MODULE OUTLINE
Modern Liberal Arts
University of Winchester
Semester 2 2015-16
LA 3003 Freedom is to Learn
Thursdays 9am MB1 (week 6 MC108)
Nigel Tubbs
Module Learning Outcomes
Show an ability to employ theorists critically in relation to issues
Show an ability to use concepts as critical tools in discussing issues and questions as appropriate
Show an ability to employ theoretical perspectives as critical tools
Therein, to develop a critical voice informed and deepened by appropriate use of theory as critique.
Sustain a critical relationship to ideas related to the study of philosophical and political issues relating to
subjectivity
Introduction
At the end of the degree perhaps we are left with some unanswered – and in some cases as
yet unasked – questions. Here is my list:
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Will the poor always be with us?
What is a liberal arts education if it still holds to first principles?
What is a liberal arts education if it no longer aspires to first principles?
Can virtue still be taught/could it ever be taught?
Is truth unknowable, and if so why?
Is there anything new under the sun, or are we at an end which can only repeat?
What does Hegel think Kant got wrong, and what does Adorno think Hegel got
wrong?
Can thought think itself (noesis noeseos) as Aristotle supposed?
Is the West’s idea of truth in some sense ‘propertied’?
What, if anything, is the difference between ancient and modern ‘know thyself’?
What of ‘God’ in all this… for example, for Kierkegaard?
Finally, might we speak of a new kind of logic, and educational logic, one that laughs
and cries, and which is vulnerable to having neither a beginning nor an end?
What follows now is a list of sessions, some with specific reading, some with just authors, or
books, that stand for an argument within a debate. I want us to spend the first session
talking about where we feel we are in relation to some of the questions listed above. I’ll
have three short pieces to accompany this. NOTE: essays in on Thursdays in weeks 6 and
11
Week 1
Three Responses to the Modern
Readings:
Weber, M. (1985) ‘Science as a Vocation’ (Wissenschaft als Beruf) in
From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, ed. HH Gerth and CW Mills,
London, RKP.
Braidotti, R. (2013) The Posthuman, Cambridge, Polity Press.
Said, E.W. (2004) Humanism and Democratic Criticism, New York,
Columbia University Press.
Week 2 and thereafter, I am hoping our discussions in week 1 will enable us to shape the
module to some extent. I will speak of the questions above that I think we might address,
but we’ll also see how the discussion goes in week 1. What follows then, are some examples
of sessions with readings, but nothing is definitive… (except, perhaps, education for its own
sake).
First Principles, Prime Mover, infinite regression
Readings:
Plato, (1997) Phaedrus, in Plato Complete Works, Indianapolis,
Hackett Publishing, p524 (§ 245))
Plato, (1970) The Laws, London, Penguin, p. 424; 894e-895a.
Aristotle, Physics, I.1. 184a10-15; II.3. 194b17-23; VIII.5. 256a12256b3; VII.1. 242a50-4; III.4. 203b 6-15;
Aristotle, (1984b) Metaphysics, 1072a19-1072b31.
Aristotle, (1984b) Metaphysics, 1005b18-34
Aristotle, (1984b) Metaphysics, 1074b15-34.
Aristotle, (1984) The Complete Works of Aristotle volume 2, ed. J.
Barnes, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 2392
Aquinas, (1998) Selected Writings, trans. R. McInerny, London:
Penguin, pp. 42-3;
Aquinas, T. (1975) Summa Contra Gentiles Book 3: Providence Part I,
trans V.J. Bourke, Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, p.
101.
Plotinus, (1991) The Enneads, London, Penguin, II. 9. 1, p. 110 take
out… put in God as not knowing himself.
Bacon, R. (1928) Opus Majus, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, p. 797-8.
Duns Scotus, (1987) Philosophical Writings, trans. A. Wolter,
Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company,) p. 39.
R. Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy in The Philosophical
Writings of Descartes vol. 2, trans. J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff & D.
Murdoch, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1984), p. 29.
Potential/Immediacy and Actuality/mediation
Reading:
Aristotle, the Metaphysics 1074b 34
Avicenna, Metaphysics of Healing, p. 142
Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit §808
Hegel, Philosophy of Right, p. 13.
Hyppolite, Genesis and Structure of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit,
p. 166.
Verene, Hegel’s Recollection, p. 3
Peter Osborne, ‘Hegelian Phenomenology and the Critique of Reason
and Society’, Radical Philosophy 32 (Autumn 1982), 8-15; p. 14.
Caygill, H. (1991) ‘Affirmation And Eternal Return In The Free-Spirit
Trilogy’ in Nietzsche and Modern German Thought, ed. Keith AnsellPearson, London: Routledge, pp. 226, 234-5.
Heidegger, Being and Time, pp. 377 & 436.
Rose, Dialectic of Nihilism, pp. 58 & 82-3.
Derrida, Limited Inc. p. 53
Deleuze, difference and repetition, p. 263.
Zizek, Less Than Nothing, p. 502.
liberal arts education with first principles
Reading:
Paideia?
Isocrates, ‘Panegyricus’ in Isocrates with an English Translation in
three volumes, by George Norlin, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard
University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1980; 47-50.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A
1999.01.0144%3Aspeech%3D4%3Asection%3D47
Isocrates, ‘Nicocles or the Cyprians,’ in Isocrates with an English
Translation in three volumes, by George Norlin, Cambridge, MA,
Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1980, 1-9.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A
1999.01.0144%3Aspeech%3D3
Isocrates, ‘Antidosis,’ in Isocrates with an English Translation in three
volumes, by George Norlin, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press;
London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1929, vol. II, pp. 327-9.
Cicero, (1967) De Oratore Books 1 & 2, trans. E.W Sutton, London:
Heinemann, i.71-8, ii. 5-7.
