MINISTRY OF HEALTH OF UKRAINE
DANYLO HALYTSKYY LVIV NATIONAL MEDICAL UNIVERSITY
Department of Philosophy and Economics
COURSE PROGRAM on
PHILOSOPHY for English speaking second year students of Faculty of Medicine
Elaborated by:
Ulyana LUSHCH
Approved by the meeting of Philosophy and Economics Department, protocol No._______ on the ___ th of _____________ 2012
LVIV-2012

GOAL AND OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE
The goal of the course “Philosophy” is to provide students with an integrated view on logics of social and cultural development of humanity inalienable part of which is philosophy and also with the knowledge of peculiarity of philosophical approach to the analysis of reality and solving existential problems.
The objectives of the course consist in the acquaintance with the main categories and concepts, the historical development of philosophy and the variety of contemporary philosophical problems and also in the contribution to shaping the logical thinking of a student and his/her skills of solving current practical issues on the basis of theoretical knowledge.
Due to this course a learner will be able to:
 know the chronology and particularities of the main periods of the development of philosophy;
 know the most prominent philosophers and their approaches to formulating and solving the main philosophical issue;
 distinguish different philosophical paradigms;
 use the main philosophical categories and notions;
 critically analyze social and cultural reality;
 express and argue his/her opinion on the current philosophical problems;
 participate in a debate on the basis of pluralism and tolerance.
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COURSE CONTENT
Topic 1. Philosophy and Worldview
Worldview, its definition and structure: world-sensation, world-perceiving, world-understanding. Historical types of worldview (mythological, religious, philosophical, scientific) and their main features.
Relationship between Man and the world as the main object of philosophy.
Structure of philosophical knowledge: ontological, epistemological and axiological components. Functions of philosophy.
Philosophy: a worldview type or a science? Correlation between philosophy and science.
Topic2. Origins and Historical Development of Philosophy: Ancient East,
Ancient Greece, Middle Ages and Renaissance
Particularities of Eastern and Western worldview paradigms.
Main philosophical schools of Ancient India: orthodox Hindu philosophy and heterodox schools (Buddhism, Jainism, Cārvāka). Main concepts of Hindu philosophy: sansara, karma, dharma, nirvana. Yoga as a spiritual practice of selfimprovement.
Philosophy in Ancient China. Taoism (concepts of Tao, Yin Yang, Wu Wei) and Confucianism (concepts of Ren, Li and Wen and the ideal of gentleman).
Philosophy of Ancient Greece: main features and representatives of its periods
(Pre-Socratics, Classical Greek philosophy (anthropological and synthetic stages),
Hellenistic philosophy).
Sources and features of European Mediaeval Philosophy. Apologetics,
Patristics and Scholasticism. Main philosophical issues: problem of faith and reason, arguments for existence of God and problem of theodicy, problem of universals.
Arabic Mediaeval Philosophy and its prominent representatives.
Philosophy of Renaissance: humanism, philosophy of nature (neo-platonic and pantheistic traditions), utopianism, Reformation.
Topic 3. Early Modern Philosophy and Classical German Philosophy
Modern identity and its particularities: a shift from cosmos to universe; a new interpretation of time and space; “worldlessness” and scientific image of the world; freedom of the subject and a new source of political authority legitimacy.
Empiricism and rationalism as different approaches to the problem of scientific cognition method (F. Bacon, G. Galilei, R. Descartes). Sensualism and its forms in British Modern philosophy (J. Locke, G. Berkeley, D. Hume). Idea of civil society and social contract theory (T. Hobbes, J. Locke).
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Enlightenment as ideological, political and cultural movement. Faith in human reason; education and science as factors of progress; human rights and religious tolerance.
Philosophy of French Enlightenment: Voltaire, J.J. Rousseau.
“Copernican revolution” in philosophy of I. Kant. Objective idealism and dialectics in philosophy of G. Hegel. Anthropological materialism of L. Feuerbach.
Topic 4. Contemporary Western Philosophy
Non-classical philosophical paradigm and its main principles.
Marxism and Positivism: scientific approach in philosophical research.
