The following pertains to all work for this course:

1. I expect all work to be typed. Please use one inch margins, Times New Roman font and 12 point font size.

2. I expect all work to be serious and high caliber. That means I grade down for poorly written, and improperly documented papers.

3. I expect all work to be ready to hand in at the beginning of class on the date due. Computer problems are not valid excuses, since most computer problems simply require time to resolve. I encourage you to begin your assignments with enough lead-time to allow for such inevitable hassles.

4. Late responses (i.e., not ready at the beginning of class on the date due) is automatically counted a ½ grade down. If the work is more than a day late, I require a dean’s note to accept it.
 
 

I. Midterm Exam: Monday, February 21. The mid-term examination is a 5-7 page essay on your critical response to either Kant or Nietzsche. You may frame the essay as a comparison of the two thinkers, but only if I first approve your point of comparison (this is to spare you my critique that you have not given adequate space to either thinker). The purpose of the exam is to give you a chance to step back from the detailed analyses that form your reading and our class conversation and reflect on the course as a whole.

I will not accept a late exam without an excuse from your college’s dean.

Please note: five to seven pages do not allow much flexibility. You need to indicate your competence in the readings, but you will not do so by generalizations, sweeping gestures or/and sentences that imply more than they state. It always is better to analyze a few points in great detail than to treat many points in relatively less detail. Consider focusing your answers on one or two passages or themes of Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone or The Genealogy of Morals and broaden the scope of your argument by using footnote and parenthetical references. An effective footnote or parenthetical will not read, e.g., (see also Division II), but will rather elaborate: (in Division II Kant reiterates this liberation of reason from the bonds of faith, thereby making the freedom of the will sacred, p. 122-124). The mid-term essay will count 30 points.
 
 

III. Final Examination: In lieu of a final examination, each student will prepare a final project and present it during one of the three class periods of Week 14. The purpose of the project is to test your competence in the themes and issues of critical theory as they apply to the study of religion. To do this, the project should take a current issue or problem in religion and demonstrate how the work of this course either helps one interpret it or helps one frame a critique of it. These projects will count 30 points.
 
 

IV. Attendance and Participation: You are required to attend class and to participate. At the beginning of each class you need to turn in a typed page that does two things. First, it will list the primary theme or point of the day’s reading in 1-3 sentences (Kishlansky’s Level 1). Second, it will articulate 2-3 ways in which the author argues that theme or point, or assumptions of the author, or specific questions you have for specific points of the reading (Kishlansky’s Levels 2-3). If you are reading more than one author for the day, do this for each author. I will not accept these at the end of class. These notes on the reading each count one point (1 is excellent, .8 satisfactory, .7 less than satisfactory, .5 for coming to class and talking but not doing a sheet, .25 for coming to class but not doing a sheet and not talking, and zero for not turning in a sheet). These sheets are worth 32 points and can be swayed up or down by your participation in class conversation (8 points).