Bicknell, J. (2002) ‘Self-Scrutiny in Maimonides’ Ethical and Religious
Thought,’ Laval théologique et philosophique, Volume 58, Number 3,
October 2002, p. 531-543, opening section on Aristotle.
http://www.erudit.org/revue/ltp/2002/v58/n3/000631ar.html?lang=en
Handout: Antiquity: finding virtue in necessity
Tubbs, N. (2004) ‘Theory and Practice: the Politics of Philosophical
Character,’ Journal of Philosophy of Education, Vol. 38, No. 4, pp. 5536.
Handout: the four cardinal virtues
Seneca, (1997) ‘On Tranquillity of Mind’ in On the Shortness of Life,
London: Penguin.
http://thriceholy.net/Texts/Tranquility.html
Stoics
Marcus Aurelius, (1964) Meditations, Harmondsworth: Penguin,
Books II and IV, and pp. 86, 93, 108, 132.
Epictetus, (2004) Discourses, pp. 28-9, 82, 90.
Epicurus, (1994) The Epicurus Reader, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing
Company, pp. 30-1.
Sextus Empiricus, (2000) Outlines of Scepticism, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, pp. 3-11, 51-2, 57-8, 72.
At peace (tranquillity)
Plotinus, (1991) The Enneads, London: Penguin, VI. 9.;
Pseudo-Dionysius, (1987) Pseudo-Dionysius The Complete Works, NJ:
Paulist Press, pp. 105 & 108-9.
Augustine, (1972) City of God, Harmondsworth: Penguin, pp. 566-7,
590-1, 870-4;
Augustine, (1998) Confessions, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 127.
Wider reading:
Richard of St Victor, (1979) The Twelve Patriarchs, New York, Paulist
Press.
Gillis, D. (2015) Reading Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah, Oregan, The
Littleman Library of Jewish Civilization, pp. 83-4.
Humanism in the Renaissance?
Newman, J.H. (1931) The Idea of a University, London, Longman,
Green and Co, pp. 177-8
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24526/24526-pdf.pdf
Proctor, R.E. (1998) Defining the Humanities, Bloomington, Indiana
UP, pp. 104-5, 109-110, 172-3, 200-1.
Liberal arts without first principles
Reading:
Sim, S. (1999) Derrida and the End of History, Cambridge, Icon Books,
pp. 12-16.
Nietzsche, F. (1968) Genealogy of Morals, in Basic Writings of
Nietzsche, ed. W. Kaufmann, New York, The Modern Library, p. 521
(sec 16).
Deleuze, G. (2001) difference and repetition, London, Continuum, p.
xix.
Fanon, F. (2001) The Wretched of the Earth, London, Penguin,
conclusion, pp. 251-5.
Bernasconi, ‘Kant as an unfamiliar source of racism,’ in Ward, J.K. &
Lott, T.L. (2002) Philosophers on Race, Oxford, Blackwell, pp. 145-151.
(Jacobs, H. (2001) Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, New York, Dover.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html - not in pack)
Adorno, T.W. (2005) Beethoven, Cambridge, Polity Press, p.80.
Beauvoir, S de, (1972) The Second Sex, London, Penguin, pp. 14-18.
Heidegger, M. (1996) ‘Letter on Humanism’ in Basic Writings, ed. D.F.
Krell, London, Routledge, pp. 223-6.
Barad, K. (2007) Meeting the Universe Halfway, Durham, Duke
University Press, pp. 45-6, 134, 136, 156-7, 338-42, 352, 378-81.
Fukuyama, F. (1992) The End of History and the Last Man, London,
Penguin, chapter 31, pp. 328-339.
Article?
Zizek, S. (1999) The Ticklish Subject, London, Verso, pp. xxiii-xxvii.
Kant’s aporia of the experience of truth
Reading:
Kant, I. (1968) Critique of Pure Reason, London, Macmillan, pp. 22-4,
92-3, 104-5, 110-113, 151-5, 191-4, 182-3.
Kant, I. (1989) Critique of Judgement, Oxford, Clarendon Place, pp. 1619.
Tubbs, N. (2004) Philosophy’s Higher Education, Dordrecht, Kluwer,
pp. 1-9, 12-14, 21.
Aporia at the beginning and end
Reading:
Peters, F.E. (1967) Greek Philosophical Terms, New York New York
University Press, pp. 22-3.
Rose, G. (1996) Mourning Becomes the Law, Cambridge, Cambridge
University Press, pp. 6-11.
Aristotle, Metaphysics, in The Complete Works of Aristotle, vol. 2, ed.
J. Barnes, Princeton, Princeton UP, 1003a 6-16 (p. 1584); 1039a 14-23
(p. 1640); 1085a 24-31 (p. 1715); 1086b 14-20 (p. 1717); 1087a 10-25
(pp. 1717-18).
[see also Metaphysics 999a 25 - 999b 5; 1002a 6-16; 1033b 16-19;
1035b 28-31; 1037a 26; chapter 13, book VII; Categories, 2b 5-6; de
Interpretatione, 16a 11-12.]
Cory, T.S. (2014) Aquinas on Self-Knowledge, Cambridge, Cambridge
UP, p. 12.
Kant’s Copernican revolution
Kant, I. (1968) Critique of Pure Reason, London, Macmillan, pp. 22-4.
Galileo’s relativity and Newton’s laws of motion
Hawking, S. (2005) A Briefer History of Time, London, Bantam Books,
chapter 4.
Smolin, L. (1997) The Life of the Cosmos, New York, Oxford UP, pp.
225-30.
Rosenblum & Kuttner (2011) Quantum Enigma, Oxford, Oxford UP,
pp. 27-34 [leave out]
The Kant surprise
‘Although our intellect always feels itself urged towards clearness and
certainty, still our mind often feels itself attracted by uncertainty.