Irrationalism in philosophy of the 19 th century. A. Schopenhauer: the world as Will and representation. Philosophy of F. Nietzsche: nihilism, concepts of “will to power” and “superman”/”overman”, problem of relationship between the
Apollonian and Dionysian. Pre-existentialism of S. Kierkegaard: critique of
Hegel’s philosophy and conception of three levels of existence.
Existence, freedom and death in Existentialism of M. Heidegger and J.P.
Sartre. J. Maritain’s neo-thomistic ideas and the project of “integral humanism”.
Postmodern philosophy, its main principles and representatives: J.F. Lyotard, J.
Derrida, M. Foucault.
Topic 5. Historical Development of Ukrainian Philosophy
Ukrainian mythological worldview and its features. Main particularities and periodization of Ukrainian philosophy. Sources of the Ukrainian philosophical culture.
Development of philosophy in Kyivan Rus’. The ideas of humanism and
Reformation in Ukraine. Ostroh cultural-educational center and fraternal schools.
Interpretation of main philosophical issues in Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
“Philosophy of heart”: H. Skovoroda and P.Yurkevych. Romanticism in
Ukrainian philosophy. Cyril and Methodiy Fraternity and formation of the
Ukrainian national idea.
O. Potebnya’s philosophy of language. V. Vernadskyy and noosphere conception. Philosophical worldview of I. Franko. The Ukrainian national idea in philosophy of D. Dontsov and V. Lypynskyy.
Topic 6. Ontology: Problem of Being and Consciousness
Being as the central concept of philosophy. Being and beings. Being and nothingness. Structure of Being according to N. Hartmann’s conception. Classical and non-classical interpretations of Being. Main approaches to the explanation of diversity in the world (monism, dualism, pluralism).
Matter and its main characteristics: time, space and motion. Motion and its forms. Motion and development.
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Consciousness as philosophical problem. Сorrelation between consciousness and language. Self-consciousness and its functions. Structure of consciousness in
Z. Freud’s theory.
Consciousness of the world and world of consciousness: philosophical approaches to the explanation of consciousness. Social consciousness, its levels and forms. Collective unconscious in C. Jung’s theory.
Topic 7. Philosophical Anthropology
Person and its triple nature: unity of biological, social and spiritual components. Distinction of soul and spirit. Anthropogenesis and its main interpretations (theological conception, evolutionary approach, theory of cosmic origins of human being).
Human nature as potentiality of self-development and self-improvement: problem of education and upbringing. Person and personality. Human activity as the way of self-affirmation and self-realization in the world. Person as creator of culture. Anxiety and suffering, freedom and responsibility, conscious and guilt in human experience. Problem of faith. Problem of love and sexuality.
Person as microcosm. Living organism and its environement. Interpretation of the human being in M. Scheler’s, H. Plessner’s and A. Gehlen’s conception.
Death and sense of life. Thanatology and the problem of euthanasia.
Topic 8. Gnoseology: Problem of Cognition, Truth and Scientific Knowledge
Problem of intelligibility of the world: can the world be comprehended by the human mind? Epistemological optimism, agnosticism and skepticism. Subject and object of cognition: problem of their correlation. Knowledge and its types.
Problem of the truth and its criteria: 1) correspondence theory; 2) coherent theory; 3) consensus theory; 4) pragmatism; 5) postmodern pluralism. Types of truth: absolute, objective and relative.
Scientific cognition: empirical and theoretical levels and their methods. Forms of scientific knowledge. Types of theories.
Science as social institute. Historical types of scientific rationality.
Problem of science origins. Different interpretation of scientific development process: epistemological anarchism, epistemological evolutionism, T. Kuhn’s conception of “scientific revolutions” and the notion of paradigm .
Topic 9. Social Philosophy and Philosophy of Culture
Social philosophy and its place in the system of philosophical knowledge.
Nature of social reality. Problem of research method of social philosophy.
Problem of laws of social development. K. Popper’s critique of social experiments.
Challenges of the 20 th century. Consumerism as a form of social control: social philosophy of Frankfurt School. Phenomenon of technique in interpretation of M. Heidegger and J. Ellul.
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Culture: its definition, function, structure and types. Mass culture and elite culture. World culture as philosophical problem (V. Vernadskyy, P. Teilhard de
Chardin, O. Spengler). Culture and civilization.
Topic 10. Philosophy of history
History, historiography, methodology of history and philosophy of history.
