ARTS2910 Course Outline
School of Humanities and Languages
ARTS2910, Philosophy and the Body
Semester 1, 2016
Leonardo Da Vinci, Vitruvian Man (c. 1490)
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ARTS2910 Course Outline
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Course Staff and Contact Details
Course Details
Learning and Teaching Rationale
Teaching Strategies
Course Assessment
Extension of Time for Submission of Assessments Tasks
Attendance
Class Clashes
Academic Honesty and Plagiarism
Course Schedule
Course Resources
Course Evaluation and Development
Student Support
Grievances
Other Information
1. Course Staff and Contact Details
Course Convenor
Name
Joanne Faulkner
Room Morven Brown 338
Phone
9385 2287
Email [email protected]
Consultation Time Thursday 3 – 4 p.m. and Friday 2 – 3 p.m.
Lecturer
As Above
Tutors
As Above
2. Course Details
Units of Credit (UoC)
Course Description
Course Aims
6
How has the way we understand the body developed and
changed in response to social change? And what kind of body
does Western philosophy assume, when it addresses the body
at all? Is the body always already a gendered body? This course
introduces students to ideas about the body and how
embodiment has been theorised by the Western philosophical
tradition. The course will consider the apparent relationship
between the body and ‘the human’, the body and reason, and
the body and creativity, among other questions. A guiding thread
for the course is the question: Is the body always already a
gendered body? Early modern philosophy from Descartes pitted
the body against the mind, and also identified 'man' with the
mind while 'woman' was understood to be associated with bodily
processes. The course prompts students to ask: What has been
the significance of this way of thinking about the relation of body
and mind to gender politics? How have philosophers, and
particularly philosophers of feminism, challenged this schema?
And to what extent does contemporary philosophy continue to
struggle with the question of the body?
1. To orient students to recent and historical philosophical
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ARTS2910 Course Outline
2.
3.
Student Learning
Outcomes
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8.
Graduate Attributes
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debates about the nature of the body
To teach the ability to think critically about concepts of the
body, and to connect these seemingly abstract concepts to
the body as it is lived
To familiarise students with major arguments and
problems current to the considerations of philosophy of the
body
Design an oral presentation and lead a philosophical
discussion
Recognise the historical and social contexts that inform
philosophical writing
Identify key arguments and concepts within a philosophical
text
Interpret and critically evaluate philosophical texts in
relation to their underlying rhetorical strategies
Construct an argument that demonstrates close
engagement with the course material, and a capacity to
review and analyse the arguments presented therein
Critically evaluate the arguments addressed in the course
Describe and interpret central feminist and other critical
engagements with philosophy
Support others’ learning by providing constructive
feedback
Ability to read and interpret texts sensitively and carefully,
especially appreciating the importance of intellectual
tradition
Ability to evaluate and critically analyse beliefs, ideas and
information using a range of techniques of reasoning
Appreciation of the importance of reasoned enquiry and an
ability to apply tools of philosophical analysis to a range of
issues including those in contemporary debates
Ability to present coherent and persuasive arguments
Skills of effective communication
Appreciation of and respect for diversity
Respect for ethical practice and social responsibility
Ability to critically evaluate the standpoint expressed by a
text.
Learning and Teaching Rationale
Philosophy and the Body is a second year course that aims to introduce Women's and
Gender Studies students to the philosophical modes of reading and writing, and to introduce
Philosophy students to issues of the body and gender as they pertain to philosophy as a
discipline. The course considers the various ways in which the body has been
conceptualised, and the relationship between these philosophical accounts of the body and
the way in which individuals (and groups) experience the body — its capacities and
limitations. The course also invites students to interrogate the relation of philosophical
conceptualisations of corporeality to gender and other social situations (such as disability).
The inquiry that students will engage through the course, then, concerns the manner in which
concepts engender the manner of our embodiment: how we are able to live as bodies, not
simply as natural entities, but rather as delimited by concepts.
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ARTS2910 Course Outline
4.
Teaching Strategies
The course will be delivered as a seminar, supported through the use of Moodle. The primary
emphasis is the development of independent research skills, through collaboration with peers
and the support of teaching staff. Students will be encouraged to take responsibility for their
learning and to operate as a community of inquiry, to support each other's learning. To this
end, some discussion and small group work will be integrated into the lecture component of
the course, while time will be given in the tutorial component to presentations and student-led
discussion, through which students will learn how to take into account others' learning and to
lead a discussion. Along with seminar presentation and participation, assessment comprises
two essays: the first, due at the end of week four, will be short and “diagnostic,” and will be
submitted with journal notes, for the purpose of early identification of students’ strengths and
weaknesses in their approach to the material and expression; A longer, second essay, due at
the end of the course, will consolidate learning from feedback in the first half of the semester.
Students will be paired into peer-support groups, to mentor one another in the writing of their
final major essay. This assessment allows students to improve their understanding of the
process of writing, from planning to drafting and polishing an essay, and provides an
opportunity to receive and provide peer mentoring.
5. Course Assessment
Assessment
Task
Length
Short
diagnostic
essay
1500 words
In class
presentation
10 – 20
minutes
Peer support
and feedback
Final essay
Weight
20%
Learning
Outcomes
Assessed
Graduate
Attributes
Assessed
2, 3, 4, 5, 6
1, 3, 5, 8
20%
1, 2, 3, 4, 8
1, 2, 4, 5, 6,
7, 8
N/A
10%
3, 4, 6, 8
1, 2, 5, 6, 7,
8
3000 words
50%
2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
7
1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
8
Due Date
24 March 2016
In nominated
class as
arranged with
lecturer
Weeks 8 – 13
in class, and
by
arrangement
between
paired
students
17 June 2016
Please Note: The Arts and Social Sciences Protocols and Guidelines state:
A student who attends less than 80% of the classes/activities and has not submitted
appropriate supporting documentation to the Course Authority to explain their absence may
be awarded a grade of UF (Unsatisfactory Fail).
The Attendance Guidelines can be found in full at:
https://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/current-students/academic-information/Protocols-Guidelines/
Grades
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ARTS2910 Course Outline
All results are reviewed at the end of each semester and may be adjusted to ensure
equitable marking across the School.
The proportion of marks lying in each grading range is determined not by any formula or
quota system, but by the way that students respond to assessment tasks and how well they
meet the objectives of the course. Nevertheless, since higher grades imply performance that
is well above average, the number of distinctions and high distinctions awarded in a typical
course is relatively small. At the other extreme, on average 6.1% of students do not meet
minimum standards and a little more (8.6%) in first year courses. For more information on the
grading categories see:
https://my.unsw.edu.au/student/academiclife/assessment/GuideToUNSWGrades.html
Submission of Assessment Tasks
Assignments must be submitted electronically through Moodle
(http://moodle.telt.unsw.edu.au/). You must use your zID login to submit your assignments in
Moodle.
There are four “Learning Activities” in Moodle labelled according to the appropriate
assessment. Please electronically submit your assignment to the correct “Learning Activity”.
Assessment task to be submitted in Moodle
Due Date
Short diagnostic essay
24 March 2016
In class presentation notes
By the week following the oral
presentation. This will vary for each
student.
Final essay
17 June 2016
Peer support and feedback assessment survey
24 June 2016
The peer support activity will take place in weeks 8 to 13, but students will submit a peerassessment survey related to the activity to Moodle on 24 June.
** Please note the deadline to submit an assignment electronically is 4:00 pm on the
due date of the assignment.
When you submit your assignment electronically, you agree that:
I have followed the Student Code of Conduct. I certify that I have read and understand the
University requirements in respect of student academic misconduct outlined in the Student
Code of Conduct and the Student Misconduct Procedure. I declare that this assessment item
is my own work, except where acknowledged, and has not been submitted for academic
credit previously in whole or in part.
I acknowledge that the assessor of this item may, for assessment purposes:


