Philosophy

Peter Roeper, DrPhilNat Frankfurt, BPhil Oxf.
Head of Department

Introduction

Philosophy is an investigation into fundamental matters of human concern. It is at the same time an investigation into problems fundamental to the various special disciplines pursued in a university. It includes logic, the study of which is relevant to all inquiries. It is not normally taught outside universities, and for this reason there are no special prerequisites for admission to a philosophy course. For students in their first year there is, instead, a non-technical introductory course called Introduction to Philosophy.

Introduction to Philosophy is designed to be of use both to students who intend to specialise in philosophy and to students who intend to take only one or two units in the subject. The unit is fairly flexible. It consists of general lectures, with tutorials, on the history and problems of philosophy, as well as special-interest options, among which students have a choice. The options cover in an introductory way a number of traditionally distinct fields of philosophical inquiry, such as ethics, political philosophy, logic, theory of knowledge, philosophy of mind and philosophy of religion. Some of the options are designed to throw light on topical problems, or on studies pursued in other parts of the university. The unit is thus an appropriate one for students of all faculties.

Majors

In addition to the departmental major in philosophy there are also a number of program majors which include philosophy units. These are:

Art and Material Culture (convener: Dr Keen, Archaeology and Anthropology)
Communication and Cognitive Studies (conveners: Dr Lyon, Archaeology and Anthropology, Dr Andrews and Professor Wierzbicka, Linguistics)
Religious Studies (conveners: Dr Roeper, Philosophy and Mr Barnes, History)
Social and Political Theory (convener: Dr Barbalet, Sociology)
Women’s Studies (convener: Dr Pettman, Women’s Studies).

The following units are being offered in 1999

The Major

A departmental major in Philosophy consists of at least 44 credit points chosen from the units in Philosophy.

All units are offered subject to staff availability and sufficient enrolments.

Science students

Students enrolled for the degree of Bachelor of Science may count the following as B points: Logic, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Psychology, and Philosophy of Mathematics.

Honours and combined honours

Students may take the Arts degree with honours in Philosophy or in certain combined Honours Schools. See below.

Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy

These degrees can be taken in the Department. For information consult the Graduate School Handbook. A good honours degree is normally required for admission to these degrees. A graduate with a pass degree in philosophy who wishes to proceed to the degree of Master of Arts may undertake a Master of Arts qualifying course.

Master of Letters and Graduate Diploma

These degrees are offered by the department. For information consult the Graduate School Handbook.

Further information: It is not possible in this Handbook to explain all the units offered by the Department in sufficient detail. For this reason, a Departmental Handbook has been prepared which explains the structure and the contents of the units in detail. It also provides advice about readings. The Departmental Handbook is available from the departmental administrator. Students are also welcome to see members of staff for additional information.

Assessment: Unless otherwise specified under the particular unit, assessment will be based on essays or other written work and final examination. In many units students can opt for alternatives to formal examinations. For each unit, details concerning forms, weights and options of work to be assessed are proposed in the Departmental Handbook and decided upon after consultation with the class.

Eligibility for assessment: In each unit, completion of prescribed written work and participation in classes is a condition which, if unfulfilled, will render a student ineligible for assessment. The Department’s policy in this regard is further explained in the Departmental Handbook.

FIRST YEAR

Study at first-year level can be done either as Introduction to Philosophy (12 credit points, full year), or as Thinking Clearly: Philosophical Themes (6 credit points, second semester) followed by Fundamental Ideas in Philosophy (6 credit points, first semester).

Thinking Clearly: Philosophical Themes    PHIL1003

(6cp)

Second semester

Prerequisite: None

Syllabus: This is identical with segments (b) and (c) of Introduction to Philosophy (see below).

This unit is incompatible with PHIL1002 Introduction to Philosophy.

Fundamental Ideas in Philosophy    PHIL1004

(6cp)

First semester

Prerequisite: Completion of Thinking Clearly: Philosophical Themes or permission of Head of Department.

Syllabus: This is identical with segment (a) of Introduction to Philosophy (see below).

This unit is incompatible with PHIL1002 Introduction to Philosophy.

Introduction to Philosophy    PHIL1002

(12cp)

Three hours a week of lectures and tutorial classes throughout the year.

Syllabus: The unit is designed to introduce students to the practice of philosophical inquiry. It includes a general introduction to the scope and methods of philosophy, as well as an opportunity to pursue some particular questions in greater depth. The unit has three segments.

(a) The first semester lectures offer a survey of the history of philosophy and of the main problems of philosophy: the difference between right and wrong, the possibility of knowledge, the nature of mind, human freedom, the immortality of the soul, the existence of God. There will be two lectures a week. Each student will attend two lectures and one tutorial a week.

