PHILOSOPHY

Credit Points

10

Course Coordinator

To be advised

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 and truth-tables. Finally, students are introduced to the language of Quantificational Logic and are enabled to translate natural language sentences of various kinds and complete arguments into that formal language.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures, 1 one-hour tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 one-hour written examination (100%). A pass in the class test will exempt candidates from the examination.

Resit: 1 one-hour written examination (100%).

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

To be advised

Pre-requisites

None.

Overview

This course will divide into two parts: The first six weeks will focus on meta-ethics and normative theory (emotivism, prescriptivism, egoism, utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, etc). The second half of the course will focus on moral issues (abortion, euthanasia, suicide, war, the environment, animal welfare, etc).

Structure

2 one-hour lectures and 1 one-hour workshop per week for 12 weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 1,500 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).

Resit: One 1,500 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

10

Course Coordinator

To be advised

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, ie Relevance and Intuitionist Logic.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures, 1 one-hour tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 one-hour written examination (100%). A pass in class examination will exempt candidates from the examination.

Resit: 1 one-hour written examination (100%).

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

To be advised

Pre-requisites

None.

Overview

This course gives an introduction to two closely connected core fields of Philosophy: the theory of knowledge and of mind. There will be a double focus on classical philosophers and contemporary approaches.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and one 1,500 word essay (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and one 1,500 word essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

None.

Overview

The course will identify major themes and topics in the development of Western Philosophy from the philosophy of ancient Greece to the medieval 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, Aristotle, 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 translations, will be used as well as secondary material.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and one essay of approx 2,000 words (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and one essay of approx 2,000 words (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

None.

Overview

This course gives an introduction to a field that has been of the greatest importance for contemporary philosophy.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and one essay of approx 2,000 words (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and one essay of approx 2,000 words (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr B Plant

Pre-requisites

None

Overview

This course will critically explore questions relating to the meaning of life. Specifically, it will address five philosophical topics: (i) God, (ii) suffering, (iii) absurdity, (iv) death, and (v) ordinary life.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr G Bacciagaluppi

Pre-requisites

None

Overview

This course will combine discussion of some of the main general issues (eg induction, explanation, laws of nature) with that of some of the main debates and schools of thought that have characterised philosophy of science during most of the 20th century (eg logical empiricism, Popper, Kuhn, realism and anti-realism). It will further provide glimpses into some topics from the philosophy of the special sciences.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

None.

Overview

This course will trace a number of related themes in 17th and 18th century Philosophy. Topics will include the problem of methods; 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.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and one essay of approx 2,000 words (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and one essay of approx 2,000 words (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

None.

Overview

This course gives an introduction to a traditional core field within philosophy.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and one essay of approx 2,000 words (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and one essay of approx 2,000 words (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be advised

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

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.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay of 2,500-3,000 words (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr T Milligan

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

This course will explore Berkeley's views on the nature of reality, his empiricism and his rigorous application of Ockham's razor. A particular emphasis will be placed upon his treatment of human agency and his shifting attitude towards the nature of God. It will cover the key theoretical debates and introduce students to the relevant literature. It will be thematically based with each week focussing upon a different topic rather than successive phases in Berkeley's thought.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).

Resit: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

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.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

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.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

What is the meaning of life? While this question does appear to be intelligible, it may also seem to be a question that might just be too big for us to answer in a satisfying way. Closer scrutiny reveals that the meaning of the question "What is the meaning of life?" cannot simply be taken for granted. Indeed, some philosophers have even suggested that, ultimately, the question does not make any sense. This course will engage critically with several philosophical attempts to make sense of this fundamental question and may even propose an answer to it.

Time permitting, the course will also deal with related topics such as the badness of death and (the nature of) human nature. More specifically, topics will include most of, but are not confined to:

• What exactly does the question "What is the meaning of life?" and related questions mean?
  
• Different strategies of answering or dealing with those question(s).
  
• Death and whether it is bad.
  
