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Visiting Students
First Year Course Outline for Visiting Students
Contact:
Dr Tsarina Doyle 353 91 495473 tsarina.doyle
nuigalway.ie
Ms Ann O'Higgins 353 91 492382 ann.ohiggins
nuigalway.ie
Dates of Semesters (Teaching) 2012/2013
*Term begins on the 3rd Sept but First Years only start on the 17th Sept*
Semester 1: 10th Sept, 2012 - 30th Nov, 2012
Semester 2: 07th Jan, 2013 - 27th March 2013
First Year Timetable
Second Year Timetable
Third Year Timetable
Schedule of Courses:
First Year Lectures start 17th September
Code Course Semester ECTS Examination
PI107 Introduction to the History of Philosophy 1 5 By Essay
PI108 Introduction to Practical Ethics 2 5 By Essay
Individual Course Units:
Introduction to the History of Philosophy
Course Semester Contact hours/weekly ECTS
PI107 1 2 (Tutorials not included) 5
Lecturer: Prof. P. Crowther / Dr. T. Doyle
Course description: The course will introduce students to key thinkers and ideas in the history of western philosophy. Since ancient philosophy is so central to this history, the first half of the course is devoted to some of its most important achievements in the work of the Pre-Socratics, Plato, and Aristotle. Attention is then turned to aspects of medieval philosophy, and the great rationalist and empiricist traditions (represented by Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz, and Locke and Hume, respectively). Lectures will also be offered on Kant, Nietzsche, and the analytic and phenomenological traditions
Prerequisites: None
Teaching and learning methods: The course is lecture-based, supplemented by tutorials.
Methods of assessment and examination: Overall assessment is by written essay. Mid-term assignment may be required.
Core text:
Copleston, History of Philosophy, Image Publishing
Guthrie, W. K. C., The Greek Philosophers from Thales to Aristotle, Methuen
Johnston, D., A Brief History of Philosophy, Continuum
Plato, Republic, Penguin
Russell, B., History of Western Philosophy, Routledge
Solomon, R. and Higgins, K., A Short History of Philosophy, Oxford
Stumpf, S. E., and Fieser, J., Socrates to Sartre and Beyond, McGraw Hill
Course Semester Contact hours/weekly ECTS
PI108 2 2 (Tutorials not included) 5
Lecturer: Mr. J. Mahon, M. A.
Course description: This course (Practical Ethics) provides a rigorous, but non-technical examination of a wide range of contemporary moral issues. Among the issues discussed are vivisection, abortion, cloning, euthanasia, capital punishment and war.
Prerequisites: None
Teaching and learning methods: The course is lecture-based, supplemented by tutorials.
Methods of assessment and examination: Overall assessment is by written essay at the end of the second semester. Written course work (essay) - if required is added to the evaluation
Core texts:
J. Rachels, (ed.) Moral Problems. 3rd Ed. Harper & Row: New York 1979.
T. Regan, (ed.) Matters of Life and Death. Random House, New York 1980.
P. Singer (ed.), A Companion to Ethics. Blackwell, Oxford 1991.
W.H. Shaw (ed.), Social and Personal Ethics. Wadsworth, Belmont/Calif. 1993.
J. E. White (ed.), Contemporary Moral Problems. West Pub. Co: St. Paul,
1985, 1994.
H. Lafollette (ed.), Ethics in Practice, Blackwell: Oxford, 1977.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Second Year Course Outline for Visiting Students
Dates of Semesters (Teaching) 2012/2013
Semester 1: 03rd Sep 2012 - 24th Nov 2012
Semester 2: 07th Jan 2013 - 27th March 2013
Timetable
Schedule of Courses:
NB Moral & Political Philosophy and Bioethics can not be taken together.
Also topics in Practical Ethics, History of Ethics, Nietzsche and Philosophy can not
be taken in Semester two.