Instead of threading its way with the understanding along the narrow
path of philosophical investigations and logical conclusions… it prefers
to remain with the imagination in the realms of luck and chance.
Instead of living yonder on poor necessity, it revels here in the wealth
of possibilities.’ (Clausewitz, On War, 171)
‘Synthesis, generally speaking, is, as we shall afterwards see, the mere
operation of the imagination—a blind but indispensable function of
the soul, without which we should have no cognition whatever, but of
the working of which we are seldom even conscious. But to reduce
this synthesis to conceptions is a function of the understanding, by
means of which we attain to cognition, in the proper meaning of the
term.’ (Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, A78/B103)
‘Our knowledge springs from two main sources in the mind, first of
which is the faculty or power of receiving representations (receptivity
for impressions); the second is the power of cognizing by means of
these representations (spontaneity in the production of conceptions).
Through the first an object is given to us; through the second, it is, in
relation to the representation (which is a mere determination of the
mind), thought. Intuition and conceptions constitute, therefore, the
elements of all our knowledge, so that neither conceptions without an
intuition in some way corresponding to them, nor intuition without
conceptions, can afford us a cognition.’ (Kant, Critique of Pure Reason,
A50/B74)
‘Without the sensuous faculty no object would be given to us, and
without the understanding no object would be thought. Thoughts
without content are void; intuitions without conceptions, blind’ Kant,
Critique of Pure Reason, A51/B75).
Reading:
Caygill, H. (2013) On Resistance: a philosophy of defiance, London,
Bloomsbury.
Tubbs, (2004) Philosophy’s Higher Education, Dordrecht, Kluwer.
Kant, I. (1968) Critique of Pure Reason, London, Macmillan.
Kant, I. (1989) Critique of Judgement, Oxford, Clarendon Press
Caygill, H (1991) ‘Affirmation and Eternal Return in the Free-Spirit
Trilogy’ in Nietzsche and Modern German Thought, London Routledge.
Adorno and Hegel’s experience of Kant’s aporia; a modern metaphysics
Reading:
Adorno, T.W. (2001) Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, Cambridge, Polity
Press, pp. 66-7 & 79-80.
Hegel, G.W.F. (1977) Phenomenology of Spirit, trans. A.V. Miller,
Oxford, Oxford University Press, §1-3 (pp. 1-3); §16-18 (pp. 9-10); §31
(p. 18); §32 (p. 19); §47 (p. 127); Introduction, pp. 46-57.
Hegel, G.W.F. (1975) Hegel’s Logic, Oxford, Clarendon Press, §10-12,
pp. 14-17.
Know Thyself in Plato
Reading:
Plato, Alcibiades I, from Taylor, T. (2011) Know Thyself, Westbury, The
Prometheus Trust, §128e – 135e (pp. 55-68).
Plato, Charmides in Plato, (1997) Plato Complete Works, ed. J. Cooper,
Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Co., §164d – 167a (pp.651-653).
Plato, Phaedrus, in Plato (1997), §230a (p. 510).
Plato, Philebus, in Plato (1997), 48c – 48e (p. 438).
Know thyself in Aristotle
Reading
Booth, E. (1989) St Augustine and the Western Tradition of SelfKnowing, Villanova University, pp. 308.
Aristotle, (1984) Eudemian Ethics, 1244b 25 – 1245a 10, p. 1973, in
The Complete Works of Aristotle, vol. 2. ed. J Barnes, Princeton,
Princeton UP.
Aristotle, (1984) Magna Moralia, 1213a 8 – 26, p. 1920, in The
Complete Works of Aristotle, vol. 2. ed. J Barnes, Princeton, Princeton
UP.
Aristotle, (1984) On The Soul, III.4, pp. 682-3, in The Complete Works
of Aristotle, vol. 1. ed. J Barnes, Princeton, Princeton UP.
Aristotle, (1984) Metaphysics, XII.7., pp. 1694-5, in The Complete
Works of Aristotle, vol. 2. ed. J Barnes, Princeton, Princeton UP.
Booth, E. (1977) ‘St Augustine’s “notitia sui” related to Aristotle and
the Early Neo-Platonists,’ Augustiniana, vol. 27, pp. 121-4.
Know Thyself in Cicero, Seneca, Plutarch and Boethius
Reading:
Cicero, (1945) Tusculan Disputations, trans, JE King, Massachusetts,
Harvard University Press, I xxii – xxiv, pp. 61-5; V xxv pp. 497-9.
Cicero, (1998) The Laws, London, Penguin, I 58-62, pp. 118-119.
Cicero, (2001) On Moral Ends, trans. R Woolf, Cambridge, Cambridge
University Press, III 73, p. 88; V 44, pp. 132-3.
Cicero, (1913) De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, trans. H Rackham,
London, Heinemann, Book V. 44.
Seneca, (2010) Natural Questions, trans. H.M. Hine, Chicago, Chicago
UP, I 17.4, p. 161.
Plutarch, (1936) Moralia vol V, trans. FC Babbit, Massachusetts,
Harvard UP, 2. Pp. 203-5.
Plutarch (1928) Consolation to Apollonius, Massachusetts, Harvard
UP, 28-9, pp. 184-5.
Boethius, (2000), The Consolation of Philosophy, Oxford, Oxford
World’s Classics, pp. 27, 30-1.
Know thyself in Plotinus
Reading
Plotinus, (1991) The Enneads, London, Penguin, V.3.4-8 (pp. 368-72);
V.3.13 (p. 380); VI.9.6-10 (pp. 542-7); IV.8.1. (p. 334); IV.4.1-2 (pp.
286-7); V.1.1 (pp. 347-8); II.9.1 (p. 110).
Brehier, E. (1958) The Philosophy of Plotinus, Chicago, University of
Chicago Press, pp. 20, 38, 45-6, 162, 164-5, 186-197.
