Junior Sophister Course Outlines

Year Convener: Prof. David Berman

Each course consists of two lectures or seminars per week. The courses are distributed in the following way:

1. SHP students must select six courses. They may do three in each of Michaelmas and Hilary terms, or two in one term and four in the other.

2. TSM and Phil/Pol students may select three courses. They must do at least one in each term.

3. TSM and Philos & Maths, Scheme A students must select "Advanced Logic" plus two other courses.

4. TSM, Philos & Maths, Scheme B must select "Advanced Logic" plus one other course.

All JS courses are worth 10 ECTS.

It should be noted that, in any particular academic session, it may happen (for example, for reasons of illness or sabbatical leave) that one or more of the courses is not available.

1st Semester / Michaelmas Term

PI3002: POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
(10 ECTS Credits)
Lecturer: Antti Kauppinen
Contact Hours: 22 lecture hours

The course considers two fundamental concepts of political philosophy, liberty and equality. Then it examines whether the commitment to liberty and equality commits us to placing limtiations on the market domain, that is to say, on what can be bought and sold (pornography, babies etc.).

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this course students will be able to:

• Critically assess the views of various contemporary political philosophy
• discuss whether the assurance of equality falls within the purview of the power of the state

Assessment and Examination:
Assessment: Essays X 2 – 50%
Examination: 1 X 3 hour examination – 50%

PI3004: TOPICS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHY
(10 ECTS Credits)
Lecturer: David Berman
Contact Hours: 22 lecture hours

By psychological philosophy I understand philosophy before it split off from psychology circa 1900, and became largely logical, conceptual or linguistic. Hence the course has an important historical dimension, and much of the material is drawn from the history of philosophy, beginning with Descartes and coming up to the present. Another way of seeing the course is by topic or subject matter. And here, broadly, there are three or four general headings: mental images and the way it offers the beginnings of a mental typology and also a critique of what, following Galton and James, I call the Typical Mind Fallacy; tactual and visual sense–data and how that offers an argument for Neo–Berkeleian idealism; also the discovery of retronasal olfaction as another way into idealism; and finally the basic theory of mental types, which – partly following Plato – I call the dualistic or mental, the monistic or physical, and the socio–linguistic. Other topics examined are: whether Descartes' dualsim can be traced to his unconscious fear of death; A. J. Ayer's Near Death Experience and whether it offers evidence for the spiritistic part of Berkeley's idealism; and finally the feasibility of the animistic idea of the next life as an image dream world.

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this course students will be able to:

• Critically assess, employing historical examples, the role of imagery in philosophy
• discuss whether philosophical doctrine is related to a philosopher's psychological type

Assessment and Examination:
Assessment: Essays X 2 – 50%
Examination: 1 X 3 hour examination – 50%

PI3007: MORAL PHILOSOPHY
(10 ECTS Credits)
Lecturer: Antti Kauppinen
Contact Hours: 22 lecture hours

In this course we examine contemporary moral issues from a philosophical perspective. We begin with a quick look at the theortical foundations of ethics, and then move to concrete issues to do with life–and–death decisions, personal life and business.

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this course students will be able to:

• Distinguish between first–order and second–order ethical principles
• Critically discuss the principal positions regarding the status of moral thought and discourse

Assessment and Examination:
Assessment: Essays X 2 – 50%
Examination: 1 X 3 hour examination – 50%

PI009: LOGIC AND PHILOSOPHY
(10 ECTS Credits)
Lecturer: Peter Simons
Contact Hours: 22 lecture hours

Topics addressed will include: Aristotelian logic and its differences with contemporary logic; existential import; modal logic – the logic of necessity, possibility, and impossibility; and issues concerning the infinite and set theory. Throughout, we will attempt to consider both technical and philosophical aspects of the topics covered.