provide a copy to another staff member of the University
communicate a copy of this assessment item to a plagiarism checking service (such
as Turnitin) which may retain a copy of the assessment item on its database for the
purpose of future plagiarism checking.
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ARTS2910 Course Outline
Your assignment will be available with feedback in soft copy within three weeks of the due
date.
You are required to put your name (as it appears in University records) and UNSW
Student ID on every page of your assignments.
If you encounter a problem when attempting to submit your assignment through
Moodle/Turnitin, please telephone External Support on 9385 3331 or email them on
[email protected]. Support hours are 8:00am – 10:00pm on weekdays and
9:00am – 5:00pm on weekends (365 days a year).
If you are unable to submit your assignment due to a fault with Turnitin you may apply for an
extension, but you must retain your ticket number from External Support (along with any
other relevant documents) to include as evidence to support your extension application. If
you email External Support you will automatically receive a ticket number, but if you
telephone you will need to specifically ask for one. Turnitin also provides updates on its
system status on Twitter.
For information on how to submit assignments online via Moodle:
https://student.unsw.edu.au/how-submit-assignment-moodle
Late Submission of Assignments
The Arts and Social Sciences late submissions guidelines state the following:

An assessed task is deemed late if it is submitted after the specified time and date as
set out in the course Learning Management System (LMS).

