PHILOSOPHY

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

Dr J Friday

Pre-requisites

None

Notes

This course is designed to be of particular interest and relevance to those students studying Literature (in English and other languages), History of Art, Music and Film Studies.

Overview

The course focuses upon a number of philosophical issues under the broad heading of art and culture. The elements of the course are: (1) An introduction to issues in aesthetic theory - the nature of art and art appreciation, the aesthetic attitude, and aesthetic properties such as representation, expression and beauty. (2) A detailed study of philosophical issues concerning the nature, interpretation and value of several specific artistic media - such as literature, music, pictures and film.
3 one-hour lectures and 1 one-hour tutorial per week.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and continuous assessment (30%).

Credit Points

10

Course Coordinator

Dr P Tomassi

Pre-requisites

None

Notes

This is a 6 week course.

Overview

Logic concerns argument. The central problem for the logician is how to tell good arguments from bad arguments. The classical formal logician’s solution to that problem is the subject-matter of this course.
Students are taught to assess natural language arguments in terms of the logical standards of validity and soundness. A formal language for Propositional Logic is then introduced. Students are taught how to represent arguments formally and are enabled to exploit the formal techniques of proof, truth-tables, and truth-trees to test for validity. Finally, students are introduced to the language of first-order predicate logic and are enabled to translate natural language sentences of various kinds and complete arguments into that formal language.

3 one-hour lectures, 1 one-hour tutorial per week.
1 one-hour written examination (100%). A pass in the class test will exempt candidates from the examination.

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

Dr P Tomassi

Pre-requisites

None

Overview

This course aims to help students think clearly about a variety of fundamental questions. What is the nature of persons and their universe? What do paradoxes teach us? What is it to possess knowledge, and how do we achieve this? Particularly emphasised are critical thinking and the capacity for clear expression of ideas, which enhance student performance throughout the Humanities.
3 one-hour lectures and 1 one-hour tutorial weekly.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and continuous assessment (30%).

Credit Points

10

Course Coordinator

Dr N Dower

Pre-requisites

None

Notes

While this course appears in the Philosophy entry it is not a Philosophy course.

Overview

This short course will introduce students to the idea of being a world citizen, to what responsibilities in the modern world this involves, especially in the area of protecting the global environment, addressing issues of world poverty and working for peace. Through tutorial discussions students will be encouraged to address the dilemmas raised by the above.
1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour workshop/tutorial per week.
1 one-hour written examination or class test (exemption) (50%) and continuous assessment: essay (30%), tutorial participation (20%).

Credit Points

10

Course Coordinator

Dr P Tomassi

Pre-requisites

PH 1010

Notes

This is a 6 week course.

Overview

Formal Logic 2 extends the study of Formal Logic from the point at which Formal Logic 1 left off. As such, this course involves a more detailed treatment of both Propositional and Quantificational Logic and enables students to exploit further the formal techniques of proof and truth-trees both in Propositional and Quantificational Logic. The course also examines in some detail the logic of Relations and of Identity. The Formal Semantics of Quantificational Logic are considered and the notion of an Interpretation is explained. Time permitting, the course may also include an introduction to alternative systems of Formal Logic, i.e. Relevance and Intuitionist Logic.
3 one-hour lectures, 1 one-hour tutorial per week.
1 one-hour written examination (100%). A pass in class examination will exempt candidates from the examination.

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

Dr J Friday

Pre-requisites

None

Overview

This course comprises two parts – Moral Problems and Moral Metaphysics. The aim of the larger Moral Problems section is to enable students to move beyond merely expressing opinions on moral issues, and instead to formulate cogent and well informed arguments. The moral problems discussed relate to abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia, suicide, the treatment of other animals, and respect for the environment. The Moral Metaphysics section deals with one fundamental and recurring problem – are human beings truly free, or are our actions ultimately determined in some way – by genetic, social or psychological factors, perhaps? Lectures examine the strengths and weaknesses of libertarianism (the belief that we are ultimately free), determinism and compatibilism (the suggestion that free will and determinism can be combined).
3 one-hour lectures and 1 one-hour tutorial per week.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and continuous assessment (30%).

