MODULE OUTLINE
Modern Liberal Arts
University of Winchester
Semester 2 Jan 2016
LA 3008 Human Nature
Thursdays 12.30-14.30 MB 1
(week 6 MCT 1)
Elina Staikou
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 concerning human nature.
Weekly sessions/Readings/Wider reading
Week 1
Introduction
Reading:
Aeschylus (2008) Prometheus Bound, pp. 487-503.
Grmek, M. (1999) The Third Bio-Medical Revolution
Benjamin, W. (1997) 'To the Planetarium', pp. 103-104.
Wider reading:
Grmek, M. (1991) Diseases in the Ancient Greek World
Grmek, M. (1993) History of AIDS: Emergence and Origin of a
Modern Pandemic
Benjamin, W. (1997) One Way Street
Gonzalez, J-P et al. (2010) 'Pathocenosis: A Holistic Approach to
Disease Ecology'
Arrizabalaga, J. (2005) 'History of Disease and the Longue Durée'
Ferris, D. S. (ed) (2004) The Cambridge Companion to Walter
Benjamin
Nielsen, A. V. (1993) 'Walter Benjamin and Technology'
Magner, L. (2002) A History of the Life Sciences
Rhizomes, Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge
Week 2
Henri Atlan: Is Science Inhuman?
Reading:
Atlan, H. (2011) 'Is Science Inhuman? An Essay on Free
Necessity', pp. 32-62.
Wider reading:
Geroulanos S. & Meyers T. 'Introduction to Complexity' pp. 1-31.
Atlan, H. (2011) 'Intentional Self-Organization: Emergence and
Reduction, Toward a Physical Theory of Intentionality,' pp. 65-94.
Atlan, H. (1993) Enlightenment to Enlightenment: Intercritique of
Science and Myth
Dupuy, J-P (2006) 'Henri Atlan', The Columbia History of TwentiethCentury French Thought
Week 3
Martin Heidegger: The Question Concerning
Technology
Readings:
Heidegger, M. (1977) 'The Question Concerning Technology'
Technology Studies, pp. 3-35.
Wider reading:
Heidegger, M. (1977) 'The Age of the World Picture'
Dreyfus, H.L. & Wrathall, M.A. (2007) A Companion to
Heidegger
Sallis, J. (ed) (1993) Reading Heidegger: Commemorations
Polt, R. (1998) Heidegger: An Introduction
de Beistegui, M. (2003) Thinking with Heidegger:
Displacements
Bailey, J (2014) 'Enframing the Flesh: Heidegger,
Transhumanism, and the Body as 'Standing Reserve' '
Week 4
Georges Canguilhem: Life & Knowledge
Reading:
Canguilhem, G. (1991) The Normal and the Pathological, pp.
39-46, 181-186.
Canguilhem, G. (2008) Knowledge of Life, pp. xvii-xx, 121-133.
Wider reading:
Canguilhem, G. (1991) The Normal and the Pathological
Canguilhem, G. (2008) Knowledge of Life
Canguilhem, G. (2012) Writings on Medicine
Foucault, M. (1991) 'Introduction' to Georges Canguilhem's The
Normal and the Pathological
Delaporte, F. (ed) (1994) A Vital Rationalist, Selected Writings
from Georges Canguilhem
Geroulanos, S. (2009) 'Beyond the Normal and the Pathological:
Recent Literature on Georges Canguilhem'
Marrati P. & Meyers T. (2008) 'Foreword: Life as Such'
Rabinow, P. (1994) 'Introduction: A Vital Rationalist'
Roudinesco, E. (2008) Philosophy in Turbulent Times:
Canguilhem, Sartre, Foucault, Althusser, Deleuze, Derrida
Week 5
Gilbert Simondon: Technical Objects
Reading:
Simondon, G. (1958) On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects,
pp. 1-33.
Simondon, G. (2008) The Genesis of the Individual, pp. 297-319.