• The human condition.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) (approx 2,500 words).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be advised

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

The idea that there are limits to what we can think, know, state or understand has always been a prominent theme in philosophy. Are there really such limits? If so, what are they and what produces them? What is the relation between the limits of thought and the limits of language? Does the source of the traditional problems of philosophy lie in our conceptual limits rather than in the entities about which we philosophise? Or, is the idea that conception is limited itself incoherent? Thinking about the limits of thought seems always to lead to paradoxes and contradictions. Can we go further, and claim that there is a systematic link between the two? In this course, we will explore what philosophers have had to say about these questions.

More specifically topics will include most of, but will not be confined to

• Cognitive closure


• The reach of thought: conceivability and inconceivability


• Whether our reach exceeds our grasp: the limits of expression


• The community of thinkers: minimal rationality


• Limits of language and the limits of the world: language all the way down?


• Thought, finitude and the infinite


• The threat of paradoxes


• The limits of thought as the loci of true (?) contradictions


• Self enclosure and reflection problems: vicious circles and explanatory self enclosure.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%) (approx 2,500 words).

Resit: 1 two-hour examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr B Plant

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

This course explores the work of a number of philosphers whose work draws on the notion of 'the ordinary' (and associated themes). We will examine, in turn, Thomas Reid's (and later G E Moore's) anti-sceptical appeal to 'common sense', Alfred Schutz's reflections on the phenomological 'everyday life-world', Ludwig Wittgenstein's last notebooks On Certainty and finally Jacques Derrida's recent remarks on the 'production of the extraordinary within the ordinary'. More specifically, topics will include most of, but are not confined to:

• What is meant by 'common sense', 'ordinary life' (and associated concepts) as used by specific philosophers?
  
Does the appeal to 'the ordinary' inevitably lead to relativism?

Of what significance is the concept of trust in such appeals to 'the ordinary'?

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr C Jaeger

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

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?

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be advised

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

One of the main questions epistemologists think about is the question – what is knowledge? Almost all epistemologists agree that knowledge requires at least true belief. For how can you know that it rains if (i) it does not in fact rain, and if (ii) you don’t believe that it rains? Almost all epistemologists also agree that true belief is not enough to get knowledge. There are cases in which a subject has a true belief but does not know. However, there is surprisingly little agreement about what should be added to true belief to get knowledge. The first purpose of this course is to acquire a detailed understanding of one prominent and controversial proposal about what should be added to true belief to get knowledge: Alvin Plantinga’s theory of warrant. The second purpose of this course is to make a start at evaluating this particular theory by developing some ideas about what should be added to true belief to yield knowledge of your own.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%) (approx 2,500 words).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

In what we know dependent on certain non-trivial contextual factors, such as the salience of particular error-possibilities or the raising and lowering of epistemic standards? “Contextualists” will answer this question affirmatively. According to them, we cannot know propositions if no conversational context can be specified. “Invariantists” will answer this question negatively. According to them, contextual factors play no role whatsoever in the knowing of propositions.

Contextualist theories are among the most widely discussed theories in contemporary epistemology, with only a handful of philosophers explicitly defending such a position. This course aims to introduce students to the main contextualist positions on the market, as well as to the main arguments pro and contra contextualism. More specifically, some of the topics that will be discussed are:

• the motivation for contextualism (eg the problem of radical scepticism).


• The closure principle for knowledge.


• Epistemic strength contextualism.


• Contrastivism.


• Subject sensitive invariantism.

Structure

1 x one-hour lecture per week; 1 x one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

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.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

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.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr B Plant

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

This is an Honours option course. Students are not allowed to register for this course after week 2 of teaching.

Overview

This course will explore the nature of friendship, love and sex. It will be thematically (rather than historically) structured and thereby explore fundamental ethical concepts (such as consent and freedom).

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500 (approx) word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).

Resit: One 2,500 (approx) word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr B Plant

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

This course will explore the nature of 'the human condition', with specific focus on the existentialist philosophical tradition. It will be thematically (rather than historically) structured and thereby explore fundamental concepts such as death, freedom and angst.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500 (approx) word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).

