Early Modern Philosophy

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 1

The module introduces some assumptions, arguments and ideas from the following major philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries that ground the empiricist and rationalist traditions: Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume, and Spinoza. You will examine these assumptions, arguments and ideas in the context of contemporary discussions of the issues, in order to better understand both the concerns which lie at the heart of much contemporary philosophy and the history of those concerns.

Europe 1900-45

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 1

This module focuses on the development of essential study skills such as textual analysis, note-taking, the planning and writing of essays and summaries. You will normally work with texts written in (one of) your foreign language(s).

Italian 1A

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 1

You will consolidate and progress your knowledge of grammar. Improved grammatical accuracy, oral and written fluency, lexis, and listening and reading comprehension are achieved through the study of a variety of topics and integrated grammar. You will also gain insight into the culture and society of your chosen country.

Italian 1B

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 1

You will acquire advanced knowledge of grammar and improve grammatical accuracy, oral and written fluency, lexis, and listening and reading comprehension through the study of a variety of topics and integrated grammar. There is an emphasis on the summarising and handling of authentic texts. You will also study the literature, culture, society and politics of Italy.

Italy 1900-45

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 1

This module develops and extends the ideas and themes introduced in the lecture series History and Culture in the 20th Century. Relevant works of literature, film, theatre and the press are studied in Italian, wherever possible. Written and oral material is drawn from a wide range of sources to make you aware of the context in which the country whose language you study has progressed towards its current situation. You will develop essential skills of note-taking, discussing, summarising, analysing and essay writing (including documentation).

Paradox and Argument

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 1

This module aims to introduce you to logical concepts and strategies by way of considering some well known philosophical paradoxes and arguments, eg the paradox of the stone (or omnipotence), the argument for fatalism from God's omniscience, and arguments against the coherence of time travel. The notions of truth, functionality and validity will be introduced, along with strategies for establishing the validity of arguments using truth tables.

Existentialism

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 1

Logic and Meaning

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 1

In this module you will be introduced to the basic ideas and methods of (modern) elementary formal logic. The emphasis will be on using logic as a tool to evaluate arguments. You will be introduced to logical concepts such as truth-functionality, logical form, subject/predicate, validity, and derivability. We will also consider related issues concerning meaning, such as the meaning of ordinary-language conditionals; the distinction between literal meaning and conversational implicatures, and the distinction between referring expressions and quantifiers.

Reading Philosophy

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 1

The aim of this module is to spend time reading a small number of philosophical texts (perhaps just one) very closely. Different tutors may choose different texts. You will learn to look at philosophical texts closely as philosophical texts. That is, you will be taught to develop the kind of attentiveness to detail which is important philosophically

Science and Reason

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 1

Science has a special status in our understanding of the world. Several of the earlier philosophers of the modern era were active and innovative scientists in their own right, and the model of scientific understanding has shaped the way philosophy has been done right up to the present day. Some have tried to develop a specifically scientific kind of philosophy; others have tried to separate the task of philosophy from that of science. This module will pursue questions about the relation between science and philosophy, looking in detail at particular texts (which may be drawn from any period) for which these issues are important

Society, State and Humanity

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 1

The module surveys a number of fundamental answers given by Western thinkers to the question 'what is society', exploring them in conjunction with answers to the questions 'what is the state?' and 'what is a human being?'. There will be a particular focus on the question of whether humans can be said to exist prior to society or only as constituted by it. Conceptions of society, state and humanity studied may include those of Plato, Aristotle, St. Paul, Hobbes, Smith, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Durkheim, Freud, and feminist and postmodern critiques of these.

Truth and Morality: The Meaning of Life

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 1

This module is concerned with central issues of morality – examining both the kinds of considerations which might be appealed to in moral arguments, and the status of moral arguments themselves. What should we bear in mind when deciding whether to eat meat, or whether to help someone, or whether to fight a war? In what sense are the decisions we make right? How can a moral argument be a good argument? Are some people wiser than others? Is there any truth in moral relativism? These and related issues will be tackled from a range of theoretical positions.

