PHILOSOPHY

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr N Jezzi

Pre-requisites

None.

Notes

This course will be available in 2013/14.

Overview

This course provides a general introduction to moral theory. It is organized around such questions as the following: Why be moral? Do we always have most reason to do what is best? What is the relationship between friendship and morality? We will read and discuss responses to these questions that have been presented in both historical and contemporary texts.

Structure

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

Assessment

1st Attempt - One 1500-2000 word essay 50% + One 2 hour written exam 50%

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr F Luzzi

Pre-requisites

None.

Notes

This course will be available in 2013/14.

Overview

The course will introduce students to key concepts in informal reasoning and formal logic. In particular, the former component will include identifying argument structure and common logical fallacies in everyday discourse. The latter component will include methods in first-order propositional logic (formal proofs, truth trees, truth tables).

Structure

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

Assessment

1st Attempt: Class Test (50%); 1 one-hour written examination (50%).

Resit: 1x 2 hour written examination.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr B Lord

Pre-requisites

None

Co-requisites

none

Overview

The course introduces rationalism and empiricism as two major systems of thought taking different approaches to the same question: how does the mind relate to the world? Students will first learn about 17th century rationalism by focusing on Rene Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy. Through this text, students will learn about rationalist approaches to knowledge and reality, and about specific topics in Descartes' philosophy including the method of doubt, the mind-body problem, and arguments for the existence of the self, God, and the world. We will then turn to David Hume's Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding as the key text of 18th century empiricism. Through this text, students will learn how empiricist philosophers criticized rationalism, and turned instead to experience to provide a foundation for knowledge. We will look at Hume's distinction between impressions and ideas, the problem of induction, his account of causality, and his critique of miracles. Other rationalist and empiricist philosophers will also be introduced to provide context.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures and 1 one-hour tutorial per week. Tutorials begin in week 2

Assessment

1st Attempt: one 1500 word essay (50%) and one two-hour written examination (50%)

Resit: one 1500 word essay (100%)

In line with School Policy, failure to submit a component piece of assessed work, or submitting a token piece, will result in the withdrawal of the class certificate (students are not eligible for resit).

If a component piece of assessed work is submitted and marked 0-5, students cannot pass the course on the first attempt. The student is automatically entitled to resit, and must resit in order to pass the course.

Formative Assessment

Feedback on essays; individually arranged conversations during office hours/by appointment; feedback on in-class presentations

Feedback

Written on essay and marking sheet; office hours/appointment; peer questions and comments during in-class presentations

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr F Berto

Pre-requisites

None.

Notes

This course will be available in 2013/14.

Overview

It's pretty difficult to explain in general terms what Metaphysics is or what metaphysicians do. Here's why. Firstly, Metaphysics is a very wide ranging subject, covering topics as diverse as the existence of God, the nature of space and time, and the relationship between mind and body. Secondly, what metaphysicians do can seem a little strange. They spend much of their time attempting to answer questions like 'are there numbers'?, 'do we have free will'?, or 'is the future real'? You might legitimately think that these questions don't really make much sense. What do questions like 'are there numbers'? or 'is the future real'? even mean? You might also wonder why philosophers think they can answer questions that seem more suited to mathematicians or scientists.Given the diversity and the apparent oddity of metaphysics (and metaphysicians), it is best to focus on some specific examples of the debates metaphysicians engage in. In this way, we can see how the discipline works in detail, and thus (I hope) get an idea of what metaphysics is more generally, and of what metaphysicians are trying to do. In particular, we shall focus on debates including: the nature of causation, the reality (or otherwise) of time, the possibility that we do not have any free will, and the question of what it is to be a person.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week, plus 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight. (This is the same as Level 2 teaching arrangements in Philosophy for the past 4 years.)

Assessment

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

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr R Re Manning

Pre-requisites

None.

Overview

The Philosophy of Religion deals with perennial and fundamental questions about the nature and rationality of religious beliefs and practices. Key topics include arguments for the existence of God, the concept and attributes of God, the nature of religious language, the problem of evil, miracles, and the challenges of religious pluralism. The course will engage, from a broadly analytical perspective, with these core questions through close attention to classic texts within the mainstream tradition of Philosophy of Religion.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week, plus 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

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

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr G Hough

Pre-requisites

None.