Resit: One 2,500 (approx) word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).
Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

This course gives an introduction to one of the most important philosophers: David Hume. It will focus on his theoretical philosophy.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written exmination (50%) and 1 essay of approx 2,500 words (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay of approx 2,500 words (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

To be advised

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

Each student will choose a specific topic of interest to them. (These choices will be confirmed by / negotiated with the department). With supervision and direction from elected supervisors, the student will produce an extended essay of 5,000 words.

Structure

Supervision sessions to be arranged with individual members of staff (depending on student's choice of topic). These arrangements will be flexible - ie some students will need more supervision than others. No student should require more than 6 hours of supervision over the 12 week period.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 5,000 word essay (100%).

Resit: One 5,000 word essay (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

This course will explore the natire and ethical standing of emotional responses. It will cover the key theoretical debates and prominent accounts of particular emotions. It will be thematically based (rather than seeking to provide a historical overview of the subject).

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment (one essay of 2,500-3,000 words) (50%) and 1 two-hour examination (50%).

Resit: Continuous assessment (one essay of 2,500-3,000 words) (50%) and 1 two-hour written examination (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

Are human beings essentially material beings, or do they have a non-material part? This question is one of the oldest in philosophy, with dualists arguing that human beings are a compound of two substances (one material, the other immaterial), and anti-dualists arguing that human beings are essentially material beings.

The purpose of this course is to review arguments in favour of both positions. A further purpose of this course is to think about the impact of the distinction between dualism and anti-dualism on the question whether life after death is possible.

As course readings, we will use a collection of papers edited by Kevin Corcoran ("Soul, Body, and Survival", Cornell University Press 2001), with some additional papers.

Structure

12 one-hour lectures, and 6 one-hour seminars, over 12 weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%); 1 essay of maximally 3,500 words (50%).

1 two-hour written examination (50%); 1 essay of maximally 3,500 words (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr B Plant

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

This course will critically explore, not only Wittgenstein's reflections on the nature of religious belief, but also how these have influenced philosophy of religion. Correlations between Wittgenstein and other philosophers (for example Kierkegaard) will also be explored.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr B Plant

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

This course will critically explore the nature and limits of toleration. The course will be thematically, rather than historically, organised. Having examined the theoretical justifications for tolerance, we will then consider a number of pressing contemporary issues, such as artistic freedom and Holocaust denial.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr B Plant

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

This course will critically explore the conception of ethics offered by Levinas and Derrida. The course will be thematically organised around the following topics: being-for-the-Other, usurpation and guilt, forgiveness, hospitality, the gift and testimony.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 3 of teaching.

Overview

This course will explore the nature and ethical standing of emotional responses. It will cover the key theoretical debates and prominent accounts of particular emotions. It will be thematically based. (Rather than seeking to provide a historical overview of the subject).

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).

Resit: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

The course will focus on the contemporary debate over free will and will trace recent developments as well as exploring some wider implications for related debates. The course will be thematically based. The topics covered include: compatibilis; libertarianism; hard incompatibilism; free will and moral luck; moral responsibility; deontic morality; punishment, the problem of evil and celestial free will, free will and animals, free will and political philosophy.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,2500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).

Resit: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examinatoin (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr N Davies

Pre-requisites

None

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

The course will begin with an investigation into Moore's paradox and proceed to investigate others from the fields of language and logic (the sorties paradox, the knower paradox, and the paradox of knowability, and so forth).

Structure

3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).

Resit: Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6-8 may be awarded compensatory level 1 credit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of less than 6 will be required to submit themselves for re-assessment and should contact the Course Co-ordinator for further details.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr N Davies

Pre-requisites

None

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

This course will critically explore aesthetic considerations of fictitous and documentary film. Moreover, it will deal with film narration in various genres and the role it plays in the suspension of disbelief on the part of the audience.

Other areas of analysis will include, but not be limited to, authorship, ethics, language, and epistemology.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).