The late penalty is the loss of 3% of the total possible marks for the task for each day
or part thereof the work is late.

Work submitted 14 days after the due date will be marked and feedback provided but
no mark will be recorded. If the work would have received a pass mark but the
lateness and the work is a compulsory course component a student will be deemed to
have met that requirement. This does not apply to a task that is assessed but no mark
is awarded.

Work submitted 21 days after the due date will not be accepted for marking or
feedback and will receive no mark or grade. If the assessment task is a compulsory
component of the course a student will automatically fail the course.
The Late Submissions Guidelines can be found in full at:
https://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/current-students/academic-information/Protocols-Guidelines/
The penalty may not apply where students are able to provide documentary evidence of
illness or serious misadventure. Time pressure resulting from undertaking assignments for
other courses does not constitute an acceptable excuse for lateness.
6. Extension of Time for Submission of Assessment Tasks
The Arts and Social Sciences Extension Guidelines apply to all assessed tasks regardless of
whether or not a grade is awarded, except the following:
1. any form of test/examination/assessed activity undertaken during regular class
contact hours
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ARTS2910 Course Outline
2. any task specifically identified by the Course Authority (the academic in charge of the
course) in the Course Outline or Learning Management System (LMS), for example,
Moodle, as not available for extension requests.
A student who missed an assessment activity held within class contact hours should apply
for Special Consideration via myUNSW.
The Arts and Social Sciences Extension Guidelines state the following:

A student seeking an extension should apply through the Faculty’s online extension
tool available in LMS.

A request for an extension should be submitted before the due time/date for the
assessment task.

The Course Authority should respond to the request within two working days of the
request.

The Course Authority can only approve an extension up to five days. A student
requesting an extension greater than five days should complete an application for
Special Consideration.

The Course Authority advises their decision through the online extension tool.

If a student is granted an extension, failure to comply will result in a penalty. The
penalty will be invoked one minute past the approved extension time.
7. Attendance
The Arts and Social Sciences Attendance Guidelines state the following:

A student is expected to attend all class contact hours for a face-to-face or blended
course and complete all activities for a blended or fully online course.

If a student is unable to attend all classes for a course due to timetable clashes, the
student must complete the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences Permitted Timetable
Clash form (see information at Item 8 below). A student unable to attend lectures in a
course conducted by the School of Education can apply for “Permission to Participate
in Lectures Online”.

Where practical, a student’s attendance will be recorded. Individual course
outlines/LMS will set out the conditions under which attendance will be measured.

A student who arrives more than 15 minutes late may be penalised for nonattendance. If such a penalty is imposed, the student must be informed verbally at the
end of class and advised in writing within 24 hours.

If a student experiences illness, misadventure or other occurrence that makes
absence from a class/activity unavoidable, or expects to be absent from a
forthcoming class/activity, they should seek permission from the Course Authority,
and where applicable, should be accompanied by an original or certified copy of a
medical certificate or other form of appropriate evidence.

Reserve members of the Australian Defence Force who require absences of more
than two weeks due to full-time service may be provided an exemption. The student
may also be permitted to discontinue enrolment without academic or financial penalty.
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
If a Course Authority rejects a student’s request for absence from a class or activity
the student must be advised in writing of the grounds for the rejection.

A Course Authority may excuse a student from classes or activities for up to one
month. However, they may assign additional and/or alternative tasks to ensure
compliance.

A Course Authority considering the granting of absence must be satisfied a student
will still be able to meet the course’s learning outcomes and/or volume of learning.

A student seeking approval to be absent for more than one month must apply in
writing to the Dean and provide all original or certified supporting documentation.

The Dean will only grant such a request after consultation with the Course Authority
to ensure that measures can be organised that will allow the student to meet the
course’s learning outcomes and volume of learning.

A student who attends less than 80% of the classes/activities and has not
submitted appropriate supporting documentation to the Course Authority to
explain their absence may be awarded a final grade of UF (Unsatisfactory Fail).