Notes

This course will be available in 2013/14 as PH 2027.

Overview

This course has two distinct aims. Firstly, to introduce you to some extremely influential analyses of language and its workings. Secondly, through studying this material, to teach you a bit about what philosophical?as opposed to psychological, linguistic or literary?research is like and how it might contribute to the study of language and thought.

We will cover three main approaches to language: analysing meaning in terms of truth; analysing meaning in terms of speakers? thoughts and intentions; analysing meaning in terms of the structure of sentences. To do this, you will focus on the work of three central figures in 20th century philosophy of language: Gottlob Frege (1848-1925), Paul Grice (1913-1988), and Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913). These three figures, taken together, have had an immense influence on the study of language through the 20th century and up to the present day. A good grounding in the basics of their work will serve you well if you are interested in the study of language, whether it be in philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, linguistics, or literature.

But we won?t just be learning what these three philosophers say. Your main task as a student of this course is to produce original arguments in response to the work of any/all of these philosophers. I don?t expect that you already know how to do this. The course will be designed to lead you through the various steps involved in doing philosophical research in this area, including: engaging with the academic literature on the subject, mapping out a debate in preparation for writing, planning an essay and working up an argument, final drafting and how to present your argument in its best light. If you are already a philosophy student, this aspect of the course will serve you well as you prepare to move from sub-honours to honours work in philosophy. If you?ve never done philosophy before, by the end of this course you will a good idea of what philosophers actually do, and some of the skills you acquire might even help you in other academic subjects.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week, plus 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight. (This is the same as Level 2 teaching arrangements in Philosophy for the past 4 years.)

Assessment

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

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr B Plant

Pre-requisites

None.

Overview

This is a topic-driven course on which we critically explore questions relating to the meaning and value of life. These topics will include: God, suffering, absurdity, death, sex, happiness, pleasure. In doing so we will draw upon a wide range of thinkers from both Anglo-American and European traditions, and also, where relevant, on literature and film.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight. (This is the standard format for all level 2 philosophy courses.)

Assessment

Essay word count 2500

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr U Stegmann

Pre-requisites

None

Co-requisites

None

Overview

The fruits of scientific research are all around us, from news about 'God particles' to medical treatments and consumer goods. Scientific research appears to be a particularly effective and reliable way of gaining empirical knowledge. Science is often portrayed as an essentially rational enterprise in which as yet unproven hypotheses are put to rigorous tests by means of systematic observations and sophisticated experiments. The result of this enterprise is the gradual accumulation of knowledge about natural processes and the laws of nature, or so it may seem. But is there really a uniform scientific method that leads us to reliable empirical knowledge? Or are scientists inevitably bound by paradigms, ways of thinking and doing that constrain what they research and how they interpret the data? Do we have reasons to belief that our best confirmed scientific theories are true? Do theoretical entities like electrons exist or are they conceptual tools for research? Are scientific explanations in some sense 'objective' or do they merely provide us with a warm feeling of understanding? What makes a scientific explanation good or bad? These questions are among the most central in philosophy of science and they will be the focus of this introductory course.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 6 one-hour tutorials held fortnightly over the duration of the course.

Assessment

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

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr R Plant

Pre-requisites

None.

Notes

This course will be available in 2013/14 as PH 302H / PH 402H.

Overview

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.

Structure

1 one and a half hour lecture and 1 one and a half hour tutorial per week
(Thus, each student will have 3 contact hours per week.) Tutorials/seminars begin in week 2.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2500-word essay (50%) and 1 two-hour exam (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr M Laerke

Pre-requisites

This course is for students in Programme Year 3, though is open to level 4 students also.

Co-requisites

None

Overview

This course is about a key tradition in the history of western philosophy, namely the continental rationalist tradition in the early modern period, as represented by major philosophers such as Descartes, Spinoza, Malebranche, and Leibniz. Continental rationalists contribute largely to the conception of philosophical question which remain live issues, and and their rigourous but also often grandiose systems continue to puzzle contemporary philosophers. This intensive six-week course is designed as a survey to key issues adressed by the major thinkers in the tradition, in the fields of epistemology, ontology, and modal philosophy. Readings will include classic texts (e.g. Descartes's Meditations, or Leibniz's Monadology) plus a number of commentary articles. While lectures will focus on providing the necessary historical and philosophical background, tutorials will be dedicated to discussion of primary texts.

