Faculty of Education, Health and Social Care
Modern Liberal Arts
Module Catalogue
Semester 2 - 2015/2016
Module code:
Module Title:
LA1001B
Freedom (is to learn) 2
Module Credits:
15.00
Number of Periods: 1
Module Tutor:
Nigel Tubbs
Description:
This module runs in semester 2 and follows on from LA1001a in semester 1. It
continues to explore three distinct areas of enquiry within the liberal arts
tradition: freedom, education and nature, looking at both ancient and modern
sources. It continues to explore the question of freedom in relation to the
education of the self in particular, as well as with regards to the tradition of liberal
arts education per se. Indicative issues across both modules are those to do with
equality of opportunity with regard to higher education, the nature of
responsibility in a community, the nature of the political and notions of
determinism, and work and ideas in the study of nature within the tradition of
liberal arts education. This module in particular looks at some of the most
important ideas from ancient texts but also at the challenge presented to these
ideas by elements of 20th century physics.
Specific to:
Modern Liberal Arts
Modern Liberal Arts Joint
Availability:
A
Assessments:
50%
50%
15/16
Essay
Essay
S2
Winchester
Module code: LA1004
Module Title: Film and Philosophy
Module Credits:
15.00
Number of Periods: 1
Module Tutor:
Derek Bunyard
Description:
The subject matter of this module - film - is treated in two different ways. During the
first half of the module a range of philosophical ideas are introduced and discussed
using selected films as the initial source of illustration. This is followed by a second
half in which the medium of film itself is considered as a direct embodiment of
philosophical thinking. While the first treatment is well represented within academic
literature, the second is more speculative, relying on a greater understanding of the
medium of film itself, as well as its possibilities of signification. The assessment
process corresponds to this division of approaches to film, although the second
assignment also takes on the possibility of theoretical synthesis.
Specific to:
Modern Liberal Arts
Availability:
A
Assessments:
50%
50%
15/16
Essay
Essay
S2
Winchester
Module code: LA1006
Module Title: Learning from the Renaissance
Module Credits:
15.00
Number of Periods: 1
Module Tutor:
Description:
This module introduces students to themes and personalities that were central to the
period of Western history called the Renaissance. It will provide students with an
historical overview of key events, as well as looking at the relation of the Renaissance
to other historical periods. It will also look more deeply into selected ideas with a view
to illustrating their significance both within the Renaissance and beyond. Central to
the approach of the module will be to illustrate ways in which the Renaissance holds
an ‘educational’ import both within itself and in terms of a legacy. Where appropriate,
tutors will relate the material to both ancient and more modern issues and ideas. The
module aims to increase student knowledge and understanding of the Renaissance but
also to draw out its fundamental import for the notion of education in its widest sense.
Many of the ideas introduced in this module will be returned to in years 2 and 3.
Specific to:
Modern Liberal Arts
Modern Liberal Arts Joint
Availability:
A
Assessments:
50%
50%
15/16
Essay
Essay
S2
Winchester
Module code: LA1010
Module Title: Spirit: Innocence and Experience
Module Credits:
15.00
Number of Periods: 1
Module Tutor:
REBEKAH HOWES
Description:
This module is intended as a means for level 4 students to explore the two related
notions of innocence and experience. At the heart of the module is an introduction to
the notion of ‘spirit’ which is carried within their relationship. We will explore this in a
religious context through some of the early Christian writers, and through seminal
texts, for example, Milton’s Paradise Lost, and in contemporary debates and
representations. The module also explores various general philosophical approaches
responding to questions about how one might respond to discontinuities in experience,
either at an individual or collective level, and to the significance and meaning such
responses might carry.
Specific to:
Modern Liberal Arts
Availability:
A
Assessments:
50%
50%
15/16
Essay
Essay
S2
Winchester
Module code: LA2002
Module Title: Freedom (is to learn) 3
Module Credits:
15.00
Number of Periods: 1
Module Tutor:
Nigel Tubbs
Description:
The dialectic of enlightenment is one of the most profound and worrying expressions
of modern rational thought. We have seen in previous modules the effect that doubt
has on how we understand the work and identity of human subjectivity. Now we will
explore the damage wrought by uncertainty and doubt on other fundamental concepts
including freedom and enlightenment. Our task will be to see if there is something we
can learn from the difficulties of the dialectic of enlightenment when we see within it
how truth collapses into a culture of repetition.
