MODULE OUTLINE
Modern Liberal Arts
University of Winchester
Semester 1 2015
LA 2001 Freedom is to Learn
Thursdays 15.30-17.30 MB2
Tubbs
Module Learning Outcomes
Show engagement with 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 surrounding freedom in the world
Weekly seminars (full list of references at the end)
‘how can light and darkness be in agreement?’ (Erasmus, 1964, Enchiridion, p. 30).
Week 1
Aristotle on masters and slaves
Readings:
Aristotle, The Politics, pp. 63-9, 94-97, 451-471.
Plato, The Laws, 713-14
Seneca, The Letters, letter XLVII, pp. 90-6.
St Augustine, City of God, pp. 874-6, 893.
St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Q21, art. 1 (vol. 1); Q96, art 4
(vol. 4)
Epictetus, Discourses, book IV, chapter 1
Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, IV, 17.
Newman, The Idea of a University, p. 178.
Proctor, Defining the Humanities, pp. 200-1.
Wider reading:
Life of Diogenes the Cynic, in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent
Philosophers, Book VI, chapter 2.
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lives_of_the_Eminent_Philosophers/Book
_VI#Diogenes
St Augustine, City of God, Book XIX
St Thomas Aquinas, Q105, art. 4 (vol. 8)
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
Aquinas, Commentary on Aristotle’s Politics,
Plato, (1971) Gorgias, 483-5.
Smith, A. (1986) Wealth of Nations, pp. 488-9.
Ward, ‘Ethnos in the Politics: Aristotle and Race,’ in Ward and Lott
(2002).
Neill, R. (2011) ‘Slavery in the Writings of Thomas Aquinas,’
http://www.sju.ca/sites/default/files/Library/Headley%20essays/Headle
y%20Ralph%20Neill.pdf
Clarence-Smith, Islam and the Abolition of Slavery
(Library)
Week 2
Hegel on master and slave
Reading:
Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit, §178-196
du Bois, The Education of Black People, 106-8, 128.
McLaurin, Celia, a Slave, pp. 113-119.
Maya Angelou ’Still I rise’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqOqo50LSZ0
Maya Angelou ‘The Mask’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT9y9HFHpU0&feature=youtu.be
Wider reading:
Sartre, Being and Nothingness, pp. 235-245.
Adler, The Idea of Freedom, Book 2, Part I, chapter 1.
Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, part 2.
Taylor, Hegel, pp. 148-57.
Lacan, The Other Side of Psychoanalysis pp. 20-36, 148-9, 169-72.
Browning, Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit: A Reappraisal, chapter 12.
Harris, H.S. (1995) Hegel: Phenomenology and System, pp. 35-40.
Rose, Mourning Becomes the Law, chapter 3.
Norman, Hegel's Phenomenology
Rockmore, Before and After Hegel, pp. 103-107.
Tubbs Philosophy’s Higher Education, pp. 28-39.
Week 3
Kant and Dostoevsky
Readings:
Kant, ‘What is Enlightenment’.
Kant, (2012) On the feeling of the beautiful and the sublime, p. 33-4
Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, ‘The Grand Inquisitor’, pp. 283304.
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dostoyevsky/d72b/chapter36.html
and pp. 360-6, chapter 41
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dostoyevsky/d72b/chapter41.html
Wider reading:
Kant, Political Writings, pp. 64 & 69.
Kant, (2007) ‘Conjectural beginning of human history’
Williams, Dostoevsky: Language, Faith and Fiction, pp. 27-34.
Week 4
of the slave
Readings:
Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, Intro 171-3
Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, conclusion
Ansbro, J.J. (1982/4) Martin Luther King, The Making of a Mind, 119128, 214-15, 298.
ML King Jnr, Stride Toward Freedom, 88-9.
Tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness, 34-6, 40, 154-5, 212-19.
du Bois, The Souls of Black Folks, chapter 1.
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
The Correspondence of W.E.B. Du Bois, Vol. 1: Selections, 1877-1934
Tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness
Diop, C.A, (1991) Civilization or Barbarism, chapter 17.
