Module PHIL2031: Early Modern Mavericks

Department: Philosophy

PHIL2031: Early Modern Mavericks

Prerequisites

• None.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To acquaint students with key questions and figures within 17th and early 18th century philosophy.
• Acquire history of philosophy skills, including close textual reading, and crafting scholarly arguments regarding philosophical interpretations

Content

• The course covers a variety of questions, which may include:
• What exists? Material bodies, minds, living beings?
• Are there many things in the world, or just one?
• How do we obtain ideas, and how can we know the world?
• How do minds relate to bodies?
• What are space and time?
• The course covers a range of early modern philosophers, which may include René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Anne Conway, Gottfried Leibniz, John Locke, Elisabeth of Bohemia, and Isaac Newton.

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the module students will have knowledge and understanding of key arguments in the texts, of historical and contextual information bearing on their topics and style, and of some modern critical reactions to them.

• grasp, analyse, evaluate and deploy subject-specific concepts and arguments
• locate, understand, assess and utilise pertinent philosophical (and, where appropriate, historical) sources
• interpret and criticise relevant texts.

• express themselves clearly and succinctly in writing
• comprehend complex ideas, propositions and theories
• defend their opinions by reasoned argument
• seek out and identify appropriate sources of evidence and information
• tackle problems in a clear-sighted and logical fashion.

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

• Lectures deliver basic module-specific information, and provide a framework for further study.
• Discussion groups provide opportunities for students to test their own understanding of the material studied, and defend and debate different opinions.
• Guided reading provides a structure within which students exercise and extend their abilities to make use of available learning resources.
• The summative essay plan provides the opportunity for students to test their knowledge and understanding of the module content, and their ability to present and defend relevant arguments and theories, prior to writing a full essay.
• The summative essay tests knowledge and understanding of the course material, and the ability to identify and explain issues covered in the module, and, using relevant research material, to present different approaches to those issues, and make reasoned judgement on the merits and demerits of such approaches.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

■ 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