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PHILG008
Autumn
Tues 2pm |
Practical Criticism 1 |
This module is designed to train postgraduate students in the close readings of philosophical texts. It is intended to be taught before Practical Criticism 2. One text will be chosen for the whole term and will be read in close detail. Students will write commentaries on the text every week. Texts can be either contemporary or historical and can vary year by year.
Texts for Practical Criticism 1 will be ‘theoretical’ in nature (i.e. on metaphysics, or epistemology, philosophy of mind or language, philosophy of logic, science or mathematics etc.) |
Professor Kalderon |
Written projects and contribution to discussion |
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PHILG009
/ 056
All terms
Wed 5pm |
Recent Philosophical Writings (Senior Seminar) |
This module is designed to familiarize the student with recent research in philosophy in a diverse range of areas. Recent journal articles are discussed in a seminar led by student presentations. Each student on the course will be required to make a presentation at some point in the year. |
Dr Richmond / Madden |
Presentation and contribution to discussion |
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PHILG011
Autumn
Tues
11am |
Graduate Studies in Epistemology
(A) |
This module aims to present and assess some of the central questions in epistemology to graduate students. The material will vary each year, but it will include approaches to the problem of scepticism, the definition of knowledge, reliabilism, contextualism, externalism and foundationalism. |
Dr. Zalabardo |
Essay |
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PHILG012
Autumn
Thurs 11am |
Graduate Studies: Metaphysics
(A) |
This course is intended to take graduate students through various key contributions to some of the central questions in metaphysics. The syllabus will vary from year to year but representative topics include time, space, free will, identity, personal identity, causation, and the mind-body problem. For each topic we will look at a classic piece of reading on the topic, and then look at a recent contribution to the debate. All members of the class are required to prepare the reading each week. One student each week will be responsible for giving a short presentation on the work, and the class as a whole will then discuss the issues raised. |
Dr. Phillips |
Essay |
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PHILG015
Spring
Tues 2pm |
Practical Criticism 2 |
This module is designed to train postgraduate students in the close readings of philosophical texts. It is intended to be taught before Practical Criticism 2. One text will be chosen for the whole term and will be read in close detail. Students will write commentaries on the text every week. Texts can be either contemporary or historical and can vary year by year.
Texts for Practical Criticism 2 will be ‘’normative’ in nature (i.e. on ethics, or political philosophy, value theory generally etc.) |
Professor Giaquinto |
Written projects and contribution to discussion |
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PHILG017
Autumn Mon 2pm
Spring Tues 2pm |
Thesis Preparation |
This course will instruct MPhil Stud students in the preparation for their thesis, which they will start writing in their second year. The course will address questions to do with the content of particular students’ theses, as well as general advice about the structure and planning of thesis preparation. |
Autumn:
Professor Snowdon |
Written projects and contribution to discussion |
Spring:
Professor Martin |
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PHILG018
Spring
Tues 4pm |
Graduate Studies in Political Philosophy
(B) |
The course aims to provide MPhil Stud Philosophy students with an understanding of some central themes, theories and arguments in political philosophy. The emphasis will be on giving graduate students a thorough grounding in the central areas of the subject. The topic for 2012-2013 will be the philosophy of John Rawls. |
Professor
Munoz Dardé |
Essay |
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PHILG019
Spring
Weds
9am
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Graduate Studies in Moral Philosophy
(B) |
The course aims to provide MPhil Stud Philosophy students with an understanding of some central themes, theories and arguments in moral philosophy. The emphasis will be on giving graduate students a thorough grounding in the central areas of the subject. Syllabus varies by year; for 2012-3 the focus will be on how to fit normativity and reasons into more or less naturalistic world-views. One or more classic articles or recent important papers will be selected for discussion each week. |
Dr Elstein |
Essay |
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PHILG020
Summer
Tuesdays 2-4 and Thursdays 5-7 |
Graduate class: Philosophy of Mind
(A) |
This course is intended to take students through key recent contributions within the Philosophy of Mind. Either a classic article, or a recent important paper will be selected for discussion each week. All members of the class are required to prepare the reading each week; submitting an outline of the paper and notes on key issues raised. One student each week will be responsible for giving a short presentation on the work, and the class as a whole will then discuss any issues raised. |
Professor Martin |
Essay |
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PHILG021
Spring
Mon 11am |
Research Seminar: Philosophy of Mind
(A) |
This module is a research seminar in the philosophy of mind. The module teacher will present some of their recent research. Subject matter can vary year by year, but might include: mental states and events, mental actions, the mind-body problem, consciousness, intentionality, mental causation etc. |
Dr. O'Brien |
Essay |
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PHILG022
Autumn
Wed 11am |
Graduate Studies: Ancient Philosophy
(C) |
This course is a research seminar for graduate students, focusing on Plato's philosophy of mathematics. We will explore the nature of mathematics, the ontological status of mathematical objects, and the epistemological role of mathematics in Plato, looking at key parts of the Platonic dialogues and important papers from the contemporary literature.