Krog, Country of my Skull,
White, D.G. (1999) Ar’n’t I a Woman? New York, Norton.
ML King Jnr, (1956) ‘Facing the Challenge of a new age’
http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol3/3-Dec1956_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. 119-24;
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
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.
Dickens, C. (1883 ) American Notes, New York, John Lovell Company,
chapter 17.
Week 5
Reading:
Commodity fetishism
Tucker, R.C. (1978) The Marx-Engels Reader, London, Norton, pp. 302323
Week 6
Magritte – messing with identity
‘There are names and there are things. A name is a spoken sound
which designates a thing and acts as a sign for it. The name is not part
of that thing nor part of its substance’ (Montaigne, The Complete
Essays, p. 702).
Readings:
Gablik, (1985) magritte, chapter 7, pp. 124-135, 168-172.
Torczyner (1979) Magritte: The True Art of Painting, pp. 28, 71, & 11825.
Week 7
Weber – Capitalism, Protestantism and Reason
Readings:
Weber, M. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, pp. 91, 603, 80-1, 108-9, 117-121, 152-8, 162, 169-75.
Weber, Economy and Society, pp. 223-4.
Weber, M. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, pp. 214-6.
Weber, M. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, pp 180-3.
Handout
Wider reading
Pascal, Pensees, on diversion VIII, pp. 66-72.
Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class,
Bataille, (1997) ‘Letter to X’
Week 8
Vincent van Gogh
Reading:
letters from De Leeuw, The Letters of Van Gogh
http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/
http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters.html
Wider reading:
Wyschogrod, ‘Disrupting Reason: Art and Madness in Hegel and van
Gogh’, in Zizek et al. Hegel and the Infinite.
Augustine, On The Trinity, XI.8.13
Bataille, Visions of Excess, pp. 61-72.
Heidegger, ‘The Origin of the Work of Art’ in Basic Writings, pp. 158162.
McQuillan, Van Gogh.
Walther, Van Gogh.
Uhde, Van Gogh.
Bruce, Van Gogh.
Bonafoux, Van Gogh: the passionate eye
‘Philosophers Rumble Over Van Gogh’s Shoes’
http://harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90005828
Montaigne, (2003) ‘How we weep and laugh at the same thing’
Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvWHOj79vrw
Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMzhs8qeSo&feature=youtu.be
Week 9
Nietzsche’s Zarathustra
Reading:
Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra, in The Portable Nietzsche, pp. 12139, 225-8, 249-53, 267-71, 342-3.
Wider reading:
Tolstoy, My Religion: What I Believe, chapter 1.
Deleuze, Nietzsche and Philosophy
Allison (ed.) The New Nietzsche.
Rosen, The Mask of Enlightenment.
Ansell-Pearson, An Introduction to Nietzsche as Political Thinker.
Agamben, The Man Without Content, pp. 85-93.
Tubbs, Contradiction of Enlightenment, chapter 8.
Tubbs, ‘The Return of the Teacher’, Educational Philosophy and
Theory, 35: 1.
Tubbs, Philosophy of the Teacher, chapter 7.
Tubbs, Philosophy’s Higher Education, chapter 5.
We will decide the content of weeks 10-12 in discussion in the module, from a list of
possibilities.
Assessment
Assessment 1: (50%)
Using texts from weeks 1-3 describe different perspectives on the
master/slave relationship (2000-2250 words; deadline: Week 4 Thursday 15 Oct given to
Catherine in the Office by 3.30pm).
Assessment 2: (50%) from a list that grows week by week… (2000-2250 words; deadline
Week 12 Thursday 8th December 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).
References
Adams St. Pierre, E. (2004) ‘Deleuzian Concepts for Education: the subject undone’, Educational Philosophy
and Theory, vol. 36, no. 3.
Adler, M. (1958) The Idea of Freedom, New York, Doubleday and Co.
Adorno, TW. (1983) Prisms, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
Adorno, T.W. (2005) Beethoven, Cambridge, Polity Press.
Agamben, G. (1999) The Man Without Conent, Stanford, Stanford University Press.
Allison, D.B. (1985) The New Nietzsche, Cambridge Massachusetts, The MIT Press.