Code Course Semester ECTS Examination
PI255 Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art 1 5 By essay
PI249 Philosophy of Language and Logic 2 5 By essay
PI216 History of Modern Philosophy 2 5 By essay
PI210 Moral & Political Philosophy 1 5 By essay
OR
PI240 Bioethics 1 5 By essay
PI256 Paintings and Ideas in Victorian Britain 1 5 By essay
PI213 Ancient Philosophy 1 5 By essay
PI234 Topics in Practical Philosophy 2 5 By essay
OR
PI230 History of Ethics 2 5 By essay
OR
PI247 Nietzsche and Philosophy 2 5 By essay
PI248 Phenomenology 2 5 By essay
Individual Course Unit Details:
Ancient Philosophy:
Course Semester Contact hours/weekly ECTS
PI213 1 2 (Tutorials not included) 5
Lecturer: Dr N Tosh
Course description : Philosophy in the West begins in Ancient Greece and an understanding of Greek philosophy is essential to an understanding of philosophy generally. This course will introduce students to Greek philosophy through a discussion of a number of key themes. These will include the distinction between the one and the many, questions of being and becoming, justice, happiness and the good life. We begin with the Pre-Socratics, devote several weeks to Plato and Aristotle, and conclude with a discussion of the Hellenistic schools of Scepticism, Cynicism and Stoicism.
Prerequisites: None
Teaching and learning methods: The course is lecture-based supplemented by tutorials
Methods of assessment and evaluation: This course is examined by written essay.
Core Text:
S. Marc Cohen, P. Curd, C. D. C. Reeve, Readings In Ancient Greek Philosophy: From Thales To Aristotle London: Hackett Pub, 2005
Paintings and Ideas in Victorian Britain
PI256 1 2 (Tutorials not included) 5
Lecturer: Professor P. Crowther
Course description: This interdisciplinary module considers the development of painting in the British Isles from the 1830's to the start of the first world war. It pays special attention to how poetry and Ruskin's cultural and aesthetic theories influenced the art in question, and reviews the aesthetic status of Victorian painting in general.
Prerequisites: None
Teaching and learning methods: The course is lecture-based, supplemented by tutorials.
Methods of assessment and evaluation: Overall assessment is by essay at the end of the semester. Written course work (essay) - if required - is added to the evaluation.
Core Texts:
Victorian Painting - Lionel Lambourne
Victorian Painting - Julian Treuherz
Victorian Painters - Jeremy Maas
Art for Art's Sake: Aestheticism in Victorian Painting - Elizabeth Prettejohn
Selected Writings - John Ruskin
Elements of Drawing - John Ruskin
Moral & Political Philosophy
Course Semester Contact hours/weekly ECTS
PI210 1 2 (Tutorials not included)
Lecturer: Mr J Mahon MA
Course description: This course has two parts. The first part is intended to familiarise students with the works of classical political philosophers, such as Rousseau, Locke, Hobbes Bentham and Mill, as well as with such contemporary counterparts as J. Rawls, R. Dworkin, A. Sen, G.A. Cohen, T. Nagel and I. Berlin. The unifying theme of this part of the course will be the good society, and this idea will be explored by analysis of such cognate concepts as freedom, justice and equality. The second part of the course concentrates on what is technically called meta-ethics. Meta-ethics is a study of the way or ways in which moral language is like and unlike language used for other purposes. This part of the course may also be described as a protracted inquiry into the rationality of morals. It treats such topics as morality and knowledge, the nature of ethical disagreement, reason, emotion and morality, the is/ought question, and moral dilemmas.
Prerequisites: None
Teaching and learning methods: The course is lecture-based, supplemented by tutorials.
Methods of assessment and evaluation: Overall assessment is by essay.
Core texts:
C.B. MacPherson, The life and times of Liberal Democracy. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1977
R.E. Goodin and P. Pettit (eds.), A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, Blackwell: Oxford, 1993, 1995.
J.S. Mill, On Liberty, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1974.