Know Thyself in Proclus
Reading:
Westerink LG & O’Neill, WO, (2011) Proclus Commentary on the First
Alcibiades, Westbury, The Prometheus Trust, 4.18 – 6.2 (pp. 7-9); 14.
– 18. (pp. 18-22); 19.10 – 21.7 (pp. 24-7); 170.20 – 25 (p. 226); 190.1 –
191.3 (pp. 252-4); 191.5 – 192.11 (pp. 254-5); 194.17 – 195.2 (p. 258);
277.18 – 278.13 (p. 364).
Know Thyself in Early Church Writings (& Philo and Lucian)
Reading:
Philo, (1993) The Special Laws I, (De Specialibus Legibis I), trans CD
Yonge, in The Works of Philo, Hendrickson Publishers, pp. 558-9.
Philo, (1993) On Dreams, trans CD Yonge, in The Works of Philo,
Hendrickson Publishers, p. 370.
Philo, (1993) On The Migration of Abraham, trans CD Yonge, in The
Works of Philo, Hendrickson Publishers, p. 272.
Lucian, (1905) on ‘Pantomime’, The Works of Lucian of Samosata, tr.
by H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, p. 262.
Clement of Alexandria, (1867) The Miscellanies or Stromata, Book 1 in
The Writings of Clement of Alexandria vol 1, trans. The Rev. William
Wilson, London: Hamilton & Co, p. 392; Book II, p. 42.; and Book V,
chapter 4, p. 449, in Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2. (1885) Buffalo, NY:
Christian Literature Publishing Co. Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight.
<http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0210.htm>.
Origen, (1957) The Song of Songs, Commentary and Homilies, New
York The Newman Press, pp. 128-39.
Emperor Julian, (1913) The Works of Emperor Julian, vol. 2, London,
Heinemann, Oration VI, pp. 9-18; Oration VII, pp. 127-8;.
Ambrose, (1961) Hexameron, trans. John J. Savage, Fathers of the
Church Inc., vol. 42 pp. 252-3.
Philo, (1993) The Special Laws I, (De Specialibus Legibis I), trans CD
Yonge, in The Works of Philo, Hendrickson Publishers, pp. 558-9.
Know Thyself in Augustine
Reading
Augustine, (1998) Confessions, trans. H Chadwick, Oxford, Oxford
World’s Classics, X. i. (1) – X. iii. (3), pp. 179-80; X. vi. (9-10), p. 184; X.
viii. (15), p. 187; X. xi. (18) – X. xx. (29), pp. 189-97 (on memory); XIII.
xi. (12), pp. 279-80.
Augustine, (2002) On The Trinity, Cambridge, Cambridge UP,
IX.12.(17) pp. 279-80; X.1.(1) – X.4.(6), pp. 42-8; XIV.6.(8) –
XIV.12.(10), pp. 144-54; XV.12.(21) , pp. 190-3; XV.20.(39) –
XV.25.(45), pp. 210-216.
Augustine, (1942) De Ordine, New York, Cosmopolitan Science and Art
Service Inc., p. 11.
Know Thyself in Medieval Christian Philosophy
Readings:
Gilson, E. (2012) The Spirit of Mediaeval Philosophy, Notre Dame,
University of Notre Dame Press, pp. 214-28.
St Bernard, (1921) Treatise on Consideration, Dublin, Browne and
Nolan, pp. 40-1.
Hugh of St Victor, (1991) The Didascalicon of Hugh of Saint Victor,
New York, Columbia University Press, pp. 40-1.
Richard of St Victor, (1979) The Twelve Patriarchs, The Mystical Ark,
Book Three of the Trinity, New Jersey, Paulist Press; ‘The Twelve
Patriarchs (Benjamin Minor)’ pp. 129-136 (and Introduction for wider
reading).
Know Thyself in Medieval Jewish Philosophy
Readings:
Altmann, A. (1969) Studies in Religious Philosophy and Mysticism,
New York, Cornell University Press, pp. 14-28.
Maimonides, M. (1956) The Guide for the Perplexed, trans. M
Friedländer, New York, Dover Publications, chapter 72, pp. 113-119.
Altmann, A. & Stern, SM. (2009) Isaac Israeli, Chicago, University of
Chicago Press, pp. 27, 201-208.
Ibn Saddiq, J. (2003) The Microcosm of Joseph Ibn Saddiq, trans and
Introduction by Jacob Haberman, Madison, Fairleigh Dickinson
University Press, pp. 54, 81-2, 103-4. Also, the Haberman
Introduction, pp. 23-36.
Halevi, J. (1964) The Kuzari, New York, Schocken Books, p. 209.
Gillis, , D. (2015) Reading Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah, Oregon, The
Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, pp. 97-100.
Know Thyself in Medieval Islamic Philosophy
Reading:
Altmann, A. (1969) Studies in Religious Philosophy and Mysticism, New
York, Cornell University Press, pp. 8-14.
al-Kindi in Altmann, A.& Stern, SM. (2009) Isaac Israeli, Chicago,
University of Chicago Press, pp. 28-30 (see Book of Definitions)
Avicenna (Ibn Sina) in Corbin, H. (1988) Avicenna and the Visionary
Recital, Princeton, Princeton University Press, pp. 16-28, 36-8, 80-3,
91-101
Al-Ghazali, (1910) The Alchemy of Happiness, trans. Claud Field,
Forgotten Books, or http://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/tah/tah00.htm
chapter 1
Also translated in
Al-Ghazali, (2010) Al-Ghazali On Knowing Yourself and God, Chicago,
Great Books of the Islamic World, pp. 7-8, 18, 21, 24, 41-4
Al-Ghazali, (2005) Letter to a Disciple, Cambridge, Islamic Texts
Society, p. 56.
