Senior Sophister Course Outlines

Year Convener: Prof. Vasilis Politis

This final year consists of a series of semiars (5 ECTS each) conducted at a comparatively advanced level. Students doing only philosophy this year are required also to write a thesis (20 ECTS) on a philosophically acceptable subject for which a supervisor is available. For certain categories of students a general three hour examination (10 ECTS) is required (see below for details).

1. SHP students, TSM pattern B, Philos. and Maths, scheme A (philosophy emphasis), and Phil./Pol. students taking only philosophy in the SS year, must take 6 seminars in total, namely 3 seminars in each of Michaelmas and Hilary terms. These students are also required to write a thesis and to sit a general examination.

2. TSM pattern A students who are taking both subjects equally, must take 4 seminars in total, 2 in each of Michaelmas and Hilary terms and sit a general examination. There is no thesis option for TSM pattern A students.

3. Phil./Pol. pattern A students who are taking both subjects equally, must choose from the following Pattern A options:

EITHER attend two research seminars one in each of Michaelmas and Hilary terms, and write a thesis on a philosophically acceptable subject for which a supervisor is available.

OR attend four research seminars two in each of Michaelmas and Hilary terms, and sit a general examination.

4. Each seminar takes place once a week over a single term, and students taking a seminar are expected to prepare work in advance and to take an active role in discussion (including, for some seminars, being prepared to read out a discussion–starting paper during the seminar).

5. The details in regard to the thesis are set out separately, under the general heading "Examinations and Assessments in Philosophy Senior Sophister" in the handbook of Philosophy.

1st Semester / Michaelmas Term

PI4024: Ancient Philosophy
Plato's Theory of Nature and Current Physics (and the Philosophy of Physics)
(5 ECTS Credits)
Lecturer: Vasilis Politis
Contact Hours: 22 lecture hours

The Timaeus is Plato's contribution to natural science and the philosophy of natural science. It addresses such central issues as: method in natural science; the commitment to abstract entities, especially numbers and geometrical figures, in natural science; space, time, motion and their relation; intelligibility, intelligence, and their relation; the basic material elements, and their mathematical–geometrical constitution; order, lack of order, chaos, the reasons for order and disorder. The attempt to relate Plato's issues to issues in current physics and the philosophy of physics, though it has to be conducted with some care to avoid anachronism, promises to be most fruitful – as attested to by the live interest in the Timaeus by leading modern physicists (e.g. Heisenberg). The seminar will take this attempt seriously and see what it leads to. In doing so we shall consider also such issues of current interest as: How come physical things conform to (or 'obey') mathematical laws? How come that these laws allow for (intelligent) life?

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

• Critically discuss the views put forth in Plato's Timaeus and its relation to current physics and the philosophy of physics.

Assessment and Examination:
Assessment: Seminar paper X 1
Examination: 1 X 1 hour examination

PI4028: Philosophy of Language
Self–Refutation Arguments: what are they, and what, if anything, do they show?
(5 ECTS Credits)
Lecturer: Jim Levine
Contact Hours: 22 lecture hours

Throughout the history of philosophy, the charge has often been made that a given proposition is "self–refuting" or that it cannot be coherently thought or stated. Such a criticisim is often made, for example, against certain forms of relativism; but it is also made by Berkeley against the "realism" he opposes, as well as by critics of Kant who claim that it is "self–refuting" for him to hold that we can know nothing about things "as they are in themselves". The purpose of this seminar is to examine such "self–refutation" arguments – in particular, to consider if they have a common structure and to examine what, if anything, they establish. To do so, we will look at a number of sources, including recent writings of such philosophers as Donald Davidson ("On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme"), Thomas Nagel (The View From Nowhere, The Last Word), Paul Boghossian (Fear of Knowledge) and Graham Priest (Beyond the Limits of Thought) as well as earlier writings from Parmenides, Plato, Berkeley, Kant, Russell, Wittgenstein and John Anderson, the influential Australian philosopher. Some of the readings we will look at will attempt to articulate the structure of self–refutation arguments; others either use such arguments against others or defend themselves against the charge that their own position is self–refuting.

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

• Expound and critically evaluate various self–refutation arguments from the history of philosophy
• Critically discuss the relative strnghts and weaknesses of these arguments
• Determine whether self–refutation arguments play a role in philosophical argumentation

Assessment and Examination:
Assessment: Seminar paper X 1
Examination: 1 X 1 hour examination

PI4029: Ethics
Well–Being and Happiness
(5 ECTS Credits)
Lecturer: Antti Kauppinen
Contact Hours: 22 lecture hours

The question about what makes a life go best is important both for practical reasoning and for any ethical theory. In this module we survey the contemporary debate, including recent psychological work on happiness. We begin with affective and attitudinal versions of hedonsim, move on to desire–satisfaction and achievement views, and finish with perfectionsim and questions about mortality and life's meaning. The goal is to learn to understand and evaluate the options currently on the table, as well as the significance of the choice for ethics and politics.

