Logos, Cosmos, and Doubt (JLCD1) Course Tips

Are you taking Logos, Cosmos, and Doubt (aka LCD, course code JLCD1) and looking for strategies for success? Do you know someone who’s considering taking LCD in a future year? We interviewed an instructor and peer tutor for the course, and here’s their advice about success in JLCD1, as well as general information about it.

Course Overview

JLCD1 is the seventh grade Core course, the first in the Core sequence. It teaches students about networks of relations and systems. Everything that we think of as an individual entity is also part of a system (or maybe multiple systems) and understanding the system as a whole helps with understanding the individual entity. It also offers an interdisciplinary approach, combining philosophy with a variety of topics from across disciplines.

Course Topics

Here is a summary of the topics taught in Logos, Cosmos, and Doubt:

Fall semester:

• Unit 1: Introduction to quantum physics 

  • What’s a dimension

    • What might a fourth dimension look like to us?

  • Early quantum physics—what’s a dimension in quantum physics? 

    • Ways of thinking about time and space

    • Systems—when you think that you’re thinking about a single entity, you are really thinking about a whole system. Everything is part of a system (or more than one system).

• Unit 2: Ecology

  • Bridge between units 1 and 2: flow systems

  • (Right about this time is the midterm, somewhere during or after flow systems)

  • What are the flows in the world? What flow systems do we experience daily?

• Unit 3: Doubt

  • Early Greek world

    • About what were they doubtful?

  • Philosophical idealism

    • Exploring the idea that what we experience in our mind is more real than the matter in the world; we experience everything through the mind.

Spring semester:

• Unit 4: Eastern (rather than western) doubt

  • E.g., Buddhism

  • Doubting western ways of thinking about religion

  • Froid: What is psychologically appealing about western ways of religion?

  • Evil, including the problem of evil

• Mini unit: What is philosophy for, how does logic work?

• The course becomes less based on units after this, but here are the main topics covered…

  • Our interactions with technology

  • Modernity and humanism—how do we frame them?

  • A small amount of economics

  • (The second midterm is around this time)

  • Liberalism

  • Origins of racism

  • Poverty

  • Techno-utopianism

    • What we thought was going to go right often doesn’t pan out, and what we thought was going to go wrong often doesn’t happen either…

  • More ecology

  • Consciousness and neural networks

  • Group patterns

  • Return to quantum physics and thinking about time

Frequent Challenges

Of course, which topics or aspects of a course students find challenging are very individual. However, here are some things that students commonly found difficult:

• The first unit is a struggle for everyone (you’re not alone!), even for students with prior experience in discussion-based classes.

• The readings can take a long time to finish and understand. Many students also find it hard to separate out the main important points of a reading.

• It can be challenging to understand the similarities and differences between the perspectives of different authors

• It can be hard to know how much detail to include in assignments – i.e., how to know when you’re “done” with an assignment and have done a sufficient amount

• One difficult thing about philosophy that is especially challenging for students on the midterm is figuring out what the important parts of something are and what explanations are on target.

  • For example, if asked who Abraham Lincoln was, saying that he was a failed senatorial candidate is true, but not exactly on point.

This information is intended to help you anticipate what challenges you may find during this course, so you can best direct your study efforts and be prepared.

Available Supports

• Peer tutors are students who have previously taken the course and are available to help students

  • Peer tutors can be reached through appointments at the Writing and Tutoring Center. Schedule an appointment here: Stanford OHS Writing & Tutoring Center (mywconline.com)

  • Sometimes, a fellow student can explain something better than a teacher can, because they know what it’s like to be a student and where another student is likely to struggle to understand something.

  • Many peer tutors are also easily reachable through Pronto. Feel free to message a peer tutor if you’re stuck on an assignment and need a nudge in the right direction!

• Your instructor is also there to help you

  • Instructors hold office hours once or twice a week, where students can come to discuss course topics.

    • Note that you do not need to have a particular question to attend office hours—you can come to discuss a general topic, explore an idea you have, ask a specific question about homework, and much more! If you feel completely lost in a course and don’t know where to begin with a specific question, office hours are a great place to turn. Additionally, if you want to explore something beyond the required course material, teachers are very happy to share what they know. Exploring beyond assigned material is highly encouraged.

    • You are never inconveniencing your teacher by attending office hours—they want to talk to you.

    • If you find it hard or embarrassing to ask questions in class, office hours can be a great place to ask questions, when you can just talk to your instructor 1-on-1. It is very normal to feel hesitant about asking questions—you are not alone! However, since the material does build so much on previous material, finding a comfortable way to get help is very important for success.

  • Instructors can also be reached by email. You might decide to email your teacher, for example, if you have a (relatively quick) question that needs to be answered before their next office hours.

    
    

A common question that students have is whether it’s better to go to a peer tutor or whether to go to an instructor’s office hours. There are no right or wrong answers to this question, and in many cases, there is no reason to choose one option or the other. However, here are some things to think about if you’re feeling stuck about where to get help from.

A peer tutor may have a fresh perspective that your teacher doesn’t have. Peer tutors have been through the course themselves, so they know what worked for them to understand a topic or be successful on a certain type of assignment. Further, if you didn’t get a concept in class, a peer tutor may have a different way of explaining it than a teacher that helps it to make sense.