Wider reading:
De Boever, A., Murray A., Roffe, J. and Woodward, A. (eds)
(2012) Gilbert Simondon, Being and Technology
Scott, D. (2014) Gilbert Simondon's Psychic and Collective
Individuation: A Critical Introduction and Guide
Stiegler, B. (2012) 'The Theatre of Individuation: Phase-Shift and
Resolution in Simondon and Heidegger'
Lecourt, D. (2012) 'The Question of the Individual in George
Canguilhem and Gilbert Simondon'
Toscano, A. (2007) 'Technical Culture and the Limits of
Interaction: A Note on Simondon'
Mulder, A. and Brouwer J. (eds) (2007) Interact or Die
Week 6
Bernard Stiegler: Humanity & Technics
Reading:
Stiegler, B. (1998) Technics and Time 1, The Fault of Epimetheus, pp.
85-95, 148-158.
Stiegler, B. (2013) What Makes Life Worth Living, On Pharmacology,
pp. 9-11, 27-36.
Nuffield Council on Bioethics (2012) Emerging Biotechnologies:
Technology, Choice and the Public Good, pp. 8-14.
Wider reading:
Ars Industrialis, http://arsindustrialis.org/
Stiegler, B. (2012) 'A Rational Theory of Miracles: On
Pharmacology and Transindividuation'
Stiegler, B. (2012) 'Interview: From Libidinal Economy to the
Ecology of the Spirit'
Stiegler, B. (2008) Technics and Time 2, Disorientation
Aeschylus (2008) Persians, Seven Against Thebes, Suppliants,
Prometheus Bound
Barker, S. (2009) 'Transformation as an Ontological Imperative:
The [Human] Future According to Bernard Stiegler'
Beardsworth, R. (1995) 'From a Genealogy of Matter to a
Politics of Memory: Stiegler's Thinking of Technics'
Derrida, J. & Stiegler, B. (2002) Echographies of Television,
Filmed Interviews
New Formations Special Issue on Stiegler, March 2013.
Week 7
Immunology and the Limits of the Self
Reading:
Tauber, A.I. (2012) 'From the Immune Self to Moral Agency', pp.
101-105.
Pradeu, T. (2012) The Limits of the Self, Immunology and
Biological Identity, pp. 15-19, 32-37, 49-59.
Esposito, R. (2011) Immunitas, The Protection and Negation of
Life, pp. 1-20.
Wider reading:
Tauber, A.I. (1997) The Immune Self, Theory or Metaphor?
Tauber, A.I. (2000) 'Moving Beyond the Immune Self?'
Pradeu, T. (2012) The Limits of the Self, Immunology and Biological
Identity
Silverstein, A.M. (1989) A History of Immunology
Medawar, P.B. (1957) The Uniqueness of the Individual
Howes, M. (2011) 'Self and Nonself'
Esposito, R. (2011) Immunitas, The Protection and Negation of Life
Esposito, R. (2008) Bios, Biopolitics and Philosophy
Haraway, D. (1991) 'The Biopolitics of Postmodern Bodies:
Constitutions of Self in Immune System Discourse'
Cohen, Ed (2009) A Body Worth Defending: Immunity, Biopolitics, and
the Apotheosis of the Modern Body
Staikou, E. (2014) 'Putting in the Graft: Philosophy and Immunology'
Week 8
Grafted Bodies: Immunology and Transplantation
Reading:
Nancy, J-L (2008) 'The Intruder' pp. 161-170.
Varela, F.J. (2001) Intimate Distances -Fragments for a
Phenomenology of Organ Transplantation
http://www.oikos.org/varelafragments.htm
Wider reading:
Nancy, J-L (2008) Corpus
Varela, F.J. (1991) 'Organism: A Meshwork of Selfless Selves'
Varela, F. (1995) 'The Emergent Self'
Maturana H.R & Varela F.J. (1980) Autopoeisis and Cognition,
The Realization of the Living.
Brent, L. (1997) A History of Transplantation Immunology
Derrida, J. (2005) On Touching, Jean-Luc Nancy
Derrida, J. (2004) 'Grafts, a Return to Overcasting' Dissemination, pp.
389-392.
Geroulanos, S. & Todd Meyers (2009) 'A Graft, Physiological and
Philosophical: Jean-Luc Nancy's L'Intrus'
Blacker, S. (2010) 'Incorporating the Gift: The Béant Community of
Jean-Luc Nancy's L'Intrus'
Esposito, R. (2011) 'The Implant', pp. 145-177.