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

Dr N Dower

Pre-requisites

None

Notes

This course is designed to be of particular interest and relevance to those students studying the social sciences, such as Politics, International Relations and Sociology.

Overview

This course offers an introduction to social and political philosophy; its content is of special relevance to the study in the social sciences. There are three components: 'Political Thought' which will include consideration of key figures in the history of political theory, central political concepts and leading 20th Century political ideologies including liberalism, Marxism and nationalism. 'Law, Justice and Society' examines some social policy issues and their underlying theories, including social justice, positive discrimination and censorship. ‘Environmental Ethics’ examines the ethical bases for concern for the environment (anthropocentrism, biocentrism, future generations) and considers the implications of this for public policy, international relations and sustainable development.
3 one-hour lectures and 1 one-hour tutorial per week.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and continuous assessment (30%).

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

Dr P Tomassi

Pre-requisites

None

Overview

‘The truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth’. But what is the truth? This course aims to tell the truth about truth by introducing students to the traditional theories in their historical context and to contemporary approaches to understanding this crucially important philosophical question. The course will also explore the nature of knowledge and will consider how the concepts of knowledge and truth are related. The traditional answer to such questions will be explained and students will be enabled and encouraged to engage critically with that answer.
3 one-hour lectures plus 1 one-hour tutorial per week.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and continuous assessment (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr J Friday

Pre-requisites

At least 40 Credit Points from Level 1 Philosophy courses.

Overview

This course builds upon the first level moral philosophy and philosophy of art courses (PH 1009 and PH 1509 ) though neither is required. The course has two elements. Slightly more than half of the course is devoted to considering topics in moral theory and meta-ethics. In particular, questions of whether there is such a thing as moral knowledge; whether moral properties like kindness and cruelty are ‘real’ or ‘subjective’; whether there are any universal standards. The second element of the course will address the relationship between art, ethics and aesthetics. Topics in the second element of the course include the objectivity or subjectivity of aesthetic and moral judgements, the relationship between art and moral understanding, and the role of ethics in the evaluation of art.

2 one-hour lectures per week and 1 one-hour tutorial fortnightly.
1 two-hour examination (70%) and continuous assessment (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr N Dower

Pre-requisites

At least 40 Credit Points from Level 1 Philosophy courses.

Overview

The course will identify major themes and topics in the development of Western Philosophy from the philosophy of ancient Greece to the medevial period. Detailed attention will be given to selected themes and topics in metaphysics, epistemology and ethics and their treatment in the relevant centuries. Amongst the authors to be considered will be Plato, Aristole, Augustine and Aquinas. The selection will always be designed to illustrate the philosophical background of major philosophers, to compare earlier with later treatments of particular philosophical questions, and to bring out the influence of earlier discussions on later, including current, philosophical investigation. Primary sources, in translation, will be used as well as secondary material.
2 one-hour lectures per week and 1 one-hour tutorial fortnightly.
1 two-hour examination (70%) and continuous assessment (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr P Tomassi

Pre-requisites

At least 40 Credit Points from Level 1 Philosophy courses.

Overview

The course aims to enable students to engage critically with a variety of central topics in the philosophies of mind, language and science. In each case, students are introduced to important positions and key debates in contemporary philosophical discussions of mind, language and science. Thus, for example, the course may explore such fundamental questions as the nature of persons, the importance of language to philosophy, the aim of science, the nature of scientific reasoning and the science-religion debate.
2 one-hour lectures per week and 1 one-hour tutorial fortnightly.
1 two-hour examination (70%) and continuous assessment (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr P Gorner

Pre-requisites

At least 40 Credit Points from Level 1 Philosophy courses.