Ibn Arabi in Corbin, H. (1997) Alone With the Alone, New Jersey,
Princeton
University Press, pp. 29, 79, 82, 94-5, 105-35.
Ibn Arabi, (1976) ‘Whoso Knoweth Himself’ Beshara Publications, pp.
5-8, 12-17.
A Modern Know Thyself?
Reading:
Handout
Nietzsche’s man of the future and Fukuyama, chapter 31.
Hegel’s Aesthetics: pathos and humour
Kierkegaard’s knights of patience
Du Bois noble slave
Weber’s vocation
Heidegger’s resoluteness
Benjamin’s Intriguer
Kaufmann’s overmen
Zizek’s ironists and cynics
Character
Reading:
handouts
Plato, Republic, §531d-541b
Plato, The Laws,§640-642; Book 1 chapter 2, and §671-2.
Montaigne, Essays, p. 1237.
Pascal, Pensées, pp. 235, 64, 84, 213, 243.
Adorno, Minima Moralia, §119.
Kierkegaard on the Soul
Reading:
Kierkegaard, S. (1983) Repetition, in Fear and Trembling/Repetition,
Princeton, Princeton University Press, p. 173.
Kierkegaard, S. (1967) The Concept of Dread, translated W. Lowrie,
Princeton, Princeton University Press, pp. 70-1, 97, 104, 123, 134-7.
Kierkegaard, S. (1990) Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses, Princeton,
Princeton University Press, pp. 165-7, 170-3, 196, 226, 242-251.
Property, Civil Society & the State
Readings:
Pascal, Pensées, pp. 46-7, 51
Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Part 2.
Hegel, Philosophy of Right, paras. 31-6, 44-6, 49, 105, 151, 156-7, 158,
182-3, 185, 238, 241, 244-8, 258, 340.
Wider reading:
Aristotle, (1981) The Politics, London, Penguin.
Laertius, D. (2005) Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Harvard UP.
Rousseau, JJ. (1988) The Social Contract and Discourses, London,
Dent.
Hegel, GWF, (1991) Elements of the Philosophy of Right, trans. HB
Nisbet, Cambridge UP.
Marx, K. (1992) Early Writings, London, Penguin.
Proudhon, PJ. (2003) What is Property? Virginia, Indypublish.
Zizek, S. (2012) Less Than Nothing, London, Verso.
Philosophers and Race
Readings:
Bernosconi ‘Kant as an unfamiliar source of racism,’ in Ward and Lott
(2002), pp. 145-151.
Kant, (2012) Anthropology, History and Education, Introduction pp. 610, 152-3.
Hegel, Philosophy of Mind, pp. 41-5.
Bernasconi, R. and Lott, T. (eds.) (2000) The Idea of Race, Indianapolis,
Hackett, pp. 202-12.
Verhagen, C. (1997) ‘”The New World and the Dreams to Which it
May Give Rise”: an African and American Response to Hegel’s
Challenge,’ Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 27, No. 4, (March), pp. 456493.
Wider reading:
Kain, Hegel and the Other, pp. 246-59.
Kant, (2012) ‘Observations of the feeling of the beautiful and the
sublime,’ 4th Part.
Kant, (2012) Anthropology, History and Education, pp. 152-5, 159,
199-200.
Kant, (2012) ‘Of the different races of human beings,’ (esp. 84-5, 95).
Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of World History, 144-5, 155-61,
176-8, 182-6, 190-6.
Hegel, Early Theological Writings, 68-9.
Bernasconi and Lott, The Idea of Race
Ward and Lott, Philosophers on Race.
Bürger, The Thinking of the Master, chapter 2.
Park, P.K.J. (2013) Africa, Asia, and the History of Philosophy.
Bernasconi, R. (2000) ‘With What Must the Philosophy of World
History Begin? On the Racial Basis of Hegel's Eurocentrism?’
Nineteenth-Century Contexts, Sep. Vol. 22 Issue 2, p171.
Zizek, S. (1993) Tarrying With the Negative, chapter 6.
Camara, (2005), ‘The Falsity Of Hegel's Theses On Africa’, .
Bataille: sovereignty
Readings:
‘To Whom’
‘Hegel, Death and Sacrifice’
‘Letter to X’
‘Knowledge of Sovereignty’
The Bataille Reader, pp. 277-312
(Botting and Wilson)
Derrida, Writing and Difference, pp. 251-4.
Hyppolite, Genesis and Structure…, pp. 166-7.
Zizek, S. (1993), Tarrying With The Negative, Durham, Duke University
Press, pp. 33-4.
Lacan, J. (2007) The Other Side of Psychoanalysis, New York, Norton,
pp. 20-3.
Wider reading:
Bürger, The Thinking of the Master, chapter 3.
Noys, Bataille, a critical introduction chapter 3.
Rose, Mourning Becomes the Law, chapter 3
Hegel, Aesthetics vol 1, p. 49.
Fanon and Said: masters and slaves
Readings:
Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, Preface, 32-7, 76-9, 84.
Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, Intro 1-7, 168-9
Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, 28-9, 33, 36, 48, 76-8, 84,
conclusion. Check these
Spivak, Can the Subaltern Speak?
Maggio, Can the Subaltern be Heard? 419-21, 431-2.
Bhabha, The Location of Culture, 59-63, 70, 92-3, 338-42.
Said, Culture and Imperialism, xiii-xv, xxii-xxiii, xxviii-xxx, 8-11, 234-5,
388-90, 400-1.
Hallward, Absolutely Postcolonial, 51-3.
Wider reading:
Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, both Forwards.
Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, Preface
Zizek, The Ticklish Subject, pp. 258-9.
C.L.R. James Archive http://www.marxists.org/archive/jamesclr/index.htm
Sartre, Existentialism and Humanism
Bernasconi, R. (2004) ‘Identity and Agency in Frantz Fanon’ Sartre
Studies International. 2004, Vol. 10 Issue 2, p106-109.