Resit: Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6-8 may be awarded compensatory level 1 credit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of less than 6 will be required to submit themseleves for re-assessment and should contact the Course Co-ordinator for further details.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr G Bacciagaluppi

Pre-requisites

None

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

The main problems about time concern the relation between how time appears to us and how it features in the physical description of the world. To us time appears as flowing and as possessing a direction; the past seems fixed and the future open to influence. In physics, time is just a parameter used in our description, with no apparent flow; and while some phenomena (Champagne corks popping) are more familiar than their time inverses, the fundamental laws underlying them seem to be essentially time-symmetric. This course will provide a broad introduction to these problems.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).

Resit: Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6-8 may be awarded compensatory level 1 credit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of less than 6 will be required to submit themselves for re-assessment and should contact the Course Co-ordinator for further details.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

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.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

Lectures for this course will focus on either (or both) of the following key issues: (i) if a correct account of scientific methodology is possible, what exactly is that account? (ii) are scientific theories in general and the aim of science in particular properly understood in realist or anti-realist terms? The course textbook is a comprehensive anthology of key readings on a range of topics central to the Philosophy of Science. Students should therefore also feel free to negotiate alternate presentation/essay topics (drawn from the textbook) with the course co-ordinator.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

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.

Structure

12 lectures and 6 seminars. 1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr C Jaeger

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

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.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Mr D Braine

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

This course will consider what is distinctive in Aquinas's understanding of God as first cause, of the simplicity of God as pure act, and of analogy. It will then consider the structure of his ethics, including his view of the nature of human happiness, the virtues related to community, and natural law. It will require study of some selected texts from Aquinas.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr C Jaeger

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

Are religious beliefs rational - or justified, warranted, intellectually acceptable? If so, which conditions and constraints must they meet? The course will discuss these questions mainly with respect to theistic beliefs and with a special focus on the Christian tradition. It will address in particular: (i) classical topics from natural theology and atheology such as arguments for the existence of God, problems of evil, and projection theories of religious belief formation; (ii) the phenomenology and epistemic significance of religious experience; and (iii) Reformed Epistemology (Plantinga, Alston, Wolterstorff) and the question of which concepts of epistemic justification are appropriate for religious beliefs.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr B Plant

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

Although Wittgenstein's reflections on ethical and religious matters are piecemeal, such themes nevertheless preoccupy much of his work. In the first part of this course we will reconstruct these themes into a more coherent picture. Developing a number of Wittgenstein's central preoccupations, we will then turn to Levinas' challenging conception of the relation between the ethical and religious. Using Wittgenstein as our conceptual touchstone we will elucidate a number of Levinas' central motifs and how these have been developed by Derrida. More specifically, topics will include most of, but are not confined to:

• What is the relation between the 'grammar' of religious and ethical language?
  
• Does Wittgenstein's later work (with specific reference to religious belief) necessarily lead to fideism and/or dogmatism?
  
• How does Levinas' work expand on some of Wittgenstein's thoughts on ethics and religion, and how might Wittgenstein in turn be used to critically evaluate Levinas?
  
• What is the substantive philosophical relationship between Levinas' ethics and Derrida's recent work?

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%) (approx 2,500 words).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examiantion (50%) and 1 essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

What is truth? This question represents one of the most fundamental philosophical problems. Indeed, according to traditional conceptions of Philosophy itself as the pursuit of truth, the question of the nature of truth may be the most fundamental of all philosophical questions. Further, while a number of 'robus' accounts of truth have been proposed, many philosophers, historical and contemporary, have sought to resist the claim that consists in any real property and have variously agreed that truth is either redundant or admits of a merely minimalist analysis. While this course will explore the question of the nature of truth quite generally, a particular focus of the course will be whether the positions of truth-sceptical philosophers can be refuted.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

PH 1010, PH 1306. Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. Satisfactory completion of PH 1010 and PH 1306 is an essential prerequisite.