All students are required to prepare the set primary and secondary reading for each week. One student will give a short presentation (approx. 20 mins) on the secondary reading. This will be followed by class discussion. |
Dr de Waal |
Essay |
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PHILG024
Autumn
Wed 3pm |
Research Seminar: Philosophy, Justice and Health
(B) |
The concept of autonomy plays a prominent but complex role in justifications for health law and public policy in liberal states. In this research seminar we will examine how this idea figures in a range of controversial issues. The readings cover topics on living wills and dementia; Ulysses contracts and addiction; financial incentives for medical treatment; patient autonomy, mental disability and discrimination; relational accounts of autonomy; supported decision-making; and the concept of vulnerability. |
Professor Wolff / Dr Craigie |
Essay |
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PHILG029
Autumn
Thurs 4pm |
Graduate Studies in Wittgenstein’s Later Philosophy
(C) |
The course aims to provide MPhil Stud Philosophy students with a thorough and detailed understanding and evaluation of the ideas of the later Wittgenstein, and of the important secondary literature discussing it. The Wittgenstein texts to be studied include the Blue and Brown Books, Philosophical Investigations, and On Certainty. The basic aim is to study the test closely and with great care. Central topics will be the nature of meaning, rule following, private experiences, seeing as, action, knowledge, and the nature of philosophy – but the syllabus will vary from year to year. |
Professor Snowdon |
Essay |
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PHILG034
Summer
Wed/Thus 2pm |
Research Seminar: Advanced Topics in Metaphysics and Epistemology
(A) |
This course enables MPhil Stud level postgraduate students to engage with some of the latest research in metaphysics and epistemology ongoing at UCL. Course content will vary from year to year, but representative advanced topics in metaphysics and epistemology include: scepticism, existence, the metaphysics of persons, knowledge and reference, relativism, objectivity, and the nature of properties |
Dr. Madden |
Essay |
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PHILG035
Spring
Mon 9am |
Graduate Studies in Aristotle
(C) |
The course will provide an introduction to Aristotle by way of a critical reading of some of his most famous works, along with some influential papers from the contemporary literature. The survey will take in topics from Aristotle’s logic (Prior Analytics), metaphysics (Metaphysics, Physics), virtue ethical theory (Nicomachean Ethics), philosophy of mind (de Anima), and epistemology (Posterior Analytics). |
Dr de Waal |
Essay |
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PHILG062
Spring
Thurs 5pm |
Research Seminar in Psychology of Sensation & Attention
(A) |
This seminar will focus on philosophical issues arising from experimental work in psychophysics and cognitive neuroscience more generally concerning the activity of sensory and perceptual systems and the role of attentional mechanisms within and in response to those systems. In particular themes to be covered include, the notion of sensation in psycho-physics, perceptual organization, visual attention and overflow.
This seminar is jointly taught by Ian Phillips and Mike Martin |
Dr. Phillips & Professor Martin |
Essay |
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PHILG037
Spring
Mon 4pm |
Global Justice & Health
(B) |
This module explores contemporary debates in global justice, especially as applied to issues of international health inequalities. Topics include:
i) International distributive justice
ii) Justice and the world’s worst off
iii) Health Equity
iv) Social bases of health inequities
v) From bioethics to public heath ethics
vi) Applications from justice theories
vii) The Human Right to Health
viii) Just Health |
Professor Wolff |
Essay |
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PHILG038
Autumn
Fri 9am |
Normative Ethics
(B) |
This module will explore normative ethics by focusing on consequentialism and considering various objections, refinements and alternatives to it, discussing along the way constraints and options, trolley cases and contractualism.
