OK, I'll start off by answering your basic questions.
-I think my favourite thing was either the independent research, or learning about Plato's World of Forms, the one supposedly in the mind of the creator. I did some further research and found that even the teacher agreed that the World of Forms Lives Within You, and is meant to be played with. For a sociopolitical unit I even hinted at "Government via World of Forms".
-Absolutely! The best part was the discussion, even though I felt like we should have had WAY more discussion than we actually did. Also, a student teacher offered to stay in touch.
-95% (won the Philosophy Award for having the second-highest grade)
-I would definitely recommend this course, especially to people who already enjoy philosophical discussion and don't mind crossing the boundaries--because that's what will bring this class to life.
-The hardest part was meeting the deadlines, but generally the content itself was easy--I lost my notebook in the last week, but still managed to score 98% on the exam, though you should still make sure to study.
Like I hinted, for one of the projects I actually missed the deadline. When we were writing an ethics essay, I chose "environmental ethics", and ended up handing it in two weeks late--with 70 pages of research notes, half of which I handed in via email! Surprisingly, I still managed to get 100% on the essay, because the teacher had never seen anyone cover such a broad topic (the Athabasca oilsands and climate change, addressing Cartesianism and the human focus on dominance over nature--no, this wasn tthe actual title) in around 3,000 words (the original limit was 2,000)! Previous writers have addressed smaller topics, such as transportation. While many in philosophy have trouble with interconnected topics, I tend to excel in that very area.
First, ask yourself whether you have any appreciable gift for philosophy. If this course were merely about philosophers, as much of it was, I would have NEVER taken it because I did not enjoy learning about philosophers, but enjoyed learning about their ideas and the ideas of the class! Before I started taking the class, I started keeping an "aphorical thought collection" that more than a year later has stacked up some 60 pages (hopefully my computer doesn't freeze again
). My teacher said it was brilliant.
Our school does not have a true debate team outside of law. However, we had debates in class but never had a real "winner", even though the people who had seminars had opinions that may or may not change or represent their true opinion. Here's my take on the first two questions:
Is there such thing as truth? Yes, but we are too blind to see it.
Do we, humanity, have a soul? A resounding yes, but we ignore it all the time.
The "God" debates were the most interesting, and I was one of the very few who took the "there absolutely is a God" side. The teacher even pointed out that God does NOT equal religion, which reflects a common misconception in modern soceity. We also had some religion vs. science debates.
The biggest disappointment of the class was that we never touched on the Philosophy of Science, which I beleive is one of the most important subjects of today. We did, however, discuss the problem of free will, whether animals such as dolphins are "persons", bio/enviromental ethics, and the realms of materialism, reductionism and determinism. It was all very interesting, but we never once mentioned QUALIA.
Seriously. I've been an ardent philosopher all my life, and without that I probably would never have taken this class--in fact, I was still reluctant to take this class even with that. The teacher said that people have gotten 100% in that class, and although I was not one of those people, it was still a very enjoyable and enlightening class for me.
I love seeing the bigger picture, and you too will enjoy this class if you are open to all sorts of opinions and don't mind questioning things that have previously gone unquestioned.
Enjoy 2012.