Historiography of Ancient Greece and Rome: myth and history; antique interpretation of the past. Christian eschatology and its impact on refocusing of historiography. Past, present and future through the perspective of Modernity.
Idea of progress and its theologization. Universal history and the question of meaning and goal of historical process: idealistic and materialistic approaches
(Kantian-Hegelian and Marxist traditions).
Problem of agent in history: collective agency or person’s creativity?
World history and its periodization: K. Jaspers’ conception of “Axial Age”.
Problem of “the end of history” in interpretations of J. Baudrillard and F.
Fukuyama.
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#
1.
THEMATIC PLAN OF THE COURSE
TOPICS
Philosophy and Worldview
HOURS
LECTURES SEMINARS
2 2
2. Origins and Historical Development of Philosophy:
Ancient East, Ancient Greece, Middle Ages and
Renaissance
3. Early Modern Philosophy and Classical German
Philosophy
4. Contemporary Western Philosophy
2
2
2
4
4
2
5. Historical Development of Ukrainian Philosophy
6. Ontology: Problem of Being and Consciousness
7.
2
2
2
2
4
2
8.
9.
10.
Philosophical Anthropology
Gnoseology: Problem of Cognition, Truth and
Scientific Knowledge
Social Philosophy and Philosophy of Culture
Philosophy of history
2
2
2
4
2
2
11. Control test
Total amount of hours
-
20
#
1.
2.
THEMATIC PLAN OF STUDENT’S INDIVIDUAL WORK
Kinds of individual work
Preparation for seminars and control test
Writing an essay on one of given topics
Total amount of hours
Hours
34
6
40
2
30
7

PLAN OF SEMINARS
Topic 1. Philosophy and Worldview
1. Worldview, its structure and functions.
2. Historical types of worldview: mythological, religious, philosophical and scientific.
3. Object, methods, research fields and functions of philosophy.
4. Philosophy and science.
Topic 2. Origins and Development of Philosophy in Ancient India, Ancient China and Ancient Greece
1. Particularities of Eastern and Western worldview paradigms.
2. Main philosophical schools of Ancient India: orthodox Hindu philosophy,
Buddhism, Cārvāka.
3. Philosophy in Ancient China: Taoism and Confucianism.
4. Philosophy of Ancient Greece and its periods: a) Pre-Socratics; b) Classical Greek philosophy (anthropological and synthetic stages); c) Hellenistic philosophy.
Topic 3. Philosophy of Middle Ages and Renaissance
1. Sources, features and periods of European Mediaeval Philosophy.
2. Main issues of European Mediaeval Philosophy: a) problem of faith and reason; b) arguments for existence of God and problem of theodicy; c) problem of universals.
3. Arabic Mediaeval Philosophy and its main representatives.
4. Philosophy of Renaissance: a) humanism; b) philosophy of nature (neo-platonic and pantheistic traditions); c) utopianism; d) Reformation.
Topic 4. Early Modern Philosophy
1. Modern identity and its particularities.
2. Empiricism and rationalism as different approaches to the problem of scientific cognition method (F. Bacon, G. Galilei, R. Descartes).
3. Sensualism and its forms in British Modern philosophy (J. Locke, G. Berkeley,
D. Hume).
4. Idea of civil society and social contract theory (T. Hobbes, J. Locke).
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Topic 5. Enlightenment and Classical German Philosophy
1. Enlightenment as ideological, political and cultural movement.
2. Philosophy of French Enlightenment (Voltaire, J.J. Rousseau).
3. “Copernican revolution” in philosophy of I. Kant.
4. Objective idealism and dialectics in philosophy of G. Hegel.
5. Anthropological materialism of L. Feuerbach.
Topic 6. Contemporary philosophy
1. Non-classical philosophical paradigm and its main principles.
2. Marxism and Positivism: scientific approach in philosophical research.
3. Irrationalism in philosophy of A. Schopenhauer and F. Nietzsche.
4. Pre-existentialism of S. Kierkegaard.
5. Existence, freedom and death in Existentialism of M. Heidegger and J.P. Sartre.
6. Neo-Thomism of J. Maritain.
Topic 7. Historical Development of Ukrainian Philosophy
1. Main features of Ukrainian mythological worldview.
2. Development of philosophy in Kyivan Rus’. Ostroh cultural-educational center and Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
3. “Philosophy of heart” (H. Skovoroda, P. Yurkevych).
