Undergraduate Catalogue of Courses 2013/2014
PHILOSOPHY
PLEASE NOTE: Resit: (for Honours students only): 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.
Course Co-ordinator: To be confirmed
Pre-requisite(s): 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).
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. This course will not run in 2010/11.
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.
3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.
1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and 1 essay (2500 words) (50%).
Course Co-ordinator: To be confirmed
Pre-requisite(s): 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).
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. This course will not run in 2010/11.
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.
3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.
1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and one 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%).
Course Co-ordinator: Dr F Berto
Pre-requisite(s): Available to students in years three and four.
Co-requisite(s): None.
Note(s): This course will be available in 2011/12.
It has been claimed that the problem of ontology can be phrased in a three-word question: “What is there”? Despite this easy formulation of the question, the answer has proved to be difficult through the history of philosophy. This course explores some main questions of both classic and contemporary ontology, connected to the notions of being and existence. Some such questions are: Is “being” univocal? Is there a distinction between being and existence, and between “there is” and “exists”? What does the Kantian motto “Existence is not a predicate” mean? Is existence a property? Is the notion of existence captured by the existential quantifier of elementary logic?
The course includes a broad historical overview, starting from the pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides, going through Plato’s theory of being, Aristotle’s criticisms of it, and the ontology of major Medieval thinkers like Aquinas and Avicenna. Next, the modern positions of Hume, Leibniz, and Kant on the subject are investigated. Finally, the inquiry turns to contemporary philosophy, analytic ontology, and the philosophy of quantification of such authors as Frege, Russell, Quine, Peter van Inwagen, Nathan Salmon, and Graham Priest.
One 90 minute student-led seminar per week (Thus, each student will have 3 contact hours per week.)
Tutorials/seminars begin in week 2.
1st Attempt: One 3,500 word essay (50%); plus 1 two-hour examination (40%); plus seminar presentation (10%).
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: To be confirmed
Pre-requisite(s): 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).
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. This course will not run in 2010/11.
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.
3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.
1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%); 1 essay of approx 3,500 words (50%).
Course Co-ordinator: To be confirmed
Pre-requisite(s): 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).
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. This course will not run in 2010/11.
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 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.
1st Attempt: 1 three-hour examination (50%) and course essay (50%).
Course Co-ordinator: Dr G Bacciagaluppi
Pre-requisite(s): None.
Co-requisite(s): None.
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 introduce and discuss these problems.
One 90 minute lecture, plus one 90 minute tutorial for Level 3 students, plus one 90 minute student-led seminar for Level 4 students per week. (Thus, each student will have 3 contact hours per week.)
Tutorials/seminars begin in week 2.
1st Attempt: Two 3,500 word essays (90%) plus seminar presentation (10%).
Resit: No resit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6–8 may be awarded compensatory Level 1 credits.
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: Dr U Stegmann
Pre-requisite(s): None
Co-requisite(s): None
This course introduces students to the metaphysics of science, ie. to central metaphysical topics and problems common to many sciences. The course complements the general introduction to philosophy of science and the honours level course on scientific methodology. While the precise content of the course may change from year to year, the following questions illustrate some of the main topics. What are laws of nature? Do laws of nature allow for exceptions? Should causation be analysed in terms of more basic concepts, like counterfactuals? Is there a metaphysical difference between causes and ‘mere’ conditions? Is causation a matter of transmitting momentum, energy or information? Are there natural kinds? Do natural kinds imply essentialism? What are dispositions?
One 60 minute lecture, plus one 120 minute tutorial for Level 3 students, plus one 120 minute student-led seminar for Level 4 students per week. (Thus, each student will have 3 contact hours per week.)
Tutorials/seminars begin in week 2.
1st Attempt: Two 3,500 word essays (90%) plus seminar presentation (10%).
Resit: No resit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6–8 may be awarded compensatory Level 1 credits.
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: Dr U Stegmann
Pre-requisite(s): None
Co-requisite(s): None
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course afer the end of week 2 of teaching.
Over the last decades, the philosophy of biology has matured into a separate and dynamic field of philosophical inquiry. This introductory course aims to provide an overview of the field by examining some classical topics as well as more recent developments. The course ranges over key biological disciplines (evolutionary biology, ecology, molecular biology) and traces connections between philosophy of biology and other areas of philosophy, especially general philosophy of science and the philosophy of mind and language. Topics to be discussed include the nature of species, the goals and methods of systematics, biological function, the niche concept, cognitive ethology, reductionism, genetic causation, and genetic information.