Aesthetics:  Theories of Art and Pleasure
Existentialism
Doubt and Certainty
Introduction to Ethics
God and Nature
Principles of Argument.

The Department will announce which options will be offered by the start of second semester.

Preliminary reading

• Pojman, L, Philosophy: the Pursuit of Wisdom, Wadsworth
• Rosenberg, J F, The Practice of Philosophy, Prentice-Hall

This unit is incompatible with PHIL1003 Thinking Clearly:  Philosophical Themes and with PHIL1004 Fundamental Ideas in Philosophy.

LATER YEAR

Advanced Philosophical Topics A    PHIL3062

(8cp)

A one-semester course offered on an occasional basis depending on staff availability.

Prerequisites: At least 24 credit points of philosophy

Syllabus: This unit will provide intensive coverage of selected topics in philosophy through the prescription of a course of reading, with the topics varying from year to year. Further details may be obtained from the Department.

Advanced Philosophical Topics B    PHIL3063

(8cp)

A one-semester course offered on an occasional basis depending on staff availability.

Prerequisites: At least 24 credit points of philosophy

Syllabus: This unit will provide intensive coverage of selected topics in philosophy through the prescription of a course of reading, with the topics varying from year to year. Further details may be obtained from the Department.

Advanced Philosophy of Art    PHIL3065

(8cp)

Offered in 1999 and alternate years
Second semester
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorials

Lecturer: Dr Thiel

Prerequisites: Aesthetics, or its equivalent

Syllabus: Detailed examination of selected themes in the philosophy of art. These may include aspects of the history of philosophy in relation to art (e.g. simulation and representation in Plato; early modern theories of art; the beautiful and the sublime) or contemporary philosophical reflection upon particular arts (eg deconstruction and art; philosophy and modern painting/film/literature). Students should consult the Philosophy Department Handbook for detailed course content.

Proposed assessment: Two 2500-word essays or one essay and one end-of-course examination, and a tutorial component.

Programs: This unit may be included in a program major in Art and Material Culture, or Theory of the Arts.

This unit may be taken as part of a BA (Art History and Curatorship).

Aesthetics    PHIL2068

(8cp)

Offered in 1999 and alternate years
First semester
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorials

Lecturer: Dr Ross

Prerequisite: Completion of at least 12 credit points of Philosophy, or, with the permission of the lecturer, units to the value of at least 12 credit points permitted to be taken towards the degree of Bachelor of Arts or towards a degree at other institutions specialising in artistic education.

Syllabus: This unit will examine the background to, and some of the significant figures within, twentieth century aesthetics. Our focus will fall on the place of the aesthetic within the crisis of value in the modern world. We will trace the descent from Kant’s attempt to establish an autonomous domain of value for the aesthetic through Hegel’s proclamation of the ‘death of art’ to the various challenges to this autonomy in Romanticism, Freudian psychoanalysis, and Frankfurt School theory. Themes to be addressed include the place of art within industrial society, the relevance of aesthetic categories such as beauty and the sublime in the modern age and the explanation of aesthetic pleasure in non-aesthetic categories of explanation such as politics and the unconscious.

Proposed assessment: Two 2,500-word essays or one essay and one end-of-course examination, and a tutorial component.

Programs: This unit may be included in a program major in Art and Material Culture, or a Theatre Studies major.

This unit may be taken as part of a BA (Art History and Curatorship).

This unit is incompatible with the former PHIL2068 Philosophy of the Creative Arts, but not with the former PHIL2069 Philosophy of the Performing Arts.

Applied Ethics    PHIL2085

(8cp)

Offered in 1999, second semester
Also to be offered in 2000
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorials

Lecturer: Dr Barclay

Prerequisites: Completion of
(a) Introduction to Philosophy
(b) Thinking Clearly: Philosophical Themes
(c) with the permission of the lecturer, any other unit permitted to be taken for the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

Syllabus: The course will begin by asking how it is possible to conduct debate in applied ethics, looking at the relationship between ethical theory and practice. Some central ethical theories will be introduced, including utilitarian theories, duty-based theories, and accounts of the moral importance of persons. Throughout the course we shall use such theories to help in the understanding of particular practical issues, and use discussion of issues to gain a deeper understanding of theory. We shall also look at the nature of argument in applied ethics, examining the role of reason, imagination and emotion in moral debate, and different forms of argument, such as ‘slippery slope’ arguments. Practical topics to be discussed will include a section on matters of life and death, such as abortion, euthanasia, suicide and infanticide, and a section on medical ethics, focussing on issues of doctor-patient relations, such as confidentiality and informed consent to treatment, genetic engineering, and medical experimentation, among other issues.