T. Nagel, Equality and Partiality, Oxford U. Press: Oxford, 1991.
J. Steiner, European Democracies, 3 rd edition, Longman: London, 1995.
W.D. Hudson, Modern Moral Philosophy, MacMillan, London 1970.
D.Z. Philips & H.O. Mounce, Moral Practices, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1970.
G.J.Warnock, The Object of Morality, Methuen, London 1971.
J.J. Thomson & G.Dworkin (eds.), Ethics , Harper & Row, New York 1968.
P. Singer (ed.), A Companion to Ethics, Blackwell, Oxford, 1991.
Bioethics
Course Semester Contact hours/weekly ECTS
PI240 1 2 (Tutorials not included) 5
Lecturer: Dr R Hull
Course description: This seminar is concerned with contemporary issues in Bioethics. It will introduce a variety of normative ethical theories to provide a foundation for the critical analysis of a range of issues arising from the biological and medical sciences. These are likely to include abortion, euthanasia/physician assisted suicide, disability, genetic modification and resource allocation. It is intended that students will gain knowledge of moral philosophy that equips them to evaluate some of the most pressing dilemmas facing biomedical practice.
Prerequisites: None
Teaching and learning methods: The course is lecture-based, supplemented by tutorials
.
Methods of assessment and evaluation: Overall assessment is by essay
Core texts:
Beauchamp, T., & Childress, J., Principles of Biomedical Ethics, OUP, 1994.
Singer, P. (Ed), A Companion to Ethics, Blackwell, 1993.
Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art
Course Semester Contact hours/weekly ECTS
PI255 1 2 (Tutorials not included) 5
Lecturer: Professor P Crowther
Course Outline: The module introduces students to key thinkers, topics and debates in the understanding of our aesthetic responses to art and nature. It gives particular emphasis to the ontological and cognitive bases of different art forms, and to the conditions of their critical evaluation.
Prerequisites: None
Teaching and learning methods: This course is lecture based - supplemented by tutorials
Methods of assessment and examination: Overall assessment is based on an essay of 2000 - 2500 words
Core Texts:
Material studied will be selected from the following main works
Monroe Beardsley, A History of Western Aesthetics
Contextualizing Aesthetics: Plato to Lyotard ed. J.Jeffers and G. Blocker
Routledge Companion to Aesthetics ed. J. Levinson,
Ricard Wollheim; Art and its Objects
Languages of Art, Nelson Goodman
Introduction to Philosophy of Art, Stephen Davies
Defining Art, Creating the Canon, Paul Crowther
But is Art? B. Tilghman
Philosophy of Language and Logic
PI249 2 2 (Tutorials not included) 5
Lecturer: Dr N Tosh
Course description: For much of the twentieth century, the Anglo-American tradition was largely driven by developments in the philosophy of language. This course provides an introduction to some of those developments. Focusing on the topics of meaning, reference and truth, we will engage with the work of Russell, Wittgenstein, Kripke and Davidson (among others). The course begins with a short introduction to formal logic.
Prerequisites: None
Teaching and learning methods: The course is lecture-based, supplemented by tutorials.
Methods of assessment and evaluation: Overall assessment is based on written essay. Written course work (essay) - if required - is added to the evaluation.
Core texts:
W. Lycan, Philosophy of language: A Contemporary Introduction
A.W. Moore (ed.), Meaning and Reference.
Primary sources will be specified during the course.
History of Modern Philosophy
Course Semester Contact hours/weekly ECTS
PI216 2 2 (Tutorials not included) 5
Lecturer: Dr F O' Murchadha/Dr T Doyle
Dr. Ó Murchadha will examine the development of Rationalism from Descartes to Kant. Special attention will be paid to the rationalist attempt to give a systematic account of both human and non-human reality. Dr Doyle will examine the relation between empirical science and metaphysics in the eighteenth century period of Enlightenment, with particular emphasis on the philosophies of Hume and Kant
Prerequisites: None
Teaching and learning methods: The course is lecture-based, supplemented by tutorials.
