Generic course stuff

Below are the things that don’t vary between my courses, including policies, statements, and general information Bucknell asks me to include.

Table of contents:

My general policies and statements

Assessment

My classes will probably differ from your others in many ways. Two differences are worth noting up front:

First, you will have quite substantial say over what we do and how. I do this first and foremost so that you get to practice planning and organizing, which is difficult. It also allows you all to make the class more enjoyable and rewarding for you; not everyone enters at the same place or with the same interests, and I don’t see any point in pretending otherwise.

Second, I will not be “grading” you on your performance—that’s your job. At the end of the term, you will review all of the work you have done in order to determine what grade is appropriate.

We will talk more during the first day about why I plan to do things this way, but here are some questions to get you thinking.

What do you want out of this class and your time at Bucknell?
What’s your relationship with grades like?
What’s your relationship with math and writing like?
Which do you think matters more: mastering the material or getting a high score on exams?
Do you like busy work?
If you had to pick one activity where you learned the most, what would it be? Would it be a class? What did you learn, and how did you learn it?
How often do you reflect on what you’ve learned? Do you find it rewarding when you do?

Attendance and citizenship

The topics discussed by philosophers are often considered sensitive and personal, even in philosophy of science. This can make discussing them with others challenging. However, part of the goal of this course is to get better at communicating about these topics with others in a civil manner, instead of “agreeing to disagree” when things get tough. But note that being civil does not always mean exactly balanced: for example, if your opinion or its expression would exclude others for reasons out of their control, then you are being uncivil. I will be calling someone who embodies this idea—being able to communicate about difficult topics in a civil manner—a philosophical citizen (literally, this means something like “subject of a society dedicated to the love of wisdom”). I expect you all to be a good philosophical citizen in this class.

In general, we will follow the rules below (adapted from Dr. Alison Reiheld’s adaptation of Forni’s Choosing Civility):

Don’t Interrupt. If we are online at any point, this also means don’t let your devices interrupt.
Pay Attention and Listen. Paying attention means considering the needs and expectations of others. For instance, consider: is now the right time for you to share your own view? Listening means both hearing what the other person is saying and waiting for them to say it. That means listening with the intention to understand the other person, but also avoiding guessing about what they are trying to say or why they are saying it. Aren’t sure how someone wants to be heard? Ask! Really paying attention and listening to another person is hard work; if you don’t feel exhausted when you’re done, you may not be doing as good a job as you think.
Speak Kindly and Don’t Speak Ill. Acknowledge that both what you say and how you say it have the power to hurt, and consider this before you speak. Also, don’t speak ill of others, especially your classmates.
Respect Others’ Opinions. Good people can disagree. Respecting others’ opinions does not mean you have to give up your own. However, it does mean recognizing that others may look at the same world differently and that, in general, those different ways of looking at it deserve a fair hearing (in the appropriate setting).
Accept and Give Constructive Criticism. Philosophers disagree on just about everything. Nevertheless, they largely get along well with one another. This is in large part because they criticize each other constructively. Giving constructive criticism means identifying what someone has done well while providing specific feedback on what can be improved and why it is currently a problem. Accepting constructive criticism means listening (see above) to criticism and asking questions when you don’t understand.
Do the Reading and Be Prepared. Philosophy classes are much more about process than they are about content. As such, most of your learning comes through spontaneous interactions in the classroom. If you are not actively preparing for your own learning before class, not only will you be unprepared for these interactions, you will reduce the quality of interactions your classmates can have even if they’ve adequately prepared. Tl;dr, do the readings and write out comments and questions in advance—don’t be like Socrates’s interlocutors.

In addition to being civil, I expect everyone to participate regularly and equitably in class and group discussions. This means being a regular contributor to discussions but avoiding dominating them. In addition, I expect you to help others ensure that they meet their participation obligations. For example, if someone else has not been participating in your group discussion, try to include them. You could ask them what they think, but you could even just tell them you want to help but aren’t sure how.