Staikou, E. (2014) 'Putting in the Graft: Philosophy and Immunology'
Week 9
Biomedicine and the Future of Human Reproduction
Reading:
Edwards, R. (1989) Life Before Birth, Reflections on the Embryo
Debate, pp. 133-143.
Jones, H. (2013) Personhood Revisited, Reproductive Technology,
religion and the Law, pp. 139-147.
Nuffield Council on Bioethics (2012), Novel Techniques for the
Prevention of Mitochondrial DNA Disorders, An Ethical Review, pp. 4647, 55-57, 77-79.
BBC Two (5 February 2003) Motherland: a genetic journey,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2003/02_feb
ruary/05/motherland.shtml
Haimowitz R. & Sinha Vaisha, Made in India: A Film About Surrogacy,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uqBP17ZERQ
Frank, Z.B. (2009) Google Baby
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQGlAM0iWFM
Derrida, J. & Roudinesco, E. Disordered Families, pp. 33-46.
Wider reading:
Atlan, H. (2011) 'The Mother Machine'
Atlan, H. '(2011) 'Ectogenesis and Reproductive Cloning:
Reasons for and Against'
Parker, A. The Theorist's Mother
Callahan, J. Reproduction, Ethics, and the Law,
Feminist Perspectives.
Deech R. & Smajdor, A. (2007) From IVF to Immortality
Stanworth, M. Reproductive Technologies, Gender,
Motherhood and Medicine
Inhorn, M.C. & Birenbaum-Carmeli, D. 'Assisted Reproductive
Technologies and Culture Change'
Winddance Twine, F. (2011) Outsourcing the Womb: Race,
Class and Gestational Surrogacy in a Global Market.
Staikou, 'Generative Graft: Reproductive Technology and the
Dilemmas of Surrogacy', pp. 40-46. Nuffield Council on Bioethics,
Novel Techniques for the Prevention of Mitochondrial DNA Disorders,
An Ethical ReviewHuman Fertilization & Embryology Authority
http://www.hfea.gov.uk/
Week 9
Neurobiology, Neurotechnology and the Embodied
Mind
Reading:
Edelman, G.M. (2004) Wider than the Sky, pp. 1-31.
Kandel, Eric (1999) “Biology and the Future of Psychoanalysis: A New
Intellectual Framework for Psychiatry Revisited”, pp. 505–524.
Malabou, C. (2008) What Should We Do With Our Brain? pp. 1-14, 7882.
Nuffield Council on Bioethics (2013) Novel Neurotechnologies,
Intervening in the Brain, Chapter 2, pp. 10-14.
Kurzweil, R. (2014), Get Ready for Hybrid Thinking
http://www.ted.com/talks/ray_kurzweil_get_ready_for_hybrid_thinki
ng#t-3493
Wider reading:
Edelman, G.M. (1994) Bright Air, Brilliant Fire: On the Matter
of the Brain
Edelman, G.M. (2004) Wider than the Sky, The Phenomenal
Gift of Consciousness
Kandel, Eric R. (2007) In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New
Science of Mind
Malabou, C. (2008) What Should We Do With Our Brain?
Malabou, C. (2012) The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain
Damage
Malabou, C. (2004) The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,
Temporality and Dialectic
Silverman, H.J. (2010) 'Malabou, Plasticity, and the Sculpturing
of the Self'
Pitts-Taylor, V. (2010) 'The Plastic Brain: Neoliberalism and the
Neuronal Self'
Moreira, T. & Palladino, P. (2005) 'Between Truth and Hope: On
Parkinson's Disease, Neurotransplantation and the Production of
the 'Self' '
Nuffield Council on Bioethics (2013) Novel Neurotechnologies,
Intervening in the Brain
Week 11
Human Cloning, Enhancement and the Posthuman
Reading:
Atlan, H. (2011) 'Human Cloning: Biological Possibilities, Social
Impossibilities', pp. 351-365.
Derrida, J. (2005) Rogues, Two Essays on Reason, pp. 145-148.
