History of Philosophy I
Module Code: PI1002
Module Name: History of Philosophy I
- ECTS Weighting: 15
- Semester/Term Taught: Michaelmas + Hilary Term
- Contact Hours: 44 hours of lecture and 11 hours of tutorial
- Module Personnel: Lecturers – Professor Vasilis Politis (email), Donall McGinley (email), Professor James Levine (email), Aisling Crean (email)
Learning Outcomes
Having successfully completed this module, students will be able to:
- discriminate and connect central trends in ancient and early modern philosophy;
- read philosopical texts in their historical context;
- write essays analysing and assessing central arguments of major philosophers.
Module Content
This is an historically–based course, running for two years. In the first year there are the following components:
Component 1: Introduction to Ancient Philosophy – Professor Vasilis Politis
Ancient philosophy, provided it is treated thematically and not purely historically, provides an excellent focus for some major philosophical themes. (1) We begin with Parmenides' claim that the notion of change is incoherent, from which he derived that the appearance of change is mere appearance or even illusion. (2) We take up Aristotle's response to this challenge, which provided him with an opportunity to develop an account of the metaphysics of changing particulars (we shall also compare his account to Plato's). (3) We turn to the Socratic conception of philosophical argument and inquiry, based on the search for the knowledge of essences as a means of answering certain central aporiai. (4) We follow the trials and tribulations of the notion of essence, from Plato's theory of forms to Aristotle's hylomorphism. (5) We conclude with some sceptical notes on this whole project of essence–based metaphysics, as articulated by some ancient sceptics and summarised in Sextus Empiricus.
Component 2: Medieval Philosophy – Donall McGinley
This course will look at some of the central strands of philosophy in the Middle Ages. The focus will be on medieval metaphysics, and topics discussed will include time, universals and individuation, God and the relationship between the thought and reality. Among the philosophers discussed will be Augustine, Boethius, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus and William of Ockham.
Component 3: The Rationalists – Professor James Levine
This component focuses on the epistemology and metaphysics of Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz, primarily through examining some of their central works – Descartes' Meditations, Spinoza's Ethics and Leibniz's Discourse of Metaphysics.
Component 4: Empiricism II – Aisling Crean
The rise of modern science not only brought about changes in beliefs about the nature and structure of the material world; it also demanded a reconceptualisation of the nature and limits of human knowledge. John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume were three philosophers of the early modern period (roughly, the period from 1637 to 1780) who were, in different ways, enormously influenced by the dramatic changes taking place in the science of the day (collectively called the 'scientific revolution'). They have traditionally been grouped together under the label 'empiricists' in virtue of their rejection of innate ideas and emphasis on experience as a source of knowledge. The course gives you an overview of empiricism as it appears in their work and considers how the empiricism of each is a development of and response to the scientific revolution.
Assessment Details
Students will be required to submit two essays for this component, comprising 50% of the overall grade. The annual examination accounts for 50% of the overall grade.