4. V. Vernadskyy and noosphere conception.
5. Philosophical worldview of I. Franko.
6. Ukrainian national idea in philosophy of D. Dontsov and V. Lypynskyy.
Topic 8. Problem of Being: Ontology as a Branch of Philosophy
1. Being as the central concept of philosophy and its historical development. Being and beings. Being and nothingness.
2. Structure of Being in interpretation of N. Hartmann.
3. Conceptions of Being:
 classical paradigm:
materialism;
idealism (objective and subjective);
 non-classical paradigm (phenomenology, existentialism).
4. Main approaches to the interpretation of diversity in the world:
 monism (idealistic, neutral, materialistic);
 dualism;
 pluralism.
4. Matter and its main characteristics: a) time and space; b) motion and its forms; motion and development.
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Topic 9. Consciousness as philosophical problem
1. Consciousness, self-consciousness, language.
2. Structure of consciousness in Z. Freud’s theory.
3. Consciousness of the world and world of consciousness: philosophical approaches to the explanation of consciousness (Marxism, Phenomenology,
Existentialism, panpsychism of P. Teilhard de Chardin).
4. Social consciousness, its levels and forms. Collective unconscious in C. Jung’s theory.
Topic 10. Philosophical Anthropology
1. Person and its triple nature: unity of biological, social and spiritual components.
Distinction of soul and spirit.
2. Anthropogenesis and its main interpretations: a) theological conception; b) evolutionary approach; c) theory of cosmic origins of human being.
3. Interpretation of the human being in M. Scheler’s, H. Plessner’s and A. Gehlen’s conception.
4. Death and sense of life. Thanatology and the problem of euthanasia.
Topic 11. Cognition and Truth as Main Problems of Gnoseology
1. Intelligibility of the world: can the world be comprehended by the human mind?
Epistemological optimism, agnosticism and skepticism.
2. Knowledge and its types: practical, spiritual and theoretical; scientific, esoteric and everyday knowledge.
3. Subject and object of cognition: problem of their correlation.
4. Problem of the truth and its criteria: 1) correspondence theory; 2) coherent theory; 3) consensus theory; 4) pragmatism; 5) postmodern pluralism. Types of truth: absolute, objective and relative.
Topic 12. Science and Scientific Cognition
1. Empirical and theoretical levels of scientific cognition and their methods.
2. Forms of scientific knowledge (scientific fact, problem, idea, hypothesis, theory). Types of theories: fundamental, concretizing, theories of “cutting edge”.
3. Science as social institute. Historical types of scientific rationality: classical mechanistic science, evolutionary type, non-classical and post-non-classical science.
4. Problem of science origins: experience accumulation or problem solving?
Different interpretation of scientific development process: a) epistemological anarchism;
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b) epistemological evolutionism; c) T. Kuhn’s conception of “scientific revolutions” and the notion of paradigm .
Topic 13. Social Philosophy and Philosophy of Culture
1. Nature of social reality. K. Popper’s critique of social experiments.
2. Consumerism as a form of social control: social philosophy of Frankfurt School.
3. Phenomenon of technique in interpretation of M. Heidegger and J. Ellul.
4. Culture: its definition, function, structure and types.
5. World culture as philosophical problem (V. Vernadskyy, P. Teilhard de Chardin,
O. Spengler). Culture and civilization.
Topic 14. Philosophy of History
1. History, historiography and philosophy of history.
2. Problem of agent in history: collective agency or person’s creativity?
3. Historical laws and irreversibility of progress as philosophical problems.
4. World history and its periodization: K. Jaspers’ conception of “Axial Age”.
5. Problem of “the end of history”: interpretations of J. Baudrillard and F.
Fukuyama.
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#
GRADING SYSTEM
(current progress of students)
Philosophy and Worldview 1.
2. Origins and Development of Philosophy in Ancient
India, Ancient China and Ancient Greece
3. Philosophy of Middle Ages and Renaissance
4. Early Modern Philosophy
5. Enlightenment and Classical German Philosophy
6. Contemporary Philosophy
7. Historical Development of Ukrainian Philosophy
8.