Nuffield Council on Bioethics (2013) Novel Neurotechnologies,
Intervening in the Brain, Chapter 8, pp. 162-165.
Haraway, D. 'A Cyborg Manifesto, Science, Technology and SocialistFeminism in the Late Twentieth Century,' 291-295.
Miller, P. & Wilsdon J. (2006) 'Stronger, Longer, Smarter, Faster'
Better Humans? The Politics Of Human Enhancement and Life
Extension, pp. 13-18.
Kurzweil, R. (2009), A University for the Coming Singularity
http://www.ted.com/talks/ray_kurzweil_announces_singularity_univ
ersity
de Grey, A. (2005) 1000-year lifespans are closer than they seem: A
reply to Kirkwood.
http://sageke.sciencemag.org/community/forum/short/sageke_el_32
4.dtl
Wider reading:
Haraway, D. (1991) Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of
Nature, Oxford: Routledge.
Habermas, J. (2003) The Future of Human Nature, Oxford: Polity Press.
Miller, P. & Wilsdon J. (2006) Better Humans? The Politics Of Human
Enhancement and Life Extension
West, M. (2003) The Immortal Cell: One Scientist's Quest to Solve the
Mystery of Human Aging
More, M. & Vita-More, N. (eds) (2013) The Transhumanist Reader:
Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and
Philosophy of the Human Future
Braidotti, R. (2013) The Posthuman
Rose, N. (2007) The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power
and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century
Palladino, P. (Dec 2011) 'Miranda's Story: Molecules, Populations and
the Mortal Organism'
http://www.extropy.org/resources.htm
http://www.kurzweilai.net/
Week 12
Conclusions
Assessment 1:
1. Using texts from weeks 1-6 critically discuss different perspectives on the relation
between technology and /or the life sciences to human nature
(2,250 -2500 words; deadline Thursday week 7, February 25th to Catherine, by 3.30 )
Assessment 2:
1. Critically discuss some of the implications of recent advances of biomedicine for our
understanding of human nature
2. Critically discuss different perspectives on the philosophical or bioethical responses
to biomedicine
3. Individually negotiated essay question
(2,250-2,500 words; deadline Thursday week 12, March 30th, to Catherine, by 3.30)
References
Aeschylus (2008) Persians, Seven Against Thebes, Suppliants, Prometheus Bound, London:
Harvard University Press.
Arrizabalaga, J. (2005) 'History of Disease and the Longue Durée' Hist.Phil. Life Sci., 27: 41-56.
Atlan, H. (2011) Selected Writings, On Self-Organization, Philosophy, Bioethics, and Judaism,
New York: Fordham University Press.
Atlan, H. (1993) Enlightenment to Enlightenment: Intercritique of Science and Myth, Albany:
State University of New York Press.
Barker, S. (2009) 'Transformation as an Ontological Imperative: The [Human] Future
According to Bernard Stiegler' Transformations, 17,
http://www.transformationsjournal.org/journal/issue_17/article_01.shtml
Bailey, J (2014) 'Enframing the Flesh: Heidegger, Transhumanism, and the Body as 'Standing
Reserve' ' Journal of Evolution and Technology, 24:2, pp. 44-62.
Beardsworth, R. (1995) 'From a Genealogy of Matter to a Politics of Memory: Stiegler's
Thinking of Technics', Tekhema 2: 85-115.
Benjamin, W. (1997) 'To the Planetarium' One Way Street, London: Verso.
de Beistegui, M. (2003) Thinking with Heidegger: Displacements, Minneapolis: Indiana
University Press.
Blacker, S. (2010) 'Incorporating the Gift: The Béant Community of Jean-Luc Nancy's L'Intrus'
Parallax, 16:1, pp. 36-46.
BBC Two (5 February 2003) Motherland: a genetic journey,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2003/02_february/05/motherland.
shtml
Braidotti, R. (2013) The Posthuman, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Brent, L. (1997) A History of Transplantation Immunology, London: Academic Press.
Butler, J. (2002) 'Is Kinship Always Already Heterosexual?' differences: A Journal of Feminist
Cultural Studies, 13.1.