Overview

This course will trace a number of related themes in 17th and 18th century Philosophy. Topics will include the problem of method; the criterion of truth and certainty; approaches to knowledge and scepticism in empiricist and rationalist philosophers; the nature of mind; the theory of substance; faith, reason and God; and philosophy and science. Primary sources will be used as well as secondary material. The precise content of the course may change from year to year.
2 one-hour lectures per week and 1 one-hour tutorial fortnightly.
1 two-hour examination (70%) and continuous assessment (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor G Graham

Pre-requisites

PH 2003, PH 2004, PH 2504 and PH 2505.

Notes

This course is a compulsory course for Single and Joint Honours in Philosophy and an option for the Designated Degree.

Overview

The course discusses central problems in Political Philosophy, such as Sovereignty, Rights, The Authority of Government etc.; and in Social Philosophy, such as Social Justice, The Nature of Society, The Limits of Liberty etc. The detailed content of the course varies from year to year.
17 one-hour lectures and 7 one-hour tutorials over twelve weeks.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and 1 essay (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr P Gorner

Pre-requisites

PH 2003, PH 2004, PH 2504 and PH 2505.

Overview

This course involves a close study of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, including his distinction between analytic and synthetic judgements, his doctrine of categories, his theories of space and time, his doctrine of transcendental idealism, and his approach to the traditional problems of metaphysics.
1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and 1 essay (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr J Friday

Pre-requisites

PH 2003, PH 2004, PH 2504 and PH 2505.

Overview

The course will study Locke’s theory of knowledge, as contained in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding: his rejection of innatism, his “New Way of Ideas”, his doctrine of substance and of primary and secondary qualities, his accounts of personal identity, language and the extent of human knowledge. The second part of the course will examine the philosophy of Berkeley, principally in the Three Dialogues and the Principles, with special reference to his arguments for idealism and his critique of Locke.
1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.
1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr D Shaw

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Overview

The course explores the nature of aesthetic experience, art appreciation, the aesthetic attitude and the artist’s intention and considers questions about the relationship between art and truth and art and life. It involves study of classical philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle and contemporary philosophers such as Hospers, Beardsley, Dickie, Wittgenstein, Mandelbaum and Cioffi.
1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and 1 essay (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr P Gorner

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

It is desirable that students other than Honours Philosophy students should have some other relevant background (e.g. Divinity or Religious Studies).

Overview

Thomas Aquinas presented in debate with Hume, Kant and more recent philosophers of religion in each of the following areas: arguments for and against the existence of God, and how belief in God is related to other forms of religion; how words about God get meaning; the relationship of God and time (eternity, foreknowledge, etc.); order in the universe and the problem of evil; reason and revelation; the nature of religious experience; does religion or philosophy require the universe to have a beginning with a unified history and make human beings central?
1 two-hour seminar per week.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and 1 essay (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr P Gorner

Pre-requisites

PH 2003, PH 2004, PH 2504 and PH 2505.

Overview

The course deals with certain aspects of Heidegger’s hermeneutic phenomenology of human being as represented by Being and Time. These include being-in-the-world, being-with, mood, understanding, angst, death, conscience and temporality. The treatment of all of these themes is placed in the context of Heidegger’s overriding philosophical concern: the question of the meaning of being.
1 one-hour lecture per week, 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and 1 essay (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr N Dower

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Overview

This course will explore the philosophical foundations of a global ethic. It will compare three main approaches (scepticism, internationalism and cosmopolitanism) as well as several versions of cosmopolitanism (Kantianism, Human Rights, Contractarianism). It will also consider issues of international justice, the ethics of warfare, the moral status of the nation-state and the idea of global governance. It would primarily be for Philosophy students and would presuppose some familiarity with moral/political philosophy. Students doing IR or other subjects are welcome to do this course even if they have not done moral philosophy before, but should expect the first few weeks to be fairly challenging. [See PI 3019 for a similar course designed primarily for International Relations students, and also PH 4508 as a course in the second half-session which naturally follows on from this course.]
1 one-hour lecture per week, 6 one-hour seminars per fortnight.
1 two-hour examination (70%), continuous assessment: long essay (20%), seminar contribution (10%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr P Tomassi