Ansbro, J.J. (1982) Martin Luther King, The Making of a Mind, New York, Orbis Books.
Ansell-Pearson, K. (1994) An Introduction to Nietzsche as Political Thinker, Cambridge, Cambridge University
Press.
Aquinas, T. (1920) The “Summa Theologica of St Thomas Aquinas, in 22 volumes, trans. By Fathers of the
English Dominican Province, 2nd ed., London, Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd.
Aristotle, (1981) The Politics, London, Penguin.
Armstrong, A.H. (1953) Plotinus, London: George Allen & Unwin.
Auerbach, E. (1961) Dante Poet of the Secular World, New York, New York Review of Books.
Augustine, (1972) City of God, London, Penguin
Augustine, (1998) Confessions, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Augustine, (2002) On The Trinity, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Bataille, G. (1985) Visions of Excess, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.
Bataille, G. (1997) The Bataille Reader, Oxford, Blackwell.
Boccaccio, G. (2011) Life of Dante, Richmond, One World Classics.
Bonafoux, P. (1992) Van Gogh: The Passionate Eye, London, Thames & Hudson.
Botting, F. and Wilson, S. (1997) The Bataille Reader, Oxford, Blackwell.
Brod, M. (1972) The Diaries of Franz Kafka, London, Penguin.
Browning, G. (1997) Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit: a re-appraisal, Dordrecht, Kluwer.
Bruce, B. (1992) Van Gogh, London, Dorling Kindersley.
Buck-Morss, S. (1979) The Origin of Negative Dialectics, New York, The Free Press.
Bürger, P. (2002) The Thinking of the Master, Evanston, Northwestern University Press.
Canetti, E. (2012) Kafka’s Other Trial, London, Penguin.
Cicero, (2001) Letters to his Friends, Loeb Classical Library.
Clarence-Smith, W.G. (2005) Islam and the Abolition of Slavery, London, C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd.
Claussen, D. (2008) Adorno, one last genius, Harvard University Press
Critchley, S. and Schroeder, W. (eds.) (1999) A Companion to Continental Philosophy, Oxford, Blackwell,
chapter 51.
Dante, (1984) The Divine Comedy vol. 1: Inferno, trans. M Musa, London: Penguin.
Dante, (1996) Monarchy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dante, (2002) The New Life (Vita Nuova) New York, New Review Books.
De Leeuw, R. (1996) The Letters of Van Gogh, Harmondsworth, Penguin.
Descartes, R. (1985) Discourse on Method in The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, vol 1, trans. Cottingham,
Stoothoof & Murdoch, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Dickens, C. (1883 ) American Notes, New York, John Lovell Company, chapter 17.
Dostoevsky, F. (1993) The Brothers Karamazov, London: Penguin.
Du Bois, W.E.B. (2001) The Education of Black People, New York, Monthly Review Press.
Douglass, F. (2009) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Eagleton, T. (2005) Figures of Dissent, London, Verso.
Eliot, TS. (1929) Dante, London, Faber and Faber
Eliot, TS, Dante (from The Sacred Wood) at
http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw14.html
Epictetus, (1877) The Discourses of Epictetus; with the Encheiridion and fragments, London, George Bell and
sons.
Equiano, O. (1789/2005) The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The
African Written By Himself, London.
Erasmus, D. (1964) The Essential Erasmus, New York, Meridian.
Fanon, F. (1986) Black Skin White Masks, London, Pluto Press.
Fanon, F. (2001) The Wretched of the Earth, London, Penguin.
Gablik, S. (1985) magritte, London: Thames and Hudson.
Gilson, E. (1963) Dante and Philosophy, New York, Harper Torchbook.
Harris, H.S. (1995) Hegel: Phenomenology and System, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Co.
Hegel, G.W.F. (1967) Philosophy of Right, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Hegel, G.W.F. (1975) ‘Love’ in Early Theological Writings, Philadelphia, University of Philadelphia Press.
