Faculty of Arts,
Creative Industries
And Education
Philosophy
Referral Booklet
2011-2012
University of the West of England
1
Contents
Instructions .......................................................................................................................... 3
Level 1 _________________________________________________________________ 4-5
UPZPAA-30-1
Introduction to Philosophical Studies ...................................................... 4
UPZPMS-30-1
Ancient Philosophy ................................................................................. 5
Level 2 _________________________________________________________________ 6-9
UPZNNY-30-2
19th Century German Philosophy............................................................ 6
UPZNQX-30-2
Ethics ..................................................................................................... 7
UPZPMA-30-2
Metaphysics: Being, Appearance and Reality ........................................ 8
UPZPMT-30-2
Kant ....................................................................................................... 8
UPZPMU-30-2
Hellenistic Philosophy ............................................................................ 9
Level 3 _______________________________________________________________ 10-13
UPZNPV-30-3
Philosophy Project ............................................................................... 10
UPZNR3-30-3
The Philosophy of Mind ........................................................................ 10
UPZNR4-30-3
UPZPMR-30-3
Advanced Philosophical Texts.............................................................. 11
Film and Philosophy ............................................................................. 12
UPZPM4-30-3
Contemporary Continental Philosophy ................................................. 13
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Instructions
The work you need to do is set out in this booklet in Level and Module Code order. If you have any
difficulty understanding what you have to do you must contact a Student Adviser immediately by
making an appointment through the Information Point. You may contact them by telephone on
0117 32 85678 or by e-mail on infopoint@uwe.ac.uk.
Should you need further information or assistance with your referral you may be able to contact the
module leader by e-mail. Please however, remember that academic staff will not necessarily be
available over the summer vacation; you should not expect to receive additional help.
The examinations and presentations are scheduled from Monday 13 th to Friday 24th August 2012. You
will find out your examination timetable through myUWE.
Special note regarding Film and Philosophy – you will find information about the
referral exam in this booklet.
The submission date for all other work is Monday 13th August 2012 at 2:00pm.
Method of Coursework Submission
Each module description states whether the assignment should be submitted online via Blackboard or
in hard copy via a submission box. The submission method will be the same for the resit as your first
attempt.
For hard-copy submissions, please use the myUWE assignment coversheet which you can download
from myUWE. You should submit by the closing date of Monday, 13th August 2012 by hand delivery to
the coursework boxes located next to the Information Point in the Canon Kitson building at St
Matthias.
You may also send your hard copy submission by post to the following address:
Programme Administration and Assessment Team
1CK7
UWE St Matthias Campus
Oldbury Court Road
Fishponds
BRISTOL BS16 2JP
If you post the work to us it must be sent before 2pm on the 13th August and you must obtain a
‘proof of posting’ receipt which indicates the time of posting. Please enclose a copy of the proof of
postage in the envelope as it will reduce any delay in processing your work. You may also wish to
keep a copy for your own records.
Please also remember, it is essential that you keep a copy of the work for your own records.
Please note that online submissions must be submitted via Blackboard and cannot be
submitted by post.
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LEVEL 1
UPZPAA-30-1
Introduction to Philosophical Studies: Theoretical
Philosophy
Method of Submission: Online via Blackboard
Requirement: You are required to complete all elements of this component, regardless of
whether you have passed any previously. Please refer to your Module Handbook and
Blackboard for guidance on the assignments and documents.
1. Essay (3,000 words)
Answer one question. Don’t pick a title or topic that is substantially the same one as one of the
essays you’ve attempted previously.
1. Does Descartes’ cogito, ergo sum provide him with a foundational truth and thus a way of blunting
one of the prongs of Agrippa’s trilemma?
2. Assess Descartes’ arguments for the ‘real’ distinction between the mind and the body.
3. Assess one of Descartes’ arguments for the existence of God. Consider the views of some of
Descartes’ critics in your evaluation of these arguments.