N.B. This course is cross-listed with a third year undergraduate course and is primarily intended for undergraduates. |
Dr Elstein |
Essay |
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PHILG066
Spring
Fri 11am |
Abstracta
(A) |
This seminar is about the nature of abstracta and of our knowledge of them. The major goal is a satisfactory non-skeptical response to the Benacerraf problem without appeal to any extraordinary inferential method or cognitive faculty unrecognised by the cognitive sciences. Topics include:
(1) Abstractness and the abstract-concrete polarity.
(2) The nominalist-realist spectrum; views of Plato, Quine and others.
(3) Russell and knowledge of abstracta by acquaintance.
(4) Compositions; sensory qualities.
(5) Quantity and number.
(6) Structures of low and high grades of abstractness. |
Professor Giaquinto |
Exam |
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PHILG041
Spring
Thurs 11am |
Early Wittgenstein
(C) |
This module aims to introduce the student to Ludwig Wittgenstein’s early philosophy, focusing in particular on the interpretation of his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus . It will also present relevant aspects of the philosophies of Gottlob Frege and Bertrand Russell. |
Dr. Zalabardo |
Essay |
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PHILG043
Spring
Thurs 2pm |
Special Topics in Political Philosophy
(B) |
This optional module is designed to deal with a variety of topics in political philosophy. It is intended for students with a range of specializations, but some background knowledge in political philosophy. The topic for 2012-2013 will be the idea of equality, reading recent writings on equality, priority and sufficiency. Enrollment for this course is by permission of the course tutor only. |
Professor Munoz Dardé |
Essay |
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PHILG045
Autumn
Fri 4pm |
Experience
(A) |
The topic of this module will be the metaphysics of experience. It will explore the relationship of experience to time, the self and matter. Considerations of probability will be brought to bear: How probable would the existence of one’s current experience be within rival hypotheses regarding personal identity or the nature of the physical world? |
Professor Kalderon |
Essay |
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PHILG049
Autumn
Mon 4pm |
Graduate Studies: Topics in German Idealism
(C) |
The course aims to provide third-year BA, MA, and MPhil Philosophy students with an introduction to German Idealism. Students will be assumed to have some prior familiarity with Kant's philosophy, and will be required to study selections from the writings of Fichte, Schelling and Hegel, and to engage with the contemporary anglophone literature on German Idealism. Special attention will be paid to the relation of German Idealism to Kant's philosophical project. Syllabus may vary by year, but will standardly focus on the themes of idealism, the self, human freedom, nature, dialectic, art, and intersubjectivity. |
Professor Gardner |
Essay |
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PHILG050
Autumn
Tues 4pm |
Empiricism
(C) |
The course provides an introduction to the philosophy of the empiricists – in particular Locke and Berkeley. In the course we shall study the main ideas and arguments in Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Berkeley's Principles. Some recent secondary literature will also be studied. |
Professor Snowdon |
Essay |
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PHILG054
Spring
Thurs 4pm |
Sartre
(C) |
This course will focus on Sartre’s philosophical writings of the 1930s and 1940s: mainly Being and Nothingness, and some of the phenomenological writings that preceded it (for example, Outline for a Theory of the Emotions and The Transcendence of the Ego). To introduce the students to the philosophical background to Sartre’s thinking, we will begin by considering Husserl’s and Heidegger’s versions of phenomenology, both of which influenced Sartre. The course will also consider two essays published soon after Being and Nothingness, What is Literature? And Anti-Semite and Jew, as applications of Sartre’s philosophical ideas to the cultural and socio-political circumstances of post-War France. |
Dr Richmond |
Essay |
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PHILG055
Autumn
Thurs 2pm |
Philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Science
(A) |
This course will explore core themes in the philosophy of cognitive science, understood as the fundamentally interdisciplinary scientific study of the mind. We will focus on three such themes: perception and consciousness, theory of mind, and the nature and acquisition of concepts. The approach will encompass both a careful consideration of key experimental paradigms, and also the connections between such work and traditional philosophical concerns. The course will begin by introducing three key ideas in cognitive science: levels of explanation, modularity and innateness. These ideas will be respectively further explored in relation to the three themes. |
Dr Phillips |
Essay |
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PHILG064
Autumn
Mon 11am |