Structure

1 two-hour lecture and 1 one-hour tutorial per week (thus 3 hours per week over 6 weeks all in all).
Note that this is conceived as a compressed 15 credit course, to run over only half a semester.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Two 2500 word essays (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr L Moretti

Pre-requisites

This course is for students in Programme Year 3 or above who study for the MA in Mental Philosophy, MA in Natural Philosophy, or MA in Philosophy-Physics (exceptions are at the discretion of the Course Coordinator and UGPC).

Co-requisites

None

Overview

The course aims at uncovering what is constitutive of scientific rationality. Some of the most discussed conceptions of scientific methodology, including Baconian inductivism, hypothetico-deductivism, falsificationism, Feyerabend's anarchism and Bayesianism, will be analysed. Some of these views will be tested on cases from past and contemporary science, including the Copernican revolution and the continental drift hypothesis. Specific and "technical" topics, including the old and the new problem of induction, the Duhem-Quine thesis and paradoxes of confirmation, will also be surveyed.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 6 one-hour tutorials held fortnightly over the duration of the course. Tutorials start in week 2.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2500 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%)

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr. G. Bacciagaluppi

Pre-requisites

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 introduce and discuss these problems.

Structure

1 x 90 minute lecture, plus 1 x 90 minute tutorial for Level 3 students, plus 1 x 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.

Assessment

Level 3 students
2 x 2500 word essays (100%)

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr R Re Manning

Pre-requisites

This course is for students in Programme Year 3 or above who study for the MA in Mental Philosophy, MA in Natural Philosophy, or MA in Philosophy-Physics (exceptions are at the discretion of the Course Coordinator and UGPC).

Overview

This course studies the major problems of religious metaphysics as they have been handed down to contemporary philosophy of religion from the Enlightenment era. Taking Kant's Critique of Pure Reason as its starting point, it first provides a close, critical examination of Kant's own reworking of the notions of God and soul, and of his rejection of the classical arguments for God's existence. It then provides a systematic account of the major responses to, or evasions of, Kant's challenge in the 20th and 21st centuries amongst those philosophers of religion who have sought either to repristinate theological metaphysics, or to give philosophical credence to God talk by means of other, post metaphysical, strategies of defence.

Structure

1 x 1.5 hour lectures & weekly over the duration of the course. Tutorials start in week 2.

Assessment

First attempt: one 2500 word essay (50%) plus 1 two-hour written examination (50%)

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Filippo Ferrari

Pre-requisites

At least a 14 point average across level 2 philosophy courses.

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).

Structure

With supervision and direction from elected supervisors, the student will produce an extended essay of 5,000 words.

Assessment

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

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

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

TBC

Pre-requisites

None.

Notes

This course is running as PH 352W in 2013/14.

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.

Structure

1 one and a half hour lecture and 1 one and a half hour tutorial per week
(Thus, each student will have 3 contact hours per week.) Tutorials/seminars begin in week 2.

Assessment

1st Attempt: one 2500 word essay (50%) and 1 two-hour exam (50%).

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr Gerry Hough

Pre-requisites

For PH352Z:This course is for students in Programme Year 3 or above. For PH452Z: This course is for student in Programme Year 4 only.

Overview

The basic aim of the course is to focus on philosophy of language issues and how they relate to broader metaphysical and epistemological discussions we will take Frege and Russell's work as paradigm examples of putting issues of language (and specifically, reference and truth) at the centre of their philosophical project. We'll start with Frege's philosophy of mathematics he presents himself an epistemological task: how could arithmetic be analytic or based purely on logical truths? In the process of carrying this task out (and opposing Idealism and empiricism), he develops a semantics which allows him to define number purely logically. The result: a coherent epistemology and metaphysics for arithmetic, and a new philosophical method (the linguistic turn-solving epistemological problem by answering question about meaning and reference). We then turn our attention to the semantics Frege develops. Two distinct problems arise: (i) Russell's paradox, and the inconsistency of the system as it stands; (ii) Frege's Puzzle. We'll deal with each in turn. For the former, we will try to evaluate what the paradox might teach us about semantics. For the latter, we will see how semantics might be modified to deal with the puzzle. We will also focus on Russell's alternative account of reference and extension, and explain how he used it to develop a general metaphysics and epistemology -Logical Atomism.