A student who has submitted the appropriate documentation but attends less than
66% of the classes/activities will be asked by the Course Authority to apply to
discontinue the course without failure rather than be awarded a final grade of UF. The
final decision as to whether a student can be withdrawn without fail is made by
Student Administration and Records.
Students who falsify their attendance or falsify attendance on behalf of another
student will be dealt with under the Student Misconduct Policy.
8. Class Clash
Students who are enrolled in an Arts and Social Sciences program (single or dual) and have
an unavoidable timetable clash can apply for permissible timetable clash by completing an
online application form. Students must meet the rules and conditions in order to apply for
permissible clash. The rules and conditions can be accessed online in full at:
https://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/media/FASSFile/Permissible_Clash_Rules.pdf
For students who are enrolled in a non-Arts and Social Sciences program, they must seek
advice from their home faculty on permissible clash approval.
9. Academic Honesty and Plagiarism
Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s thoughts or work as your own. It can take many
forms, from not having appropriate academic referencing to deliberate cheating.
In many cases plagiarism is the result of inexperience about academic conventions. The
University has resources and information to assist you to avoid plagiarism.
The Learning Centre assists students with understanding academic integrity and how to not
plagiarise. Information is available on their website: https://student.unsw.edu.au/plagiarism/.
They also hold workshops and can help students one-on-one.
If plagiarism is found in your work when you are in first year, your lecturer will offer you
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assistance to improve your academic skills. They may ask you to look at some online
resources, attend the Learning Centre, or sometimes resubmit your work with the problem
fixed. However, more serious instances in first year, such as stealing another student’s work
or paying someone to do your work, may be investigated under the Student Misconduct
Procedures.
Repeated plagiarism (even in first year), plagiarism after first year, or serious instances, may
also be investigated under the Student Misconduct Procedures. The penalties under the
procedures can include a reduction in marks, failing a course or for the most serious matters
(like plagiarism in an Honours thesis) or even suspension from the university. The Student
Misconduct Procedures are available here:
http://www.gs.unsw.edu.au/policy/documents/studentmisconductprocedures.pdf
10. Course Schedule
To view course timetable, please visit: http://www.timetable.unsw.edu.au/
As there is no class in week four, due to the Good Friday public holiday, tutorials will
commence in week one, and lectures will continue into week thirteen.
Readings and some of the additional reading material will be posted to the Moodle course
page. It will be important in this course to prepare for class by reading the material in
advance. If you find the amount of reading onerous in any week, you can read
strategically by dipping your toes into each of the readings first to get a gist of what they
are doing, then choose to focus on one or two of them. In the week that you are
presenting you will need to be across the whole week’s material, but may pay particular
attention to only one if you choose.
Week
Commencing:
29 February
(Week 1)
7 March
(Week 2)
Topic
Introduction: the
Body at the
Beginning of
Philosophy
The Divided Body
Lecture
Content
Tutorial/Lab
Content
This introductory
lecture we will
orient students
to the course’s
animating
questions and
concerns. We
will then look at
some
contemporary
feminist
philosopher’s
accounts of the
body in ancient
philosophy.
This week turns
to a
fundamental
and enduring
characterisation
of the body in
philosophy as
separate from
the self, and as
an object and
instrument
(rather than
subject) of
This week we
will explore the
manner in which
philosopher’s
inquiries into the
nature of the
body interact
with the
philosophical
enterprise more
broadly. We will
also get to know
one another,
and allocate
presentations.
How do modern
accounts of the
body as
separate and
distinct from the
soul shape
philosophers’
regard for the
body in
modernity? And
how does this
account affect
how the self can
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Readings
Luce Irigaray,
“Place, Interval:
A Reading of