Callahan, J.C. (ed.) (1995) Reproduction, Ethics, and the Law, Feminist Perspectives,
Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Canguilhem, G. (1991) The Normal and the Pathological, New York: Zone Books.
Canguilhem, G. (2008) Knowledge of Life, New York: Fordham University Press.
Canguilhem, G. (2008) 'The Normal and the Pathological' Knowledge of Life, New York:
Fordham University Press.
Canguilhem, G. (2012) Writings on Medicine, New York: Fordham.
Cohen, Ed (2009) A Body Worth Defending: Immunity, Biopolitics, and the Apotheosis of the
Modern Body, Durham: Duke University Press Books.
De Boever, A., Murray A., Roffe, J. and Woodward, A. (eds) (2012) Gilbert Simondon, Being
and Technology, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Deech R. & Smajdor, A. (2007) From IVF to Immortality, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Delaporte, F. (ed) (1994) A Vital Rationalist, Selected Writings from Georges Canguilhem,
New York: Zone Books.
Derrida, J. & Roudinesco, Elisabeth (2004) 'Disordered Families' For What Tomorrow...A
Dialogue, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Derrida, J. (2005) Rogues, Two Essays on Reason, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Derrida, J. (2005) On Touching, Jean-Luc Nancy, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Derrida, J. (2004) Dissemination, London: Continuum.
Derrida, J. & Stiegler, B. (2002) Echographies of Television, Filmed Interviews, Cambridge:
Polity Press.
Dreyfus. H.L. & Wrathall, M.A. (2007) A Companion to Heidegger, Oxford: Blackwell.
Dupuy, J-P (2006) 'Henri Atlan', The Columbia History of Twentieth-Century French Thought,
New York: Columbia University Press.
Edelman, G.M. (2004) Wider than the Sky, The Phenomenal Gift of Consciousness, New
Haven: Yale University Press.
Edelman, G.M. (1994) Bright Air, Brilliant Fire: On the Matter of the Brain, London: Penguin
Books.
Edelman. G.M. (1993) 'Neural Darwinism: Selection and Reetrant Signaling in Higher Brain
Function', Neuron, vol. 10: 115-125.
Edwards, R. (1989) Life Before Birth, Reflections on the Embryo Debate, London, Hutchinson.
Esposito, R. (2011) Immunitas, The Protection and Negation of Life, Cambridge: Polity.
Esposito, R. (2008) Bios, Biopolitics and Philosophy, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press.
Ferris, D. S. (ed) (2004) The Cambridge Companion to Walter Benjamin, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Foucault, M. (1991) 'Introduction' to Georges Canguilhem The Normal and the Pathological,
New York: Zone Books.
Geroulanos, S. & Meyers, T. (2011) 'Introduction to Complexity' in Atlan, H. Selected
Writings, On Self-Organization, Philosophy, Bioethics, and Judaism, New York: Fordham
University Press.
Geroulanos, S. (2009) 'Beyond the Normal and the Pathological: Recent Literature on
Georges Canguilhem' Gesnerus 66/2: 288-306.
Geroulanos, S. & Todd Meyers (2009) 'A Graft, Physiological and Philosophical: Jean-Luc
Nancy's L'Intrus', Parallax, 15:2, pp. 83-96.
Gonzalez, J-P et al. (2010) 'Pathocenosis: A Holistic Approach to Disease Ecology' EcoHealth
7: 237-241.
Grmek, M. (1999) The Third Bio-Medical Revolution
Grmek, M. (1991) Diseases in the Ancient Greek World, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press.
Grmek, M. (1993) History of AIDS: Emergence and Origin of a Modern Pandemic, New Jersey:
Princeton University Press.
Habermas, J. (2003) The Future of Human Nature, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Haimowitz R. & Sinha V. (2010) Made in India: A Film About Surrogacy,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uqBP17ZERQ
Haraway, D. (1991) 'A Cyborg Manifesto, Science, Technology and Socialist-Feminism in the
Late Twentieth Century' Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, Oxford:
Routledge.
Haraway, D. (1991) 'The Biopolitics of Postmodern Bodies: Constitutions of Self in Immune
System Discourse' Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, Oxford:
Routledge.