Structure

1 x 90 minute lecture, plus 1 x 90 minute tutorial for Level 3 students, plus 1 x 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.

Assessment

Level 3 students
1 x 2500 word essay (50%) plus 1 x 2 hour exam (50%)

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr S Torre

Pre-requisites

This course is for students in Programme Year 3 or above who study for the MA in Mental Philosophy, MA in Natural Philosophy, or MA in Philosophy-Physics (exceptions are at the discretion of the Course Coordinator and UGPC).

Overview

This course covers the main philosophical debates in free will, determinism and moral responsibility. We will examine and critically evaluate arguments for and against the compatibilism of determinism with free will and moral responsibility. Some topics to be covered include the consequence argument, compatibilism, illusionism, interministic accounts of free will, Frankfurt cases and moral luck. We will also look at some recent results from neuroscience and assess their philosophical import for the free will debate. The reading list may include works from A J Ayer, Roderick Chisholm, Daniel Dennett, Harry Frankfurt, John Martin Fischer, Ishtiyaque Haji, Ted Honderich, David Hume, Jennan Ismael, Robert Kane, Joshua Knobe, Shaun Nichols, Helen Steward, Eleonore Stump and Peter van Ingwagen.

Structure

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.

Assessment

1st attempt: Two 2,500 word essays (100%).

Resit for year 3 students: One 2,500 word essay (100%).

In line with school policy, failure to submit a component piece of assessed work, or submitting a token piece, will result in the withdrawal of the class certificate (students are not eligible for resit).

If a component piece of assessed work is submitted and marked 0-5, students cannot pass the course on the first attempt. The student is automatically entitled to resit, and must resit in order to pass the course.

Feedback

Feedback on essays; individually arranged conversations during office hours/by appointment; feedback on in-class presentations.

Written on essay and marking sheet; office hours/appointment; peer questions and comments during in-class presentations.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr. B. Lord

Pre-requisites

This course is for students in Programme Year 3 or above who study for the MA in Mental Philosophy, MA in Natural Philosophy, or MA in Philosophy-Physics (exceptions are at the discretion of the Course Coordinator and UGPC).

Overview

The course will focus on two continental philosophers who write on aesthetics and who are in dialogue with one another (e.g. Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Gadamer, Blanchot, Derrida, Deleuze). The specific philosophers and topics covered will vary each year. Examples from art, film, and literature will be used throughout and students will be encouraged to seek and write about their own examples. If possible, a field trip to a local art gallery will be organized.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week and 6 one-hour tutorials held fortnightly over the duration of the course. Tutorials start in week 2.

Assessment

2 x 1000 word critical responses (20% each) plus 1 x 2500 word essay (60%).

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr Nate Jezzi

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.

This course will be available in 2012/13.

Overview

The dissertation is on a topic in philosophy. The specific topic will be chosen by the student with the approval of the supervisor. The choice of topics is restricted insofar as it must fall within the teaching competence of the supervisor.

Structure

1 one-hour introduction into the course. 3 one-hour meetings with the supervisor to discuss general progress. The rest of the work will be carried out by students through individual study.

Assessment

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

Resit: No resit.

Formative Assessment

Discussions with supervisor and, to discretion of supervisor, written comments on submitted work (excluding the dissertation itself).

Feedback

Face to face during appointments or as written comments.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr R Plant

Pre-requisites

None

Notes

This course will be available in 2012/13 as PH 352H / PH 452H.

Overview

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.

Structure

1 one and a half hour lecture and 1 one and a half hour student-led seminar for per week.
(Thus, each student will have 3 contact hours per week.) Tutorials/seminars begin in week 2.