One 60 minute lecture, plus one 120 minute student-led seminar.
(Thus, each student will have 3 contact hours per week.)
Tutorials/seminars begin in week 2.
1st Attempt: Two 3,500 word essays (90%) plus seminar presentation (10%).
Resit: Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6–8 may be awarded compensatory Level 1 credits.
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: Dr B Plant
Pre-requisite(s): None
Co-requisite(s): None
European philosophy (sometimes known as Continental philosophy) represents the major alternative philosophical tradition to so-called ‘Analytic’ philosophy – the dominant tradition in academic philosophy today. On this course we will examine some key figures in the European tradition (eg. Nietzsche, Heidegger, Derrida, Foucault). We will also evaluate to what extent the distinction between these two traditions is philosophically substantive or ideological.
One 90 minute lecture, plus one 90 minute tutorial for Level 3 students, plus one 90 minute student-led seminar for Level 4 students per week. (Thus, each student will have 3 contact hours per week.)
Tutorials/seminars begin in week 2.
1st Attempt: One 3,500 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (40%) plus seminar presentation (10%).
Resit: No resit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6–8 may be awarded compensatory Level 1 credits.
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: Dr G Bacciagaluppi
Pre-requisite(s): None
Co-requisite(s): None
The course will focus on the main topics in contemporary philosophy of physics, namely philosophy of quantum mechanics, philosophy of space-time and philosophy of statistical mechanics (in varying proportions - or alternation - from year to year). Previous familiarity with these physical theories will not be assumed.
One 90 minute lecture, plus one 90 minute tutorial for Level 3 students, plus one 90 minute student-led seminar for Level 4 students per week. (Thus, each student will have 3 contact hours per week.)
Tutorials/seminars begin in week 2.
1st Attempt: Two 3,500 word essays (90%) plus seminar presentation (10%).
Resit: No resit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6–8 may be awarded compensatory Level 1 credits.
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: Dr B Plant
Pre-requisite(s): None
Co-requisite(s): None
Wittgenstein’s last notebooks, On Certainty, have provoked increasing interest over the past few years. In this course we will examine this important text, reconstruct its main themes, and critically assess the plausibility of its central claims. Although On Certainty deals most explicitly with questions of knowledge, doubt and certainty, we will also consider whether it offers any insight into questions of religious belief and morality – as some commentators have claimed.
One 90 minute lecture, plus one 90 minute tutorial for Level 3 students, plus one 90 minute student-led seminar for Level 4 students per week. (Thus, each student will have 3 contact hours per week.)
Tutorials/seminars begin in week 2.
1st Attempt: One 3,500 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (40%) plus seminar presentation (10%).
Resit: No resit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6–8 may be awarded compensatory Level 1 credits.
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: Dr B Plant
Pre-requisite(s): None
Co-requisite(s): None
The question of intersubjectivity (or being-with-others) is an important issue in philosophy. In this course we will examine a number of different approaches, including phenomenological, Wittgensteinian, and the so-called ‘problem of other minds’. The emphasis will be (broadly) ethical rather than strictly epistemological or metaphysical.
One 90 minute lecture, plus one 90 minute tutorial for Level 3 students, plus one 90 minute student-led seminar for Level 4 students per week. (Thus, each student will have 3 contact hours per week.)
Tutorials/seminars begin in week 2.
1st Attempt: One 2,500 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (50%).
Resit: No resit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6–8 may be awarded compensatory Level 1 credits.
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: Dr U Stegmann
Pre-requisite(s): None
Co-requisite(s): None
We continuously form beliefs and desires that represent the world as being a certain way. Beliefs, desires, and other mental states have contents, they exhibit intentionality. Understanding the nature of intentionality is one of the classic topics in the philosophy of mind. This course introduces students to the problem of intentionality, covers some of the central theories, and explores their implications. These include various naturalistic theories of mental representation, such as causal role theories, indicator-semantics and teleosemantics. The course also looks at the causal status of mental representations and eliminativism about representational content.
One 60 minute lecture, plus one 120 minute tutorial for Level 3 students, plus one 120 minute student-led seminar for Level 4 students per week. (Thus, each student will have 3 contact hours per week.)
Tutorials/seminars begin in week 2.
1st Attempt: Two 3,500 word essays (90%) plus seminar presentation (10%).
Resit: No resit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6–8 may be awarded compensatory Level 1 credits.