But the fact that your teacher was in class with you can have advantages. For example, if one of the readings or questions in class made you think about something tangentially related, you might be better off going to office hours if you want to pursue this tangent. Your teacher knows what you were thinking about in class and, thus, might be able to offer better advice there. They also have years of experience in the field of philosophy, and likely can suggest resources beyond the required readings if you get interested in a topic. Office hours are a great place to come and explore! 

Office hours can also be a great place for asking teacher-specific questions about expectations. If you’re wondering how your teacher wants something formatted or if there are multiple valid ways to interpret a prompt, this might be a good thing to speak with your teacher about.

Finally, both office hours and peer tutoring are great ways to build connections with others at the school. Going to peer tutoring offers you the opportunity to talk with another student about a course you’re both passionate about. Friendships can absolutely start via peer tutoring! Similarly, you can build a good relationship with your teacher by attending office hours. Teachers like talking to you, watching you follow your curiosity about the subject beyond the bounds of assigned work. Never hesitate to go to either a peer tutor or office hours!

Exams and exam preparation

LCD has an in-class midterm both semesters. The midterms are designed to help students learn to synthesize information quickly; students will have about 8-9 minutes to answer each question. (These exams are also good test preparation for later in life.) The midterm is closed book. That said, if you freeze up under the pressure of the closed book, there is a makeup option where students can retake the exam with an open book. The midterm is mean to help students prepare for later closed-book exams – don’t stress too much about it.

You won’t have to answer all questions on the midterm to receive full credit – they will have to pick 8 out of the 13 questions offered. In terms of preparing for the midterm, the study guides provided will be very helpful.

There is no final exam for JLCD1. Instead, an essay will be due on the Core final exam day each semester.

Writing Assignments & Essays

There are five writing assignments per semester, each with around 3-5 questions. Students are expected to write about a paragraph per question. To start, the questions unconnected. By the end of the semester, students will be writing around 4 paragraphs where the topics of each paragraph do link together. Teachers hope that students will not spend more than 20-25 minutes per question on the writing assignments.

At the beginning of the year, there is a lot more support around the writing assignments, and this support slowly lessens as students gain more confidence and independence with writing. However, if you find yourself needing additional support, you can always reach out! See the list of available supports above for some places to turn. Your teacher, as well as peer tutors, genuinely want to help. Further, everyone finds course material or assignments difficult sometimes – just because you need help doesn’t mean you’re failing or don’t belong in the class!

There are also two essays per semester in LCD. The goal of these essays is to allow students to form their own view on open-ended questions, drawing on material learned in class. Students will first submit an essay draft, then revise it into the final essay they submit. The time it takes to complete essays is very individual. However, if you’re spending more than six hours in total between working on the draft and the final version of an essay, it might be helpful to talk to your teacher.

When you’re working on an essay, don’t be afraid to step away and come back! Look at the prompt, write down your thoughts and opinions, and then take a step away – go outside, play a game with your family, etc. Then, some time later (even a day or two later), come back and start drafting. Drafting can happen in one sitting, more than one, whatever works for you. The earlier you can start on the essay, the more time you’ll have for whatever writing process works for you. 

Other tips for success

• Estimate the time it will take you to complete a reading to be twice as much as you’d spend reading a piece of fairly easy prose of an equal length. There’s a lot of time required to dissect the wording and process all the information in philosophy readings.

• If you found a reading hard, everyone else probably did too! Don’t feel like you’re alone just because the course material feels difficult – it is difficult, and everyone else feels that too.

  • Even for students who have prior experience with philosophy classes, LCD is a difficult course, and that’s okay!

• Don’t be afraid to speak up in class. It can be really hard and scary at first – everyone has been there. But know that asking questions doesn’t mean you’re not smart; in fact, it’s essential to doing well. Everyone has questions, and that’s normal and encouraged.

  • Many students haven’t had to answer a lot of open-ended questions before LCD. If you find it a struggle to know what to say or to participate in discussion sections, that’s completely understandable. The biggest thing is just to keep trying – and if it doesn’t go perfectly at first, that’s okay! Everyone is learning together, and no one knows everything or can do everything without practice.

• Many students experience a lot of stress about grades. LCD teachers encourage students not to worry about their grades in this course. Take risks! Your grades in middle school aren’t going to be the end of the world for you if they aren’t exactly what you hoped for.

  • If you’re ever caught between including an interesting idea at the risk that it might be wrong versus just spitting back out the ideas of philosophers you’ve learned about, go for the interesting ideas. Teachers want to see you thinking and having your own opinions about the material.

Why take this course

For one thing, LCD provides the unique opportunity for seventh-grade students to take a philosophy course. How many people can say that they read Aristotle when they were twelve? If you’re interested in the concept of philosophy, or are just curious what it’s all about, this is a great place to start.

If you plan to continue at OHS through high school, Core (philosophy) courses are required for all full-time high school students. LCD lays a great foundation for your later endeavors in the Core division. Getting used to the sorts of questions that are asked in philosophy classes, how to tackle philosophy readings and writing assignments, etc. will all be useful to you in later Core classes.

If you have a broad range of interests, this course provides a fun interdisciplinary exploration. LCD has lots of unique material that you won’t find in many other courses. Additionally, along with Critical Reading and Argumentation (aka CRA, the senior Core course), LCD is one of the most interdisciplinary Core courses. As you go into high school and college, the interdisciplinary approach of LCD goes to show that you don’t have to limit yourself to just a single field of study.