Assessment

1st Attempt: one 3500 word essay (50%), 1 two-hour exam (40%) and a seminar presentation (10%).

Resit: There is no resit for year 4 students.

Feedback

Essay feedback provided on essay assessment sheet for each student who submits their essay on time - or who has a an agreed extension. Each student can arrange a face-to-face discussion if required.

Exam feedback provided on exam assessment sheet. Students can arrange to see these via the School Office.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr L Moretti

Pre-requisites

This course is for students in Programme Year 3 or above who study for the MA in Mental Philosophy, MA in Natural Philosophy, or MA in Philosophy-Physics (exceptions are at the discretion of the Course Coordinator and UGPC).

Overview

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.

Structure

(a) timetabled teaching sessions (e.g. lectures/tutorials/practicals) that each student is expected to attend: 17
(b) time an average student would be expected to devote to private study, including revision: 133
(c) notional student effort required to complete the course [i.e. (a) + (b)]: 150

Assessment

First attempt: 1 x 3500 word essay (50%) plus 1 x 2 hour exam (40%) plus seminar presentation (10%).

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr. G. Bacciagaluppi

Pre-requisites

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 introduce and discuss these problems.

Structure

1 x 90 minute lecture, plus 1 x 90 minute tutorial for Level 3 students, plus 1 x 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.

Assessment

Level 4 students
2 x 3500 word essays (90%) plus seminar presentation (10%)

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Douglas Edwards

Pre-requisites

This course is for students in Programme Year 3 or above who study for the MA in Mental Philosophy, MA in Natural Philosophy, or MA in Philosophy-Physics (exceptions are at the discretion of the Course Coordinator and UGPC).

Notes

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

Overview

The nature of truth constitutes one of the deepest philosophical problems ever. Is truth correspondence with external reality or mere coherence of all our ideas and representations together? Is truth a real property of our beliefs or, rather, a deflationary and redundant feature of them? Are there truths that we couldn't possibly know even if our cognitive powers were idealized? Is truth reducible to some kind of epistemic justification? The course aims to provide a systematic survey of the answers given to these questions by contemporary metaphysicians. Relations between these answers and central issues in metaphysics and epistemology such as the nature of objectivity and of epistemic justification will also be investigated.

Assessment

First attempt: 1 x 3500 word essay (50%) plus 1 x 2 hour exam (40%) plus seminar presentation (10%)

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr R Re Manning

Pre-requisites

This course is for students in Programme Year 3 or above who study for the MA in Mental Philosophy, MA in Natural Philosophy, or MA in Philosophy-Physics (exceptions are at the discretion of the Course Coordinator and UGPC).

Overview

This course studies the major problems of religious metaphysics as they have been handed down to contemporary philosophy of religion from the Enlightenment era. Taking Kant's Critique of Pure Reason as its starting point, it first provides a close, critical examination of Kant's own reworking of the notions of God and soul, and of his rejection of the classical arguments for God's existence. It then provides a systematic account of the major responses to, or evasions of, Kant's challenge in the 20th and 21st centuries amongst those philosophers of religion who have sought either to repristinate theological metaphysics, or to give philosophical credence to God talk by means of other, post metaphysical, strategies of defence.

Structure

1 x 1.5 hour lecture per week and 12 x 1.5 hour seminars held weekly over the duration of the course. Tutorials start in week 2.

Assessment

First attempt: 1 x 3500 word essay (50%) plus 1 x 2 hour exam (40%) plus seminar presentation (10%)

Resit: There is no resit for Level 4 students. Compensatory credit may be awarded at level 1.
In line with School Policy, failure to submit a component piece of assessed work, or submitting a token piece, will result in the withdrawal of the class certificate (students are not eligible for resit).

Feedback

Ongoing feedback will be provided in response to the Tutorials and Seminars, including comments related to specified criteria of assessment. Feedback will be provided on both essays and exams.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr N Jezzi

Pre-requisites

- Pre-requisites: This course is for students in Programme Year 4 who study for the MA in Mental Philosophy, MA in Natural Philosophy, or MA in Philosophy-Physics (exceptions are at the discretion of the Course Coordinator and UGPC).