4. What is the role of the ‘piece of wax’ in Descartes’ Meditations? Is the argument convincing?
5. What is the ‘Cartesian Circle’? Is it a problem for Descartes’ philosophy?
6. What role does ‘scepticism’ play in Descartes’ philosophy?
7. Is the ‘self’ no more than a ‘bundle’ of perceptions?
8. What is Hume’s ‘reconciling’ project? Is he successful?
9. Is it reasonable to assume that the sun will rise tomorrow?
10. Explain Hume’s ‘copy principle’ and describe its ‘critical force’. Is Hume right to claim that the
copy principle is a universal principle?
11. Does Hume successfully undermine the design argument for the existence of God?
12. From where do we obtain the idea of ‘power’ or ‘necessary connexion’?
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UPZPMS-30-1
Ancient Philosophy
Method of Submission: Online via Blackboard
Requirement: You are required to complete all elements of this component, regardless of
whether you have passed any previously. Please refer to your Module Handbook and
Blackboard for guidance on the assignments and documents.
Write one essay and one commentary, selecting an essay question and a passage for comment
from the Module Handbook.
1. Essay (2,000 words)
For the first assignment you are required to write an essay. Select one of the following
questions:
1. According to Cratylus, the Heraclitean doctrine of universal flux leads to the
impossibility of knowledge. Do you agree?
2. Parmenides denied the reality of movement, change, and multiplicity. By what
method did he reach these counter-intuitive conclusions?
3. What do you think Zeno was trying to demonstrate with his paradoxes?
4. What are some of the implications of the Protagorean claim that ‘man is the
measure of all things’?
5. Central to the Sophistic movement was the contrast between what exists
according to custom (nomos) and what exists according to nature (physis). Discuss
the political implications of this dichotomy.
6. Why does Socrates maintain that all wrong-doing must be the product of
ignorance?
2. Commentary (2,000 words)
For the second assignment you are required to write a critical commentary. This is
designed to develop your skills with philosophical texts. Select one of the following
passages from the Reader:
Plato, Timaeus 27d-29d or Republic 476a-477b or Parmenides 131e-133a
Aristotle, On Interpretation 9 or Physics 2.8 or Physics 3.6
Read it and write a critical commentary on it, in no more than 2000 words, outlining and assessing the
argument in the text. The commentary will be marked for its: i)
understanding of the text, ii) critical commentary on the text, iii) grasp of the relevant
philosophical issues, iv) evidence of background reading, and v) clarity of expression, grammar,
punctuation, and spelling. Further guidance will be given in class.
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LEVEL 2
UPZNNY-30-2
19th Century German Philosophy
Method of Submission: Online via Blackboard
Requirement: You are required to complete all elements of this component, regardless of
whether you have passed any previously. Please refer to your Module Handbook and
Blackboard for guidance on the assignments and documents.
Write two 2,000 word essays. Answer one question from Term 1 and one question from Term 2.
Don’t pick a title or topic that is substantially the same one as one of the essays you’ve attempted
previously.
Term 1
1. How does Hegel rethink the notion of ‘reason’?
2. Is Hegel’s philosophy of history teleological? Can Hegel’s account of history incorporate
contingent events?
3. Is history always rational for Hegel?
4. How can reason be historical? How might one object to this idea?
5. Discuss the three forms of history that Hegel outlines. Do you agree with his account?
6. What is a ‘world-historical individual’ for Hegel?
7. What is the principle of sufficient reason and why is it problematic for Schopenhauer?
8. Describe and discuss some of the ways in which Schopenhauer thinks we can escape the
world of representation and access the world as will.
9. Discuss Schopenhauer’s reading and criticism of Kant.
10. What sort of ethics does Schopenhauer’s thought encourage us to adopt?
Term 2
1. To what extent and in what ways do you think Nietzsche’s conception of the Dionysian was
influenced by Schopenhauer’s concept of the will?
2. What does it mean to ‘look at science through the lens of the artist’ (Nietzsche, Birth of
Tragedy)?