Aristotle, Physics
IV.”
Elizabeth Grosz,
“Women, Chora,
Dwelling.”
René Descartes,
excerpts from
Passions of the
Soul.
John Locke,
excerpts from
Human
Understanding
and Second
Discourse on
Government.
ARTS2910 Course Outline
knowledge.
What are the
implications of
this conception
of the bodymind relation?
relate to its
world and
others? Further,
how does this
conception
elaborate sexual
difference?
Drew Leder, “A
Tale of Two
Bodies: The
Cartesian Corpse
and the Lived
Body.”
Students will
begin class
presentations
this week.
14 March
(Week 3)
The Unified Body
Even during
Descartes’s
lifetime rival
understandings
of the mindbody relation
were current.
This week we
focus upon
Spinoza’s
account of the
body as of the
same substance
as mind. We will
consider how
this conception
served
contemporary
philosophy of
embodiment, as
well as
contemporary
feminism.
21 March
(Week 4)
No class
4 April
(Week 5)
Passions,
emotions, and
affects were
associated with
the body from
Antiquity onward,
but take on a
prominence
during the
Enlightenment as
guides to moral
conduct. This
week we consider
the work of the
th
18 Century
sensationists
alongside
Nietzsche’s
critique of morality
through a
reassessment of
the body. We will
also look at
The Moral Body
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What are the
possibilities and
limits of
Spinoza’s
conception of
the body? What
are its
similarities and
differences from
the Cartesian
account? Does
this conception
resonate more
or less with
contemporary
understandings
than
Descartes’s and
Locke?
Benedict de
Spinoza,
excerpts from
The Ethics.
Gilles Deleuze,
“On the
Difference
between The
Ethics and a
Morality.”
(Good Friday)
How is
materiality
figured here as
an instrument of
relationality with
others? What
significance
does the body
attain through
an emphasis
upon affect and
the contagion of
emotions or
conditions such
as sympathy
(compassion)?
What is the
relation between
Enlightenment
sensationism
and
contemporary
Affect Theory?
David Hume,
excerpts from
“Enquiry
Concerning the
Principles of
Morals” and A
Treatise of
Human Nature.
Friedrich
Nietzsche,
excerpts from
The Will To
Power
Sara Ahmed,
“Happy Objects.”
ARTS2910 Course Outline
11 April
(Week 6)
18 April
(Week 7)
25 April
(Week 8)
The Body as
Mind/
Mind as Body
(psychoanalysis)
The Body as
Immanence (sex
v. gender)
The Lived Body
(phenomenology)
contemporary
Affect Theory.
Sigmund Freud
developed an
account of the
mind as arising
through bodily
processes:
impulses, drives,
instincts, lactation,
defecation, etc. In
considering
feminist
philosophical
responses to
Freud, we focus
especially on the
social significance
of the maternal
body in the
emergence of the
self/mind.
When Le
Deuxième Sexe
was published in
1953, the idea
that femininity and
masculinity were
social rather than
natural
phenomena
gained currency,
especially within
feminist
movements. This
week we analyse
this idea, and
examine its
implications for
understanding the
body.
French
phenomenologist
Maurice MerleauPonty attempted
to short circuit the
impasse between
Materialism and
Idealism by
developing an
account of the
body as thought,
and the mind as
embodied. We
look at his
philosophy
alongside Iris
Marion Young’s
use of it to
interrogate
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How does
Freud’s
articulation of
the mind-body
relations interact
with the
accounts
proposed thus
far. And what
are the
implications of
psychoanalysis
for
understanding
sex and
gender?
What is the
relation between
culture and
nature, and sex
and gender?
Are women’s
bodies more
closely tied to
nature than
men’s? What
are the broad
implications of
Beauvoir’s
account the
female body for
how women can
negotiate plans
and projects?
How does
Merleau-Ponty
use an account
of the lived body
to critique mindbody dualism?
How do Young
and Csordas
take up
phenomenology
for their
philosophical
projects? Are
these uses
compelling? Do
they resonate
with your own
lived
experience?
Sigmund Freud,
“Instincts and
Their
Vicissitudes
Jacques Lacan,
“The Mirror
Stage as
Formative of the I
Function…”
Elizabeth Grosz,
“Psychoanalysis
and Psychical
Topographies.”
Simone de
Beauvoir, “The
Data of Biology.”
Marguerite La
Caze, “Simone
de Beauvoir and
Female Bodies.”
Excerpts from
Maurice MerleauPonty’s
Phenomenology
of Perception.
Iris Marion
Young,
“Pregnant
Embodiment:
Subjectivity and
Alienation.”
Thomas
Csordas,
“Embodiment
and Cultural
ARTS2910 Course Outline
Phenomenology”
understandings of
the female body,
and Thomas
Csordas’s
“cultural” or
anthropological
phenomenology.
2 May
(Week 9)
9 May
(Week 10)
16 May