Overview

This course explores some of the main ethical topics debated in Greek philosophy in its
first 500 years, covering some of the main schools and philosophers (Socrates, Plato,
Aristotle, the Stoics, the Epicureans). Through close readings of primary texts, student-led discussions, and short writing assignments, students will grapple with the following sorts of questions. Do we always have an overriding reason to be moral? Would we have such a reason if we were guaranteed that we could get away with doing evil? What is the difference between a good and a bad person? What is the difference between a good and
a bad life? How important is pleasure to happiness? To what extent is our happiness up to
us? What is the relationship between virtue and happiness? Can virtue be taught?

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt - One 2500-3000 word essay 50% + One 2 hour written exam 50%
t - There is no resit for Level 4 students. Compensatory credit may be awarded at level 1. In line with School Policy, failure to submit a component piece of assessed work, or submitting a token piece, will result in the withdrawal of the class certificate (students are not eligible for resit).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr U Stegmann

Pre-requisites

None.

Notes

This course will be available in 2012/13 as PH 402F.

Overview

The content of this course will be determined each year by a lecturer based on his/her current area of research activity.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures, 9 one and a half-hour seminars.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 3,500 word essay (50%); 1 two-hour examintaion (40%); seminar presentation (10%).

Resit: There is no resit for Level 4 students. Compensatory credit may be awarded at level 1.

Formative Assessment

Feedback on essay and presentation; individually arranged conversations during office hours/appointment.

Feedback

Written on essay and marking sheet; verbally during office hours/appointment.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

TBC

Pre-requisites

None

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.

Structure

1 one and a half hour lecture and 1 one and a half hour student-led seminar per week.
(Thus, each student will have 3 contact hours per week.) Tutorials/seminars begin in week 2.

Assessment

1st Attempt: one 3500 word essay (50%), 1 two-hour exam (40%) and a seminar presentation (10%).
Resit: There is no resit for year 4 students.

Formative Assessment

Feedback on essays; individually arranged conversations during office hours.

Feedback

Written on essay and essay marking sheet; office hours.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr S Torre

Pre-requisites

This course is for students in Programme Year 3 or above who study for the MA in Mental Philosophy, MA in Natural Philosophy, or MA in Philosophy-Physics (exceptions are at the discretion of the Course Coordinator and UGPC).

Overview

This course covers the main philosophical debates in free will, determinism and moral responsibility. We will examine and critically evaluate arguments for and against the compatibilism of determinism with free will and moral responsibility. Some topics to be covered include the consequence argument, compatibilism, illusionism, indeterministic accounts of free will, Frankfurt cases and moral luck. We will also look at some recent results from neuroscience and assess their philosophical import for the free will debate. The reading list may include works from A J Ayer, Roderick Chisholm, Daniel Dennett, Harry Frankfurt, John Martin Fischer, Ishtiyaque Haji, Ted Honderich, David Hume, Jenann Ismael, Robert Kane, Joshua Knobe, Shaun Nichols, Helen Steward, Eleonore Stump and Peter van Inwagen.

Structure

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/Seminar begin in week 2.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Two 3,500 word essays (90%) plus seminar presentation (10%).

Resit: There is no resit for year 4 students.

In line with School Policy, failure to submit a component piece of assessed work, or submitting a token piece, will result in the withdrawal of the class certificate (students are not eligible for resit).

If a component piece of assessed work is submitted and marked 0-5, students cannot pass the course on the first attempt. The student is automatically entitled to resit, and must resit in order to pass the course.

Feedback

Feedback on essays; individually arranged conversations during office hours/by appointment; feedback on in-class presentations.

Written on essay and marking sheet; office hours/appointment; peer questions and comments during in-class presentations.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr G Hough

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 not be available in 2012/13.

Overview

This course will focus on three figures: Frege (with some discussion of neo-Kantianism and of Saussure'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

1st Attempt: Level 3: One 90 minute lecture and one 90 minute tutorial.
Level 4: One 90 minute lecture and one 90 minute seminar.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Level 3: One 2,500 word essay and 1 two-hour examination.

Level 4: Two 3,500 word essays (90%) plus seminar presentation (10%).

Formative Assessment

Feedback