Hegel, G.W.F. (1975) Hegel’s Aesthetics, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Hegel, G.W.F. (1977) Phenomenology of Spirit, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Hegel, G.W.F. (1984) Hegel: The Letters, Bloomington, Indiana University Press.
Hegel, G.W.F. (1990) Philosophy of Mind, Oxford, Clarendon Press.
Heidegger, M. (1996) Basic Writings, ed. David Farrell Krell, London, Routledge.
Hyppolite, J. (1974) Genesis and Structure of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, Evanston, Northwestern
University Press.
Innocent III, (1969) On The Misery of the Human Condition (De miseria humane conditionis), Indianapolis:
Bobbs-Merrill.
Jay, M. (1996) The Dialectical Imagination, University of California Press.
Jacobs, H. (2001) Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, New York, Dover.
Jacoff, E. (ed) 1993) The Cambridge Companion to Dante, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Kafka, (1992) Kafka’s Letters to Felice, London, Minerva.
Kafka, F. (1993) Collected Stories, ed. Gabriel Josipovici, London, Everyman.
Kafka, F. (1994) The Trial, London, Penguin.
Kant, I. (1992) Political Writings, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Kant, I. (1996) Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, Carbondale & Edwardsville, Southern Illinois
University Press.
Kant, I. (2012) Anthropology, History and Education, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Kierkegaard, S. (1985) Philosophical Fragments/Johannes Climacus, Princeton, Princeton University Press.
Kierkegaard, S. (1987) Either/Or Parts I and II, Princeton, Princeton University Press.
Kierkegaard, S. (1988) Stages on Life’s Way, Princeton, Princeton University Press.
Kierkegaard, S. (1996) Papers and Journals, A Selection, London, Penguin.
King, ML Jnr, (1958/2011) Stride Toward Freedom, London, Souvenir Press.
Kojeve, A. (1969) Introduction to the Reading of Hegel, Ithaca and London, Cornell University Press
Lacan, J. (2007) The Other Side of Psychoanalysis, New York, Norton.
Lewis, RWB. (2001) Dante a life, London, Penguin.
Lowrie, W. (1944) A Short Life of Kierkegaard, London, Oxford University Press.
Maimonides, M. (1975) The Ethical Writings of Maimonides, New York, Dover Publications.
Montaigne, M. (2003) The Complete Essays, London, Penguin.
Marshall, J.D. (2004) Poststructuralism, Philosophy, Pedagogy, Dordrecht, Kluwer, chapter 5.
McDonald, W. (2003) ‘Love in Kierkegaard’s Symposia’ Minerva - An Internet Journal of Philosophy 7: 60–93.
McLaren, P. and Leonard, P. (1993) Paulo Freire; a critical encounter, London, Routledge.
McLaurin, M.A. (1991) Celia, a Slave, New York, Avon Books.
McQuillian, M. (1989) Van Gogh, London: Thames and Hudson.
Montaigne, M. (2003)The Complete Essays, London, Penguin.
Morss, J.R. (2000) ‘The Passional Pedagogy of Gilles Deleuze’, Educational Philosophy and Theory, vol. 32, no.
2.
Müller-Doohm, S. (2005) Adorno, a biography, Cambridge, Polity.
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. (1987) "Henry Corbin: The Life and Works of the Occidental Exile in Quest of the Orient
of Light," Ch. 17, in Traditional Islam in the Modern World, Kegan Paul International, London.
Nietzsche, F. (1982) The Portable Nietzsche, London, Penguin.
Northup, S, (2014) 12 Years a Slave, London, HarperCollins.
Noys, B. (2000) George Bataille A Critical Introduction, London, Pluto Press.
Pascal, B. (1966) Pensées, London, Penguin.
Peters, M. (ed.) (1998) Naming the Multiple, Westport, Bergin and Harvey, Introduction and chapter 6.
Phelps, N. (2007) Longest Struggle: Animal Advocacy from Pythagoras to PETA, Lantern Books.
Plato, (1970) The Laws, London, Penguin.
Plato, (1971) Gorgias, London, Penguin.
Plotinus, (1991) The Enneads, London: Penguin.
Regan, T. (2004) The Case for Animal Rights, Berkeley, University of California.