Pre-requisites

PH 1005 and PH 1303. Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Overview

This course picks up the study of formal logic from the point at which PH 1303 left off. PH 3030 consists of three core elements. First, students are introduced to contemporary computer-based approaches to formal logic and the distinctive ways in which such programmes revise and extend traditional conceptions of formal logic. Specifically, the following programmes are considered: Paul Tomassi’s Logic: a web-based proof-constructor/proof checker for first-order logic with polyadic relations and identity, Tarski’s World: a computer-based approach to formal semantics, Hyperproof: a programme which extends traditional conceptions of proof in formal logic. The emphasis in this part of the course is on self-directed learning. Propositional and quantificational systems of modal logic are then considered via a modalised version of the truth-tree method. Finally, issues in logic and computability (including the halting problem) are considered via the programme Turing’s World.


2 one-hour meetings per week. Note(s): for part one of the course only one of the two meetings will involve teaching, the remaining session is intended to allow students to enhance their abilities by using relevant programmes.
Assessment is continuous throughout, i.e. students are required to submit solutions to set exercises at regular intervals. Continuous assessment (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr D Shaw

Pre-requisites

PH 2003, PH 2004, PH 2504 and PH 2505.

Overview

The course begins with a detailed examination of Hume’s reasons for rejecting the mainstream approach of his day – the Rationalist theory of ethics. This leads onto a critical discussion of Hume’s theory of motivation to be followed by a study of Hume’s own positive account of virtue and vice and of what it is to make a moral judgement. The final topic to be considered is Hume’s Theory of Justice.
1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and 1 essay (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr D Shaw

Pre-requisites

PH 2003, PH 2004, PH 2505 and PH 2506.

Overview

The main theme of this course is the question whether the study of society by, e.g., historians and sociologists can take the form of a ‘science of man’ using methods of explanation that are fundamentally similar to those of the natural sciences. The course begins with a discussion of philosophy of natural science. Subsequently three major approaches to the philosophy of social science are examined – the naturalism of Karl Popper, R.G. Collingwood’s Anti-Naturalism and M. Weber’s ‘mixed theory’ combining naturalist and anti-naturalist elements. The course concludes with a discussion of the causal theory of motivation and its relevance for the philosophy of social science.
1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and 1 essay (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr D Shaw

Pre-requisites

PH 2003, PH 2004, PH 2504 and PH 2505.

Overview

Through detailed analysis and critical discussion of Mill’s arguments and related texts the course aims to acquaint the student with the Utilitarian approach to ethics both in Mill’s version and in other more recent developments of Mill’s theory, and to enable students to assess its strengths and weaknesses. Topics will include a history of Utilitarianism, Bentham’s Hedonic Calculus, formulation of the utility principle and its relation to ordinary beliefs of mankind, Mill’s criticisms of Intuitionism, ideas about the nature of pleasure, Act and Rule Utilitarianism, Mill’s theory of Justice and Liberty.
1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and 1 essay (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr J Friday

Pre-requisites

PH 2003, PH 2004, PH 2504, PH 2505.

Overview

The course critically examines a number of central philosophical themes in the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, but is primarily focused upon his critique of traditional morality, his account of its origins and meaning, and his conception of the need for a re-valuation of all values. Two works by Nietzsche – Beyond Good and Evil and The Genealogy of Morality – provide the primary texts that will be examined in the course. Where appopriate cognate features of Nietzsche’s thought will be examined, such as his perspectivsm, the critique of religion and death of God, and the notions “overman” and “eternal return”. The precise contents of the course may change from year to year and students are directed to the course for more detailed course syllabus in any particular year.
12 lectures and 6 seminars.
1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%).