Methods of assessment and examination: Overall assessment is based on written essay. Written course work (essay) - if required - is added to the evaluation.
Core Texts:
Selected passages from the following text will be considered:
Roger Ariew & Eric Watkins (eds) Modern Philosophy: An Anthology of Primary Sources (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 1998).
Topics in Practical Philosophy
PI234 2 2 (Tutorials not included) 5
Lecturer : Dr F. O'Murchadha
Course description : This course will examine philosophical accounts of the Emotions concentrating on the Stoics and on the Modern reception of Stoicism especially in Montaigne, Descartes and Spinoza. Special attention will be paid to the distinction between emotion and passion and the relation between the passions and the ethical goal of a good life.
Prerequisites: None
Teaching and learning methods : This course is lecture based - supplemented by tutorials
Methods of assessment and evaluation: Overall assessment is by essay.
Core texts: A Reading List will be given out at the start of the course.
History of Ethics
PI230 2 2 (Tutorials not included) 5
Lecturer : Prof P Crowther & Dr O Richardson
Course Description: What is the best life for a human being? Is virtue necessary for that life? And if so, is a virtuous life a happy life? What makes an action right or wrong? Do we have moral obligations to ourselves and to others? If so, what is the nature and source of these obligations? In this course we will engage with these questions by examining the history of moral philosophy. This means that we will face the difficult task of interpreting philosophical texts that are often presented to us in translation, authored by thinkers who are not our contemporaries, and aimed at audiences that do not necessarily share our philosophical intuitions. This process, though arduous, will hopefully help us to understand who we are, and what we ought to do.
Prerequisites: None
Teaching and learning methods : This course is lecture based - supplemented by tutorials
Methods of assessment and evaluation: Overall assessment is by essay.
Course text books:
1. Plato, The Republic (Hackett Publishing)
2. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (Hackett Publishing)
3. Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (Cambridge University Press)
4. Mill, Utilitarianism
5. Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals
6. Library reserve and e-resources.
Nietzsche and Philosophy
Course Semester Contact hours/weekly ECTS
PI247 2 2 (Tutorials not included) 5
Lecturer: Dr T Doyle
Course description: This course shall introduce students to some of the central themes informing the philosophical writings of Friedrich Nietzsche. Comprising a close reading of his writings, it offers students an opportunity to explore such concepts as perspectivism, the will to power, nihilism, the death of God, master and slave morality, genealogy, the Ubermensch and eternal recurrence. Nietzsche's response to traditional philosophical problems of truth and knowledge and his use of the language of falsification and illusion shall also be considered. All students shall be expected to engage in class discussions.
Prerequisites : None
Teaching and learning methods: This course is lecture based supplemented by tutorials
Methods of assessment and examination: Overall assessment is based on an essay.
Core Texts:
Ansell Pearson, Keith and Large, Duncan (eds), The Nietzsche Reader, Blackwell, 2006.
Secondary Texts:
Clark, Maudemarie, Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Ansell Pearson, Keith, (ed.) A Companion to Nietzsche, Blackwell, 2006.
May, Simon, Nietzsche's Ethics and his War on 'Morality', Clarendon Press, 1999.
Schacht, Richard, Nietzsche, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983.
Solomon, Robert C., and Higgins, Kathleen M., Reading Nietzsche, Oxford University Press, 1988.
Phenomenology
Course Semester Contact hours/weekly ECTS
PI248 2 2 (Tutorials not included) 5
Lecturer: Dr F. Ó Murchadha
Course description: This course will familiarize students with the methods and themes Phenomenology focusing on the work of Husserl and Heidegger. The course will concentrate especially on such themes as consciousness, intentionality, reduction, truth, emotion embodiment, and the other.
Prerequisites: None
Teaching and learning methods: This course is lecture-based, supplemented by tutorials.
Methods of assessment and examination : Overall assessment is by essay.