Italian 2A

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 2

Your knowledge of syntax will be revised and progressed and active knowledge of lexis increased. Speaking, listening, reading and written skills will be raised to a higher level through the study of authentic texts taken from a variety of media. The study of relevant current affairs will be an important element of the module.

Italian 2B

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 2

Your knowledge of syntax and lexis will continue to be enhanced alongside the skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing. Practical aspects of living, studying and working abroad will be covered, including history, geography, politics, society, culture and literature.

Italy 1945-date

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 2

Relevant works of literature, film, theatre and the press are studied in Italian, wherever possible. Written and oral material is drawn from a wide range of sources to make you aware of the context in which Italy has progressed towards its current situation. You will develop essential skills of note-taking, discussing, summarising, analysing and essay writing (including documentation). The module will allow you to progress towards independent study.

Kant

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 2

The work of the German Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant continues to have an extraordinary influence in philosophy. As well as its contributions to metaphysics, epistemology, the philosophy of mind, moral philosophy and aesthetics, it offers one of the most significant and intricate reflections on the nature of philosophy itself. The course provides an introduction to some of the central issues in Kant's theoretical and practical philosophy. Topics to be covered include: Kant's doctrine of the subjective nature of space and time; causation; the self and self-identity; freedom and moral agency; duty and the moral law; and the question as to the meaning and coherence of Kant's 'idealism'. There are a few books you might like to look at before the course: Allen Wood's Kant and Henry E. Allison's Kant's Transcendental Idealism and Kant's Theory of Freedom, and Sebastian Gardner's Routledge Philosophy Guidebook, Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason. Roger Scruton's Kant, in the Past Masters series (reissued as Kant: A Very Short Introduction) also provides a good starting point.

Aesthetics

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 2

Broadly speaking, aesthetics is concerned with two sorts of philosophical questions: questions about aesthetic experience and judgment, and questions about art. They are connected insofar as art is thought to be one of the primary sources of aesthetic experience. However, not every question in aesthetics is about art; and not all questions about art are about aesthetic experience. This module will tackle questions raised by aesthetics in this wide sense, and will approach them from an 'analytic' perspective.

Epistemology

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 2

Epistemology is a central philosophical area and pertains to issues concerned with knowledge and how we acquire it. Though informed by certain important historical debates and figures, this module will concentrate on current issues in contemporary epistemology.

Questions addressed will include: What is knowledge? Is certain knowledge a genuine possibility? What makes a belief justified? Is there such a thing as epistemic virtue? What are the special problems surrounding inductive knowledge? Does one have special privileged access to knowledge about one's own mind? How might perception best be characterised?

Europe 1945-date

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 2

The module provides you with an overview of important historical and cultural developments in the second part of the 20th century, focussing on the period from the 1940s through to the present day. Movements and trends in the political, historical and social area and their impact on the arts and literature are addressed in the lectures. For all these topics, various national settings (France, Germany, Italy and Spain) are examined and discussed. The lecture series seeks to establish a comparative perspective on the relevant issues.

Feminist Philosophy

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 2

Feminist philosophy covers a range of issues. At the applied end, it is concerned with issues of particular political relevance to women, such as discrimination and equality, and ethical issues surrounding reproduction. At the more abstract end, it is concerned with whether Western philosophical approaches and conclusions are themselves a product of patriarchy. You will explore such themes.

Language and Nation

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 2

Following a short introduction, the module falls into two parts. The first looks at how we discover the links between Language, Thought and Nation, and try to identify and analyse covert as well as overt associations between these. Who are the guardians and gatekeepers of our 'native' languages, and what are the pressures to have English in England, French in France but Castillian in Spain and Post-Florentine in Italy? Are some languages more equal than others, conferring more status to their users? And why do languages still change despite 'Academies'? The second part looks at instances of how expressions of the relationship between a nation and its language emerge as various literary and other genres (with particular reference to the novel), and how these feed back into the collective identity (with particular reference to representations in the cinema of various countries).

Perception and Reality

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 2

It is in perception that we are most obviously aware of the world, so our understanding of perception shapes both our conception of the way in which we can be aware of the world, and our conception of the world of which we can be aware. This module examines philosophical theories of perception, such as sense-datum theories and disjuctivism, as well as the different forms of idealism and realism which are associated with such theories.