Preliminary reading

• Singer, P (ed.), Applied Ethics, Oxford U.P.
• Glover, J, Causing Death and Saving Lives

Proposed assessment: Two 2,500-word essays or one essay and one end-of-course examination, and a tutorial component.

This unit forms part of the BA (Policy Studies).

Contemporary Metaphysics    PHIL2060

(8cp)

Offered in 1999 and alternate years
First semester
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorials

Lecturer: Dr Cleland

Prerequisite or corequisite: Introduction to Philosophy, or its equivalent

Syllabus: We shall examine key issues in metaphysics, such as:  the nature of the self, the mind-body problem, free-will and determinism, fatalism, the nature of space and time, causation, and arguments for God’s existence. The interest in examining these issues lies largely in seeing whether we are entitled to many of our ordinary beliefs:  that the self exists, that we have free-will, that time is real, that events cause other events, and that God exists. As we shall see, it is far from clear that we are always so entitled. Arguments in metaphysics thus challenge some of our deepest beliefs.

Proposed assessment: Two 2,500-word essays or one essay and one end-of-course examination, and a tutorial component

Deconstruction: a User’s Guide    WOPH2002

(8cp)

Offered in 1999 and alternate years
Second semester
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorials

Lecturer: Dr Deutscher

Prerequisites: One of: PHIL2091 (Identity and Desire), WOMS2010 (Representation and Gender), WOMS3002 (Psychoanalysis and Subjectivity), PHIL2070 (Philosophy and Gender); or with the written permission of the lecturer, two relevant later-year units.

Syllabus: What is meant when a contemporary theorist talks about deconstructing ‘gender’, a text, a novel, a philosopher, or an identity effect? This unit will introduce students both to key aspects of deconstruction, and to the influence of deconstruction in a variety of academic contexts. A component of the unit is devoted to reading some of the early, famous pieces by Jacques Derrida. We then survey the influence and changing uses of deconstruction in some of the following contexts: literary theory, gender theory, queer theory, French feminism, postcolonial theory. Readings will include: Eve Sedgwick, Gayatri Spivak, Luce Irigaray, Sarah Kofman, Vicki Kirby ... and Jacques Derrida.

Proposed assessment: Two 2,500-word essays or one essay and one end-of-course examination, and a tutorial component.

Preliminary reading

Programs: This unit can be counted towards a program major in Women’s Studies or Contemporary Europe.

This is a core unit in the Women’s Studies Program and can be counted towards the Philosophy major.

European Philosophy A    PHIL2087

(8cp)

Not offered in 1999
To be offered in 2000
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorials

Prerequisites:
(a) any Philosophy units to the value of at least 12 credit points
(b) Introduction to Contemporary Europe
(c) with the permission of the lecturer, any two units permitted to be taken towards the Bachelor of Arts degree.

Syllabus: An examination of some foundational themes in European philosophies, as developed by nineteenth-and early twentieth-century thinkers. Texts to be discussed may be selected from the works of Hegel, Marx, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Husserl and Heidegger among others. Students should consult the Philosophy Department Handbook for detailed course content.

Proposed assessment: Two 2,500-word essays or one essay and one end-of-course examination, and a tutorial component.

This unit is incompatible with the former PHIL2062 German Philosophy and PHIL2054 Contemporary European Philosophy.

European Philosophy B    PHIL3066

(8cp)

Offered in 1999 and alternate years
Second semester
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorials

Lecturer: tba

Prerequisites:
(a) Philosophy units to the value of at least 24 credit points

(b) With the permission of the lecturer, any four units permitted to be taken for the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

Syllabus: The course will deal primarily with selected German and French philosophical texts (in English) and will address one or more of the major twentieth- century European philosophies or philosophical traditions. These may include aspects of the development of German philosophy from phenomenology and positivism to the Frankfurt School and Habermas; and aspects of French philosophy from Bergson through to post-structuralism, deconstruction and the philosophy of difference. Students should consult the Philosophy Department Handbook for detailed course content.

This is a designated unit for the BA (European Studies).

This unit is incompatible with the former PHIL2075 Contemporary French Philosophy.

Identity and Desire    PHIL2091

(8cp)

Offered in 1999 and alternate years
First semester
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorials

Lecturer: Dr Deutscher

Prerequisites: Philosophy units to the value of at least 12 credit points, or with the permission of the lecturer, any two units permitted to be taken for the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

Syllabus: Are what you desire, and whom you desire, essential to who you are? Or are we fundamentally rational, coherent, self-knowing, and distinct from others? Is the body merely an exterior shell which houses our thinking self? We will look at philosophers who consider the human subject as embodied, fragmented and desiring, the product of our encounter with society, language and with other selves.