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: Dr S Ward
Pre-requisite(s): Available only to students in Programme Year 3 and above, or by permission of the Head of School.
Co-requisite(s): Satisfactory performance in Film Studies courses at level 1 and 2, or equivalent.
This course offers an introduction to the diverse explorations in film and video that have made been in the past twenty years in the Arab Middle East. This has been a time of extraordinary turbulence and strife politically, socially, and economically, and also of huge growth in the infrastructures and institutions of an ‘art world’ that includes the art of the moving image. Students will have the opportunity to see the fruits of artistic conceptualism in visual representations from the Arab world, while learning how dramatic tropes and plays of fictional and documentary forms take on a special character in work originating from the region. The screenings reflect the pre-eminence in cinematic work in the area of experimental video and short film, and the importance of music and of conceptual and post-conceptual art practices. They also draw on an often powerful if too often unreported cinematic tradition.
1 one-hour lecture and 2 two-hour seminars per week; 1 three-hour screening per week.
1st Attempt: One essay of 2,000-2,500 words (45%); one research essay of 2,500-3,000 words (45%); seminar assessment (10%).
Resit: One 2-hour written examination (100%).
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: Dr B Plant
Pre-requisite(s): None
Co-requisite(s): None
Wittgenstein is one of the most important and influential philosophers of the Twentieth-Century. He is also one of the most enigmatic. In this course we will focus on Wittgenstein’s remarks on ethics and religion, primarily (though not exclusively) in his later work. We will draw on relevant primary and secondary material in order to reconstruct and assess Wittgenstein’s views.
One 90 minute lecture, plus one 90 minute tutorial for Level 3 students, plus one 90 minute student-led seminar for Level 4 students per week. (Thus, each student will have 3 contact hours per week.)
Tutorials/seminars begin in week 2.
1st Attempt: One 3,500 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (40%) plus seminar presentation (10%).
Resit: No resit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6–8 may be awarded compensatory Level 1 credits.
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: Dr B Plant
Pre-requisite(s): None
Co-requisite(s): None
Throughout the history of Western Philosophy both morality (broadly construed) and moral philosophy more specifically have been criticised for a variety of reasons. While some philosophers have attempted to question (and even abandon) the value of ‘morality’ as such, others have thought that traditional moral philosophy distorts the realities of moral life. In this course we will critically examine a number of such views.
One 90 minute lecture, plus one 90 minute tutorial for Level 3 students, plus one 90 minute student-led seminar for Level 4 students per week. (Thus, each student will have 3 contact hours per week.)
Tutorials/seminars begin in week 2.
1st Attempt: One 3,500 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour exam (40%) plus seminar presentation (10%).
Resit: No resit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6–8 may be awarded compensatory Level 1 credits.
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: Dr B Plant
Pre-requisite(s): None
Co-requisite(s): None
For centuries, philosophers (amongst others) have speculated on the natural – as opposed to supernatural – origins of religious belief. In this course we will examine a number of such ‘natural histories’. Key figures will include Hume, Nietzsche, Freud and Wittgenstein.
One 90 minute lecture, plus one 90 minute tutorial for Level 3 students, plus one 90 minute student-led seminar for Level 4 students per week. (Thus, each student will have 3 contact hours per week.)
Tutorials/seminars begin in week 2.
1st Attempt: One 3,500 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (40%) plus seminar presentation (10%).
Resit: No resit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6–8 may be awarded compensatory Level 1 credits.
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: To be confirmed
Pre-requisite(s): 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).
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. This course will not run in 2010/11.
Close reading and discussion of central passages of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.
3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.
1st Attempt: 1 two-hour examination (50%) and 1 essay (50%).
Course Co-ordinator: Dr B Plant
Pre-requisite(s): Year 3 or above.
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. This course will not run in 2010/11.
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.
1 one-hour lecture per week and one-hour tutorial per fortnight.
1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).
Course Co-ordinator: Dr B Plant
Pre-requisite(s): 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).
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. This course will not run in 2010/11.
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.
3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.
1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).
Course Co-ordinator: To be confirmed
Pre-requisite(s): 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).
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. This course will not run in 2010/11.
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.
3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.
1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).
Course Co-ordinator: Dr B Plant
Pre-requisite(s): 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).
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. This course will not run in 2010/11.
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.
3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over the twelve weeks.
1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour examination (50%).
Course Co-ordinator: TBD
Pre-requisite(s): 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-requisite(s): None
Note(s): Students are not permitted to to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. This course will not run in 2010/11.