Phenomenology

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 2

Over 50 years ago, Merleau-Ponty began his great work The Phenomenology of Perception with the words: "what is phenomenology?" It may seem strange that this question has still to be asked half a century after the first works of Husserl appeared. The aim of this module is to continue to ask that question about the nature of what has become one of the most important philosophical movements in the last hundred years, and it does so by examining some of the key texts of the philosophers most influenced by, and most critical of, the founder of that movement, Edmund Husserl (1859-1938). These philosophers include Heidegger (1889-1976), Sartre (1905-1980), Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961), Levinas (1906-1995), and Derrida (1930-2004), and they cannot be properly understood unless their relationship to Husserl's philosophy is examined.

Overall, phenomenology attempts to focus on "how" things appear to us rather than simply asking "what" these things are. Themes to be discussed include the nature of perception, the role of the sciences, the impact of emotions, the body and intersubjectivity.

A reader with photocopies of the most important texts for this module can be purchased in the first session.

Philosophy of Mind

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 2

This module will examine the nature of the mind, employing the procedures of analytic philosophy. We will be concerned with the nature of thought and of mental representation, addressing such questions as the following. How are mental properties and physical properties related? Are beliefs and desires the causes of actions? Could we have thoughts even if there were no world? What grounds the authority we appear to have over claims about the contents of our own minds? How are we to understand the nature of consciousness ?

Philosophy of Religion

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 2

The module aims to encourage engagement with different perspectives on the philosophy of religion drawing on analytic and continental sources. We start with a methodological discussion and an examination of different approaches to the question how philosophy can contribute to religious knowledge and understanding. Topics include the existence of God, providence and free will, and the morality of afterlife. One question that arises out of this discussion concerns the appropriateness of treating `God' as a peculiar kind of object. We consider this question in relation to phenomenological and existentialist approaches that focus on religious experience and also approaches that focus on the meaning of religious terms and the nature of belief. We conclude with a consideration of current debates about religion and science and the role of religion in everyday life.

Philosophy of Science

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 2

The philosophy of science explores, among other things: the nature of laws and scientific explanation; the distinctive character of science and of how science progresses; realism/anti-realism about the theoretical entities posited by scientific theories. This module will introduce you to these issues and the central arguments involved. You will also explore notions integral to science, such as time, natural kinds, counterfactual support and causation.

Plato

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 2

In this module we will look at some central themes in the works of Plato, concentrating especially on ethics and metaphysics. We will examine the attempts to define virtues in some supposedly early dialogues, and the central Socratic ethical claim that it is impossible to do wrong knowingly. These issues will be pursued into the central moral argument of the Republic. We will also look at the so-called 'theory of forms' as it appears in various dialogues, including (especially) the Republic and the criticisms of it which are made in the Parmenides. We will consider Plato's philosophy of art in connection with the theory of forms.

Europe Mandatory Year Abroad - Modern Languages

120 credits
Autumn & spring teaching, Year 3

Italian 3A

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 4

The two hours per week classroom contact throughout this 25-week module are devoted, on the one hand, to oral and interpreting work and, on the other, to translation and composition. There is therefore an emphasis upon oral proficiency, both in everyday conversation and in more formal contexts, such as presentations and mediation between speakers of Italian and English. There is a similar emphasis upon written proficiency, whether writing Italian 'freely' within the framework of a discursive essay, translating from English into Italian or, indeed, from Italian into English. Roughly equal contact time is devoted to these three written skills and the same weighting is accorded to each of them in assessments.

Italian 3B

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 4

Italian Special Subject

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 4

This module, delivered in Italian to all single-honours and joint-major students studying Italian as part of their degree, will look at women's presence and representation in early modern Italian literature and art. This module will address some distinctive works by Boccaccio, Michelangelo and Vittoria Colonna, and will cover a variety of genres such as prose, poetry, philosophical commentary, letter writing and biography.

Ethics

30 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 4

This module will look at the central questions in normative ethics and meta-ethics. These will include: what makes an action right; whether there are moral rules; whether there are moral facts, and if so, how they can be known; whether there are external moral reasons; and of the relation between moral truths and non-moral truths. Positions to be examined include non-cognitivism, naturalism, non-naturalism, internalism and externalism.