Topics will range from traditional conceptions of the self, through various disruptions to those traditions. Most of the selected course readings come from twentieth-century French philosophers such as Sartre, Foucault and Deleuze, but we also make some reference to the influence of Nietzsche and Hegel as well as the rationalists. The course will be useful as a background to more advanced courses including European Philosophy A and European Philosophy B.

Preliminary reading

• Butler, J, Subjects of Desire
• Taylor, C, Sources of the Self

Proposed assessment: Two 2,500-word essays or one essay and one end-of-course examination, and a tutorial component.

Logic    PHIL2080

(8cp)

Offered in 1999
First semester; also to be offered in 2000
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorial

Lecturer: Dr Roeper

Prerequisites:  Completion or concurrent taking of:
(a) any other philosophy unit; or
(b) two Mathematics units ; or
(c) Economic Statistics; or
(d) Statistical Techniques 1 and 2; or
(e) two Computer Science units; or
(f) PHYS1001; or
(g) LING1001/2001 plus LING1020/2020.

Syllabus: An introductory unit in formal logic, dealing with propositional and predicate logic. Techniques of formal deduction and tests for the validity of arguments will be studied. Basic semantic concepts will be discussed.

Proposed assessment: Weekly exercises, a mid-semester test, and an end-of-semester examination.

Programs: This unit may form part of a program major in Communication and Cognitive Studies.

This unit can be counted as one B point towards a degree of Bachelor of Science.

Modern Theories of Knowledge    PHIL2074

(8cp)

Not offered in 1999
To be offered in 2000
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorial

Prerequisites: Completion of a unit(s) to the value of 12 credit points in science, mathematics, the social sciences (history, economics, economic history, psychology, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, political science, sociology), or philosophy.

Syllabus: In this course we will examine a range of theories of knowledge, theories of what it is to know something as opposed to merely believing it. One aim in examining such theories is to become clear about our concept of knowledge. A deeper aim, or hope, is to see whether, in becoming clearer about the concept of knowledge, we can construct a satisfying response to scepticism. To set the scene, we will begin the course with some sceptical readings from Descartes’ Meditations, and shall then look at some contemporary theories of knowledge (the ‘true justified belief’ theory, the causal theory, and the counterfactual theory). We will see whether these theories adequately capture our concept of knowledge, and whether they produce a tenable response to the sceptic. We shall also examine one ‘Wittgensteinian’ response to the sceptic.

Proposed assessment: Two 2,500-word essays or one essay and one end-of-course examination, and a tutorial component.

This unit may be taken as part of a program major in Communication and Cognitive Studies.

Philosophical Logic    PHIL3067

(8cp)

Not offered in 1999
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorials

Prerequisites: Completion of one of the following:
(a) Introduction to Philosophy (including the Principles of Argument Option)
(b) Thinking Clearly:  Philosophical Themes
(c) Logic
(d) LING1001/2001 plus LING1020/2020
(e) LING2003.

Syllabus: This is not a course in formal logic; but some knowledge of quantifier notation will be presupposed. The course deals with philosophical questions arising in relation to modern logic. It includes a study of the semantic roles of some parts of speech and syntactic constructions that are central to language and the description of reality. The unit thereby provides an introduction to the philosophy of language and contemporary metaphysics. Topics will be chosen from the following: objectual vs. substitutional quantification; conditionals, entailment; propositional attitudes; theory of descriptions; recursive semantics; referential opacity; possible worlds; assertoric force; truth-values; mass terms; probability; paradoxes; reference; existence; indexicals; modality.

Preliminary reading

• Haack, S, Philosophies of Logic, Cambridge UP

This unit may be included in a program major in Communication and Cognitive Studies.

Philosophy and Gender    PHIL2070

(8cp)

Not offered in 1999
To be offered in 2000
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorials

Prerequisites: Completion of
(a) any other Philosophy unit
(b) a Women’s Studies unit
(c) with the permission of the lecturer, any other unit permitted to be taken for the degree of Bachelor of Arts

Syllabus: This course firstly looks at arguments that gender is not a marginal issue in the history of philosophy, but rather that this history has constructed ideals of reason in opposition to, or as a transcendence of, the bodily and the emotional, which have been associated with femininity. What are the consequences of this history?