9.
10.
Problem of Being: Ontology as a Branch of
Philosophy
Consciousness as Philosophical Problem
Philosophical Anthropology
11. Cognition and Truth as Main Problems of Gnoseology
12. Science and Scientific Cognition
13.
14.
Social Philosophy and Philosophy of Culture
Philosophy of History
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
Maximum amount of points
8
8
8
8
8
8
TOTAL AMOUNT FOR SEMINARS
ESSAY
CONTROL TEST
TOTAL AMOUNT OF POINTS
112
8
80
200
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Two types of work are required from students during seminars: oral reports and tests . Students’ progress on each seminar is graded in a following scale:
8 points = mark “5” = “excellent”;
7 points = mark “4” = “good”;
5 points = mark “3” = “satisfactory”.
Minimum total amount of points which permits a student to write the control test equals 70 points .
Maximum total amount of points which can be received during seminars equals 112 points.
The control test consists of 40 closed questions each of which is graded with
2 points. The control test is considered to be passed if a student receives at least
50 points which equal 25 correct answers.
REQUIREMENTS FOR WRITING AN ESSAY
An essay should:
 contain references to monographs on chosen topic;
 consist of at least 3 and at most 5 pages ;
 include following basic elements:
 introduction (one paragraph),
 body – presentation of key ideas,
 conclusion (one or two paragraphs);
 represent student’s independent analysis of a chosen topic;
 reflect student’s personal opinion, personal attitude to the problem.
ESSAY TOPICS
1. The Idea of Civil Society in Aristotle’s Political Philosophy ( according to
“Politics” by Aristotle
).
2. The Concept of the Good and Its Correlation to Happiness and Human
Activity in Aristotle’s Interpretation ( according to “Nicomachean Ethics” by
Aristotle ).
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3. The Ideal of Stoic Philosopher through the Perspective of the Problem of
Death in Seneca’s “Moral Letters to Lucilius”.
4. Augustine’s Interpretation of Time and Its Impact on Kant’s Subjective Theory
( according to “Confessions” by St Augustine ).
5. Rationalist Approach to the Problem of the Method in Early Modern
Philosophy ( according to “Discourse on the Method” by R. Descartes ).
6. Tragedy of Human Existence through the Perspective of B. Pascal’s
Philosophy ( according to “Thoughts” by B. Pascal ).
7. Progress and History in Philosophy of Enlightenment ( according to “Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose” by I. Kant ).
8. The Problem of Faith and Rationality: Tragic Hero and Knight of Faith in S.
Kierkegard’s “Fear and Trembling”.
9. Idea of Evolution and the Place of Human Being in the Contemporary World
( according to “The Phenomenon of Man” by P. Teilhard de Chardin
).
10. Mass-Man and the Challenges of the Contemporary World ( according to
“The Revolt of the Masses” by J. Ortega y Gasset ).
11. Modern Age: a new identity ( according to “The age of the World Picture” by
M.Heidegger
).
12. The Phenomenon of Rebellion in A. Camus’ Existentialism ( according to
“The Rebel” by A. Camus ).
COURSE MATERIALS AND USEFUL LINKS
1. Ivanova K.A., Krivchikova G.F., Sadovnikov O.K. et al. Philosophy (Credit-
Module Course).
Kharkiv, Golden Pages, 2009. 408 p.
2. Miller, Ed. L., Jensen, J. Questions That Matter: an Invitation to Philosophy (5 th edition).
New York, McGraw-Hill, 2004. 618 p.
3. Russel, Bertran. History of Western Philosophy.
London, George Allen and
Unwin LTD, 1946. 916 p.
Available from: http://www.archive.org/details/westernphilosoph035502mbp
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4. Pecorino, Philip A. An Introduction to Philosophy: an Online Textbook.
Available from: http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/pecorip/scccweb/intro_text/CONTENTS.htm
5. Classics of Western Philosophy / edited by Steven M. Cahn (6 th ed.).
Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Company, 2002. 1199 p. Available from: http://books.google.com.ua/books?id=3lZ3BqmRDlAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=
Classics+of+Western+Philosophy+/+edited+by+Steven+M.+Cahn&hl=uk&sa=X
&ei=t0Eb
6.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu
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