Rockmore, (2003) Before and After Hegel, Indianapolis, Hackett Books
Rose, G. (1995) Love’s Work, London, Chatto and Windus.
Rose, G. (1996) Mourning Becomes the Law, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
Rousseau, J.J. (1973) The Social Contract and Discourses, London, Everyman.
Rousseau, J.J. (2000) Emile, London, Everyman.
Roy, K. (2004) ‘Overcoming Nihilism: From communication to Deleuzian expression’, Educational Philosophy
and Theory, vol. 36, no. 3.
Ryan, C. (2013) Dante and Aquinas, London, Ubiquity Press.
Sartre, J.P. (1969) Being and Nothingness, London, Routledge.
Sartre, J.P. (2007) Existentialism and Humanism, London, Methuen.
Sayers, D.L. (1954) Introductory Papers on Dante, Eugene, Oregon, Wipf and Stock.
Schopenhauer, A. (2000) On The Basis of Morality, Indianapolis, Hackett.
Scruton, R. (2000) ‘Animal Rights, City, summer.
Seneca, (2004) Letters from a Stoic, London, Penguin.
Singer, P. (1995) Animal Liberation, London, Pimlico
Smith, A. (1986) Wealth of Nations, London, Penguin.
Taylor, C. (1975) Hegel, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Taylor, T. (1792), A Vindication of the Rights of Brutes, London, Gainesville, Florida
Tolstoy, L. (2009) My Religion, What I Believe, Guildford, White Crow Books.
Torczyner (1979) Magritte: The True Art of Painting, London: Thames and Hudson.
Tubbs, N. (1997) Contradiction of Enlightenment, Aldershot, Ashgate.
Tubbs, N. (2004) Philosophy’s Higher Education, Dordrecht, Kluwer.
Tutu, D. (1999) No Future Without Forgiveness, London, Rider.
Uhde, W. (1991) Van Gogh, London: Phaidon Press Ltd.
Violin, Mary Ann. "Pythagoras—The First Animal Rights Philosopher," Between the Species 6:122–127.
Veblen, T. (2010) The Theory of the Leisre Class, Readaclassic.
Walther, I. F. (1993) Vincent Van Gogh 1853-1890, Vision and Reality, Köln: Benedikt Taschen.
Ward, J. and Lott, T.L. (2002) Philosophers on Race: critical essays, Oxford, Blackwell.
Weber, M. (1930/1989) The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, London, Unwin Hyman.
Weber, (1978) Economy and Society, Berkeley, University of California Press.
Weber, M. (1985) From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, London, RKP.
Wiggershaus, R. (1995) The Frankfurt School, Cambridge, Polity.
Williams. R. (2008) Dostoevsky: Language, Faith and Fiction, London: Continuum
Zizek, S. et al. (2011) (eds.) Hegel and the Infinite, New York, Columbia University Press.
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
Marks for
 depth of understanding of texts
 depth of understanding and application of
ideas/concepts
 evidence-based critical arguments




evidence by quotation
answering the question
correct referencing
word limit




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)
Module evaluations commented on a well-designed module, with good teaching, good
support, and challenging but enjoyable material. One response commented that some
students tended to dominate discussions. This is an issue that we have taken up as a team
of tutors, commented on in our Self-Evaluation Document for the revalidation next year,
and we have set in place some strategies by which to address this. This is a module where
change and flexibility are built-in, able to respond in the second half of the module to
student interests, meaning that some material is chosen by the students over that from
previous years. This is again proved an interesting and motivating strategy, and is one we
intend to continue in the following year.
Catalogue summary
This is the first of two compulsory modules in Modern Liberal Arts at level 5. This module allows students
considerable scope in the direction of their work. Each week introduces a new set of issues within which to
discuss ideas surrounding freedom. Indicative content here includes assessing freedom within the perspectives
of cosmopolitanism, feminism, colonialism, Islamic philosophy, Orientalism, slavery, Holocaust, and
existentialism. It is intended that Hegel’s analysis of the master/slave relationship in the Phenomenology of
Spirit will form the starting point for discussions.