Recordings and course materials

Course materials are carefully designed for this particular course, so students are expected to keep those materials within the course itself. Original course materials (including lecture videos, slides, and assignments) are protected by copyright. Students are therefore prohibited from sharing these materials with anyone outside the course; this also means students should not post course materials to social media or upload them or copy-paste any of their content into any AI agent. Only students with academic accommodations and auxiliary aids approved by the Office of Accessibility Resources (OAR) may record class meetings and other course communications. This includes both video and/or audio recordings. Violation of this policy may result in disciplinary action.

Communication policy

Email

Like every instructor, I have many obligations beyond teaching, and I receive many emails. For these reasons, I will generally not be able to respond immediately to an email you send me. I encourage you to check all of the course resources—including this syllabus—for an answer to your question before emailing me. If you have questions about how to write an email to a professor, or how long you can expect a reply to take, please take a look at this guide. (Note: if you have not received a reply from me after a reasonable amount of time, please resend the email with a brief note about why you are resending it.)

I will also note that I am especially bad at replying to emails. During the semester, I usually get 30 new emails per day, and I very quickly fall behind. If your email is not urgent–say, you’re just giving me a heads up you won’t be in class, or you’re asking a non-urgent question about an assignment–honestly it would probably be better to just make a note to ask me before/during/after our next class. I genuinely wish I were better at email, but unfortunately nothing I’ve tried has made it any easier for me to manage the volume I’m expected to deal with on the regular.

Meetings outside of class

Please respect my time, just as I will respect yours. If we have scheduled a meeting, please be on time or give me a heads up if you won’t make it. There’s a built-in way to reschedule appointments you’ve made with me, so please do so if you can’t make it.

Class discussion channels

If we have created a discord or slack server, group chat, or anything of the sort, I expect you to behave there just as you would within class (see above). I would also strongly encourage you to ask any questions you have there–it’s very likely you’re not the only one who would benefit from hearing the answer, and there’s also a decent chance one of your classmates can answer it before I can reply.

Late, excused, adjusted work

Depending on individual needs and circumstances, I may allow work to be submitted late, to be excused outright, or to be adjusted. Anytime this is done, your continued progress toward the learning goals and your general well-being will be the constraints on what we do–so you won’t ever be getting a “free pass” to not do work, but sometimes we will lessen the burden on you to make it easier for you to stay on track. When these are a substantial break from the course expectations, we will negotiate in advance any adjustments that will be made to your final grade.

Bathroom and water breaks

In most cases, it is acceptable to briefly leave the classroom to use the bathroom and/or get water—no need to ask me for permission first. As long as the breaks do not become excessively frequent or otherwise disruptive, I would much prefer to treat you as the autonomous and responsible young adults that you are. (Please note, however, that other professors may have different expectations regarding bathroom and water breaks.)

Part of behaving responsibility, though, is considering the context. It is unacceptable to leave the classroom during a quiz, exam, or any other closed-note assignment without asking permission first. If you leave the classroom (without permission) before completing the quiz/exam/assignment, you will not be allowed to finish it upon your return. Similarly, if I observe you using a cell phone or similar device during a quiz, exam, or other closed-note assignment, you will not be allowed to complete the assignment.

sigh artificial intelligence

You’re probably seeing policies about AI in all of your classes these days, ranging from total bans (whatever that means) to “just do it responsibly” (whatever that means). I, too, have a policy about AI use. Long story short, I’m not banning AI outright, but I strongly encourage you to refrain from using it, and I have tried to structure the course in a manner that you won’t be tempted to use it, especially as a shortcut.

However, there’s a larger conversation here to be had. (Actually, there are many, but I’ll try to keep myself to just one.) One of the (darkly) amusing things about the current AI boom is that the strongest advocates for incorporation of AI into education and our economy are not experts in any relevant domain: they aren’t experts on learning, animal cognition and perception, the diffusion of technology, labor automation, the social dynamics of technological development, ecology, legal oversight, labor productivity, human well-being, international relations, venture capitalism,… etc. etc. Indeed, they are rarely even experts on AI! Rather, at least in my experience, they are usually experts in narrow domains that overlap with technology-forward fields, like mechanical engineering, accounting and finance, or software development, and who have an interest in being seen as an interdisciplinary inquirer.