Core Texts:
Heidegger, M.: Basic Writings (New York: Harper and Row, 1977)
Welton, Donn (ed.): The Essential Husserl: Basic Writings in Transcendental Phenomenology (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999).
Supplementary Reading:
Bernet, Rudolf.: An Introduction to Husserlian phenomenology (Evanston, Ill. : Northwestern University Press,1993).
Moran, Dermot: Introduction to Phenomenology (London: Routledge, 2000)
Sokolowski, Robert.: Introduction to Phenomenology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)
.
Welton, Donn: The New Husserl: a critical reader (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003) 193 HUS
Zahavi, Dan.: The New Husserl: Basic Writings in Transcendental Phenomenology (Bloomington:
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
THIRD Year Course Outline for Visiting Students
Dates of Semesters (Teaching) 2012/2013
Semester 1: 03rd Sept 2012 - 24th Nov 2012
Semester 2: 07th Jan 2013 - 27th March 2013
Timetable
Schedule of Courses:
NB: Moral Theory and American Pragmatism can not be taken together.
Code Course Semester ECTS Examination
PI316 Philosophy of Science 1 5 By Essay
PI334 History of European Idealism 1 5 By Essay
PI335 Moral Theory 1 5 Continual Assessment plus an essay
OR
PI246 American Pragmatism 1 5 By Essay
PI328 Marxism and Existentialism 1 5 By Essay
PI327 Philosophy of Religion 1 5 By Essay
PI310 Topics in Applied Philosophy 2 5 By Essay
PI333 Readings in Phenomenology 2 5 By Essay
PI336 Phenomenology in France 2 5 By Essay
Individual Course Units:
Philosophy of Science
Course Semester Contact hours/weekly ECTS
PI316 1 2 (Tutorials not included) 5
Lecturer: Dr N. Tosh
Course description: Philosophers are interested in science because they are interested in knowledge, and science provides - or appears to provide - knowledge of a particularly impressive kind. But what exactly can philosophers learn by reflecting upon it? There is no agreed answer to that question; in this course we will survey some of the most important debates. After a general introduction to epistemology (the philosophical study of knowledge), we will cover a selection of the following topics: induction, explanation, laws of nature, instrumentalism, and scientific realism. Along the way we will use some elementary formal logic; worksheets will be provided to help those who have not studied logic before. No scientific knowledge will be assumed.
Pre-requisites: none
Teaching and learning methods: The course is lecture-based, supplemented by tutorials.
Methods of assessment and evaluation: Overall assessment is based on written essay. Written course work (essay) - if required - is added to the evaluation.
Core texts:
Bird, A. Philosophy of Science
Curd, M., and Cover, J. (eds.) Philosophy of Science: The central issues
Hume,D. An enquiry concerning human understanding, Sections II-VII
Kuhn, T. The structure of Scientific Revolutions
Ladyman, J. Understanding philosophy of science
Okasha, S. Philosophy of Science: A very short introduction
Papineau, D. 'Methodology', Grayling, A. (ed.) Philosophy: A guide through the subject
(A detailed list of readings will be distributed at the beginning of the course.)
Moral Theory
PI335 1 2 (Tutorials not included) 5
Lecturer: Dr H Schmidt Felzmann
Course description: This course will introduce students to the principal positions in contemporary moral theory including consequentialism, deontology and virtue theory. It will also explore the question of the role of feeling in moral choice. The course will deal with the main contemporary moral theorists within the context of moral theory going back to Hume and Kant.
Prerequisites: None
Teaching and learning methods: The course is lecture-based, supplemented by tutorials.
Methods of assessment and evaluation: Overall assessment is based on continued assessment. Written course work (essay), if required, is added to the evaluation.
Core text
:
Mark Timmons, Moral Theory: An Introduction, Lanham, Md, Rowman & Littlefield, 2002.