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

• Describe and assess the various theories of what constitutes a good life
• Critically evaluate the significance of these theories for ethics and politics

Assessment and Examination:
Assessment: Seminar paper X 1
Examination: 1 X 1 hour examination

PI4032: Phenomenology
(5 ECTS Credits)
Lecturer: Dermot Moran (UCD)
Contact Hours: 22 lecture hours

This course intends to offer a critical introduction to phenomenology (the description of things as they appear, the 'what it's like' of experience) as inaugurated by Husserl, subsequently transformed by Heidegger into hermeneutical phenomenology, and later developed by Sartre and Merleau–Ponty as existential phenomenology. Selected texts from Brentano, Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre and Merleau–Ponty, will be read and critically discussed in terms of their contribution to the development of phenomenological philosophy. Emphasis will be put on phenomenology as a method for describing consciousness in all its modalities, including the emotions. The course will also focus on some particular problems that have received distinctive treatment from phenomenologists: intentionality, consciousness, the emotions, the experience of the other in empathy, intersubjectivity and embodiment.
Required Reading:
Dermot Moran, Introduction to Phenomenology (New York: Routdlege, 2000)
Dermot Moran and Tim Mooney, eds, The Phenomenology Reader (New York: Routledge, 2002)

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

• Describe and critically assess key concepts and methods of Husserl, Heidegger and later phenomenologists
• Outline and analyse the application of phenomenological methods to central aspects of consciousness

Assessment and Examination:
Assessment: Seminar paper X 1
Examination: 1 X 1 hour examination

2nd Semester / Hilary Term

PI4007: Psychology/Philosophy
(5 ECTS Credits)
Lecturer: David Berman
Contact Hours: 22 lecture hours

These seminars usually take up one or more elements of the lecturer's JS PI3004 course (see JS course descriptions). It is also likely to contain some discussion of the Socrates–O'Brien Game, where Plato's Republic is composited with Orwell's Ninteen Eighty–Four, producing a semi–ambiguous figure, and so some shared agreement and contrast, or at least a dialogue, between Socrates and O'Brien for the souls of human beings.

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

• Describe and assess the role of psychological typology in the views of philosophers from Plato onwards
• Critically discuss the role of psychological typology in contemporary philosophy

Assessment and Examination:
Assessment: Seminar paper X 1
Examination: 1 X 1 hour examination

PI4040: Epistemology
Relativism
(5 ECTS Credits)
Lecturer: Paul O'Grady
Contact Hours: 22 lecture hours

This course examines the phenomenon of cognitive relativism using the model presented in O'Grady Relativism (2002) as a basis. From this starting place, recent work by Kolbel, MacFarlane and Boghossian will be assessed.

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

• Describe, analyse and cricially assess the principal theories of modern cognitive relativists

Assessment and Examinatioin:
Assessment: Seminar paper X 1
Examination: 1 X 1 hour examination

PI4041: Post Kantian Philosophy
Self–Reference and Self–awareness
(5 ECTS Credits)
Lecturer: Lilian Alweiss
Contact Hours: 22 lecture hours

When we speak or think we cannot avoid making use of the personal pronoun. We say 'I think', 'I am in pain', 'I am hungry' or 'I was born in the last century'. In all these instances reference to a bearer of thought seem inevitable. Yet there are many who wish to convince us that what seems unavoidable, in everyday talk, is nothing other than a linguistic convention. The words 'I' and 'my' are mere adornments of speech. This is a 'necessity of syntax' which compells us to speak of a positional self, however as soon as we have a closer look we come to realise that the pronoun 'I' is not a place holder for anything in particular. Indeed, without much trouble we can replace the phrase 'I was thinking' with 'there was some thinking going on', and 'I am in pain' with 'there is pain' since there is no self separable from the thought or the sensation of pain. Proof for this lies in the fact that we cannot perceive such a self but if at all only our objects of thoughts, feelings, sensations or impressions. This is why Hume already concluded that no introspection will ever yield a pure self. Against this view this course wishes to show why we need to hold fast to the claim that 'I' is a referring expression. There is something distinctive about the use of the first person pronoun. No description, not even one containing indexicals (other than the first person pronouns themselves) can be substituted for 'I'. We shall do this by focusing on the writings of Wittgenstein, Sartre, Kant and Husserl.

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

• Describe and analyse the principal arguments for and against philosophical solipsism, employing examples from the history of philosophy
• Critically assess whether the use of the first person sinuglar pronoun commits us to the existence of a self

Assessment and Examination:
Assessment: Seminar paper X 1
Examination: 1 X 1 hour examination

PI4042: Metaphysics
The Metaphysics of Time
(5 ECTS Credits)
Lecturer: Peter Simons
Contact Hours: 22 lecture hours

Augustine of Hippo wrote, "What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know." Questions about the existence and nature of time have troubled metaphysicians since antiquity and continue to trouble them today. Is time real or is it an illusion? Does it exist outside the mind? Does it flow? Is the future real? Is it open or fixed? Is there more than the present? Does time exist independently of events – can there be time with nothing happening? Is time absolute or relative? Does it have an intrinsic direction? Does it have a beginning and an end? Can it be cyclic? Can there be time travel? In this seminar we will confront these questions, with the assistance of thinkers past (Aristotle, Ocham, Newton, Leibniz, Kant, Einstein, McTaggart, Whitehead, Reichenbach, Prior) and present (Smart, Mellor, McCall, Van Frassen, Markosian, Le Poidevin).
Suggested preliminary reading: R. Le Poidevin and M. MacBeath eds., The Philosophy of Time, Oxford, 1993.

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

• Distinguish different views concerning the existence and nature of time
• answer critical questions about time

Assessment and Examination:
Assessment: Seminar paper X 1
Examination: 1 X 1 hour examination

The above course descriptions may vary prior to Michaelmas/Hilary term 2011/2012. Students will be advised of any changes that may occur.