MA modules 2023-2024

AUTUMN SEMESTER

PHIL40410 Philosophy & Literature (Assistant Professor Lisa Foran)

In this course we will approach the relationship between philosophy and literature through a phenomenological framework by asking: 'what is the experience of reading philosophy and what is the experience of reading literature?' The aim is to discover the manner in which each genre of text reveals something of the human experience but to precisely question the extent to which that revelation actually impacts upon the reader's experience of being human. Philosophical texts will be drawn from the continental tradition broadly construed to include phenomenology, critical phenomenology, feminism, post/decolonial studies and critical theory. A range of literary texts--novels, short stories, poems, and plays-- will be read in conjunction with these philosophical texts. Students will be encouraged to engage with these texts through the prism of their own research interests.

PHIL41280 Feminist & Gender Theory (Professor Katherine O’Donnell)

This seminar will introduce students to key contemporary feminist philosophers and debates between feminist philosophers with a view to understanding how their work draws from and challenges dominant philosophical traditions in the creation of new philosophical understandings of knowledge, ethics, self and politics.

We begin with an exploration of what is feminist philosophy? Feminism has a much more recent history than Philosophy. Feminism can be characterised as a popular (or unpopular) social movement that seeks to change the status quo to enable equal participation by girls and women in the public to that of boys and men, and to create a cultural parity of esteem for both masculinity and femininity. Besides this egalitarian project feminism has another impulse which is to seek to deconstruct the meaning of what it is to be male or female and to inscribe new signification for these terms and for the relationship between them. The ambivalence of these goals might be seen to excite many of the debates among feminists. The initial seminar will seek to collectively arrive at definitions for what Philosophy is and does which will begin a discussion that will continue for the remaining weeks: how might we define feminist philosophy?

PHIL41320 Topics in Continental Philosophy (Assistant Professor Danielle Petherbridge)

How do we understand encounters between self and other? What is the relation between subjectivity and intersubjective life? This module examines different philosophical perspectives for analyzing encounters between self and other, and investigates alternative theories of recognition and intersubjectivity in the tradition of continental philosophy. Themes covered will include the subject, intersubjectivity, recognition, difference, power, domination, and self/other relations.

In order to address these questions, we generally begin by tracing major theories of intersubjectivity and recognition in the German philosophical tradition, such as those developed by Fichte and Hegel. We contrast these to phenomenological accounts such as those offered by Husserl, or the existential-phenomenological accounts of Merleau-Ponty and Sartre. We also consider accounts of recognition and relationality offered by contemporary philosophers such as Honneth and Foucault, as well as postcolonial and feminist philosophers. We therefore consider not only face-to-face encounters but the way in which intersubjective relations are constitutive of subjects. We also examine the way in which patterns of interaction form a background of norms and meanings that constitute the lifeworld, as well as the ways in which recognition is employed as a means to understand forms of human relationality and sociality.

PHIL41570 Problems from Kant (Professor Jim O'Shea)

The 'Problems from Kant' seminar this Autumn 2023–24 will focus on a close reading of Kant's famous _Critique of Pure Reason_ (1781), i.e. the 'first Critique', a work that has been so central to later work in both the 'analytic' and 'continental' styles of philosophical inquiry. Kant's Critique explored such questions as: What are the limits of reason in seeking to answer ultimate questions about the nature of reality, for example whether God exists or does not exist, whether we possess immortal souls, whether all our actions are free or determined? If such questions are beyond the reach of theoretical proof, as Kant argues, then what is the nature of the knowledge that we do have of the world? Kant famously argued that despite the impossibility of traditional rational metaphysics, rigorous demonstrations of the coherence of our knowledge of nature were indeed possible in answer to sceptical empiricist arguments such as David Hume's. Kant's revolutionary 'transcendental' focus on the 'unity of consciousness' and on the very possibility of any experience at all enabled him to construct novel arguments in defence of an 'a priori metaphysics of experience' (e.g., of permanent matter, causality, the external world) that subsequently were deeply influential throughout 19th century German idealism, and remain influential today in all strands of philosophy. In this seminar we will attempt to take in the perspective of the whole first Critique, including Kant's 'practical' or moral defence of freedom and morality (including a 'practical faith' of reason in God), defending the possibility of which was one of the mains aims of the Critique.

(General Description of the 'Problem from Kant' module: Each year this MA seminar focuses on selected themes from Kant's critical philosophy, and brings to bear on them insights, debates, and extensions of Kant's ideas from 20th/21st century philosophers strongly influenced by Kant. In some years the seminar might focus more on interpreting Kant's own systematic philosophy in detail, selecting themes from his philosophy of mind, knowledge, and nature, or in some cases his views on freedom, morality, and aesthetics. In other years the seminar might focus more on the 20th/21st c. philosophers defending or criticising influential variations of fundamental Kantian themes. Usually there will be a mixture of the two approaches, historical and more recent, with openness to both 'continental' and 'analytic' approaches to Kant's philosophy.)

