Module LIBA1011: Sources of the Self

Department: Liberal Arts

LIBA1011: Sources of the Self

Prerequisites

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• To introduce students to a variety of conceptual frameworks for defining and interpreting human selfhood and identity from the standpoint of the challenges of and to selfhood in the present, ranging from antiquity to the present and including the multiple disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches available within the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
• To introduce students to a variety of conceptual frameworks for interpreting historical periodization and change over time, possibly including but not limited to religion, and cosmology, scientific, economic and technological change, colonialism and decolonisation, gender and sexuality, and climate change, as well as opposition to these forces, and the relationship of these ideas to problems of selfhood in the present.
• To develop critical skills in the close reading and analysis of texts, as well as the interpretation of other cultural artifacts such as visual art and music, with attention to their distinctive forms, as well as their disparate cultural and historical contexts.
• To develop critical skills in the use of artificial intelligence.
• To equip students to engage in debates around contemporary concerns over the nature and meaning of selfhood, including but not limited to free will versus determinism, the relationship with God/gods and the world, the marginalisation of others, the impact of work and technology on mental health, the extent our agency to choose who we are, artificial intelligence, and our attitudes towards the environment.
• To encourage and support students bringing together methods and materials from different disciplines within the Faculty of Arts and Humanities into coherent interdisciplinary inquiries and conclusions.

Content

• Explores the contested concepts of human nature and what, if anything, it means to have or be a ‘self’.
• Considers the most basic and immediate scale of ethical relations between the self and others, be they other people or animals, other cultures and traditions of thinking, or technology and nonhuman environments.
• Investigates tensions between autonomy and community, including competing claims about the relative scope of individual human agency, as well as the ethical complications inherent in imposing limits on individual human freedom.

Learning Outcomes

• Subject-specific Knowledge:
• Students studying this module will show:
• a detailed, multifaceted, and interdisciplinary understanding of the ways in which different cultural traditions, as well as different disciplines within the humanities, have endeavoured over time to discern and articulate the various conceivable internal and external forces that shape us each as individuals into who we are.
• an informed awareness of influential claims about human selfhood and identity as advanced both implicitly through the arts and explicitly through scholarly work in the humanities, noting the reciprocal relation between critical theory and artistic practice.
• an informed awareness of continuity and changes in beliefs about selfhood from antiquity to the present.
• an informed awareness of similarities and differences between cultural traditions, as well as their distinctive internal tensions and development over time.

• Students studying this module will show:
• the ability to use historical sources to inform contemporary debates around selfhood.
• a capacity for interdisciplinary analysis of cultural artifacts as primary sources, drawing on methods and materials from multiple disciplines within the humanities.
• critical skills in the close reading and analysis of texts as literature, as argumentation, and as historical evidence.
• critical skills in interpreting non-verbal cultural artifacts such as visual art and music.
• critical skills in discerning the relations between form and content in cultural artifacts, noting connections between formal conventions, historical context, and cultural traditions.
• critical skills in working across the traditional boundaries of scholarly disciplines within the Arts and Humanities, combining different approaches to interpretation.

• Students studying this module will show:
• independent research in secondary sources.
• independent thought and judgement, evaluating arguments proposed by others and formulating original arguments in response, both in writing and in conversation.
• written and oral communication skills.
• competence in time-management.
• information-technology skills, including but not limited to word-processing, electronic data access and the legitimate use of AI.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Lectures will structure learning, providing both overviews of course material, and specific guidance on how to approach the summative exercises, led by the module convenor, who will also bring together overarching themes covered across different sessions. Some sessions may employ the ‘flipped classroom’ method.
• Seminars will: provide an opportunity to develop critical skills in analysis and interpretation, as well as verbal expression, through peer-group discussion led by an instructor.
• The first Summative Essay: tests students’ ability to marshal evidence from primary sources, select and engage with relevant secondary sources, and formulate a coherent, convincing persuasive argument around competing claims about human selfhood and identity. Through engagement with AI, it will also teach them how to construct the best possible versions of an argument – and to construct their own arguments in response.
• The second summative essay will also ask students to reflect on how the materials covered in the module have informed their own sense of selfhood, drawing direct links between theory and lived experience. It will also encourage them to see the value of the humanities as a tool for living better.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Students will deliver a 5 minute presentation during one of the seminars.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University