(Week 11)
23 May
(Week 12)
The Connected
Body: movement,
memory, cyborgs
Bodies In Pain
Disciplined
Bodies
Dis-bodies:
disability,
dysmorphia
This week further
explores the body
as ‘enminded,’
and in its
connectedness to
the world socially
and culturally.
How do Casey,
Haraway, and
Tait each
account for the
body’s
articulations with
the world, and
what are the
implications for
how we
experience and
conceptualise
our own bodies?
The material this
week focuses on
the respect in
which we interpret
our bodily
experience, and
how different
interpretations
lead to different
modes of
subjectivity and
society. Pain
provides a
particularly potent
illustration of this
idea.
How does the
body in pain
feature in each
of the chosen
texts this week?
How is the body
in pain social,
and conversely,
in what ways is
sociality closed
down in the
experience of
pain?
Bodies are lived
not only through
sensation and
movement. We
also experience
them as aesthetic
objects and train
them to look a
certain way.
Indeed, bodies
are understood as
a site of personal
expression and
virtue. The three
readings this
week look at the
meaning of the
body insofar as it
is cultivated.
This week we look
at bodies that are
either excluded
from the ‘normal,’
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In what way is
the body
regarded as a
site of personal
expression, and
to what extent
are cultural
values
expressed
through the
body? What are
the practices
through which
we discipline the
body? And in
what ways are
these practices
and expressions
differentiated by
gender?
What is the
relation of these
bodies
designated as
Edward Casey,
“Body Memory.”
Donna Haraway,
“A Cyborg
Manifesto.”
Peta Tait, “Body
Memory in
Muscular Action
on Trapeze.”
Friedrich
Nietzsche,
“Second Essay,”
Genealogy of
Morals
Michel Foucault,
“The Body of the
Condemned.”
Elaine Scarry,
“The Structure of
Torture,” in The
Body in Pain.
Cressida Heyes,
“Foucault Goes
to Weight
Watchers
(Redux)”
Susan Bordo,
“Reading the
Slender Body.”
Gail Weiss, “The
Abject Borders of
the Body Image.”
ARTS2910 Course Outline
or experienced as
distorted and
abject. How does
this process of
exclusion reflect
understandings of
the self and
others?
30 May
(Week 13)
Bodies That
Matter: queering
the body
This week draws
on previous
weeks’ lessons to
rethink the
apparently fixed
nature of the
sexed body. Why,
and how, does
‘sex’ matter? And
how does the
sexed body
support other
normative social
structures?
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abnormal to the
normative body?
What social and
cultural
practices
discipline the
dis-body?
What are the
broader
implications of
these theorists’
complications of
the natural
body? What do
these critiques
show us about
the relation of
theories of the
body to social
and political life?
Martin Sullivan,
“Subjected
Bodies:
Paraplegia,
Rehabilitations,
and the Politics
of Movement.”
Judith Butler,
“Phantasmatic
Identification and
the Assumption
of Sex.”
Cordelia Fine,
excerpts from
Delusions of
Gender.
Andrea Smith,
“Queer Theory and
Native Studies:
The
Heteronormativity
of SettlerColonialism”
ARTS2910 Course Outline
11. Course Resources
Textbook Details
These books are not required texts, but suggested for students reading.
 Don Welton (ed.), Body and Flesh: A Philosophical Reader (Oxford: Blackwell, 1998).
 Michael Proudfoot (ed.), The Philosophy of the Body (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003).
 Mariam Fraser and Monica Greco (Eds), The Body: A Reader (New York and London:
Routledge, 2005).
 Elizabeth Grosz, Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1994).
Journals
 Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy
 GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies
 European Journal of Philosophy
 Janus Head
 Sub-Stance
 Journal of Speculative Philosophy
Additional Readings
Week 1
 Elizabeth Grosz, “Refiguring Bodies,” in Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism (Sydney:
Allen & Unwin, 1994), pp. 3-24.
 Richard Sorabji, “Body and Soul in Aristotle,” Philosophy 49[187] (1974), pp 63-89.
 Plato’s Timaeus http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1572/1572-h/1572-h.htm
 Michel Foucault, The Use of Pleasure: Volume 2 of the History of Sexuality. Trans. Robert Hurley
(New York: Vintage Books, 1990).
Week 2
 René Descartes, The Meditations and the Discourse on Method, John Cottingham
(ed.)(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
 Lisa Shapiro, “Instrumental or Immersed Experience: Pleasure, Pain and Object Perception in
Locke,” in Charles T. Wolfe and Ofer Gal (eds), The Body as Object and Instrument of