I think it’s worth asking ourselves as a society: What is expertise? And how do people develop it? At the risk of pissing off most of my colleagues, I will stake two claims:

At a minimum, expertise requires an ability to recognize—even if only vaguely—the boundaries and provenance of your knowledge. One practical consequence of this is that experts should know when (and how) to seek out and listen to actual experts in areas that complement their own. And if they are working on anything even remotely outside of their expertise, they should be actively engaging with those experts (not just riffing or skimming a Wikipedia page).
You need to have faced confusion, difficulty, and challenge on the path to your so-called expertise. If you haven’t, it is very unlikely that you’ve developed anything more than a superficial understanding of the area in which you are a so-called expert. Sorry :shrug:— learning is just hard. This is worth pointing out because, in practice, many people behave as if an increase in access to some information somehow implies an increase in fluency with that information. (This is why, for example, you often hear proponents of ~~the internet, Wikipedia, social media and news aggregation~~ AI tell extremely superficial stories about the printing press and scientific revolution.) Nope, not even remotely how that works!

Not only is it worth asking these questions as you consider using AI, but so, too, is it worth asking these questions when you hear others talk about AI use. Even before the current explosion in research on AI, there were many good reasons to be very judicious about incorporating AI like what we find in ChatGPT or Gemini. Decades (or more) of research on psychology of learning, IO psychology, behavioral economics, etc., etc. suggested that such technologies would not be taken up in the way technology advocates expected, nor would they have the effects on us, society, the environment, etc. that they expected. That is to say, technology advocates–even if they are experts on the technology itself—are not thereby qualified to opine on what future that technology will bring. There are people who have worked hard to develop the skills to make these sorts of predictions responsibly, and as a general rule they are neither employed at places like McKinsey or Google nor fans of those companies’ contributions to society.

Okay, so here’s the policy on student AI use:

The goal of the course is for you to progress toward expertise—not ChatGPT, not your friend, not someone on social media, etc. Unless I note otherwise, I expect all work you turn in to be a representation of your creativity and labor. Given that, I’d really rather you didn’t use AI, but if you do, please cite and explain your use. Each of the major AI chatbots allows you to copy the output, and as a default I’d like you to paste that full chat log at the end of whatever document you’re working on.

If you have questions about anything related to use of AI, please come talk to me beforehand. I may lightly rib you about your use, but given the way assessment works in my classes, you don’t have any reason to fear for your grade. That said, if you intentionally use AI without talking to me and without a good faith attempt to disclose its use, I will consider that academic dishonesty.

Note that because the output of current AI models is stochastic (i.e., it can change even given all the same prompt, fine-tuning, meta-prompts, other inputs), it is actually not enough to just cite the version used, as all of the reference styles (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago) assume. If the goal of citing your sources–which, side note, is surprisingly contentious–is to ensure that your reader can verify that you are faithfully representing the resource you are using, you would actually need all of the available data about the session, including also the model weights, hyperparameters, training data used, learning algorithm, etc. etc. (For the curious, you need to include the latter stuff because most of the deep-learning models are trained using stochastic gradient descent, which itself relies on an RNG; just changing the random seed can drastically alter model performance. In fact, machine learning has one of the worst replication rates in all of science in large part because of problems like this, in addition to outright fraud.) Obviously you can’t give me all of that, so you can give me the relevant part of the chat history. For ChatGPT, for example, you can follow these instructions to download the relevant data.

The goals of this policy are

to encourage reflection on your use of AI,
discuss your use with me and your classmates openly so that we can hone our critical thinking skills, and
to give you some grace in case you make a mistake.

AI is now baked into freaking everything, including Grammarly, so anymore it’s honestly pretty hard to know when you’ve used it. One telltale sign is feeling like you skipped doing something challenging or that you don’t really know how to do.

Keep in mind that the evidence strongly suggests that individuals are very bad at estimating the effects of AI use–its effects on the environment, their learning, their productivity, the quality of their work, and even on their social life and broader culture. With this in mind, you should not rely on your own assessment of your AI use, but, rather, should continuously seek out opportunities for external feedback on the effects of your AI use. This includes speaking to your professors, to your peers, and consulting the growing literature on AI ethics.