Heidegger, M. (1977) 'The Question Concerning Technology' The Question Concerning
Technology and Other Essays, New York: Garland Publishing.
Heidegger, M. (1977) 'The Age of the Word Picture' The Question Concerning Technology
and Other Essays, New York: Garland Publishing.
Howes, M. (2011) 'Self and Nonself' A Companion to the Philosophy of Biology, Oxford:
Wiley-Blackwell.
Inhorn, M.C. & Birenbaum-Carmeli, D. (2008) 'Assisted Reproductive Technologies and
Culture Change' in Annual Review of Anthropology, 37: 177-96.
Jones, Howard W. (2013) Personhood Revisited, Reproductive Technology, Bioethics, Religion
and the Law, Minneapolis, Langdon Street Press.
Kandel, Eric R. (1999) “Biology and the Future of Psychoanalysis: A New Intellectual
Framework for Psychiatry Revisited”, Am J Psychiatry 1999; 156:505–524.
Kandel, Eric R. (2007) In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind, New
York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Kirkwood, T. (2001) The End of Age, http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2001/
Kurzweil, R. (2009), A University for the Coming Singularity,
http://www.ted.com/talks/ray_kurzweil_announces_singularity_university
Lecourt, D. (2012) 'The Question of the Individual in George Canguilhem and Gilbert
Simondon' Gilbert Simondon, Being and Technology, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Magner, L. (2002) A History of the Life Sciences, CRC Press.
Malabou, C. (2008) What Should We Do With Our Brain?, New York: Fordham University
Press.
Malabou, C. (2012) The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain Damage, New York: Fordham
University Press.
Malabou, C. (2004) The Future of Hegel: Plasticity, Temporality and Dialectic, London:
Routledge.
Marrati P. & Meyers T. (2008) 'Foreword: Life as Such' Knowledge of Life, New York: Fordham
University Press.
Maturana H.R & Varela F.J. (1980) 'On Machines, Living and otherwise' Autopoeisis and
Cognition, The Realization of the Living, London: D. Reidel Publishing Company.
Medawar, P.B. (1957) The Uniqueness of the Individual, Edinburgh: Methuen & Co LTD.
Miller, P. & Wilsdon J. (eds) (2006) Better Humans? The Politics Of Human Enhancement and
Life Extension, London: Demos.
Miller, P. & Wilsdon J. (2006) 'Stronger, Longer, Smarter, Faster' Better Humans? The Politics
Of Human Enhancement and Life Extension, London: Demos.
Mulder, A. and Brouwer J. (eds) (2007) Interact or Die, Rotterdam: NAi.
More, M. & Vita-More, N. (eds) (2013) The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and
Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future,
Oxford: John Wiley & Sons.
Moreira, T. & Palladino, P. (2005) 'Between Truth and Hope: On Parkinson's Disease,
Neurotransplantation and the Production of the 'Self' ' History of the Human Sciences, 18.3.
Nielsen, A. V. (1993) 'Walter Benjamin and Technology' Orbis Litterarum, vol 48: 135-144.
Nuffield Council on Bioethics (2013) Novel Neurotechnologies, Intervening in the Brain.
Nuffield Council on Bioethics (2012) Emerging Biotechnologies: Technology, Choice and the
Public Good.
Nuffield Council on Bioethics (2012) Novel Techniques for the Prevention of Mitochondrial
DNA Disorders, An Ethical Review.
Nancy, J-L (2008) 'The Intruder', Corpus, New York: Fordham University Press.
Nancy, J-L (2008) Corpus, New York: Fordham University Press.
New Formations special Issue on Stiegler, March 2013.
Palladino, P. (Dec 2011) 'Miranda's Story: Molecules, Populations and the Mortal Organism'
History of the Human Sciences, 24: 1-20.
Parker, A. (2012) The Theorist's Mother, London: Duke University Press.
Pitts-Taylor, V. (2010) 'The Plastic Brain: Neoliberalism and the Neuronal Self' Health, 14(6):
635-652.