Overview

This course consists of a selection of key topics and issues in contemporary and/or historical debates constitutive of formal and/or philosophical logic beyond classical first order logic. Topics may include Intuitionist Logic, Relevant Logic, Quantum Logic, Modal Logic and the logic of Formal Dialogue. This course may also include an examination of paradox, concepts of probability and methodological issues in epistemology and the philosophy of science. The exact constitution of the curriculum in any given year will be set out prior to commencement of classes.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

If you have ever studied metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, or philosophy of logic, you will probably have felt the influence of Willard Van Orman Quine. You don't have to have read Quine, nor even to have hear of him, to come under his influence. For Quine has set the agenda for work in many areas of contemporary philosophy. Futhermore, his whole approach to philosophy and philosophical analysis has irreparably changed the way in which we think about and do philosophy today.

Given that Quine has such a hold over you, you might as well learn a bit more about him. This course will present Quine's work systematically, focussing on two of his most basic commitments: naturalism and extensionalism. Topics covered will include Quine's views on naturalised epistemology, ontology, necessity and meaning. Criticisms of Quine's views from contemporary philosophers will also be considered.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Examination (50%), essay (one 2,500-3,000 word) (50%).

Resit: Examination (50%), essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Variable

Pre-requisites

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

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

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.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Variable

Pre-requisites

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

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. 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.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

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

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

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.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (2500 words) (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

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

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

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.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and one 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

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

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

Naming and Necessity is unquestionably one of the most important philosophical works of the past fifty years - arguably the most important - with profound implications for a wide range of fields, including the philosophy of language, metaphysics, and the philosophy of mind. Kripke's book will serve as the centrepiece of the course, but we will also look at other related material, including background work (eg Frege and Russell), concurrent sympathetic work (eg Putnam), and subsequent criticism (eg Lewis). Topics to be examined include: the causal theory of reference, and Kripke's arguments against descriptivism; the basics, at least, of modal logic and possible worlds semantics; the metaphysics of possible worlds; essentialism, both for individuals and for natural kinds; Kripke's argument against psychophysical identity.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour examination (50%) and one 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%).

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr B Plant

Pre-requisites

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

Notes

This course is compulsory for Senior Honours students in Philosophy. Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

A dissertation on a topic in Philosophy.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Dissertation 10,000 word (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

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

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

A crucial distinction in the philosophy of language is the distinction between pragmatics and semantics. One of the main reasons for justifying this distinction is that there are clear cases in which what a speaker is trying to say by uttering a sentence is not completely captured by the standard meaning of the particular sentence that is used. This distinction, crucial though it is, is the subject of considerable debate. Some of the most pressing questions are: what is the distinction between pragmatics and semantics, and why does it matter? In this course, we will try to get a clear idea of the difference between pragmatics and semantics. Moreover, we will investigate to what extent this distinction is of importance in some recent debates in epistemology, mainly focussing on epistemological contextualism, subject sensitive invariantism, and epistemological contrastivism. As course readings, we will use a selection of papers by J. L. Austin, Kent Bach, F. Recanati, D. Sperber and D. Wilson. these papers will be combined in a course reader.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%); 1 essay of approx 3,500 words (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

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

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

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.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 three-hour examination (50%) and course essay (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr B Plant

Pre-requisites

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

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

This course will explore the most difficult and important philosophical question: 'What is philosophy?' Given that philosophy is a deeply self-reflective discipline, its own nature and limits are of fundamental importance. Indeed, it can be argued that metaphilosophy is not simply one branch or sub-discipline of philosophy, but rather, all philosophy is (explicitly or otherwise) metaphilosophy. The sorts of questions examined on this course include: 'Is philosophy more akin to science or literature?' 'Is there progress in philosophy?' 'How (if at all) can we demarcate between "philosophy" and "non-philosophy"?' The course will be thematically structured.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

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

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

Close reading and discussion of central passages of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

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

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

Philosophical sceptics deny or doubt that we do have or can have knowledge about the world. Scepticism is of particular interest when it is based on arguments ("sceptical arguments"). Traditionally, most philosophers have seen scepticism as a serious threat to our ordinary knowledge claims and have therefore tried to refute sceptical arguments. This course will deal with both sceptical arguments and anit-sceptical strategies. Classical as well as contemporary approaches will be discussed.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures and 8 ninety-minute seminars over 12 weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%); continuous assessment (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr B Plant