The course will look at attempts by some feminist philosophers to cut and paste certain philosophy so that it is not sex-biased (Mary Wollstonecraft, Simone de Beauvoir revising Rousseau and Sartre), and analyses of the structural problems in doing so (Michèle le Doeuff, Moira Gatens, Marion Tapper). We will also quickly look at some Angloamerican arguments that science is sex-biased and the course will then look at recent innovations in postmodern and poststructuralist feminism (Drucilla Cornell, Luce Irigaray). Here, we see both a rejection of the idea of an ‘essential feminine’, but also feminist arguments that law, language and ethics need to become more ‘sexually specific’ — they need to be revised so as to accommodate sexual difference. We consider (liberal) feminisms of equality as opposed to more recent (French) feminisms of difference, and we will also look at arguments that feminist theory itself suppresses cultural difference.

Preliminary reading

• Introduction to: de Beauvoir, S, The Second Sex

Proposed assessment: Two 2,500-word essays or one essay and one end-of-course examination, and a tutorial component.

Philosophy of Language    PHIL3056

(8cp)

Not offered in 1999
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorials

Prerequisite: Logic

Syllabus: This unit will be concerned with the expressive and communicative role of language. Questions studied will include: language as part of the pattern of human activities; are meanings in the mind or in the world? meaning and intentions; meaning as mediating the relationship between words and the world; truth and its role in the semantic analysis of language; convention; the analysis of understanding and the path to anti-realism.

This unit may be taken as part of a program major in Communication and Cognitive Studies.

Philosophy of Mathematics    PHIL3054

(8cp)

Not offered in 1999
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorials

Prerequisite: Logic or any two points of mathematics at Group B level that are compatible, or permission from the lecturer.

Syllabus: A study of the foundations of mathematics. Ontological and epistemological questions will be discussed, ie questions concerning the status of mathematical objects and the nature of mathematical truth and mathematical proof. Some of the classical approaches to the problem of foundations will be considered: logicism and the role of logic in the foundations of mathematics; formalism, proof theory and the relevance of consistency; intuitionism. In the context of the general ontological and epistemological questions some particular problems and concepts may receive attention: infinity; the consistency of set theory and the theory of types; the incompleteness of formal arithmetic.

Proposed assessment: Two 2,500-word essays or one essay and one end-of-course examination, and a tutorial component.

This unit can be counted as a Group B point towards a degree of Bachelor of Science.

Philosophy of Psychology    PHIL2061

(8cp)

Offered in 1999 and alternate years
Second semester
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorial classes

Lecturer: Dr Roeper

Prerequisite: Any unit(s) in philosophy or psychology to the value of at least 12 credit points or any two points from the following: Linguistics 1001/2001, 2008; Anthropology 2011, 2014, 2015; Prehistory/ Anthropology 2024; Computing Fundamentals 1 and 2.

Syllabus: An examination of philosophical problems concerning the nature of mind and of the mind-body relation. Different approaches to the character of the mental will be discussed, such as behaviourism, forms of materialism and reductionism, and especially recent work on functionalism.

Proposed assessment: Two 2,500-word essays or one essay and one end-of-course examination, and a turorial component.

This unit may be taken as part of a program major in Communication and Cognitive Studies.

This unit can be counted as a B point towards a degree of Bachelor of Science.

Philosophy of Science    PHIL2057

(8cp)

Not offered in 1999
To be offered in 2000
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorials

Prerequisite: Completion of a science or mathematics unit, or a philosophy unit

Proposed assessment: Two 2,500-word essays or one essay and one end-of-course examination, and a tutorial component.

This unit can be counted as a B point towards a degree of Bachelor of Science.

Philosophy of the Enlightenment    PHIL2092

(8cp)

Offered in 1999 and alternate years
First semester
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorials

Lecturer: Dr Thiel

Prerequisites: Any philosophy units to the value of at least 12 credit points

Syllabus: ‘Enlightenment’ is a label for an immensely influential European movement that flourished in the eighteenth century. Enlightenment thinkers generally believed in the unity and autonomy of human reason; they were opposed to clericalism and argued for religious toleration. As a form of philosophical thought that emphasises rationality, innovation, intellectual progress, and critique, the enlightenment project is an object of much present-day philosophical debate.

This unit will focus on some of the most important philosophical texts from the eighteenth century. It will cover a number of areas: epistemology, philosophy of mind, ethics, philosophy of religion, and aesthetics. Authors to be discussed include John Locke, G.W. Leibniz, Pierre Bayle, Jean le Rond d’Alembert, Christian Wolff, Francis Hutcheson, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant. Attention will also be given to twentieth century re-examinations and critiques of the Enlightenment project (eg Horkheimer/Adorno, Dialectic of the Enlightenment).