History of European Idealism
PI334 1 2 (Tutorials not included) 5
Lecturer : Dr T Doyle
Course description: The period of German philosophy from the 1770’s to the 1840’s is known as the “age of German Idealism ”or the period of “classical German philosophy”. Taking the general theme of the relationship between self and world as our guide, we shall begin with Kant’s “transcendental idealism”. We shall then examine how Hegel’s “absolute idealism” offers us an alternative understanding of the relationship between self and world.
Teaching and learning methods : The course is lecture-based, supplemented by tutorials.
Methods of assessment and examination: Overall assessment is based on a written essay. Written course work (essay) - if required - is added to the evaluation.
Core texts:
Selected passages from the following texts shall be considered:
Hegel, G. W. F. Phenomenology of Spirit, (Oxford, 1977), translated by A. V. Miller.
Kant, Immanuel, Critique of Pure Reason, (MacMillan, 1929), translated by Norman Kemp Smith.
(A detailed list of readings will be distributed at the beginning of the course.)
Marxism and Existentialism
PI328 1 2 (Tutorials not included) 5
Lecturer: Mr J Mahon M.A.
Course description: The aim of the first part of this course is (a) to introduce the student to the works of Marx and Engels, (b) to furnish a history of Marxist thought from the mid-19th century to the present day, (c) to acquaint the student with issues in contemporary Marxism.
The second part of the course discusses Twentieth Century Existentialism. Following a strict chronology, it provides an examination of selected works by Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre.
Prerequisites: None
Teaching and learning methods: The course is lecture-based, supplemented by tutorials.
Methods of assessment and examination: Overall assessment is by a written essay. Written course work (essay) - if required - is added to the evaluation.
Core texts:
G.A. Cohen, Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1978.
A. Wood, Karl Marx. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1981.
J. Elster, Making Sense of Marx. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
1985.
S. de Beauvoir, Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter. Harmondsworth: Penquin 1963.
Force of Circumstance, Harmondsworth: Penquin 1968.
A Very Easy Death, Harmondsworth: Penguin 1969.
The Ethics of Ambiguity. New York: Citadel 1991
A. Camus, A Happy Death, Harmondsworth: Penguin 1982.
The Outsider. Harmondsworth: Penguin 1983.
The Myth of Sisyphus. Harmondsworth: Penguin 1975.
Resistance, Rebellion and Death, Vintage: New York, 1960.
J.P. Sartre, Being and Nothingness. London: Methuen 1957.
War Diaries. London: Verso 1985.
Philosophy of Religion
PI327 1 2 (Tutorials not included) 5
Lecturer: Dr F. O'Murchadha
Course description:This course will discuss one of the principle problems of the philosophy of religion, namely the relation of faith and reason. The relation of faith and reason has been a matter of controversy since the early Christian thinkers. In modernity, with a revised account of reason and rationality, the question became increasingly complex and the philosophical positions on this issue increaingly divergent. We will look at five philosophers from the Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth/Twenty First Centuries: Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Levinas and Marion.
Prerequisites: None
Teaching and learning methods: The course is lecture-based, supplemented by tutorials.
Methods of assessment and examination: Overall assessment is based on written essay. Written course work (essay) - if required - is added to the evaluation
Core text:
A detailed Reading List will be given out at the beginning of class.
American Pragmatism
PI246 1 2 (Tutorials not included) 5
Lecturer: Dr T. Doyle
Course description: This course shall examine some of the central themes at the heart of American pragmatism. We shall begin by addressing the historical and scientific background informing the emergence of the pragmatist movement in nineteenth-century America. Taking the pragmatist denial of absolute beliefs as our guiding theme, the course shall explore the pragmatist writings of William James in the nineteenth-century and Richard Rorty in the twentieth-century. In particular, we shall focus on James's rejection of philosophical oppositions. Finally, we shall turn to the neo-pratmatism of Rorty's Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature paying particular attention to both his critique of the representational view of the mind and his recommendation of social pragmatism.
Prerequisites: None
Teaching and learning methods: The course is lecture-based, supplemented by tutorials.
