Crown Core Course 2009 Tim Fitzmaurice
Sections 1 12:30-1:40 Crown 201; Crown 111 459-2483
Section 2 11-12:10 Crown 201; Office Hours: Wednesday 1-2 & by appt
timfitz@ucsc.edu
blog: timfitz.blogspot.com. Please go to the site soon and write a comment.
Required Texts: Lanier, Jaron, You Are Not a Gadget & Crown Core Reader at Baytree.

How to do well in Core.
1. Never miss class or a group tutoring session. My boss told me to tell you that tutoring is just as important as section. But that’s not right it is more important. If you miss tutoring, the tutor does not get paid and I get upset. If you miss class, I still get paid. So it is not the same. Therefore always call me when you miss tutoring right away. (252-3197).
2. Participate in every section discussion. If you do not know how, then come and talk to me about it after class or in office hours.
3. Get your essays and other projects in on time, but never miss class because it isn’t ready. You can always tell me about your problems writing. That is the goal of the class: to solve your writing problems. So call me when you have problems.
4. Visit with me at least twice this quarter for conferences on your writing. I will make appointments for you and you can make appointments for yourself. Go to your tutoring sessions as well.
5. Read the material and go to the Core meetings. I will go. If I have to go, so do you, and please say hello to me to remind me that you were there.
6. Do not plagiarize or borrow other people’s words or ideas without giving them credit. We will discuss how to do this properly. But when in doubt just make a note at the end of your essay about any quote, source, or idea you are uncertain about.

Grades: You can take the course for a pass/no pass score instead of a letter grade. The essays will not be graded but the final holistic grade will be based on your participation and your revised writing

Required formal essays: (two must be revised thoroughly with my help)
Essay 1: The summer essay on Lanier.
Essay 2: On your ethical framework, on downloading music (Reader pp.1-50 on cell phones and ethics)
Essay 3: ?
Essay 4: The social justices/ injustices of genetics (cf, Stock, Fukuyama, Sandel etc)
Essay 4: Rejecting or accepting transhumanism/
Full assignments will be distributed in class, on the blog, and/or by email.
Go to timfitz.blogspot.com to get extra copies or early copies of assignments.

Signing up with the Writing Assistant:
The tutoring sessions will be held weekly in groups of three or four. You will sign up in class on the second or third day of class. The times are variable and should be chosen to meet your schedule for the rest of the quarter.

Essay Format
All formal essays should be about 1200 words long (over four typed pages). They should be on white paper, stapled in the upper left hand corner, without cover sheets or plastic covers, in normal typeface, double-spaced, with one inch margins on both sides and two inches at the top and bottom, with page numbers on each page. Please type your name, the date, class and the section number, in the upper right hand corner. If it is a revision, please indicate that. I expect every essay to have a title centered above the text on the first page. You can cite your sources by putting the page numbers in parenthesis in the text after the quote or idea and making a bibliography, an alphabetical list of the authors of the books or articles at the end of the essay.

Assignments for our next class meeting:
1. Write a profile of another student and introduce them in the next class.
Please write a two-page profile of a fellow student. Look at their past and tell me why they decided to go to UCSC and what they hope to be doing in the future. We will discuss useful questions for this assignment in class.
2. Read your assigned section from Hinman, “A Pluralistic Approach to Moral Theory”(page 25ff) and write a brief explanation of what he is saying in your section and what you think it means.
3. Read pp 36-40. McGinn’s essay “ Introduction to Moral Literacy.” This essay. with Hinman, will be the foundation for essay one.

In-Class Writing for Wednesday
We will read the McGinn essay. I will ask you to write in class on these ideas:

1. Tell what McGinn means by taboo and rationalism“ on Page 11ff. And what Hinman means by “Moral Absolutism,” relativism, rights, virtue, and utilitarianism?

2. What did McGinn say about moral relativism. What is relativism and what does it mean? Is the opposite of moral relativism absolutes, like the Ten Commandments or some other form of moral rules? What is the basis of your moral thinking so far. Maybe there are other alternatives or mixes of morality. (Hint: Rational morality and others are yet to be discussed). Do you follow authority (parents, the law) or commandments (religion) or relativism, rationality, utilitarianism, or virtue ethics or other?

Purposes in Writing: Awareness, Understanding, and Action
Good writing begins with a solid purpose. In high school, they stressed a simple awareness of facts—tell me what you read. In college, our purposes revolve around making sense of facts and theories as we see them, our understanding. In other words, I need your opinion and your comprehension and criticism of other people’s ideas and of events and facts. So write with purpose. The third purpose is to take action based on your opinions and understanding of the facts. That is what we do in our work and daily lives.