Figures in Analytic Philosophy

30 credits
Spring teaching, Year 4

This module will look in detail at the position and arguments of one or more major figures in analytic philosophy, such as Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Kripke or Lewis.

Figures in Classical Philosophy

30 credits
Spring teaching, Year 4

This module will look in detail at the positions and arguments of one or more major figures in classical philosophy. The module will often focus on Aristotle, considering his metaphysics, or his ethical theory, or both, but it may sometimes deal with philosophers in the Hellenistic and Roman periods of the classical European tradition, and it may sometimes deal with classical philosophers of other traditions.

Figures in Post-Kantian Philosophy

30 credits
Spring teaching, Year 4

In this module you will look in detail at the position and arguments of a major figure in post-Kantian philosophy, such as Hegel or Heidegger.

Figures in Social and Political Philosophy

30 credits
Spring teaching, Year 4

In this module you will look in detail at the position and arguments of a major figure in social political philosophy, such as Rawls, Marx or Habermas.

Genres in European Literature

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 4

This weekly lecture plus fortnightly seminar module, delivered in English to all Single Honours linguists (one or two languages) will consider key genres or styles in 20th-century European prose literature. These will vary from year to year, but will typically include some of the following: the novel and narrative theory, the short story, women's writing, biography, autobiography, fantasy, juvenilia and writing about youth. Equally, the authors and works selected for study (in English translation) will vary, but will normally include at least one prominent writer in each of the four European languages offered at this level, namely French, German, Italian and Spanish.

Islamic Philosophy

30 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 4

Language, Truth and Literature

30 credits
Spring teaching, Year 4

Drawing on resources from analytical philosophy, continental philosophy and literary theory as well as engaging with particular fictional and poetic works, this module offers a critical investigation into some of the most important issues in the philosophical treatment of literature, narrative and fiction. You consider topics such as: metaphor and metaphorical meaning; the relation between fiction and truth; the logical status of fiction; and intentionality and interpretation. You explore questions such as: what does it tell us about language that something like literature is possible? Is there a type of understanding proper to the understanding of a poem? Why is philosophy troubled by fiction and fictionality?

Metaphysics

30 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 4

Modern European Philosophy

30 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 4

The module will offer a thematically nuanced investigation into the work of some of the key European philosophers of the past two hundred years. Figures to be studied might include: Hegel, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Sartre, Heidegger, Levinas, Lukacs. Adorno, Arendt, Foucault, Derrida and Habermas. You can also expect to examine some of the most signifcant work done in two or more of the following traditions: phenomenology, hermeneutics, deconstruction, critical theory, discourse, ethics, and feminism. Because of the wealth of thinkers and ideas in the area, the module can vary substantially from year to year; in each year, there will be one or more unifying themes, such as critique, art, truth, faith, law, or ethics.

Modern Languages Dissertation

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 4

This module is available as an option both to single-honours and joint-major modern linguists. It provides the opportunity to conduct a self-assigned piece of research and to write it up in the target language, as an alternative to working in English in "Genres" (R9033). Each student will be allocated a supervisor in the relevant language, with whom s/he will agree the topic of her/his research and the title of the dissertation. However, that research will be essentially self-directed under the light-touch guidance of the supervisor, provided initially through shared workshops and, later on, through one-to-one tutorials. The student will be required to produce two excerpts of work in progress, at mutually agreed points in TB1, so that the supervisor can check that s/he is on the right lines and offer helpful formative feedback. For illustrative purposes, research topics might include: modern French authors, especially Sartre and the existentialists; post-war German literature; cinema adaptations of European literary works; Golden Age Spanish drama.

Philosophy of Language

30 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 4

This module will be concerned with the nature of language in general and with the meaning of particular kinds of expression. Its focus will be the influential works of the analytic tradition by Frege, Russell, Quine, Grice, Kripke, Putnam and Davidson. We will consider what sort of thing the meaning of words might be; whether we should distinguish between sense or cognitive significance and reference; how we manage to refer to things; how to make sense of claims about necessity and about what people think; how names and natural­kind terms work; and how we might respond to scepticism about meaning.