Preliminary reading

• Cassirer, E, The Philosophy of the Enlightenment, Princeton University Press, 1979

Proposed assessment: Two 2,500-words essays or one essay and one end-of-course examination, and a tutorial component.

This unit is incompatible with the former PHIL2056 The Empiricists and PHIL2055 The Rationalists.

Politics and Rights    PHIL2065

(8cp)

Not offered in 1999
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorials

Prerequisite: Completion of one of the following:
(a) any other philosophy unit
(b) Introduction to Religion A and B
(c) with the permission of the Head of Department, any other unit permitted to be taken for the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

Syllabus: An examination of moral and political issues concerning the relations between the individual and society. Much of the unit will be centred around the conception of rights. The analysis of that concept and the ways in which it has been used in social and political thought will be studied. This will be developed partly in a historical perspective, and selected parts from the works of classical rights theorists and their critics (eg Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Bentham, Austin, Mill) will be studied. Attention will also be given to current writings on human rights and political rights.

The aim of the unit is to obtain a historical background to an important trend in current political and social thought, in order to understand it better, and at the same time to clarify our own ideas about rights and related notions.

Preliminary reading

• Cranston, M,What are the Human Rights?, I Bodley Head, 1973

This unit may be included in a program major in Social and Political Theory.

This unit may be taken as part of the BA (Policy Studies).

Power and Subjectivity    PHIL2089

(8cp)

Not offered in 1999
To be offered in 2000
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorials

Prerequisites: Introduction to Philosophy (or its equivalent) or two first year units in Political Science or Anthropology or Sociology.

Syllabus: This unit will examine some of the major attempts to conceptualise power in classical and contemporary political philosophy. Our focus will fall on the implications of these different models for the relation between the subject and power. We will examine the polarities under which power is theorised as either a negative, repressive force; or, more positively, as a force which engenders social order and cohesion. Against both of these traditions we will look at those theories derived from Nietzsche and Marx which refuse to label power as either ‘good’ or ‘evil’ and examine instead its rationality (Honneth) or empirical effect (Foucault). Questions to be examined include: whether power is necessarily external and opposed to the freedom of individuals, whether it is the ‘property’ of individuals or governing institutions such as the state, and how to measure the political implications and descriptive value of these differing approaches to the questions of power.

Preliminary reading

• Foucault, M, ‘The Subject and Power’ in H. Dreyfus and P Rabinow, Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, University of Chicago Press, 2nd edn, 1983

Proposed assessment: Two 2,500-word essays or one essay and one end-of-course examination, and a tutorial component.

This unit may be included in a program major in Social and Political Theory.

This unit may be taken as part of a BA (Policy Studies) and is a designated unit for the BA (European Studies).

Selected Philosophical Topics    PHIL2081

(8cp)

A one-semester course offered on an occasional basis depending on availability of staff.
Three hours a week

Prerequisite: Introduction to Philosophy (or its equivalent) or permission of the lecturer

Syllabus: The topic offered will vary from year to year.

Sexing the Body Politic    PHIL2093

(8cp)

Not offered in 1999
To be offered in 2000
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorials

Prerequisite: Completion of Philosophy units to the value of at least 12 credit points, or, with the permission of the lecturer, units to the value of at least 12 credit points from Political Science or Women’s Studies.

Syllabus: This unit will survey several major schools of feminist political philosophy. It will address (i) critiques of traditional liberalism (Wollstonecraft, Mill, Taylor); (ii) issues in contemporary liberal feminism including the public/private debate and the work of Carole Pateman, the ethics of care (Carol Gilligan) and feminist critiques of the liberal notion of autonomy; (iii) dual systems theory, socialist feminism and French feminist critiques of Marxism; and (iv) radical approaches to feminist political theory such as those espoused by Catherine McKinnon, critical race theorists, feminist theorists of embodiment and contemporary French feminism.

Proposed assessment: Two 2,500-word essays or one essay and one end-of-course examination, and a tutorial component.

Preliminary reading

• ‘What is feminist political theory’? in Jaggar, Feminist Politics and Human Nature
• Moller Okin, Women in Western Political Thought, Princeton 1979

This unit may be counted towards a major in Women’s Studies.

Themes from Wittgenstein    PHIL2094

(8cp)

Not offered in 1999
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorials

Prerequisites: Introduction to Philosophy or equivalent or permission of lecturer.