Credit Points

Course Coordinator

Dr P Gorner

Pre-requisites

PH 2003, PH 2004, PH 2504 and PH 2505.

Overview

This course deals with Kant’s ethical theory as part of his system of philosophy. In the account of nature given in the Critique of Pure Reason, everything which happens is causally necessitated, but human beings are moral agents, able to form a conception of how the world ought to be and freely to determine their own actions. The moral law is grounded in this freedom. The charge that Kant’s ethical theory is an ‘empty formalism’ is examined.
1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and 1 essay (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr P Gorner

Pre-requisites

Available only to student in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

It is desirable that students other than Honours Philosophy students should have some other relevant background (e.g. Law, Politics or International Relations).

Overview

Thomas Aquinas as giving an edge to Aristotle’s ideas of the structure of human happiness. The conception of natural law as embodying the ideas of (i) the objectivity of human knowledge of basic goods and of what is right, (ii) the bodily and animal as integral to human nature and fulfilment, and (iii) the social communal nature of the human being (contrasts with Grotius, Hobbes and Locke). The status of human law, the need for it and its limits (how human laws can be unjust). International order and justice, subsidiarity, the community of the universe. Killing and war. Stealing, cheating and usury. Conditions of economic order.
1 two-hour seminar per week.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and 1 essay (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr P Gorner

Pre-requisites

PH 2003, PH 2004, PH 2504 and PH 2505.

Overview

The course consists of the study, interpretation and critical appraisal of a number of Heidegger’s shorter works, such as What is Metaphysics?, On the Origin of the Work of Art and The Question Concerning Technology. There may be some variation in the texts chosen for study.
1 one-hour lecture per week, 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and 1 essay (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr J Friday

Pre-requisites

PH 2003, PH 2004, PH 2504 and PH 2505.

Overview

The course constitutes a survey of the main topics of jurisprudence together with a closer study of certain central topics. All of the following will be touched upon, with some being considered in some depth: theories of what a law is; the nature of a legal system; the enforcement of morals; theories of punishment; legal reasoning; and the authority of law. The course will consider the contribution to the subject made by writers such as Kant, Bentham, Austin, Hart, Devlin, Kelsen and Dworkin. The detailed content of the course varies from year to year.
1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.
1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr P Tomassi

Pre-requisites

PH 2003, PH 2004, PH 2504 and PH 2505.

Notes

This course will be available subject to sufficient student demand.

Overview

The course will cover some or all of the following, depending on the background knowledge of those taking the course: observation and interpretation in science; scientific inference - induction, confirmation and falsification; laws, dispositions, powers and counterfactual conditionals; rationality in scientific enquiry; the Kuhn/Feyerabend/Lakatos debate; scientific theories - their role in explanation; realist, instrumentalist and conventionalist views of their status.
1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and 1 essay (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr D Shaw

Pre-requisites

PH 2003, PH 2004, PH 2504 and PH 2505.

Notes

This course is a compulsory course for Single and Joint Honours in Philosophy, and an option for the Designated Degree.

Overview

The course will explore developments in the philosophy of language including work building upon the thinking of Frege and Wittgenstein, and consideration of the relation of language to speech. The course will also examine various of the recently proposed accounts of the nature of mind and will explore how our understanding of mind and our understanding of language are interrelated. The content of this course may vary a little from year to year.
17 one-hour lectures plus 7 one-hour tutorials over twelve weeks.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and 1 essay (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr D Shaw

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Overview

This course will explore the ethical and philosophical issues which arise in connection with some area of personal or social morality in which there is ethical controversy, such as life and death issues in medicine or bioethics, punishment, or the treatment of animals. It will seek to show the connections between particular issues and broader ethical theories, and encourage students to think dispassionately and critically about the issues discussed.
1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and 1 essay (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor G Graham

Pre-requisites

PH 2003, PH 2004, PH 2505 and PH 2506.

