. 13-15 (pp. 222-263)

 

Cultural Explanations and the Black-White Test Score Gap

Tu 10/23   John H. McWhorter, Explaining the Black Education Gap [CP]

                  Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig, The Burden of ‘Acting White’:  Do Black                                      Adolescents Disparage Academic Achievement? [CP]

                  Christopher Jencks and Meredith Phillips, America’s Next Achievement Test:                                  Closing the Black-White Test Score Gap [W]

                  Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom, Left Behind [CP]

                  DeParle, Ch. 16 (pp. 264-281)

 

Structural Explanations

Tr   10/25   Elizabeth S. Anderson, Segregation as a Cause of Race-Based Barriers to Equality [CP]                 Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom, Why Does Neighborhood Segregation Persist? [CP]

                  Dalton Conley, Being Black, Living in the Red:  Wealth Matters [CP]

                  DeParle, Ch. 17 (pp. 282-302)

 

V.  Racial Justice

 

Equality of Opportunity

Tu  10/30   G. A. Cohen, Socialism and Equal Opportunity [CP]

                  Brian Barry, Does Responsibility Undermine Equality? [W]
                  Alan B. Krueger, The Apple Falls Close to the Tree, Even in the Land of
                        Opportunity [W]
                  Thomas Hertz, Transition Probabilities from “Rags, Riches, Race…” [W]

                  DeParle, Ch. 18 (pp. 303-322)

Tr   11/1     Richard A. Epstein, The Case Against Antidiscrimination Law [CP]

                  Cass Sunstein, Why Markets Don’t Stop Discrimination [CP]

                  DeParle, Epilogue (pp. 323-338)

                 

Welfare

Tu  11/6     Christopher Jencks, Liberal Lessons from Welfare Reform: Why Welfare-to-Work                                           Turned Out Better Than We Expected, and What to Do Next [W]

                  Elizabeth Anderson, Welfare, Work Requirements, and Dependent Care [W]

                  DeParle discussion

                  5-7 page paper due

 

Affirmative Action

Tr   11/8     Ronald Dworkin, Affirmative Action: Does It Work? [CP]

                  In-class radio interview with Elizabeth Anderson

Tu  11/13   Louis Pojman, The Case Against Affirmative Action [CP]

                  Grutter v. Bollinger [CP]

                  Carl Cohen and James P. Sterba, Comments on the Supreme Court Decision [CP]

 

VI. Racism and Sexism – Similarities and Differences

 

Tr   11/15   Laurence Thomas, Racism and Sexism:  Some Conceptual Differences [CP]

                 

11/19-11/23     THANKSGIVING BREAK

 

VII. Sex, Socialization and Biology

 

Tu 11/27   Robert Wright, Feminists, Meet Mr. Darwin:  The Evolutionary Psychology of the                                        Female Mind [W]

                  Anne Fausto-Sterling, et. al., Evolutionary Psychology and Darwinian Feminism [W]

                  Susan Hurley, Feminism and Evolutionary Psychology:  Can They Be Reconciled? [W]

 Tr  11/29   Virginia Valian, Why So Slow? [CP]

                  Kingsley R. Browne, The Gender Gap in Compensation [CP]

 

VIII. Justice for Women

 

Tu 12/4      Introduction:  Justice and Gender [O, Ch. 1]

                  The Family:  Beyond Justice [O, Ch. 2]

Tr   12/6     Jonathan Wolff, Rawls’s Theory of Justice [CP]

                  Justice as Fairness:  For Whom? [O, Ch. 5]

Tu  12/11   Justice from Sphere to Sphere:  Challenging the Public/Domestic Dichotomy
                        [O, Ch. 6]

                  8-10 page paper due

Tr   12/13   Vulnerability by Marriage [O, Ch. 7]

                  Conclusion:  Toward Humanist Justice [O, Ch. 8]

 

Wed  12/19     8-10am            FINAL EXAM

 

 

Teaching Policies: 

 

Attendance 

During classtime I will often introduce material that is not covered in the reading assignments.  You will be held responsible for knowing this material.  If you do not come to class, you will not know this material, and your performance on essays and exams will suffer.  So come to class.  Also, attendance is a significant part of your class participation grade.  Unexcused absences will hurt your participation grade.  Note, too, that very good attendance by itself does not guarantee a high participation grade; participation during class is necessary too.  For example, someone who had perfect attendance but who rarely volunteered comments in class would probably get no higher than a C+ participation grade. 

 

Academic Conduct

Students are expected to conform to the Standards of Academic Conduct printed in the Student Handbook.  Please familiarize yourself with these standards.  Violations will be reported to the Ithaca College Conduct Review Board.  Additionally, you will receive a grade of zero on any assignment that is not completed according to these standards.  Plagiarism is one very serious violation of these standards.  I will not tolerate it.  There are good reasons for my zero-tolerance policy—reasons well summarized by the philosopher Hugh LaFollette, from whom I quote below:

 

    “Why Shouldn't I Plagiarize?

 

(1) It undercuts the aims of education. If you plagiarize you will not learn the skills you should learn – you are merely copying someone else's words and ideas – and that you already knew how to do.

(2) It is theft. And all theft is wrong, whether it is theft of an idea or an object.

(3) You harm other students. By plagiarizing you make professors more suspicious of students. This encourages them to make assignments that are plagiarism-proof rather than ones that are educationally sound.

(4) You will get caught. Think about it for a minute: if you plagiarize from a good source – one that is likely to help your grade – the prof may well know (or can easily find) the source. And if your writing style drastically changes from sentence to sentence or from paper to exam, that will be obvious to even a causal observer. To plagiarize well – to plagiarize in a way that is likely to land you a decent grade and minimize the chance you will get caught – you would have to know the material so well, that it would be easier – and more educationally beneficial – to write the essay yourself."[1]

 

Responding to Reading Questions via WebCT

 

 

To access and reply to the reading questions, login to the WebCT coursepage (courses.ithaca.edu).  Scroll down beneath the title area until you see a discussion icon (a picture of a thumbtack) labeled  “Reading Questions and Discussion.”  Click on this.  This will take you to the discussion page of WebCT.

 

This discussion page has several general topics, e.g. “Reading Questions – Introduction,” “Miscellaneous Thoughts / Questions,” and “Discussion Items.”  In addition to these, before each class period I will post a new topic containing the questions for that day.  For example, the first reading questions will be found under the topic heading “1/25 Reading Questions.”  Click on this topic heading and then read the entry from me to see the questions.

 

I’m not expecting a polished, essay-length answer to the questions; I simply want to know your thoughts on the subject, and to be sure you have understood the reading material.  You will not receive individual grades on each of your answers, but in computing your overall course grade I will take into account the extent to which you have participated conscientiously in this activity and shown good understanding of the readings; this will be a significant part of your participation grade.

 

I recommend that you compose your answers in Word first and save the document, so that there will be no risk of losing your answers through some WebCT or internet mishap.  To submit your answers, read the post from me with the questions, then click “reply” and paste your answer from Word into the text box (or compose it there if you want to risk this).  Click the “Post” button to submit your reply.  Note: After you click the “Post” button, WebCT will not automatically display your posting; click the update button to see your post.  Don’t click “Post” again or it will send it twice.

 

An important rule:  Post your own answers before reading posts from other students.  (Obviously I can’t enforce this rule, but as you are honest students I trust we can do this on the honor system.)

 

 

 

 

 


[1] From the website of Hugh LaFollette (http://www.etsu.edu/philos/classes/hhl/plagiari.htm).