Epistemology: A Priori Knowledge
(A) |
The aim of this module is to investigate the possibility and nature of a priori (non-empirical) knowledge through examining the most important contributions to these questions made by philosophers from ancient times to the present. |
Professor Giaquinto |
Exam |
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PHILG059
Spring
Mon 4pm |
Special Topics in 19th Century Philosophy
(C) |
The course will examine selected themes and figures from nineteenth-century philosophy. Syllabus will vary by year. Figures studied may include, for example, the Young Hegelians, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Anglo-American idealists, Pragmatists, and Bergson. |
Professor Gardner |
Essay |
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PHILG065
Spring
Fri 3pm |
Aristotle on Perception
(C) |
This module will examine Aristotle's views concerning perception. The focus will be on the accounts given in De Anima and De Sensu though material will be drawn from the Physics, On Generation and Corruption, and the Metaphysics. |
Professor Kalderon |
Essay |
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PHILG060
Spring
Wed 11am |
Philosophy of Religion
(A) |
This module will focus each year on four or five theoretical topics in analytic philosophy of religion. Previous study of second-year metaphysics and epistemology modules is not strictly required but is advised. The following are representative topics: theistic and non-theistic explanations of the existence of the universe, biological complexity, and the 'fine-tuning' of physical constants; fictionalist and other non-realist construals of theistic language; the possibility of disembodied persons; necessity, existence and the ontological argument; the compatibility of divine foreknowledge and free will; scepticism about religious experience and scepticism about perceptual experience; testimonial evidence for the occurrence of miracles; circular justifications of epistemic practices. |
Dr Madden |
Essay |
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PHILG057
Spring
Fri 1pm |
Texts from Early Modern Philosophy
(C) |
2012-13
Three Books of Hume
We will be reading through David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature (1739/40). The intention is for us to gain some sense of how the three books that comprise the Treatise fit together (or fail to fit together). Since we cannot read through the complete Treatise in one term, we will focus on four themes, having first looked at some basic elements of Hume’s system.
Note that the best version of the text remains the Selby-Bigge/PH Nidditch edition which is still in print with OUP. The new Fate Norton edition has some useful display features (numbering each paragraph) but a couple of questionable editorial decisions - since it includes the SB page numbering you can use that edition perfectly well for the course too. |
Professor Martin |
Essay |
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PHILG026
Summer
Tues &
Thurs 11am
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Recent work in Political Philosophy
(B) |
Readings will be based on important books or papers published in the last few years. Students will be expected to read one or more chapters or papers each week, and come to the class ready to lead or contribute to discussion of the work set. Students will be examined by means of an essay on one or more of the topics covered in the class. |
Professor Munoz Dardé |
Essay |
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PHILG058
Spring
Thurs 9am |
Special Topics in the History of Ethics
(B) |
This module will focus on Immanuel Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. We will try to understand and evaluate Kant’s views on both meta-ethics and normative ethics and the arguments which he presents for those views there. We will use contemporary reactions to Kant and his other works in ethics to help us with understanding and critiquing the text.
Note that the preferred version of the text is the Cambridge edition, edited by Gregor (& Timmerman). Alternative editions will be serviceable only if they have the standard (Academy edition) page numbers in the margins (should start at page 385 if you want to check before you buy) – without those it will hard for you to know which bits of the text we are talking about. |
Dr Elstein |
Essay |
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PHILG063
Spring
Mon 2pm |
Historical Texts in Political Philosophy -Aristotle’s Politics
(B) |
This optional module is designed to provide students with the opportunity for close study of some central historical texts in political philosophy. It is intended for students with a range of specializations, but some background knowledge in political philosophy.
The text this year will be Aristotle’sPolitics. Through a close study of the Politics we will encounter themes of lasting philosophical significance. These will include questions around ‘the good life’; questions about the desirability of types of political regime (e.g., democratic or aristocratic); and questions about the role and duties of the citizen. |
Dr Machin |
Essay |
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