Knowledge: Embodied Empiricism in Early Modern Science (London and New York: Springer,
2010), pp. 265-85.
 Nancy J. Hirschmann and Kirstie M. McClure (eds) Feminist Interpretations of John Locke
(University Park, Penn.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007).
 Rosalind Pollack Petchesky, “The Body as Property: A Feminist Revision,” in Faye D. Ginsburg
and Rayna Rapp (eds) Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction
(Berkley: University of California Press, 1995), pp. 387-406.
 Francis Barker, The Tremulous Private Body: Essays on Subjection (London: Methuen, 1984),
pp. 52-69.
Week 3
 Gilles Deleuze, “Ethology: Spinoza and Us,” in J. Crary and S. Swinter (eds), R. Hurley (trans.)
Incorporations (New York: Zone Books, 1992), pp.
 Genevieve Lloyd, “Gods, Minds, and Bodies,” Spinoza and the Ethics (London and New York:
Routledge, 1996), pp. 29-70.
 Moira Gatens and Genevieve Lloyd, Collective Imaginings: Spinoza, Past and Present (New
York: Routledge, 1999).
Week 5
 Teresa Brennan, “Introduction,” in The Transmission of Affect (Ithaca & London: Cornell
University Press, 2004), pp. 1-23.
 Gilles Deleuze, “Chapter 2: Active and Reactive,” Nietzsche and Philosophy (London and New
York: Continuum Press, 1983), pp. 39-72.
 Judith Butler, “Circuits of Bad Conscience: Nietzsche and Freud,” The Psychic Life of Power:
Theories in Subjection (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997), pp. 63-82.
 Eric Blondel, Nietzsche: The Body and Culture (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991).
 Kristen Brown, Nietzsche and Embodiment: Discerning Bodies and Non-dualism (Albany: SUNY
Press, 2006).
Week 6
 John Russon, “The Bodily Unconscious in Freud’s Three Essays,” in Jon Mills (ed.) Rereading
Freud: Psychoanalysis Through Philosophy (Albany: SUNY Press, 2004), pp. 35-49.
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ARTS2910 Course Outline
 Paul Verhaeghe, “Subject and Body. Lacan’s Struggle with the Real,” in Beyond Gender. From
Subject to Drive (New York: Other Press, 2001), pp. 65-97.
 Julie Kristeva, “Something to be Scared Of,” in Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (New
York: Columbia University Press, 1982), pp. 32-55.
 Elizabeth Grosz, Jacques Lacan: A Feminist Introduction (London and New York: Routledge,
1990).
 Elizabeth Grosz, “Julia Kristeva: Abjection, Motherhood and Love,” in Sexual Subversions: Three
French Feminists (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1989), pp. 70-99.
Week 7
 Moira Gatens, “A Critique of the Sex/Gender Distinction,” in Imaginary Bodies: Ethics, Power and
Corporeality (New York and London: Routledge,1996), pp. 3-20.
 Judith Butler, “Sex and Gender in Simone de Beauvoir's Second Sex,” Yale French Studies 72,
Simone de Beauvoir: Witness to a Century (1986), pp. 35-49.
 Dermot Moran, “Sartre’s Treatment of the Body in Being and Nothingness: the ‘double
sensation’,” in Jean-Pierre Boule and Benedict O'Donohoe (eds) Jean-Paul Sartre: Mind and
Body, Word and Deed (Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011), pp. 9-26.
 Katherine J. Morris (ed.), Sartre on the Body (London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2010).
Week 8
 Stephen H. Watson, “Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenological Itinerary From Body Schema to
Situated Knowledge: On How We Are and How We Are Not to ‘Sing the World’,” Janus Head 9[2]
(2007), pp. 525-550.
 Sean D. Kelly, “Merleau-Ponty on the Body,” in Michael Proudfoot (ed.), The Philosophy of the
Body (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003), pp. 62-76.
 Iris Marion Young, “Throwing Like a Girl,” On Female Body Experience: Throwing Like a Girl and
Other Essays (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 28-45.
 Rosalyn Diprose, “Feminism and the Ethics of Reproduction,” The Bodies of Women: Ethics,
Embodiment, and Sexual Difference (London and New York: Routledge, 1994), pp. 1-17.
 Alphonso Lingis, ‘The Subjectification of the Body’, in The Body: Classic and Contemporary
Readings, ed. Donn Welton (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999), pp. 286-306.
Week 9
 Evan Selinger and Timothy Engström, “On Naturally Embodied Cyborgs: Identities, Metaphors,
and Models,” Janus Head, 9[2] (2007), pp. 553-584.
 Keith Ansell-Pearson, Viroid Life: Perspectives on Nietzsche and the Transhuman Condition
(London: Routledge, 1997).
 Keith Ansell-Pearson, Germinal Life: The Difference and Repetition of Deleuze (London:
Routledge, 1999).
Week 10
 David B. Morris, “How to Read The Body in Pain,” Literature and Medicine 6 (1987), pp. 139-55.