3. What are Dionysus and Apollo for Nietzsche?
4. Does the genealogy of rationality in Birth of Tragedy undermine rationality?
5. ‘Beyond Good and Evil’... This at the very least does not mean ‘Beyond Good and Bad’ — ”
(Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals). Discuss the difference between these two sets of values.
6. Describe and assess Nietzsche’s account of the origin of conscience and guilt.
7. What are ‘ascetic ideals’ and why do they concern Nietzsche?
8. What is ‘genealogy’ for Nietzsche, and why does he find it necessary to use this method
rather than any other for his purposes?
9. To what extent are Nietzsche’s ‘historical’ genealogies vulnerable to criticisms which appeal
to empirical facts about history (and pre-history)?
10. Why does Nietzsche write in many forms, styles and voices? Explain why the way we read
Nietzsche’s writing is relevant to his philosophy.
Again, you may come up with a title of your own, or pick a topic and we can work out a title together.
Do bear in mind that you’ll need to get your topic or question approved by Mike Lewis before you start
to work on it.
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UPZNQX-30-2
Ethics
Method of Submission: Hard copy, via Submission Box
Requirement: You are required to complete all elements of this component, regardless of
whether you have passed any previously. Please refer to your Module Handbook and
Blackboard for guidance on the assignments and documents.
Essays should be 2,000 words long. Students must answer one question from Term 1 and one
question from Term 2. Both essays must be on questions not previous attempted.
Term 1
1. Why does Kant think that morality is so utterly distinct from ‘pathological inclinations’
(feelings, urges, etc.)?
2. Describe what ‘respect’ is for Kant?
3. What is the categorical imperative?
4. Why should human beings be treated as ends in themselves?
5. What is the purpose of a ‘critique of practical reason?’
6. Critically discuss some of the duties prescribed by Kant in the Metaphysics of Morals.
7. Levinas claims that ethics is prior to ontology. What does he mean by this claim?
8. What does Levinas mean by a ‘face’?
9. Explain what Levinas means when he speaks of a ‘good beyond being’ (with reference to
Plato and/or Heidegger).
10. How should the Holocaust affect our understanding of ethics?
Term 2
YOU NEED NOT NECESSARILY CHOOSE ONE OF THESE QUESTIONS! THEY ARE ONLY
SUGGESTIONS. You may come up with a title of your own, or pick a topic and we can work out a title
together. Do bear in mind that you’ll need to get your topic or question approved by Darian Meacham
before you start to work on it.
1. Do we have the right to die? Critically examine Hans Jonas's position on the issue and
provide a detailed explanation (with textual analysis) of how Jonas's position on the right to
die is related (or not) to the ethics that he develops in the other essays that we read. You may
also provide critical commentary on Jonas's position.
2. For Jonas, what separates human beings from all other life forms, and what joins us to all
other life forms? How does being distinctly human make us both responsible to and
responsible for? Do you agree with Jonas’s anthropology and the imperative of responsibility
that he establishes on its basis? Why or why not?
3 Why is mortality a blessing for Jonas? How does he support this claim and are his
arguments against life extension convincing?
4. Do we have a responsibility to future generations? Why or why not? And if so how can we
fulfill this responsibility? Discuss in terms of Jonas’s ethics, issues in germ-line manipulation
and liberal eugenics.
5. What are Habermas’s objections to liberal eugenics? In the face of the responses to his
criticisms put forward by the cautious proponents of liberal eugenics, do Habermas’s
arguments stand
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UPZPMA-30-2
Metaphysics: Being, Appearance and Reality
Method of Submission: Hard copy, via Submission Box
Requirement: You are required to complete all elements of this component, regardless of
whether you have passed any previously. Please refer to your Module Handbook and
Blackboard for guidance on the assignments and documents.
Write ONE 5,000 word essay on any one of the following topics:
1. Are the reasons for Aristotle claims, in the Metaphysics, that metaphysics itself can be
called “first philosophy” reasons with which modern metaphysics would agree?
2. What would an ontology comprising only particulars look like? Answer with reference to
any philosopher or theory you have studied.
3. Are there real possibilities?
4. What would a nominalist argue is the function of logic? Answer with reference to any two
philosophers or philosophies you have studied.