Bernasconi, R. (2010) ‘Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth as the
Fulfillment of Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason’ Sartre Studies
International. 2010, Vol. 16 Issue 2, p36-47.
Maggio, Can the Subaltern be Heard? 432-39
Asgharzadeh, The Return of the Subaltern
Williams and Chrisman, Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory
Davidson, Let Freedom Come
Dawkins, The God Delusion, pp. 298-308.
Achebe, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'
http://kirbyk.net/hod/image.of.africa.html
Hulme, Colonial Encounters
Shakespeare, The Tempest
Ngugi, Decolonising the Mind
Novels:
Rushdie, Midnight’s Children
Naipaul, A Bend in the River
Conrad, Nostromo, & Heart of Darkness
Achebe, Things Fall Apart
Ngugi, The River Between
Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
Soyinka, The Lion and the Jewel
Winkler, Going Home to Teach
Chamoiseau, School Days
Slave ‘stories’
McLaurin, M.A. (1991) Celia, a Slave, New York, Avon Books.
Douglass, F. (2009) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Oxford,
Oxford University Press.
Northup, S, (2014) 12 Years a Slave, London, HarperCollins.
Jacobs, H. (2001) Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, New York, Dover.
Equiano, O. (1789/2005) The Interesting Narrative of the Life of
Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African Written By Himself,
London.
Black slavery
du Bois, The Souls of Black Folks, chapter 1, &p. 356.
du Bois, The Conservation of the Races, pp. 7-15.
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31254
du Bois, The Education of Black People, 26-31, 106-8, 128, 179, 187.
Fanon, black skin white mask, ‘The Fact of Blackness’
Diop, Civilization of Barbarism, 3, 16, 23, 362-6, 375-6.
Tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness, 34-6, 40, 154-5, 212-19.
Ansbro, Martin Luther King, The Making of a Mind, pp. 121-8, 298,
214-15.
Wider reading
du Bois The Souls of Black Folks, chapter 11
du Bois, ‘du Bois Speaks to Africa,’
http://www.nathanielturner.com/duboisspeakstoafrica1958.htm
du Bois, The Education of Black People
Tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness
Diop, C.A, (1991) Civilization or Barbarism, chapter 17.
Krog, Country of my Skull,
ML King Jnr, (1956) ‘Facing the Challenge of a new age’
http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol3/3-Dec-1956_FacingtheChallenge.pdf
ML King Jnr, ‘Introduction’ to The Papers of ML King Jnr, vol. II
Rediscovering Precious Values, Berkley, University of California Press
http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol2Intro.pdf
ML King Jnr, The Papers of ML King Jnr, vol. II Rediscovering Precious
Values, Berkley, University of California Press, (on Maritain, pp. 11924; on Hegel, pp. 154, 196-201).
ML King Jnr, Stride Toward Freedom
Bernasconi, R, (2009) ‘Our Duty to Conserve: W. E. B. Du Bois's
Philosophy of History in Context’ South Atlantic Quarterly
Summer2009, Vol. 108 Issue 3, p. 519-540.
Bernasconi, R. (2011) ‘The Impossible Logic of Assimilation,’ Journal of
French and Francophone Philosophy, vol. 19. No. 2
http://jffp.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/jffp/article/view/490
Ellison, R. (1952/2001) Invisible Man.
Genet, J. (1960) The Blacks: a clown show.
Morrison, T. (2005) Song of Solomon.
James Meredith http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19734976
Animals
Readings:
Bataille, Theory of Religion, pp. 17-25; 27-9; 39-42; 57.
Bentham, The Principles of Morals and Legislation, 1789, Chapter XVII,
Section1, para 6 and footnote
http://www.econlib.org/library/Bentham/bnthPML18.html#a122
or http://www.animal-rights-library.com/texts-c/bentham01.pdf
Derrida, The Animal That Therefore I am, pp. 3-5, 11-14, 23, 25-9, 32,
34, 41, 45-51.
Zizek, (2012) Less Than Nothing, pp. 408-416.
Hegel, (1984) Lectures on the Philosophy of World History, pp. 49-50.
Descartes, (1985), Discourse on the Method, part 5, 57-60.
Adorno, Beethoven, p.80.
Levinas, (1990) ‘The Name of a Dog, or Natural Rights’.
Wider reading:
Noys, George Bataille, a critical introduction, pp. 136-41.
Canetti, Kafka’s Other Trial, pp. 96-103.
Porphyry, Select Works of Porphyry: Containing His Four Books on
Abstinence from Animal Food, His Treatise on the Homeric Cave of the
Nymphs (1823)
Montaigne, (2003) Apology for Raymond Sebond, 3.2.
Augustine, (2002) On The Trinity, XII. 1 & 2.
Hume, A Treatise on Human Nature, pp. 226-9, 375-8, 444-6.
Locke, J. (2004) An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book II
chapter xi.
Kant, (1996) or (2012) ‘Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View,’
part 2, section E.
Kant, (2012) Lectures on Pedagogy, opening paragraphs, and pp. 44950 on meat.
Kant, (2012) ‘Conjectural beginning of human history’
Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of World History: Introduction, p.
133.
Leibniz, ‘Principles of Nature and Grace, Based on Reason,’ (1714) in
Leibniz, 1998, pp. 258-66.
Plato, Timaeus, 42 b-d, 91d – 92c
Republic, 375d – 376c
Laws, 961d,
Theaetetus, 186 b-c
Aristotle, On the Soul, book2, part 3; 428a19-24; book 3, parts 12-13.
Metaphysics, 980b1-981a3
History of Animals, 8.1
Politics, 1:5.
Rubens, Bellerophon, Pegasus and Chimera (1635); see Homer, The
Iliad, book 6, 155-203).
