Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS AND ECONOMICS Module Catalogue Study Abroad Semester one 2017/18 Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
PPE1000
Introduction To Classical And Early Modern Philosophy
30
2
Level 4
Timothy Secret
Module Description:
In this module we will begin to study philosophy through looking at its two great foundational moments, commonly attached to the names Socrates and Descartes. The first inaugurated the flowering of philosophical thought in Ancient Greece and the second beginning the European Enlightenment. Throughout both semesters students will also engage in a range of activities and classes based on developing their philosophical skills. In the first semester we will be concerned with key thinkers, ideas and arguments from the Classical period. Our primary focus will fall on the still highly influential works of Plato and Aristotle, particularly as they relate to what philosophy and the philosopher are, along with key questions relating to metaphysics, epistemology, politics and the polis. However, we will also offer a chronological sweep of the Classical period that looks from the Presocratics to the Sophists, onwards to the major Hellenistic schools of philosophy and then to the philosophers of the Roman Empire. Along with telling this standard story we will look at contemporary attempts to put in question the narrative that philosophy begins in Ancient Greece. In the second semester we will turn to the Early‐Modern period: a time when parts of Classical thought were being rejected while others were being rediscovered. We will look at how a renewed focus on epistemology along with developments in the natural sciences led to a new confidence in the power of reason against superstition and illusion. To develop our skills and knowledge of the diverging rationalist and empiricist traditions that succeeded medieval scholasticism, we will focus in particular on the conceptual accounts and proofs of the existence of God, the self and world that developed in the succession of debates sparked by Descartes. Specific to:
Philosophy, Politics and Economics
Philosophy, Religion and Ethics
Assessments:
001:
002:
003:
Essay (2,000 Words)
Essay (2,000 Words)
Exam (2 Hours)
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
Semester S1
25%
25%
50%
Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
PPE1003
Introduction To Ethics And Values In The Modern World
30
2
Level 4
Neil Messer
Module Description:
In this module students have the opportunity to articulate their philosophical, political and economic studies around ethical and value‐focused questions at stake in a variety of real‐
world debates. In the first semester, we will explore a range of current moral issues and debates in some or all of the following areas: science, technology and medicine; animals and ecological concern; gender, sexuality and intimate relationships; political, economic and social life. Students will develop skills in analysing such debates through the study of selected philosophical, theological and/or religious approaches to moral reasoning. The module gives students an opportunity to develop a critical understanding of key historical and contemporary thinkers and traditions in ethics, and will explore some of the ways in which philosophical, theological and religious forms of moral reasoning have interacted in different times and places. In the second semester, we will focus on questions about value. The specific aim of the classes is to discuss some of the fundamental philosophical issues and ideas that have shaped discussions about values in ethics, politics and economics since the second half of the 19th century. A red thread throughout will be questions about value conflict and possible responses to it. Are values 'relative' and what might that mean? What, if any, is the difference between relativist and pluralist theories of value? Is it possible to hold on to unified theories of value in the face of conflicts? And how do these theoretical differences play a role when we engage with everyday questions about ethics, politics and economics. Specific to:
Philosophy, Politics and Economics
Assessments:
001:
002:
003:
Portfolio (3,000 Words)
Essay (1,500 Words)
Essay (1,5000 Words)
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
Semester
S1
50%
25%
25%
Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
PPE2002
Power: Theories And Applications
15
1
Level 5
Maximilian Terhalle
Module Description:
This module explores both historical and contemporary evolutions in the conceptualisation of power within International Relations and global politics. Through a series of case studies, it offers students various perspectives on one of the oldest and most studied concepts. It also makes reference to key notions of justice, commercial uses of power and decision‐
making processes in order critique the applications of power within different contexts.
Specific to:
Politics and Global Studies
Philosophy, Politics and Economics
Assessments:
001:
002:
Essay (2,000 Words)
Exam (2 Hours)
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
Semester
S1
50%
50%
Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
PPE2003
Economic Theory
15
1
Level 5
Module Description:
In this module students will have the opportunity to engage critically with the history of economic thought through studying the ideas and major works of a range of the discipline’s pioneers. Students will be expected to develop an understanding of the context in which economic modes of analysis were established and to be able to evaluate the extent to which these theories are still applicable to modern day economic systems and contemporary problems. The thinkers engaged with in the module might include Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman.
Specific to:
Philosophy, Politics and Economics
Assessments:
001:
Essay (3,000 Words)
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
Semester
S1
100%
Module Code:
Module Name:
Module Credits:
No. of Periods:
Level:
Module Tutor:
PPE3000
Phenomenology, Existentialism And Identity
15
1
Level 6
Timothy Secret
Module Description:
A great deal of contemporary thought remains heavily focused on building on, responding to or critically rejecting the thought of the early‐Twentieth Century. In this module we will look at a selection of the many important thinkers associated with the labels phenomenology and existentialism, such as Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Levinas, Camus and Merleau‐Ponty; along with a selection of thinkers outside of that tradition who played an important part in its critique, such as Bergson, Bataille, Saussure, Lévi‐Strauss, Derrida and Foucault. We will see how the very notion of what it is “to be” and particularly “to be human” was put in question by these thinkers and by their critics. We will relate this to developments beyond philosophy, such as the role of such thinking in art, politics and religion, and the way it has responded to developments in science and logic.
Specific to:
Philosophy, Religion and Ethics
Assessments:
001:
002:
Presentation
Essay (4,000 Words)
Availability:
Occ.
A
Year
17/18
Semester
S1
25%
75%