5. What is the importance of the major problem Porphyry glosses over in his Isagoge?
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UPZPMT-30-2
Kant
Method of Submission: Hard copy, via Submission Box
Requirement: You are required to complete all elements of this component, regardless of
whether you have passed any previously. Please refer to your Module Handbook and
Blackboard for guidance on the assignments and documents.
Candidates must answer one question (4,000 words):
1. What does it mean to claim that a statement is synthetic and a priori? Evaluate the claim.
2. Evaluate Kant’s various arguments against the existence of God and describe the role of the
Ens Realissimum in Kant’s philosophy.
3. Explain and evaluate the distinction between phenomena and noumena.
4. Describe and assess Kant’s account of causation.
5. Is Transcendental Idealism a defensible notion?
6. Give an account of Kant’s discussion in the Paralogisms and assess his arguments.
7. Evaluate the significance of the Categorical Imperative for Kant.
8. Is ‘evil’ a problem for Kant? Discuss this issue.
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UPZPMU-30-2
Hellenistic Philosophy
Method of Submission: Hard copy, via Submission Box
Requirement: You are required to complete all elements of this component, regardless of
whether you have passed any previously. Please refer to your Module Handbook and
Blackboard for guidance on the assignments and documents.
Write two essays (each of 2,500 words), selecting questions not previously attempted from the
Module Handbook.
Select one of the following questions for each of the essay assignments.
1. Does the Stoic kataleptic impression survive the criticisms raised against it by the
Academics?
2. Does the Epicurean claim that all impressions are true make sense?
3. Is the Pyrrhonist’s account of the means by which he reaches epochê convincing?
4. Do the Epicureans have good reasons for introducing the swerve into their physics?
5. What arguments are there in favour of the Stoic identification of God with Nature?
6. Does Carneades successfully show that it is impossible to prove the existence of God?
7. Is the Stoic account of the Soul more plausible than the Cartesian account?
8. Is Epicurean hedonism dependent upon Epicurean atomism?
9. On what grounds do the Stoics claim that a wise person would be happy even when under
torture? Do you find their arguments convincing?
10. Does the Stoic theory of oikeiôsis offer an adequate foundation for their ethics?
11. Are, as the Stoics claim, emotions merely the product of mistaken judgements?
12. Do the Stoics offer a convincing account of individual responsibility within a deterministic
world?
13. Does Epicurus offer an adequate account of justice and why one ought to act justly?
14. Is Epicurus right to suggest that we ought to be indifferent about our own nonexistence?
15. Can the Pyrrhonian Sceptic live his scepticism?
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LEVEL 3
UPZNPV-30-3
Philosophy Project
Method of Submission: Hard copy, via Submission Box
Requirement: You are required to complete all elements of this component, regardless of
whether you have passed any previously. Please refer to your Module Handbook and
Blackboard for guidance on the assignments and documents.
The referral is assessed by a revised version of your project. The revised version should take
account of the tutor’s comments on the previous version.
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UPZNR3-30-3
The Philosophy of Mind
Method of Submission: Hard copy, via Submission Box
Requirement: You are required to complete all elements of this component, regardless of
whether you have passed any previously. Please refer to your Module Handbook and
Blackboard for guidance on the assignments and documents.
A 4,000 word essay on ONE of the following topics:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Do ancient philosophies of mind have any contemporary relevance?
Compare dualist and monist solutions to the mind/body problem.
In what ways might it be argued that reality is mind?
Discuss some examples of some ways in which contemporary approaches have sought to
eliminate Cartesian dualism from philosophy of mind
What, if anything, is unconscious mind?
Can the problem of ‘consciousness’ be solved?
Critically assess some of the varieties of functionalist philosophy of mind
Why might it be necessary to study the body if we are to understand mind?
Has contemporary philosophy of mind moved us forward in understanding the relation of mind
to nature?
