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BA Final Year Requirements

Timetable: the timetable for semester 2 is available in the Philosophy Department, 19 Distillery Road. A copy will be available on the web this afternoon.

Entry requirements: A pass in Second Arts Philosophy or its equivalent in the case of visiting and exchange students. Students registered for the B.A. (International) must also have attained a satisfactory academic performance during their year abroad.

Important information: essay deadlines and penalties

Dates of Semesters (Teaching)

 

Timetable

Compulsory/Optional Courses:

Five (5) of the following courses are to be taken, plus the Extended Essay. At least two (2) modules must be taken in each semester.

Schedule of Courses:

Individual Course Units:

Philosophy of Science

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 examination.  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

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

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 an essay at the end of the semester. 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

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 written examination. 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 Mind

Lecturer: Dr T Duddy

Course description:This course in the Philosophy of Mind is an introduction to, and discussion of, the following topics: the traditional dualistic conception of the person; behaviorism as an alternative to dualism; the mind-brain identity theory; physicalism and the problem of subjectivity; biological naturalism; the mental science project; functionalism; artificial intelligence; the contemporary argument for dualism. 

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 examination. Written course work (essay) - if required - is added to the evaluation

Core text:

William Lyons, Matters of the Mind, Edinburgh University Press, 2001.

John Heil (ed.), Philosophy of Mind: A Guide and Anthology, Oxford University Press, 2004.

Course Handbook: Readings in Philosophy of Mind

 

Topics in Applied Philosophy

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 examination. 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.

Advanced Philosophical Text

Lecturer: Dr P Crowther

Course description:  This years text will be Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgment (in the translation by Paul Guyer and Eric Matthews). Classes will focus on the epistemological background to this book, and the way in which it informs Kant's epochal aesthetic theory. Attention will be paid to his treatment of beauty and the sublime, and fine art, and also, the claims to universal validity that Kant assigns to pure aesthetic judgments

The class may also consider Kant's arguments in Book II of the Critique - which focus specifically on the role of purpose (teleological judgment) in the understanding of nature and humanity's broader position in the world.

Prerequisites: None

Teaching and learning methods: lectures

Methods of assessment and examination: Overall assessment is based on a written essay of 2500 - 3000 words.

Core Texts:

Material studied will be selected from the following main works.

Kant: Critique of Pure Reason (trans. Paul Guyer and Allen P. Wood; Critique of  the Power of Judgment (trans. Paul Guyer and Eric Matthews)
Crowther: The Kantian Sublime: From Morality to Art; The Kantian Aesthetic: from Knowledge to the Avant-Garde
Guyer: Kant and the Claims of Taste
Allison: Kant's Theory of Taste
Wicks: Kant on Judgment
Kemal: Kant's Aesthetic Theory

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PI 331 Readings in Metaphysics

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Course Description:

This course will consist of a systematic reading of one of the masterpieces in Western Philosophy, The Ethics , by the seventeenth century philosopher Spinoza. The course aims to provide students with the opportunity to engage in an intensive reading of this text and to familiarize themselves with a metaphysical theory which has been deeply influential on generations of philosophers. Special attention will be paid to Spinoza's accounts of God, substance, freedom, emotion, mind and body.

Prerequisites: None

Teaching and learning methods: The course is seminar-based.

Methods of assessment and evaluation: It will be examined by essay and mid-term assignment.

Core Text: Spinoza, B de.: Ethics, trans. by Curley, E. and Hampshire, S. London: Penguin Classics, 2005
 

Extended Essay

The Extended Essay is compulsory and is intended to allow the student to demonstrate the full range of understanding of some the major themes of philosophy that have been studied for the previous 3 to 4 years

For more information about the extended essay click here.

    

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