Syllabus: This unit will be based around two key texts by Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Blue and Brown Books and the Philosophical Investigations. We shall examine the important contributions made by Wittgenstein to the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mind. We will look at Wittgenstein’s move away from an Augustinian or Tractarian conception of language, towards a less essentialist conception; normativity and the rule-following considerations; the impossibility of private meaning; the relation between the ‘inner’ (eg sensations) and the ‘outer’ (eg behaviour); the phenomenon of ‘seeing-as’; and Wittgenstein’s ‘therapeutic’ conception of philosophy. We shall also attempt to place Wittgenstein in the context of 20th century philosophy.

Preliminary reading

• Wittgenstein, L, The Blue and Brown Books, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1972
• Wittgenstein, L, Philosophical Investigations, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1978
• A selection of additional readings will be made available

Proposed assessment: Two 2,500-word essays and one essay and one end-of-course examination, and a tutorial component.

Theories of Ethics    PHIL2064

(8cp)

Not offered in 1999
To be offered in 2000
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorials

Prerequisite: Completion of any one of
(a) any other philosophy unit
(b) Introduction to Religion A and B
(c) with the permission of the lecturer any other unit permitted to be taken for the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

Syllabus: The aim of this unit is to clarify our ideas about morality and at the same time to gain a basic orientation in a very important part of the history of ideas. This will be done by studying some of the most important theories about morality. Some stress that morality at the most fundamental level is concerned with questions of right and wrong conduct; others place more emphasis on values or ideals, for instance those formulated in terms of human excellence (virtues). In this unit, chiefly concerned with what may be called the basis of morality, the very controversial question about the place, if any, of reason in ethics will be explored, and so will the question why one should care about moral values.

Preliminary reading

• Rachels, J, The Elements of Moral Philosophy, 2nd ed., McGraw-Hill
• Singer, P, "Ethics" [in the Macropaedia section of Encyclopaedia Britannica]

This unit may be taken as part of the BA (Policy Studies).

Theories of Interpretation in Law and Literature    PHIL2090

(8cp)

Not offered in 1999
To be offered in 2000
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorials

Prerequisite: Completion of any other philosophy unit, or permission from the lecturer

Syllabus: This course will examine different theories about how to analyse the meaning of legal and literary texts.We will read articles on both the interpretation of literature and the interpretation of legal texts such as the US Constitution. The kinds of theories we will examine and criticise will include: intentionalism, the proposal that the meaning of a text is constituted by what the author(s) of the text intended it to mean; and formalism, the idea that the meaning of a text exists independently of author’s intention and can be derived from properties of the text alone. We will also examine Ronald Dworkin’s theory of legal interpretation. Dworkin proposes that the political theories underlying legal practice play a significant role in the interpretation of law.

We will consider specific questions such as: (1) the difference between speaker’s or author’s meaning and conventional meaning; (2) the relation of the meaning of the sentences of a text to the meaning of a text as a whole; and (3) determinacy and indeterminacy in interpretation. To consider these questions, we will study the work of Beardsley and Wimsatt, E.D. Hirsch, Knapp and Michaels, Stanley Fish, Alexander Nehamas, Ronald Dworkin and H.P. Grice, among others.

Many of the issues raised in this course will overlap with important concerns in philosophy of language, philosophy of law, philosophy of literature, aesthetics and theories of the arts. Students interested in any of these areas are especially encouraged to attend.

Preliminary reading

• Abraham, K S, ‘Statutory Interpretation and Literary Theory: Some Common Concerns of an Unlikely Pair’ in Levinson, S, and Mailloux, S, (eds), Interpreting Law and Literature: A Hermeneutic Reader, Northwestern University Press, 1988, p. 115.

Proposed assessment: Two 2,500-word essays or one essay and one end-of-course examination, and a tutorial component.

Theories of Postmodernism    WOPH2001

(8cp)

Not offered in 1999
Three hours per week in lectures and tutorials

Prerequisites: Completion of one of Representation and Gender or Philosophy and Gender or European Philosophy A or European Philosophy B or Theories of Literature and Criticism or Advanced Philosophy of Art or permission of the lecturer.

Syllabus: This course will examine the concept of ‘postmodernism’ in relation to ‘modernism’, the ‘sublime’ and ‘post-structuralism’.

After this initial exploration, we will consider a number of issues raised by the postmodernism debate in specific fields, including art and architecture, anthropology, philosophical accounts of translation and iterability, postmodernism in contemporary philosophy of embodiment, postmodernism and feminism. Why is postmodernism sometimes accused of being apolitical or anti-political? Why do some feminists view it as a threat to feminist politics? Why is it sometimes taken to signify the end of philosophy? How is postmodernism manifested in popular culture?