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this course students will be able to:

• Critically elucidate the relationship between logic and philosophy
• Exhibit knowledge of the main developments from Aristotle through to contemporary modal logic
• Critically discuss issues related to the infinite and set theory

Assessment and Examination:
Assessment: Essays X 2 – 50%
Examination: 1 X 3 hour examination – 50%

PI3013: TOPICS IN CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY
(10 ECTS Credits)
Lecturer: Lilian Alweiss
Contact Hours: 22 lecture hours

The aim of this course is to provide an introduction to phenomenology by focusing on the writings of Husserl and Merleau–Ponty and to show the extent to which the themes raised within phenomenology are of philosophical significance today. Topics covered include: critique of psychologism, intentionality, philosophical skepticism and embodiment.

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this course students will be able to:

• Describe and assess key doctrines of Husserl, Merleau–Ponty and other phenomenologists
• Critically evaluate the subsequent significance of their philosophy

Assessment and Examination
Assessment: Essays X 2 – 50%
Examination: 1 X 3 hour examinatioin – 50%

2nd Semester / Hilary Term

PI3003: TOPICS IN ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY
(10 ECTS Credits)
Lecturer: Vasilis Politis
Contact Hours: 22 lecture hours

The aim is to study, in some depth, central themes from a variety of Platonic dialogues relating to epistemology, metaphysics and the philosophy of nature. We start with the Theaetetus, the question 'What is knowledge?', And the examination of the view that knowledge is sense–perception. We move on to the Timaeus and its account of nature and the ordered universe, or cosmos; and its reflections on the method of natural science. We turn to the first part of the Parmenides, where Plato sets out his central metaphysical theory, the theory of forms, and subjects it to a number of difficulties and problems, which he does not solve. We consider whether the theory can survive these criticisms. Finally, we focus on Plato's question in the Sophist, 'What is being and not–being?', and consider the primeval philosophical battle he sets out between materialists and immaterialists in response to this question; and whether he wants to reconcile these apparently irreconcilable positions in metaphysics. We may also find time for some work on Aristotle's Metaphysics in response to the question, 'What is being?'.

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this course students will be able to:

• Describe and assess key concepts and methods of Plato and Aristotle
• Outline their principle metaphysical doctrines
• Critically discuss the role of aporia in ancient metaphysics

Assessment and Examination:
Assessment: Essays X 2 – 50%
Examination: 1 X 3 hour examination – 50%

PI3006: TOPICS IN ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY
(10 ECTS Credits)
Lecturer: James Levine
Contact Hours: 22 lecture hours

This course will focus primarily on the philosophical writings of Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Quine and Kripke. Frege and Russell were intially concerned with issues in the philosophy of mathematics – including the nature of numbers and our knowledge of them – but these issues led them to develop influential views regarding the nature of language, including meaning, reference, and, in the case of Russell, vagueness. We will examine both aspects of the views of Frege and Russell as well as subsequent views of language of Wittgenstein, Quine, and Kripke. The emphasis will be on primary texts.

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this course students will be able to:

• Describe and assess the views of focal analytic philosophers on meaning and reference
• Critically assess skeptical doctrines about meaning and reference
• Describe and assess contemporary metaphhysical discussion on modality and change

Assessment and Examination:
Assessment: Essays X 2 – 50%
Examination: 1 X 3 hour examination – 50%

PI3008: PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
(10 ECTS Credits)
Lecturer: Paul O'Grady
Contact Hours: 22 lecture hours

This course develops the introductory material on philosophy of religion from the freshman years. Its focus is the philosophy of religioin of aquinas. He is treated as an exemplar of classical theism whose approach is amenable to analytical philosophical analysis. Topics include whether he is classifiable as a philosopher of religioin, his account of faith and reason, his positive arguments for God's existence, the problem of evil, the problem of naturalism, perfect–being theology, God's nature, including simplicity, existence, eternity, omnipotence, omniscience and omnibenevolence. In the process Aquinas' work is brought into engagement with Kant, Hume, Darwin, Wittgenstein, Quine, Russell and a number of contemporary philosophers of religion.

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this course students will be able to:

• Describe and evaluate the distinction between theistic and non–theistic religion
• Assess the significnance of the existence of many religions
• Critically discuss theism and its relationship to modern science

Assessment and Examination:
Assessment: Essays X 2 – 50%
Examination: 1 X 3 hour examination – 50%