Henry Corbin and Edward Said: Orient and re-orient
Reading
Corbin, H. (1988) Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, Princeton,
Princeton University Press, pp. 16-28, 36-8, 80-3, 91-101.
Corbin, H. (2006) History of Islamic Philosophy, London, Kegan Paul, p.
249.
Said, Orientalism, pp. xxii-xxiii, 31-49, 59-60, 68-73, 96, 104, 108, 110
Wider Reading
Corrado, Orientalism in Reverse: Henry Corbin, Iranian Philosophy, and
the Critique of the West, at summit.sfu.ca/system/files/iritems1/9613/etd0507.pdf
The Daily Star, (Bangladesh) at
http://www.thedailystar.net/2003/10/04/d31004210289.htm
Said, ‘Zionism from the Standpoint of its Victims’
Porter, ‘Orientalism and its Problems’ in Williams, P. and Chrisman, L.
(1993)
Ahmad, ‘Orientalism and After’ in Williams, P. and Chrisman, L. (1993)
Henry Corbin: Ibn Arabi, sympathy and sovereignty
Reading:
Corbin, Alone With the Alone, pp. 29, 79, 82, 94-5, 105-35.
Wider reading:
the main websites for Corbin, http://henrycorbinproject.blogspot.co.uk/
Also:
From Heidegger to Suhravardi: an interview with Philippe Nemo
http://www.imagomundi.com.br/espiritualidade/corbin_heid_suhr.p
df
Cheetham, The world turned inside out: Henry Corbin and Islamic
mysticism
Nasr, "Henry Corbin: The Life and Works of the Occidental Exile in
Quest of the Orient of Light."
Mahmoud, ‘Ta’wil and the Angel’
http://www1.amiscorbin.com/textes/anglais/From%20Heidegger%20
to%20Suhrawardi%20%27Tawil%20and%20the%20Angel%27.pdf
Mahmoud, From ‘Heidegger to Suhrawardi’: An Introduction to the
thought of Henry Corbin,
http://www1.amiscorbin.com/textes/anglais/2007%20From%20Heid.CorbinIntro.pdf
of the master
Reading:
Lecture notes from Tubbs, Contradiction of Enlightenment, chapter 5
Horkheimer and Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment, pp. ix-xvii; 3-17;
167.
Jarvis, Adorno, pp. 13-14; 20-7.
Adorno, Minima Moralia, pp. 102-3.
Adorno, Negative Dialectics, pp. 4-6, 17, 144-7, 152-3, 406
Adorno, The Positivist Dispute in German Sociology, p. 24.
Rose, The Melancholy Science, pp. 19-20, 138,
Adorno, ‘Cultural Criticism and Society’ in Prisms, pp. 19-21.
Wider readings.
Tubbs, ‘Becoming Critical of Critical Theory of Education’
Jay, The Dialectical Imagination
Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School,
Muller-Doohm, Adorno, a biography
Claussen, Adorno, one last genius
Buck-Morss, The Origin of Negative Dialectics
Eagleton, Figures of Dissent
Dante and Beatrice
Reading:
Dante, Vita Nuova at
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41085
Auerbach, Dante Poet of the Secular World, pp. 60-8.
Dante, Convivio, (trans. Lansing), chapter 12 at
http://dante.ilt.columbia.edu/books/convivi/convivio02.html#12
Wider reading:
Gilson, Dante and Philosophy
TS Eliot, Dante (from The Sacred Wood) at
http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw14.html
TS Eliot, Dante (1929)
Lewis, Dante, A Life
Ryan, Dante and Aquinas
Boccaccio, Life of Dante
Sayers, Introductory Papers on Dante
Jacoff, Cambridge Companion to Dante
Kierkegaard and the Seducer
Reading:
Kierkegaard, Johannes Climacus, 118-125, 166-72.
Kierkegaard, Either/Or (1) pp. 38-43,71-80, 89-119, 123, 141, 147-8,
156-7, 166-7, 376, 390, 423, 445, 501, 555, 558.
Kierkegaard, Papers and Journals, 412-22, 430-2, 138-46.
Lowrie, A Short Life of Kierkegaard, 135-43.
Kierkegaard, Stages on Life’s Way, (Quidam’s Diary) 226, 231,236,
241, 244.
Rose, Love’s Work, chapter 8.
Wider reading:
Kierkegaard, Either/Or (1 & 2)
Rousseau, Emile, book 5.
Hegel, Philosophy of Right, ‘The Family’ (and Addition, §166).
Kierkegaard, Stages on Life’s Way, 329-35, and 195-397 (or, 209, 211,
215, 216, 222, 225, 239, 241, 260, 305, 315, 320, 330-1, 375-7, 395-6).
Tubbs, Philosophy’s Higher Education, chapter 4.
McDonald, ‘Love in Kierkegaard’s Symposia’
http://www.minerva.mic.ul.ie//vol7/kierkegaard.html
Kafka and Felice
Reading:
Kafka, Letters to Felice, May 1913-June 1913 (pp. 289-313); July 1913
(pp. 320-5); Aug-Sep 1913 (pp. 328-9; 339-47; 351-60); Dec 1913-Jan
1914 (pp. 373-9); various (pp. 183-4; 396-7; 428-9; 472 474-9, 508,
566-8).
Brod (ed.) The Diaries of Franz Kafka, July 1913 (p. 225); Aug 1913
(p227-8, 230); Dec 1913 (p. 243); Feb 1914 (p. 259); March 1914 (pp.
262-3); various (pp. 275; 293-4; 328, 330, 385, 387, 393, 410).
Canetti, Kafka’s Other Trial, pp. 37-8, 43-53, 60-5, 69-78; 88-91.
Wider Reading:
Sartre, Existentialism and Humanism.
Kafka, The Trial.
Hegel, (1975) Love
Hegel, The Letters, pp. 234-52.
