Texts II
Module Code: PI2004
Module Name: Texts II
- ECTS Weighting: 15
- Semester/Term Taught: Michaelmas + Hilary Term
- Contact Hours: 44 hours of lecture and 10 hours of tutorial
- Module Personnel: Lecturers – Dr. Ciaran McGlynn, Professor David Berman, Dr. Stefan Storrie, Professor Lilian Alweiss
Learning Outcomes
Having successfully completed this module, students will be able to:
- analytically interpret classic philosophical texts;
- interpret and evaluate the work of Hume, Berkeley and Sartre;
- defend philosophical interpretations of these texts.
Module Content
Component 1: David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion – Dr. Ciaran McGlynn
'The worst speculative Sceptic ever I knew was a much better Man than the best superstitious Devotee and Bigot'; so wrote David Hume in a letter regarding his classic critique of religious belief: Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. In this relatively short work (it runs to one hundred, or so, pages) Hume asks if belief in God can be justified by what we know about the universe. Hume's constantly sceptical stance about the claims of religion constitues an important element of the Enlightenment development towards religious tolerance. Above all Hume is the champion of reason. As the Dialogues discuss some of the main contemporary issues relating to the existence of God, including the argument from design as well as the problem of evil, Hume has been described as the founder of the modern form of the philosophy of religion. As such the Dialogues is a key text in the contemporary debate about the rationality and standing of religion.
Component 2: David Berman's Penult ψφ – Professor David Berman
This text, Penult ψφ, (copies of which are available in the TCD library) has two chapters and a section of supplimentary notes. Chapter 1 can be describd as metaphysical, Chapter 2 as broadly epistemological; the data for both being drawn from three sources: (1) the great philosophers (2) the direct or immediate experience of those now doing philosophy, i.e., trying to understand themselves and the world, and (3) the evidence of distinctive strong minds. One principle of this work is that if psychology goes deep enough it becomes metaphysics, once idealism is accepted – which the author argues for in Chapter 2 – although an idealism broad enough to accommodate materialistic minds.
Looking closely at the history of philosophy reveals two basic but opposing metaphysics. These are materialistic monism and mentalistic dualism, the first going back to Anaximander and Democritus and importantly shown in Hobbes and Spinoza, and then, in more recent times, in William James; the second going back to Anaxagoras, then importantly developed by Plato, and Descartes and Berkeley in more recent times. But while these recurring metaphysics are basic as theories, more basic still – according to the Neo–Berkeleian Idealism of the Penult – are the opposing minds or mental types from which they arise.
Component 3: George Berkeley's Three Dialogues – Dr. Stefan Storrie
In this course we will study George Berkeley's accessible and provocative series of dialogues between Hylas and Philonous. The interconnections between Berkeley's theory of perception, epistemology, metaphysics and moral philosophy will be considered. Berkeley's idealism will be assessed and some key objections will be considered. For example, if to be is to be perceived then how can different people perceive the same thing? How can things exist when no one is perceiving them?
Component 4: Jean–Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness – Professor Lilian Alweiss
We shall be reading Being and Nothingness by Jean–Paul Sartre which is sometimes described as a 'bible' of existentialism. We shall focus in particular on the problems of freedom, existence, bad faith and the other.
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.