Attendance

I expect you to be at every class meeting. However, I will not be keeping track of your attendance–frankly, because that feels like cop sh*t and I hate doing cop sh*t. You’re an adult now–if it seems like a better use of your time to not be in class, then I won’t stand in your way. However, note that you will be keeping track of your own attendance and engagement through your regular reflections, so this will enter into your final grade.

Special note: if you are sick, cut yourself some slack and just rest. Or, if you absolutely can’t miss but are sick with something infectious, please wear a mask or something else to prevent transmission. The rest of us would really appreciate it!

Belonging statement

I consider this classroom to be a place where you will be treated with respect, and I welcome individuals of all ages, backgrounds, beliefs, ethnicities, genders, gender identities, gender expressions, national origins, religious affiliations, sexual orientations, and ability—and other visible and nonvisible differences. All members of this class are expected to contribute to a respectful, welcoming, and inclusive environment for every other member of the class.

If there are members of class who belong to a group that we are discussing, please do not ask them to explain their experience or speak for their group. Instead, seek out other resources that can answer any questions you may have. (I may be able to provide recommendations if you are unsure of where to start.) If you are a member of a group that we are discussing, please do not feel obligated to educate others about your group, although you are welcome to do so if you want to.

Electronic devices

Use of electronic devices—including, but not limited to, cell phones, tablets, and laptops—will be limited during class meetings. In general, students should expect to have their electronic devices turned off and/or put away most of the time. (Exceptions, of course, will be made for students with OAR accommodations for accessibility devices.) However, some class activities will either require or allow the use of electronic devices; in such instances, I will give permission to the entire class to use any relevant devices for the duration of the activity. During these activities, electronic devices may be used only for course-related purposes; any other use not only impairs your own learning but also distracts your classmates. Students who use their electronic devices for non-course-related purposes during class time may receive a warning, be marked late, disruptive, or absent for the day, and/or asked to leave class at my discretion.

Syllabus note

This syllabus—including the schedule—is tentative and subject to revision. Any modifications will be announced in lecture, on the course website, or via email. The purpose of any such modifications would be to facilitate students’ learning experience. I want you all to enjoy the course and get as much out of it as possible!

Bucknell policies and information

Academic engagement

Courses at Bucknell that receive one unit of academic credit have a minimum expectation of 12 hours per week of student academic engagement. Student academic engagement includes both the hours of direct faculty instruction (or its equivalent) and the hours spent on out of class student work.

Mandatory reporting obligations

All Bucknell faculty, as well as many staff (including some student employees), are mandated reporters of sexual harassment and sexual assault. This means that if we learn of an instance of sexual misconduct (whether we witnessed it directly or a student discloses to us), we are legally required to share that information with the Title IX Coordinator at Bucknell. The Title IX office will then reach out to the impacted student(s) with information, including potential resources and support. In almost all cases, the impacted student can decide whether or not they want to proceed with a formal investigation and/or a police report. For more information, including who you can speak to on campus who is not a mandatory reporter, please visit bucknell.edu/titleix.

Statement of community responsibility (from student handbook)

Bucknell University is strongly committed to fostering a sense of social responsibility and nurturing an atmosphere of respect and integrity in all areas. Every student who accepts the invitation to join the Bucknell University community commits to the following Statement of Community Responsibility:

We are a community of learners who value personal and intellectual honesty.
Our actions reflect maturity, social responsibility, and respect toward others.
We value individual differences and will not tolerate harassment or discrimination.
Our actions show respect for our own health and well-being.
We honor Bucknell by upholding the policies that support our community standards.

Accommodations

Academic responsibility

You can find Bucknell’s policies and procedures regarding academic responsibility here. Tl;dr, if I suspect you’ve cheated, I must report the incident to the Board of Review. This is a massive pain for everyone, so please, please, please (a) don’t cheat and (b) come talk to me before engaging in behavior you’re not sure about.

Cultural and religious holidays

If observing significant cultural and/or religious holidays will interfere with your ability to attend class or complete course activities, please let me know by the end of the second week of the semester, and we will collaborate on an alternative course plan for you.

Please let me know about any such observances during the semester even if no assignment due dates currently coincide with the holiday(s). Depending on how quickly or slowly we move through material, the due dates may change. If you let me know ahead of time, we can come up with a plan to avoid any scheduling conflicts.