Assessment
Assessment 1: (50%)
…. (2250-2500 words; deadline: (Thursday week 6; 18th Feb) given
to Catherine in the Office by 3.30pm).
Assessment 2: (50%)
…..
(2250-2500 words; deadline (Thursday week 11; 24th March)
given to Catherine in the Office by 3.30pm).
Use Harvard Referencing
We attempt always to return work within 3 working weeks (15 days working days).
MODERN LIBERAL ARTS MARK SCHEME
We want you to be very clear about how we will mark your work and that means you must know with each
assessment what you are expected to do. We hope that this does not mean you will feel that you have to write
to a formula. We are trying to build in considerable freedom to your assessments; but as the term ‘liberal arts’
conveys, in every freedom there is a discipline, and in every discipline there is a freedom; together, we hope,
they constitute the struggle of learning.
There are (often but not always) two types of essays in MLA: the first assessment title in a module will most
often be set by the tutor and will be restricted to texts explored in the first weeks. The second assessment title
can be tutor-led, or chosen from a list of titles, or can be negotiated individually; this varies according to the
tutor and the module. This assignment can explore wider issues, employ wider reading, or explore a single
issue in depth. Students will bear some responsibility for the references consulted in the second essay,
increasing through years 1, 2 and 3.
Tutor-set assessments (disciplina)
Student/tutor-set assessments (libertas)
1st module essay
2nd module essay
Marks for
 depth of understanding specialist
terminology
 depth of understanding of set texts
 depth of understanding of ideas/concepts
 evidence by quotation
 answering the question
 correct referencing
 word limit
Marks for
 depth of understanding of texts
 depth of understanding and application of
ideas/concepts
 evidence-based critical arguments
 depth/breadth of reading (depending on
the question)
 answering your own question
 correct referencing
 word limit
Note the difference between essays 1 and 2: the first one is marked only on your understanding of texts; the
second one is marked on understanding, on your own reading, and your emerging critical voice. Be careful
here; being critical does not mean just giving your opinions. It means making a case based on evidence from
your reading, using ideas and concepts from texts. It does not mean you have to fight for one side of an
argument or another… ambivalence will be treated with great respect. But for every essay, remember this: if
we (and you) get the title right, then by answering the question you will be doing exactly what is required.
Over years 1, 2 and 3 the levels of your work are raised by using increasingly challenging texts, ideas, concepts
and writers, and by the way you are able to employ ideas, concepts and writers from other modules across the
degree in increasingly sophisticated ways.
For all essays, then
Depending on the question you will need to




Demonstrate reflection on module material and the wider contexts from across the degree which
might impact upon it
Communicate experiences of texts and ideas as appropriate
Show knowledge and understanding of specialist terminology
Demonstrate requisite research skills in gathering, summarizing and presenting evidence including
proficiency in referencing and academic conventions.
For essay 1
Depending on the question you will need to





Show careful reading of primary sources
Show a knowledge of theoretical perspectives and/or works
Show an understanding of abstract concepts and ideas within theoretical perspectives
Show an ability to work with theorists and their concepts in various forms of assessment as
appropriate
Show evidence of engagement with texts and ideas concerned with issues raised in the module.
For essay 2
Depending on the question you will need to




Show an ability to employ theorists critically in relation to issues
Show an ability to use concepts as critical tools in discussing issues and questions as appropriate
Show an ability to employ theoretical perspectives as critical tools
Therein, to develop a critical voice informed and deepened by appropriate use of theory as
critique.
 Sustain a critical relationship to ideas related to the module
It is often hard to explain in generic terms how any particular essay could have been improved. But, cautiously,
we can say the following:
In general,
a 3rd (40-49%) may have ignored the question, may have not given much evidence of reading, may have clumsy
sentence structure, but will still have made a bona fide attempt at the work.
a 2.2 (50-59%) will have provided evidence of reading, quotations where appropriate, clear sentence structure,
attended to the question or title, but not related the material in ways which synthesise more developed and
complex thinking.
a 2.1 (60-69%) will have evidence of reading through effective selection of quotation, being able to make
specific points, and to relate material together to make broader and/or deeper and more complex
observations. At the higher end, it may have been able to relate material from across modules, or across the
degree as a whole, to synthesise separate ideas and issues into more holistic comments, ideas and problems.
The questions addressed will be getting ever more difficult and important, including those that are asked
without being answered.
a 1st (70-100%) will make a little go a long way. Quotations may carry implications beyond their precise
content; sentences will be clear but able to refine complex ideas succinctly; most importantly, it will be able to
combine the microcosm of its subject matter with the macrocosm of its place in the wider context, and these
contexts will be drawn form the overall, experience of the degree, growing obviously from years 1 to 3. No
inaccuracies of grammar or sentence construction, and no referencing mistakes are expected here. The voice
of the essay will be in control of difficult material throughout. Above all the questions asked and addressed will
be compelling in their difficulty and import.
Module Evaluations (previous year)
Unfortunately module evaluations here received a very small number of responses, and some of those
gave only one word to each category. This undoubtedly represents something of ‘evaluation fatigue’
not only at the end of the second semester but for these students at the end of their degree. The
module continues to take a flexible approach to its content, depending upon the interests and history
of the group in question. The differences between year groups has been commented on in programme
committees, APEs, and in external examiner's reports. This means that each year a bespoke experience
can be planned for, and it is the intention to continue this practice next year.
Catalogue summary
This module looks back to thinking that has featured throughout the programme but also forward to
leaving the Academy and becoming a graduate in the world beyond. It explores the concept of modern
freedom and in particular examines the idea of Western subjective freedom in relation to such
fundamental concepts as life and death, God and man, and master and slave. As you prepare to leave
University, we will explore ways in which your higher education might serve you in what lies beyondfor employment as for existence itself.