Overview

This course will explore a selection of philosophical topics from the writings of Plato and Aristotle on metaphysics, epistemology, logic, ethics, aesthetics and political philosophy.
12 lectures and 6 seminars.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and 1 essay (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor G Graham

Pre-requisites

PH 2003, PH 2004, PH 2504 and PH 2505.

Co-requisites

DR 4537

Overview

The course aims to develop abilities in critical philosophical analysis of concepts used in philosophical reflection on religion, to enable students to discuss philosophical issues relating to religion, both orally and in writing.
This is a course, not in philosophical theology, but in philosophy of religion, seen as the concern to understand the place and phenomenon of religion in the spectrum of human experience. It seeks to locate religion among other human practices, especially art, history, science, philosophy and morality. Questions to be considered include: what is the relation between religion and theology? Is there a conflict between modern science and traditional religion? Can God act in history, and if so can we know this? Why does religion make so much use of art forms? Does religion transcend or perfect morality or is it irrelevant to it?
1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.
Examination (70%) and continuous assessment: essay (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr P Gorner

Pre-requisites

PH 2003, PH 2004, PH 2505 and PH 2506.

Overview

The course examines Reid’s conception of Common Sense and the philosophical significance he abscribes to it. Other topics include Reid’s treatment of perception, memory, personal identity, human action, freedom, and morality. In addition to examining Reid’s relationship to Hume some consideration is also given to the relationship of Reid’s thought to Kant’s transcendental philosophy and to Husserl’s phenomenology.
1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and 1 essay (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr R Nicholls

Pre-requisites

PH 2003, PH 2004, PH 2505 and PH 2506.

Overview

The course will examine the chief metaphysical and epistemological ideas of René Descartes – the philosopher who in many respects can be rightly regarded as the ‘father’ of modern philosophy. The topics discussed will include: the problem of method, as presented and solved by Descartes; the function of Cartesian doubt; the significance and consequences of Descartes’ first principle: “I think therefore I am”; Cartesian dualism of res cogitans and res extensa; the role of God in Descartes’ system and his demonstrations of the existence of God; the problem of error; and the existence of the external world.
1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.
1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr J Friday

Pre-requisites

PH 2003, PH 2004, PH 2504 and PH 2505.

Overview

The course focuses upon a number of the most prominent issues in contemporary philosophical investigation of the photographic and cinema media. These issues are explored in the context for attempting to arrive at a critical understanding of the distinctive features of the film media. Topics to be addressed include the ontology of the photographic image and the nature of filmic representation, the nature and means of expressiveness in the film arts, the relation of sound and image in the cinema, the distinction between fictional and factual film works, and the influence of digital technologies upon the film media. The precise contents of the course may change from year to year and students are directed to the course tutor for more detailed course syllabus in any particular year.
12 lectures and 6 seminars.
1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr P Gorner

Pre-requisites

Available only to Senior Honours students in Philosophy.

Overview

A dissertation on a topic in Philosophy.
Dissertation (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor G Graham

Pre-requisites

Notes

This course is available only to Senior Honours students in Philosophy.

Overview

The course deals with questions such as the objectivity of ethics, the interpretation of such objectivity in terms of rationality and the conflict between consequentialist and non-consequentialist approaches to ethics.
17 one-hour lectures and 7 one-hour tutorials over twelve weeks.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and 1 essay (2000 words) (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Variable

Pre-requisites

Only available to Senior Honours students in Philosophy.

Notes

This course will normally run in the first half-session as PH 4004.

Overview

The content of this course will be determined each year by a lecturer whose course, based on his or her current area of research activity, is offered in the preceding spring, when students apply for entry into Honours, as an option to be run in the first half-session, and is of interest to a sufficient number of students to justify running it.
3 one-hour lectures and 8 ninety minute seminars over twelve weeks.
1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Variable

Pre-requisites

Available only to Senior Honours Philosophy students.

