The University of Maryland has a nationally recognized Code of Academic Integrity, administered by the Student Honor Council. This Code sets standards for academic integrity at Maryland for all undergraduate and graduate students. As a student you are responsible for upholding these standards for this course. It is very important for you to be aware of the consequences of cheating, fabrication, facilitation, and plagiarism.

The University of Maryland is one of a small number of universities with a student-administered Honors Code and an Honors Pledge. The code prohibits students from cheating on exams, plagiarizing papers, submitting the same paper for credit in two courses without authorization, buying papers, submitting fraudulent documents, and forging signatures. Students are encouraged to write the following signed statement on each examination or assignment: "I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this examination (or assignment)."

Let me add to this formal statement the observation that you're cheating yourself if you try to spare yourself the struggle involved in mastering philosophic readings and arguments on your own. Plagiarism isn't limited, moreover, to obvious forms of theft: the kind of rehashing of printed material without citation that might have been acceptable in writing a report in junior high counts as intellectual theft at the college level. You should give credit where it's due -- and give yourself enough credit to do your own thinking and process any outside material.