Specific to:
Modern Liberal Arts
Modern Liberal Arts Joint
Availability:
A
Assessments:
50%
50%
15/16
Essay
Essay
S2
Winchester
Module code: LA2006
Module Title: Aesthetics
Module Credits:
15.00
Number of Periods: 1
Module Tutor:
Derek Bunyard
Description:
This module offers an introduction to the study of aesthetics. Within the liberal arts
this most often means looking at the fine arts - painting, sculpture, music, poetry • and
we will look at these from within a selection of historical periods. The module will also
introduce students to key philosophical texts that underpin the study of aesthetics,
giving particular attention to the period of German idealism in the late 1700s and early
1800s. The module is intended to provide students working at level 5 with a central
reference point for any future aesthetic theorising they may wish to pursue. Theory
will be inter-leaved with a study of selected art forms that either correspond to, or
seem to refute, certain forms of aesthetic theorising. The theoretical and
philosophical studies are intended to provide a broad, historical sweep, but one which
has contemporary relevance. The same holds true for the range of selected illustrative
contents.
Specific to:
Modern Liberal Arts
Modern Liberal Arts Joint
Philosophy, Religion and Ethics
Availability:
A
Assessments:
50%
50%
15/16
S2
Presentation
Essay
Winchester
Module code: LA2008
Module Title: Thinking the Holocaust
Module Credits:
15.00
Number of Periods: 1
Module Tutor:
Description:
If we are to ‘think the Holocaust’ we must not only consider the particularities of the
event but also the philosophical, political and ideological conditions from within which
it emerged and within which it was carried out. This module will introduce us to some
of the prominent thinkers of early 20th Century Germany who were, in various ways,
implicated in Nazism. We will consider how particular aspects of their thinking lend
themselves to fascism in the context of what we now know to be the consequences of
such thinking. This will lead us to explore philosophical perspectives on the Holocaust
offered by more recent thinkers.
Specific to:
Modern Liberal Arts
Modern Liberal Arts Joint
Availability:
A
Assessments:
50%
50%
15/16
S2
Essay
Presentation
Winchester
Module code: LA2011
Module Title: Power of the Teacher
Module Credits:
15.00
Number of Periods: 1
Module Tutor:
REBEKAH HOWES
Description:
This module asks how the power of the teacher can affect the teacher/student
relationship. It explores ways in which teachers can be said to dominate students, and
looks at ways of changing the teacher/student relationship that might overcome this
domination. Inevitably we will be forced to ask whether the relationship between the
student and the teacher can, or should, ever be democratic? Can and should students
be given responsibility for their own learning and enlightenment? Does education
always require a teacher? We will examine these questions by looking at the ways in
which progressive educators, critical pedagogues and postmodernists can contribute
to these debates. At stake always in these questions is the necessity or otherwise of
the power of the teacher over the student.
Specific to:
Modern Liberal Arts
Modern Liberal Arts Joint
Availability:
A
Assessments:
50%
50%
15/16
Essay
Essay
S2
Winchester
Module code: LA2999
Module Title: Volunteering
Module Credits:
15.00
Number of Periods: 1
Module Tutor:
Description:
This module allows students to take up a placement in a voluntary sector body either
in the UK or overseas. The aim is that you will make a positive and personally
rewarding contribution to the community whilst also demonstrating an understanding
of how your voluntary work relates to broader theoretical concepts and ideas. The
purpose of this module is the development of skills which will enhance your
employability and personal development.
Specific to:
Modern Liberal Arts
Modern Liberal Arts Joint
Availability:
A
Assessments:
100%
15/16
Essay
S2
Winchester
Module code: LA3003
Module Title: Freedom (is to learn) 4
Module Credits:
15.00
Number of Periods: 1
Module Tutor:
Nigel Tubbs
Description:
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 beyond- for
employment as for existence itself.
Specific to:
Modern Liberal Arts
Modern Liberal Arts Joint
Availability:
A
Assessments:
50%
50%
15/16
Essay
Essay
S2
Winchester
Module code: LA3008
Module Title: Human Nature
Module Credits:
15.00
Number of Periods: 1
Module Tutor:
Description:
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.
Specific to:
Modern Liberal Arts
Modern Liberal Arts Joint
Availability:
A
Assessments:
50%
50%
15/16
Essay
Essay
S2
Winchester
Module code: LA3012
Module Title: Philosophy of the Teacher
Module Credits:
15.00
Number of Periods: 1
Module Tutor:
REBEKAH HOWES
Description:
A philosophy of the teacher requires us to ask some hard questions about the identity
of those who teach us. It enables us to think about contradictions that appear in both
the theory and practice of teaching, and ways in which we might begin to understand
these contradictions. Indeed, much of our own education and many of the experiences
in which we learn things, could be said to happen indirectly in these contradictions and
perhaps even in spite of the teacher and the formal curriculum. In this module we will
not seek to resolve these contradictions, but only to understand them more deeply
through a variety of philosophical perspectives. At stake, here, amidst all the
paradoxes, will be the much neglected idea of the teacher as practising a vocation.
Specific to:
Modern Liberal Arts
Modern Liberal Arts Joint
Availability:
A
Assessments:
50%
50%
15/16
Essay
Essay
S2
Winchester