PHIL41810 Critique & Destruction (Associate Professor Joesph Cohen)

Our Module will address the inception and the development, the confrontations as well as the similitudes, both the historical sources and the philosophical orientations, between three fundamental "gestures" in contemporary European philosophy: "critical theory" in Adorno and Horkheimer, the "kritische Abbau" or "destructio" of onto-theology or metaphysics in Heidegger and the "deconstruction" of the metaphysics of presence in Derrida. Our first task will therefore involve a genealogical contextualisation of these three "gestures" in order to analyse and interpret why, how, and in which manner - that is, according to which disposition and in view of which heading - each of these, in retrieving our philosophical tradition, engage in opening novel spaces and directions for what Hegel termed "the need for philosophy".

Consequently, we will engage in showing how each of these philosophical "gestures" propose new reformulations of the traditional philosophical questions of meaning and signification, telos and arché, judgment and testimony, truth and justice in history. From the study of these three "gestures", our Module will also endeavour in presenting the premises towards a renewed approach to historical events, past and future, in our lived-present.

SPRING SEMESTER

PHIL40010/40970 Consciousness, Agency & the Self (Assistant Professor Keith Wilson)

This course covers some central topics in the philosophy of mind, beginning with classic discussions of consciousness and the mind–body problem, and more recent debates about the ‘extended mind’. In the second part of this course, we will consider issues concerning the relation between perception, action and attention: Is the brain a Bayesian prediction machine? What is the role of the physical body in shaping and influencing our experience of the world? And what implications does this have for the possibility of artificial minds and agents?

PHIL40250 Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception (Associate Professor Tim Mooney)

This module comprises a close reading of Phenomenology of Perception, one of the most significant treatments of philosophy of perception in the European tradition. Merleau-Ponty offers a sustained critique of the portrait view of perception and argues that the embodied perceiver must actively appropriate and organise the perceptible environment as a condition of having a world. We begin with his initial adaptation of phenomenology, and proceed to outline his arguments against objectivism as found in the empiricist and intellectualist approaches to perception. Merleau-Ponty's proposed alternative founded on phenomenological description will then be explicated in detail. Topics to be covered include perceptual synthesis, the body as objectified, as lived and as anonymous, the role of kinaesthetic awareness, proprioceptive awareness and the body-schema, the motor-intentional projection of action and the perceptual field.

PHIL40840 Autonomy as a Philosophical Problem (Professor Brian O'Connor)

The exercise of autonomy is among the most valued of human capacities. Civilized societies aspire to the rational exercise of freedom. Scanlon defines autonomous persons as "sovereign in deciding what to believe and in weighing competing reasons for action." And the sovereign persons operates under their "own canons of rationality" and "cannot accept without independent consideration the judgment of others" about the actions they are expected to undertake.

This module will explore the theory of autonomy and the wide range of difficulties that attach to it. (1) The Metaphysics of the Self. The theory of autonomy is committed to a notion of the self in which reasons can prevail over passions. (2) The Source of Normativity. If sovereignty over our own reasons is a characteristic of autonomy we need to be confident that they are genuinely our own and that they are reasons which we are free to endorse or reject. Explanations of these two pivotal features of the theory of autonomy have yet to be unproblematically provided by philosophy. This will be seen through critical readings of materials selected from a range of authors (including, Kant, Korsgaard, Hegel, Adorno, Freud, Honneth, Geuss, Friedman, McDowell).

PHIL40960 The Cultural Mind (Assistant Professor Meredith Plug)

This course will look at recent research on the interdependence between culture and mind. Two aspects of culture that the course will particularly focus on are language and moral norms. One of the broad themes that we will explore is relativity. So called ‘linguistic relativity’ is the view that (a) languages affect our thinking as well as our experiences of the world and (b) vastly different languages will give rise to very different, possibly incommensurable, ways of thinking about the world. We will look at recent empirical evidence for this view, and its philosophical implications. We will also look at empirical evidence for and philosophical discussion of variance in moral norms across different cultures. An opposing thought is that language or moral norms are to some extent universal. We’ll examine empirical evidence that bears on and philosophical discussion of this hypothesis.

PHIL41240 John Henry Newman – a philosophical prespective (Assistant Professor Angelo Bottone)

PHIL41510 Ethics in Public Life (Dr Silvia Ivani)

Face to Face and Online Evening Module for Prof Certificate in Ethics

Should we be permitted to say whatever we want, whenever we want on social media? Or should our freedom of expression be restricted? Are interferences with other people’s decisions regarding their well-being or careers ever justified? Which responsibilities do scientific experts have towards society?

This module will introduce students to contemporary ethical challenges concerning freedom of speech, freedom of action, and ethics of expertise. In the first part of the module, we will analyse challenges concerning freedom of speech and freedom of action. Topics covered will include the moral dimension of trust, the role of respect and toleration in public debates, and the tension between freedom of action and paternalism. We will discuss these topics through specific case studies, such as mandatory vaccinations and sex work. In the second part of the module, we will focus on the ethics of expertise. We will explore what it means to be an expert in the current society, and we will discuss a range of issues, such as the social responsibility of scientists, ethical decision-making in the face of uncertainty, and the ethics of technology.