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UPZNR4-30-3
Advanced Philosophical Texts
Method of Submission: Hard copy, via Submission Box
Requirement: You are required to complete all elements of this component, regardless of
whether you have passed any previously. Please refer to your Module Handbook and
Blackboard for guidance on the assignments and documents.
Students who have failed the coursework for this module must submit two essays of 2,500 words –
one from each part of the course.
Questions for the first part of the course
Write a single 2,500 word essay on ONE of the following topics.
1. Does Schelling’s understanding of “real dualism” in the Philosophical Inquiries suffer an
interaction problem in the manner of Cartesian dualism?
2. Comment critically on what the Inquiries’ Preface tell us about the demands a true system
must satisfy.
3. What, according to the philosophy of logic advanced in the Inquiries, is meant by “this body is
blue”?
4. What does Schelling understand by the phrase “Willing is primal Being” (SW VII, 350)?
5. If there is, as the Inquiries claims, an “incomprehensible basis of reality in things, the
irreducible remainder which cannot be resolved into reason” (SW VII, 359-60), how is
Schelling able to make claims about reality at all?
Questions for the second part of the course
Term Two – Kierkegaard:
Students should make up their own question and write a 2,500 word essay. The title should be agreed
with Alison Assister (see Blackboard).
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UPZPMR-30-3
Film and Philosophy
Referral exam information (Component A)
There will be a seen exam lasting 3 hours
The exam will be scheduled during the referral exam period, 13th to 24th August 2012. Please
refer to your exam timetable on myUWE for the precise date.
Please see Blackboard for the exam questions.
General Guidance:
The exam is three hours long and you will be expected to answer two questions of equal weighting.
The exam will assess your understanding of the philosophical underpinnings of cinema as studied in
Term 1.
Referral coursework information (Component B)
Method of Submission: Hard copy, via Submission Box
Requirement: You are required to complete all elements of this component, regardless of
whether you have passed any previously. Please refer to your Module Handbook and
Blackboard for guidance on the assignments and documents.
1. Research Essay (3,500 words):
From the list below, choose one or more (related) term(s) and write an academic essay evaluating
its/their significance in terms of the module’s objective of exploring the relationship between film and
philosophy with a particular emphasis on the question of whether film can be thought of as doing
philosophy or being philosophical. You need to:
i.
Use at least two of the required module readings in preparing and writing your essay, as well
as other relevant film studies and philosophy scholarship.
ii.
Discuss at least two of the films screened on the module as well as any other films you decide
are relevant to your evaluation of the term’s significance.
iii.
Explain whether and how the term(s) you are writing on is/are relevant to understanding the
relationship between film and philosophy, whether and how it supports thinking about films
philosophically, and what that might mean.
List of terms: Movement, temporality, technicity, modernity, postmodernity, ideology, identity, desire,
aesthetics, perception, experience, animation, mind, body, memory
2. Symposium question write up (1,500 words):
On the basis of the reading originally assigned to the student (check blackboard) and the film shown
that week, the student must develop three questions and provide a 1500 word write up. The write up
should entail:
i.
A justification/explanation for the questions: e.g. why they are important in the context of the
week’s reading/film, how they stand in relation to other material covered in the module.
ii.
A reflection upon the questions and an attempt to further develop and respond to them. This
should incorporate seminar discussion.
iv.
A summary of the justification and reflection, and a conclusion in which provisional answers
are given to the questions.
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12
UPZPRC-30-3
Contemporary Continental Philosophy
Method of Submission: Hard copy, via Submission Box
Requirement: You are required to complete all elements of this component, regardless of
whether you have passed any previously. Please refer to your Module Handbook and
Blackboard for guidance on the assignments and documents.
All referral components are identical to the first opportunity components.
The two essays (of 2,000 and 2,500 words) are worth 75% of your course mark, and should be
printed in double-space, using a 12- point font size. Work submitted in single-space or smaller font will
be returned to you for resubmission.
You are encouraged to write your own essay question, but it must deal explicitly with the material
covered in the module curriculum, you must also clear it with Darian Meacham before beginning work
on it. If you can’t come up with something, a question will be assigned to you.
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