← nickberry.com
Robert G. Buckenmeyer — Philosophy Course Materials
Course notes, edited primary texts, essays, and news clippings from three courses taught by Robert G. Buckenmeyer, Ph.D. at American River College, roughly 2001–2008. Every item below is a PDF.
- Oriental Religions
Phil 353 · Denominational and Natural: a study of religion as we do not know it
- Ethics
Phil 310 · Ethics vis-à-vis Morals: Life or Death through Suicide
- Introduction to Philosophy
Phil 50 · To be honest and live, or to lie and die
- Primary Texts
Sources edited and annotated by Buckenmeyer, used across all three courses
- Essays
Buckenmeyer's standalone essays, assigned in more than one course
- Shared
Open letter to students, discussion-paper directions
Naming: course notes are numbered in the order the professor gave them. A year in a filename is the revision date printed in the document. scanned means the PDF is a photocopy; these have an OCR text layer so they are searchable, but the recognized text is imperfect.
Oriental Religions
Phil 353 · Denominational and Natural: a study of religion as we do not know it
Guiding question: Whether or not God exists? Moves from Gilgamesh through Lao-tzu, the Gita, Zen (the Book of Tea), Heraclitus, Socrates, Buddhism, and the Old and New Testaments, ending with Eliade's The Sacred and the Profane.
Start here:
Course overview, fall 2006 — 53 pages: syllabus, table of contents, prologue, preface and introduction for the whole course.Syllabus
Course notes
Articles — readings with the professor's commentary
Ethics
Phil 310 · Ethics vis-à-vis Morals: Life or Death through Suicide
Ethics (what the individual decides) versus morals (what society expects), argued through suicide as the test case: Tolstoy, Socrates, Confucius, Heraclitus, Seneca, Hume, Camus, Sartre, Okakura, Aristotle.
Start here:
Course overview, fall 2006 — 25 pages, text-searchable. The scanned prologue, preface and introduction below are the same front matter as page images.Syllabus
Course notes
Articles — news clippings with a short “Ethics” commentary
Mostly New York Times. Grouped by the theme the professor drew from each.
- Self-deception and denial:
Jayson Blair: NYT trail of deception, 2003 ·
Jayson Blair book review, 2004 ·
Jayson Blair revisited ·
Dr. Ogden: self-deception and denial
- Death and suicide:
Natural death and medical technology ·
Hunter S. Thompson's suicide, 2005 ·
Suicide facts, USA (AAS fact sheet) ·
Death penalty and economics in Russia
- Moral bureaucracy vs. ethical persons:
Moral bureaucracy vs. ethical people (Katrina) ·
FEMA, Katrina and Gulfport mayor Warr ·
Bush Iraq speech and the Feaver memo ·
“Land of laws, not men” ·
Kansas abortion records, 2005 ·
Afghan adultery killing: tradition vs. law (Washington Post)
- Greed:
American beef, Michael Pollan, 2002 ·
Mad cow and downed cattle ·
Wal-Mart wages ·
Coltan mining: poverty and profit, 2001
- War:
Iraq war, psychiatry and killing ·
“To Wait or To Flee”: the face of war, 2002
- Sexuality and biology:
Human sexuality vital statistics ·
Homosexuality in animals
- Education and youth:
The American education system ·
Meth and youth ·
Socrates and psychology
Introduction to Philosophy
Phil 50 · Introduction to Philosophy through Literature: To be honest and live, or to lie and die
Philosophy through literature. Chapter numbering changed between semesters, so each file carries its semester.
Syllabus
Course notes
Primary Texts
Sources edited, translated, or excerpted by Buckenmeyer, with his running commentary
Essays
Buckenmeyer's own short essays, assigned in more than one course
Shared
Course-agnostic material