Preliminary reading

• Connor, S, Postmodernist Culture: An Introduction to Theories of the Contemporary, Basil Blackwell, 1989
• Foster, H (ed.), The Anti-Aesthetic, Bay Press, 1983
• Nicholson, L (ed.), Feminism/Postmodernism

Proposed assessment: Two 2,500-word essays or one essay and one end-of-course examination, and a tutorial component.

This unit may form part of a program major in Women’s Studies or Social and Political Theory. It may form part of the BA (Policy Studies) and is a designated unit for the BA (European Studies).

Honours School in Philosophy

Intending honours students should first read the general statement ‘The degree with honours’ in the introductory section of the Faculty of Arts entry.

The course for the degree with honours in the Honours School of Philosophy extends over four years.

In the first three years it comprises units to the value of 144 credit points, of which at least 76 credit points must be in philosophy. The non-philosophy units must include completion of a major (44 credit points) from outside the honours school. The philosophy units will normally consist of:

First year: Introduction to Philosophy (or its equivalent)

Second year: philosophy later-year units to the value of 24 credit points, plus the two parts of the Second Year Honours Seminar (12 cp)

Third year: philosophy later-year units to the value of 24 credit points, plus the Third Year Honours Seminar (8cp).

In special circumstances this course structure may be modified with the approval of the Head of Department. For example, Introduction to Philosophy may not be required of students who have entered later-year philosophy units via other prerequisites. In certain circumstances the requirement for the Second Year or the Third Year Honours Seminar may be replaced in either case by other units in philosophy.

Admission to honours

Students will normally enter the Honours School in Philosophy at the beginning of their second year. However, it is possible to enter at a later stage in certain circumstances.

Intending honours students in philosophy should consult the Honours Course Adviser about their proposed courses at an early stage.

The honours seminars each consist of a two-hour seminar a week throughout the year. These seminars are intended primarily for honours philosophy students in their second or third year, respectively, but in special circumstances other students who have achieved an adequately high standard in philosophy or cognate subjects may be permitted to enrol with the approval of the Head of Department. The two parts of the Second Year Honours Seminar have a combined value of 12 credit points. The Third Year Honours Seminar has a value of 8 credit points in 1999 and of 12 credit points from 2000.

Second Year Honours Seminar Part A    PHIL2095

(6cp)

Offered in second semester 1999
One 2-hour seminar session a week

Part A of the Second Year Honours Seminar will be devoted to the study of classical philosophical texts (including works by Locke and Hume).

This unit may be taken as part of a BA (European Studies).

Second Year Honours Seminar Part B    PHIL2096

(6cp)

Offered in first semester 1999
One 2-hour seminar session a week

Part B of the Second Year Honours Seminar consists in a review of analytic philosophy in the first half of this century. Works to be studied will be selected from such authors as Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, and Ayer.

This unit may be taken as part of a BA (European Studies).

Third Year Honours Seminar    PHIL3064

(8cp)

One 2-hour seminar session a week throughout the year

These seminars and lectures will examine the work of Kant and a post-Kantian philosopher, eg Hegel.

This unit may be taken as part of a BA (European Studies).

Philosophy IV

For admission into fourth year, students, subject to the discretion of the Head of Department, must have achieved a grade of Credit or higher in philosophy units to the value of at least 60 credit points and the Second and Third Years Honours Seminars. At least one later-year Philosophy point must be at Distinction level.

Philosophy IV (final honours) consists of an integrated course of study as prescribed by the Head of Department.

The course of study of Philosophy IV will normally involve participating in one of the Fourth Year Honours Seminars, regular supervision of the sub-thesis and further course work equivalent to 16 credit points.

Normally, each unit of the further course work gives rise to a major essay.

The common fourth-year honours seminar involves intensive discussion and lectures on topics of common interest to several strands in current philosophical literature.

From year to year, specialised fourth-year honours seminars may also be offered, depending on student demand and staff availability. One of these may be in lieu of either the common seminar or one of the course work units.

The fourth-year seminars are also available, in conjunction with additional reading, to students engaged in study for a higher degree.

Honours in philosophy and religious studies

There is no honours school in religious studies as such, but an honours school in philosophy and religious studies is available. Interested students should consult the entry under Religious Studies in this Handbook and the Head, Department of Philosophy.

Combined honours courses including philosophy

Honours courses of four years’ duration which combine philosophy with some other subject may be arranged in consultation with other departments (including English). Interested students should consult the Head of Department.

Double honours courses including philosophy

Such courses, normally of five years’ duration, are available for those who wish to do more extended honours work in philosophy and in some other subject. Those interested should consult the Head of Department.

Arts/Law with philosophy honours

This course is available and may be completed in six years. Details of the course of study may be obtained by consulting the Head of Department.