This course concerns a number of influential thought experiments in philosophy and the history of science.
3 one-hour lectures plus 9 ninety-minute lectures over twelve weeks.
One 2,500 - 3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).
Course Co-ordinator: Dr B Plant
Pre-requisite(s): 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-requisite(s): None
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.
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.
3 one-hour lectures plus 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.
One 2,500 - 3,000 word essay (50%) plus one two-hour written examination (50%).
Resit: N/A.
Course Co-ordinator: Dr U Stegmann
Pre-requisite(s): 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).
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. This course will not run in 2010/11.
Information is a central notion in the science, from physics to psychology, and it has attracted considerable philosophical attention. This course introduces students to central issues in the philosophy of information. The first part explores the question 'what is information?' and looks at communication theory, probabilistic and counterfactual theories, and theories appealing to correlation and meaningful data. The second part of the course discusses some influential attempts to use information in order to address various philosophical problems. We will focus on issues in epistemology (perception and knowledge) and the philosophy of mind (mental content and phenomenal consciousness).
3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.
1st Attempt: 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).
Course Co-ordinator: Ms P Sweeney
Pre-requisite(s): 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).
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. This course will not run in 2010/11.
This course begings with an introduction to truth-conditional semantics for natural language: the idea that the meaning of a sentence is exhausted by its truth-conditions. We consider the fact that the acceptance of apparently harmless context-sensitives such as 'I' and 'now' can lead to radical contextualism and the collapse of truth-conditional semantics. We then consider the problem solving powers of contextualist semantics and finally, the issue of relativism about truth is briefly considered.
3 one-hour lectures and 9 nintey-minute seminars over twelve weeks.
1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).
Course Co-ordinator: Walter Pedriali
Pre-requisite(s): 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).
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. This course will not run in 2010/11.
A distinctive mark of our discourse is the all-pervasive presence of norms. We routinely judge that a certain act was the right (wrong) thing to do, or that in some circumstances we ought to have chosen a certain course of action rather than another. Often enough, we ask that reasons be given for our choices. In short, we take ourselves to be answerable to norms of behaviour, which it is customary to call 'moral'. The puzzle, however, is that it appears difficult to locate the facts, if any, that would make our moral judgements true or false as the case may be. And yet it seems costitutive of our being rational that we be responsible moral agents, i the sense of being sensitive to the demands of norms.
In this course we explore a cluster of issues that arise in connection with the notion of normativity. We look at what could possibly ground our normative claims. We examine the fact-value distinction, and the question of whether meaning and mental content have normative import. We shall also critically discuss some of the answers given to our puzzle by prominent philosophers in contemporary meta-ethics.
3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.
1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).
Course Co-ordinator: Dr G Bacciagaluppi
Pre-requisite(s): 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). (But see 'Notes').
Note(s): Sessions may be held in common with those of the level 5 course on 'Foundations of Physics'. In this case, the minimum number of students required run the course may be lowered. Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.
The course will focus on the main topics in contemporary philosophy of physics, namely philosophy of quantum mechanics, philosophy of space-time and philosophy of statistical mechanics (in varying proportions - or alternation - from year to year). Previous familiarity with these physical theories will not be assumed.
3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.
1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).
Course Co-ordinator: Dr B Plant
Pre-requisite(s): 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).
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. This course will not run in 2010/11.
Comic laughter is one of the distinguishing features of human beings. As Aristotle remarks, "No animal laughs save Man". That all of us find some things funny is a mundane fact, but precisely why we find some things funny and others not is less clear. Throughout the history of Western philosophy there have been numerous attempts to explain what constitutes comic laughter - as opposed, say, to nervous laughter, or laughter caused by tickling or intoxicants. In this course we will critically evaluate these accounts (eg the 'superiority' account, the 'incongruity' thesis, and the 'relief' theory), and consider more recent attempts to explain this all-too-human phenomenon. We will also explore the ethical dimension of humour, asking (eg) whether- and if so why - it is wrong to find some things funny.
3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.
1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).
Course Co-ordinator: Dr M Laerke
Pre-requisite(s): 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).
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. This course will not run in 2010/11.
This course will be dedicated to the close reading of Leibniz's Discourse on metaphysics(1686), Through discussion, it is our aim to articulate the philosophical principles that govern Leibniz's rationalism (the in-esse principle, the principle of sufficient reason, the principle of indiscernibles, etc), and to gain an understanding of the original system of God, harmony and invidual substances that it gives rise to. We will also try to identify the underlying motivations for this system, such as Leibniz's will to reintegrate Aristotle's philosophy into modern philosophy, his theological commitments, etc. We will read and discuss relevant commentary literature.