Week 11
 Michel Foucault, The Use of Pleasure: Volume 2 of the History of Sexuality. Trans. Robert Hurley
(New York: Vintage Books, 1990).
 Michel Foucault, “Docile Bodies,” in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Trans. Alan
Sheridan (New York: Vintage Books, 1985), pp. 135-69.
 David Dudrick, “Foucault, Butler, and the Body,” European Journal of Philosophy 13[2] (2005),
pp. 226-46.
Week 12
 Mary Douglas, “Secular Defilement,” in Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Purity and
Taboo (London: Routledge, 1966 [Republished 2002]), pp. 36-50. (library permalink:
http://primoa.library.unsw.edu.au/UNSWS:SearchFirst:UNSW_ALMA51175528590001731)
 Shelly Tremain, “Foucault, Governmentality, and Critical Disability Theory: An Introduction,” in
Shelly Tremain (ed.) Foucault and the Government of Disability (Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press, 2005), pp. 1-24.
Week 13
 Judith Butler, “Introduction,” in Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’ (New York
and London: Routledge, 1993), pp.1-23.
 Judith Butler, Gender Trouble (New York and London: Routledge, 1990).
 Sandy Stone, “The ‘Empire’ Strikes Back: A Posttransexual Manifesto,” Camera Obscura 10[2/
29] (1992), pp.150-76.
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ARTS2910 Course Outline
Websites
 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/
 Being in the World: An Online Resource for Studying Embodiment and Corporeality,
https://corporature.wordpress.com/
12. Course Evaluation and Development
Courses are periodically reviewed and students’ feedback is used to improve them.
Feedback is gathered using various means including UNSW’s Course and Teaching
Evaluation and Improvement (CATEI) process.
13. Student Support
The Learning Centre is available for individual consultation and workshops on academic
skills. Find out more by visiting the Centre’s website at:
http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au
14. Grievances
All students should be treated fairly in the course of their studies at UNSW. Students who
feel they have not been dealt with fairly should, in the first instance, attempt to resolve any
issues with their tutor or the course convenors.
If such an approach fails to resolve the matter, the School of Humanities and Languages has
an academic member of staff who acts as a Grievance Officer for the School. This staff
member is identified on the notice board in the School of Humanities and languages. Further
information about UNSW grievance procedures is available at:
https://my.unsw.edu.au/student/atoz/Complaints.html
15. Other Information
myUNSW
myUNSW is the online access point for UNSW services and information, integrating online
services for applicants, commencing and current students and UNSW staff. To visit
myUNSW please visit either of the below links:
https://my.unsw.edu.au
https://my.unsw.edu.au/student/atoz/ABC.html
OHS
UNSW's Occupational Health and Safety Policy requires each person to work safely and
responsibly, in order to avoid personal injury and to protect the safety of others. For all
matters relating to Occupational Health, Safety and environment, see
http://www.ohs.unsw.edu.au/
Special Consideration
In cases where illness or other circumstances produce repeated or sustained absence,
students should apply for Special Consideration as soon as possible.
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ARTS2910 Course Outline
The application must be made via Online Services in myUNSW. Log into myUNSW and go to
My Student Profile tab > My Student Services channel > Online Services > Special
Consideration.
Applications on the grounds of illness must be filled in by a medical practitioner. Further
information is available at:
https://my.unsw.edu.au/student/atoz/SpecialConsideration.html
Student Equity and Disabilities Unit
Students who have a disability that requires some adjustment in their learning and teaching
environment are encouraged to discuss their study needs with the course convener prior to
or at the commencement of the course, or with the Student Equity Officers (Disability) in the
Student Equity and Disabilities Unit (9385 4734). Information for students with disabilities is
available at: http://www.studentequity.unsw.edu.au
Issues that can be discussed may include access to materials, signers or note-takers, the
provision of services and additional examination and assessment arrangements. Early
notification is essential to enable any necessary adjustments to be made.
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