Notes

This course will normally run in the second half-session as PH 4506.

Overview

The content of this course will be determined each year by a lecturer whose course, based on his or her current area of research activity, is offered in the preceding spring, when students apply for entry into Honours, as an option to be run in the second half-session, and is of interest to a sufficient number of students to justify running it.
3 one-hour lectures and 8 one-and-a-half-hour seminars over twelve weeks.
1 two-hour examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%).

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr D Shaw

Pre-requisites

Available only to Senior Honours Philosophy students.

Overview

This course will deal with the central questions in the philosophy of mind and action, building on the core ideas given in the core course PH 3025. The course will first look at the various general ways of distinguishing and relating the mental and the physical, and then address particular topics such as personal identity, our knowledge of other minds, thinking and memory. It then turns to an examination of the basic nature of action, in particular the character of intention and the explanation of action (including the relation between reasons and causes). This leads to a consideration of the problems of free will, determinism and responsibility.
6 one-hour lectures and 12 two-hour seminars over twelve weeks.
1 three-hour examination (70%) and 1 essay (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr P Tomassi

Pre-requisites

Available only to Senior Honours Philosophy students (or, with permission of the Head of Department, students of equivalent status, such as non-graduating students from abroad).

Overview

Through guided reading and student-led seminar discussion, this course explores a number of themes in the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein. The precise content of the course will vary from year to year, but it will invariably address aspects of both his earlier and later work. Topics in logic and the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, epistemology, and the philosophy of value will be addressed. Students can be provided with a detailed list of topics to be considered from the course tutor.
3 one-hour lectures and 8 ninety-minutes seminars over 12 weeks.
1 three-hour examination (70%) and course essay (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr P Baumann

Pre-requisites

This course is available only to Senior Honours students in Philosophy.

Overview

The first part of the course will study two or more of the following topics in Metaphysics: the nature of causality; problems of space and time; the nature of truth; appearance and reality; the possibility of a “view from nowhere”. The second part will consider the nature, extent and possibility of knowledge, and related problems of scepticism and relativism.
17 one-hour lectures and 7 one-hour tutorials over twelve weeks.
1 two-hour written examination (70%) and 1 essay (30%).

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr N Dower

Pre-requisites

Available only to Senior Honours students in Philosophy (or with the permission of the Head of Department).

Overview

This course will explore the normative character of development discourse, rival definitions of development, problems of Eurocentrism, as well as the ethics of aid and international trade. The ethical basis of environmental concern will be examined, including our attitudes toward nature, future generations and other countries. The examination of development and environmental ethics will be informed by a critical look at the role of technology, the idea of appropriate technology and in particular some of the issues raised by information and gene technology. It would primarily be for Philosophy students and would presuppose some familiarity with moral/political philosophy. Students doing IR or other subjects are welcome to do this course even if they have not done moral philosophy before, but should expect the first few weeks to be fairly challenging.
6 one-hour lectures and 12 two-hour seminars over twelve weeks.
1 three-hour examination (70%) and continuous assessment: long essay (20%), seminar contribution (10%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr D Shaw

Pre-requisites

Available only to Senior Honours Philosophy Students (or other suitably qualified students with the permission of the Head of Department).

Overview

The course introduces the student to the main varieties of Hindu and Buddhist Philosophy in India and discusses the contribution of these Departments to such major branches of philosophy as ontology, epistemology, theory of perception, consciousness and the body, causality and moral philosophy. Throughout, an attempt is made to bring out significant parallels with Western philosophical thought without losing sight of the distinctiveness of these Eastern traditions. There will also be some discussion of the philosophical implications of the Hindu and Buddhist texts and scriptures and some of the major commentaries on these.
3 one-hour lectures and 8 x 90 minute seminars.
1 two-hour written examination (60%) and continuous assessment (40%).