Methods of assessment and examination: Overall assessment is based on written essay. Written course work (essay) - if required - is added to the evaluation
Core text:
A detailed list of prescribed readings will be distributed at the beginning of the course.
Topics in Applied Philosophy
PI310 2 2 (Tutorials not included) 5
Lecturer: Dr. R. Hull
Course description: Course description: This course is concerned with the application of the study of philosophy to issues of pressing public concern. It takes the experiences of disability and social deprivation as case studies and looks at how such experiences can best be theoretically articulated. Particular attention is given to rival theories of human freedom and their relevance to contemporary social and political debates. Attention is also focused on how different theories of justice and morality imply very different social responses to the issues of disability and deprivation. Subjects covered include Rawl's theory of freedom, Nozick's libertarianism, the acts/omissions distinction and the doctrine of double effect. The course is designed to give students an analytical background that can be used to explore other contemporary social and political issues.
Prerequisites: None
Teaching and learning methods: The course is lecture-based, supplemented by tutorials.
Methods of assessment and examination: Overall assessment is based on written essay.. Written course work (essay) if required is added to the evaluation.
Core text:
A selection of texts will be made available at the beginning of the course.
Readings in Phenomenology
PI333 2 2 (Tutorials not included) 5
Lecturer: Dr P Crowther
Course description: This course will focus on phenomenological writings on aesthetics, emphasizing problems bound up with the ontology of what is distinctive to individual art forms (visual ones in particular), and the nature of our experience of art. Detailed attention will be paid to texts by Heidegger, Dufrenne, Mealeau-Ponty and Adorno.
Prerequisites: None
Teaching and learning methods: The course is lecture-based, supplemented by tutorials.
Methods of assessment and examination: Overall assessment is based on a written essay.
Core Texts:
Material studied will be selected from the following main works
Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Thought, ed. A. Hofstadter
Dufrenne, Phenomenology of Aesthetic Experience
The Merleau-Ponty, The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader, ed. Galen Johnson
Adorno, Aesthetic Theory, trans. Robert Hullot-Kantor.
Phenomenology in France
PI336 2 2 (Tutorials not included) 5
Lecturer: Dr. F. O'Murchadha
Course description: This course introduces students to some of the foremost figures in post-war French philosophy. It does so taking as the guiding theme the relation of self and other, while discussing the methodological and ontological assumptions guiding the various accounts. Beginning with Sartre we will discuss his conflictual account of the relation of self and other as sado-masochistic. This will be confronted with the Merleau-Ponty's account of the 'chiasm' where self and other intermingle. Developing from these two thinkers Levinas and Derrida will be discussed as representative of a new wave of French phenomenology in the 1960's. It will be shown how in both a radicalisation of the notion of alterity is evident which brings both the conflictuality and the harmony of Satre's and Merleau-Ponty's account into a new dimension of ethics and deconstruction. Themes covered will include intentionality, the ego, desire, love, hate, sexuality, responsibility and freedom.
Prerequisites: None
Teaching and learning methods: The course is lecture-based, supplemented by tutorials.
Methods of assessment and evaluation: The course will be evaluated by essay and in-class test.
Core Texts:
Sartre: Being and Nothingness, London: Routledge, 1969
Merleau-Ponty: The Phenomenology of Perception, New York : Humanities Press c1962
Levinas: Totality and Infinity, Pittsburgh, {Penn}: Duquesne University Press
Derrida: Violence and Metaphysics in Writing and Difference, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978
Department of Philosophy, 19 Distillery Road
National University of Ireland, Galway, Galway, Ireland
Phone: +353 (0)91 492382, Fax: +353 (0)91-494554,
Email: Philosophy Department
This page was last updated Friday, December 07, 2012
National University of Ireland, Galway, Galway, Ireland
Phone: +353 (0)91 492382, Fax: +353 (0)91-494554,
Email: Philosophy Department
This page was last updated Friday, December 07, 2012