3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.
1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).
Course Co-ordinator: Dr U Stegmann
Pre-requisite(s): Available only to Senior Honours students who attended the level 3 course ‘Philosophy of Biology’ (or, with permission of the Head of School, students of equivalent status, such as non-graduating students from abroad).
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.
This course follows on from the introductory level 3 course. Some of the topics of that course will be revisited and explored in greater detail, but it will also cover new topics. In particular, students will engage with recent literature in the field and will be encouraged to explore in depth topics of their choice. Potential topics include fitness, the levels of selection, genetic determinism, reductionism, the role of models and model organisms in the life sciences, as well as the nature of mechanistic and computational explanations. Explicit links to the level 3 course will be made where feasible.
2-3 one-hour lectures and 9-10 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.
1st Attempt: One 2500-3000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written exam (50%).
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: Dr F Berto
Pre-requisite(s): Familiarity with elementary logic.
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. This course will not run in 2010/11.
Artificial Intelligence is the research program based upon the claim that the fuzzy aggregate of abilities we collectively call “intelligence” can be realized artificially – specifically, as an algorithm. If so, then it is possible to build a software implementing the algorithm, and have it run on a sufficiently powerful and fast computer.
AI raises a number of momentous philosophical, moral and even religious questions. First, is it possible? Is it actually the case that to think is to compute, or is the human mind irreducible to algorithms? Next, what would an artificial intelligence be like, metaphysically speaking? Which moral obligations, if any, would we have towards an artificial being whose intelligence is isomorphic to ours? And what would such intelligence tell us about the human mind?
This courses introduces both to the mathematical techniques of theoretical computer science (from computability theory to Turing machines, neural networks, serial, parallel, and non-standard computation), and to the philosophical issues.
1 one-hour lecture for weeks 1-3, plus 9 ninety-minute seminars for weeks 4-12.
1st Attempt: One 2500-3000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written exam (50%).
Resit: 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.
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: Dr U Stegmann and Professor C Wilson
Pre-requisite(s): Available only to Senior Honours students who attended the level 3 course ‘Philosophy of Biology’ (or, with permission of the Head of School, students of equivalent status, such as non-graduating students from abroad).
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. This course will not run in 2010/11.
This course explores philosophical issues arising from our relation to nature and the environment. Climate change has brought latent and long-standing issues about our relation to the natural world to the attention of politicians and the general public. We will look at some central concepts and problems in ecology and investigating their ethical, social and political ramifications. The course thus involves perspectives from both theoretical and practical philosophy. Among the concepts to be explored from the point of view of philosophy of science will be the notions of biodiversity and niche construction.
2-3 one-hour lectures and 9-10 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.
1st Attempt: One 2500-3000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written exam (50%).
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: Dr M Laerke
Pre-requisite(s): 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).
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.
One of the most pressing problems in political philosophy from the Reformation to the Enlightenment was the problem of “law in relation to holy matters”, ie the question the precise relations between State and Church. Philosophers developed very sophisticated conceptual models for determining the exact division of power between Church and State, and which institutions should be considered just or illegal. In this seminar, we will read a series of central texts on the question, ranging from Machiavelli to Rousseau, including Hobbes, Grotius, Spinoza and Locke. As background, we will also read a few key texts from early Christian and medieval tradition (Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas). We will discuss problems such as: What are the political uses of religion? Who has the right to interpret religion and establish dogma? When should one obey the King and when should one obey the Church? May one rebel against the State on religious grounds? How must control must the State have over the exercise of religion?
3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.
1st Attempt: One 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%).
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: Mr B Plant
Pre-requisite(s): Available only to Senior Hons students (or, with permission of the Head of School, students of equivalent status, such as non-graduating students from abroad).
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. This course will not run in 2010/11.
Moral philosophy has been criticised by a number of philosophers, from both Anglo-American and Continental traditions. Some of these critics have wanted to improve traditional moral philosophy, others to cast suspicion on the entire project (indeed, some have been critical of ‘morality’ more generally). In this course we will critically consider some of these more-or-less radical assaults. The philosophers we will discuss include Nietzsche, Adorno, Rorty, Benhabib, Caputo, Williams and Nussbaum.
3 one-hour lectures plus 9 ninety-minute seminars.