Pre-requisites

Year 3 or above.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

This course will critically explore some of the main themes in Nietzsche's work. The course will be thematically, rather than historically, organised. The topics covered will include: the 'will to power', perspectivalism, the nature of ethics and religion.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr B Plant

Pre-requisites

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

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

This course will critically explore some of the main themes in recent Feminist philosophy. The course will the thematically organised. The topics covered will include: gender, discrimination, identity, pornography, feminist ethics.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

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

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

This course will introduce students to the contract between different kinds of love and the theories that attempt to account for the connection between them. Introductory lectures on the accounts of love in Plato and Sartre will pave the way for a series of seminars examining key articles (by David Velleman, Lawrence Blum, Janet Soskice and Harry Frankfurt) and contemporary work in the field.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr B Plant

Pre-requisites

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

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

This course will critically explore the main philosophical themes, questions and approaches to death. The course will be thematically organised, and cover positions from both Analytic and Continental traditions.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over the twelve weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Mr A Pessin

Pre-requisites

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

Co-requisites

None.

Notes

Students are not permitted to to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

This course concerns a number of influential thought experiments in philosophy and the history of science.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures plus 9 ninety-minute lectures over twelve weeks.

Assessment

One 2,500 - 3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr R Plant

Pre-requisites

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

Co-requisites

None.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

This course will critically explore, not only Wittgenstein's reflections on the nature of religious belief, but also how these have influenced philosophy of religion. Correlations between Wittgenstein and other philosophers will also be explored.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures plus 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.

Assessment

One 2,500 - 3,000 word essay (50%) plus one tw-hour written examination (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor S Gaukroger

Pre-requisites

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

Co-requisites

None.

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

This course will focus on three figures: Frege (with some discussion of neo-Kantianism and of Saussere's conception of language); Russell's theory of descriptions (with some discussion of Husserl's very different approach to meaning); and Wittgenstein's Tractatus.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures plus 9 ninety-minutes seminars over twelve weeks.

Assessment

One 2,500 - 3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

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

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

What ought we to believe? The Truth? Whatever is rational to believe, even if it is not the truth? Or is, perhaps, the sceptic right to say that we are never well enough situated epistemically for there to anything that we *ought* to believe? Is evidence the only possible or proper determinant of what ought to be believed? Suppose that there were significant practical benefits in believing falsly or irrationally. Ought we yet to believe truly or rationally, or can the practical considerations outweigh the truth conducive considerations? Finally, are there intrinsically *epsitemic* duties and virtues, or are there just standard duties whose fulfilment requires rational belief as a necessary means. In this course we will explore these questions and others in the process of considering whether and to what extent there is an instrinsic obligation to believe rationally and whether and to what extent irrational belief is intrinsically blameworthy.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%). Original essay mark carried forward if CAS 6 or above. New essay to be submitted if original essay CAS 5 or below.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

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

Notes

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Overview

A lot of our beliefs are based on the testimony of others. I know when I was born, for instance, on the basis of the testimony of my parents. And I know that the Queen has visited Paris on the basis of the testimony of the newspaper I just read. The crucial question with regard to testimony is how testimony justifies our beliefs. How can it be that my belief that the Queen has visited Paris – a belief that is based on the testimony of the newspaper – is justified and, if true, an instance of knowledge? In response to this question, some argue that testimonial beliefs are justified in virtue of the fact we are justified in believing that the testifier is reliable. Others, however, argue that testimony is a basic source of justification, and as such is similar to perception, reasoning, and memory. In this course, we will closely examine these and other views regarding the epistemological status of testimonial beliefs by discussing the views of a wide range of authors. Moreover, students will be encouraged to adopt and defend position. Some of the topics that will be addressed include:

• the reliability of testimony.


• reductionism and anti-reductionism with regard to testimony.


• the relation between testimony and other sources of knowledge.


• aesthetic and moral testimony.


• testimony and social epistemology.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and course essay (50%).