Pradeu, T. (2012) The Limits of the Self, Immunology and Biological Identity, Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Polt, R. (1998) Heidegger: An Introduction, New York: Cornell University Press.
Rhizomes, Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge, http://www.rhizomes.net/index.html
Rabinow, P. (1994) 'Introduction: A Vital Rationalist' A Vital Rationalist, Selected Writing from
Georges Canguilhem, New York: Zone Books.
Rose, N. (2007), The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power and Subjectivity in the TwentyFirst Century, Princeton: Princeton Press.
Roudinesco, E. (2008) Philosophy in Turbulent Times: Canguilhem, Sartre, Foucault,
Althusser, Deleuze, Derrida, New York: Columbia University Press.
Sallis, J. (ed) (1993) Reading Heidegger: Commemorations, Michigan: Indiana University
Press.
Scott, D. (2014) Gilbert Simondon's Psychic and Collective Individuation: A Critical
Introduction and Guide, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Silverman, H.J. (2010) 'Malabou, Plasticity, and the Sculpturing of the Self' Concentric:
Literary and Cultural Studies, 36.2: 89-102.
Silverstein, A.M. (1989) A History of Immunology, San Diego: Academic Press.
Simondon, G. (1958) On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects,
http://english.duke.edu/uploads/assets/Simondon_MEOT_part_1.pdf
Simondon, G. (2008) The Genesis of the Individual http://simondon.ocular-witness.com/wpcontent/uploads/2008/05/simondon_genesis_of_the_individual.pdf
Simondon, G. (2012) 'Technical Mentality' Gilbert Simondon, Being and Technology,
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Staikou, E. (Jan/Feb 2014) 'Generative Graft: Reproductive Technology and the Dilemmas of
Surrogacy' Radical Philosophy, 183.
Staikou, E. (2014) 'Putting in the Graft: Philosophy and Immunology' Derrida Today, 7.2
Stanworth, M. (ed.) (1987) Reproductive Technologies, Gender, Motherhood and Medicine,
Oxford: Polity Press.
Stiegler, B. (1998 ) Technics and Time 1, The Fault of Epimetheus, Stanford: Stanford
University Press.
Stiegler, B. (2008) Technics and Time 2, Disorientation, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Stiegler, B. (2013) What Makes Life Worth Living, On Pharmacology, Oxford: Polity.
Stiegler, B. (2011) 'Distrust and the Pharmacology of Transformational Technologies'
Quantum Engagements, Verlag Heidelberg, pp. 27-39.
Stiegler, B. (2012) 'A Rational Theory of Miracles: On Pharmacology and Transindividuation',
New Formations, 77:10.
Stiegler, B. (2012) 'Interview: From Libidinal Economy to the Ecology of the Spirit' Parrhesia,
14: 9-15.
Stiegler, B. (2012) 'The Theatre of Individuation: Phase-Shift and Resolution in Simondon and
Heidegger' Gilbert Simondon, Being and Technology, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
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Tauber, A.I. (1997) The Immune Self, Theory or Metaphor?, Cambridge: Cambridge University
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Tauber, A.I. (2000) 'Moving Beyond the Immune Self?' Seminars in Immunology, vol 12: 241248.
Toscano, A. (2007) 'Technical Culture and the Limits of Interaction: A Note on Simondon'
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Varela, F.J. (1991) 'Organism: A Meshwork of Selfless Selves' Boston Studies in the Philosophy
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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)
All responses were positive about the content. The only negative comments referred to problems with
building work outside which made for very difficult conditions for listening and thinking. Apart from this
the module was well received and discussions engaging.
Catalogue summary
This module is structured around a central dialectic: that between control and contingency. Its principal
focus is a philosophical enquiry into the nature of nature. The study introduces a variety of scientific,
technological, and psychological modes of development that have had, are currently having, or may
soon have, a profound impact on humanity’s capacity to control its environment and its own actions. In
each case, the study is matched by corresponding changes in society’s understanding of the ‘natural’,
and in its disposition towards ‘natural’ events. Both of these are projected against the three visions of
the tragic that have been presented over the three years of the programme, and students are asked to
conjecture about the varieties of possible synthesis and contradiction for society that are generated
through their various interactions.