1st Attempt: One 2500 – 300 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written exam (50%).
Resit: No resit as this is a level 4 course.
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: Professor C Wilson
Pre-requisite(s): A previous course in moral theory
Note(s): This course will not run in 2010/2011.
We will employ material from primary and secondary sources on he evolution of altruism, individual and group selection, the alleged human instinct for justice and fairness, and the limitations of natural morality and naturalized moral theory.
2-3 90-minute lectures and 9-10 90-min. seminars
1st attempt: Seminar participation 10%; 1 paper 2,500-3,000 words 40%; one 2 hr. exam 40%
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: Dr G Hough
Pre-requisite(s): 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-requisite(s): None
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. This course will not run in 2010/11.
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.
One 90 minute lecture per week. One 90 minute student-led seminar per week.
1st Attempt: Two 3,500 word essays (90%); plus seminar presentation (10%).
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: Dr G Hough
Pre-requisite(s): None
Co-requisite(s): None
This course focuses on two central approaches to meaning developed in contemporary philosophy of language and linguistics—truth-conditional theories of meaning and intention based theories of meaning. The two approaches are introduced by coverage of the Referential Theory of Meaning and its problems, and Grice’s account of Speaker Meaning and Implicature. Within this framework, possible topics covered include: the relationship between reference and meaning, the semantics of belief reports, the semantics of necessity and possibility, indexicality and context sensitivity, vagueness, etc.
One 90 minute lecture, plus one 90 minute tutorial for Level 3 students, plus one 90 minute student-led seminar for Level 4 students per week. (Thus, each student will have 3 contact hours per week.)
Tutorials/seminars begin in week 2.
1st Attempt: Two 3,500 word essays (90%) plus seminar presentation (10%).
Resit: No resit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6–8 may be awarded compensatory Level 1 credits.
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: Dr G Hough
Pre-requisite(s): None
Co-requisite(s): None
This course takes as its focus philosophical discussion of the psychological state of belief. This psychological state plays a central role in various philosophical debates—the mind-body problem, epistemology and the nature of knowledge, the relationship between language and thought, etc. However, there has also been substantial philosophical work directly on belief. We’ll focus on that work in this course. Possible topics include: the semantics of belief reports, Frege’s Puzzle and related puzzling intuitions about belief reports, the nature of mental content, etc.
One 90 minute lecture, plus one 90 minute tutorial for Level 3 students, plus one 90 minute student-led seminar for Level 4 students per week. (Thus, each student will have 3 contact hours per week.)
Tutorials/seminars begin in week 2.
1st Attempt: Two 3,500 word essays (90%) plus seminar presentation (10%).
Resit: No resit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6–8 may be awarded compensatory Level 1 credits.
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: To be confirmed
Pre-requisite(s): 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).
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. This course will not run in 2010/11.
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.
3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.
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.
Course Co-ordinator: To be confirmed
Pre-requisite(s): 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).
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. This course will not run in 2010/11.
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.
3 one-hour lectures and 9 ninety-minute seminars over twelve weeks.
1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and course essay (50%).
Course Co-ordinator: Dr L Moretti
Pre-requisite(s): None
Co-requisite(s): None
Note(s): Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.
The course will focus on the long-standing debate on epistemological scepticism, will single out the principal types of scepticism emerged in history and will explore important attempts to reply to them. The emphasis will be on global scepticism (or scepticism about the external world) and the contemporary responses to it. The latter will include positions based on relevant alternatives, on the rejection of closure, and on epistemological entitlement; infallibilism and contextualism will also be considered.
One 90 minute lecture, plus one 90 minute tutorial for Level 3 students, plus one 90 minute student-led seminar for Level 4 students per week. (Thus, each student will have 3 contact hours per week.)
Tutorials/seminars begin in week 2.
1st Attemp: Two 3,500 word essays (90%) plus seminar presentation (10%).
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: Dr G Hough
Pre-requisite(s): None
This course will primarily focus on issues about the identity of objects through time. In doing so, we will focus on questions like 'how can an object, at two difference times, perhaps in two difference places, and with many different properties and relations, survive through all these chages?' In our attempt to answer questions like this, we will focus on two central debates in the matephysics of identity through time: (i) Endurantist and Predurantist accounts of identity through time generally, and (ii) the Identity of Persons through time.
3 one-hour lectures and nine 1½ hour seminars.
1st Attempt: Two-hour written examination (50%); one 2,500-3,000 word essay (50%).