PY434-5-SU-CO:
Texts in Practical Philosophy
2025/26
Philosophical, Historical, and Interdisciplinary Studies (School of)
Colchester Campus
Summer
Undergraduate: Level 5
Current
Monday 20 April 2026
Friday 26 June 2026
15
17 April 2025
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
BA V500 Philosophy,
BA V501 Philosophy (Including Year Abroad),
BA V502 Philosophy (Including Foundation Year),
BA V503 Philosophy (including Placement Year),
BA V508 Philosophy (Including Foundation Year and Year Abroad),
MPHIV599 Philosophy,
MPHIVA98 Philosophy (Including Placement Year),
MPHIVA99 Philosophy (Including Year Abroad),
BA VV56 Philosophy, Religion and Ethics,
BA VV57 Philosophy, Religion and Ethics (Including Placement Year),
BA VV58 Philosophy, Religion and Ethics (Including Foundation Year),
BA VV59 Philosophy, Religion and Ethics (Including Foundation Year and Year Abroad),
BA VV5P Philosophy, Religion and Ethics (Including Year Abroad)
This module offers an opportunity for close study and discussion of key texts in the broad area of practical philosophy (e.g. in ethics or political philosophy).
The projected programme for this year is to take a close look at Friedrich Schiller’s “On the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters” from 1794, a seminal work at the intersection of aesthetics, moral and political philosophy. At the heart of Schiller’s “Letters”, which are as much a response to Kant’s moral philosophy as a reflection on the decline of the French Revolution into terror, is a novel and original notion of freedom that we want to uncover together. In sum, we will carefully read Schiller’s letter, shed light on their context, and evaluate their lasting significance and limitations with the help of critical responses and contributions by later theorists.
The aim of this module is:
- To foster research skills and deep understanding of a text or texts in practical philosophy.
By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:
- Develop skills in close reading of philosophical texts.
- Communicate a succinct and precise account of positions, arguments, and their presuppositions and implications.
- Produce extended piece/s of work, in which they develop their ideas about aspects of the texts studied.
Skills for your Professional Life (Transferable Skills)
By the end of this module, students should also have acquired a set of transferable skills, and in particular be able to:
- Define the task in which they are engaged and exclude what is irrelevant.
- Seek and organise the most relevant discussions and sources of information.
- Process a large volume of diverse and sometimes conflicting arguments.
- Compare and evaluate different arguments and assess the limitations of their own position or procedure.
- Write and present verbally a succinct and precise account of positions, arguments, and their presuppositions and implications.
- Be sensitive to the positions of others and communicate their own views in ways that are accessible to them.
- Think 'laterally' and creatively - see interesting connections and possibilities and present these clearly rather than as vague hunches.
- Maintain intellectual flexibility and revise their own position if shown wrong.
- Think critically and constructively.
No additional information available.
This module will be delivered via:
- Teaching sessions that blend joint close reading, lecture and seminar elements.
This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Essay (2000 words) |
|
75% |
| Practical |
Essay-Plan Presentation |
|
25% |
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Joerg Schaub, email: jschaub@essex.ac.uk.
PHAIS General Office - 6.130; pyugadmin@essex.ac.uk.
No
No
No
Dr Josiah Saunders
Durham University
Associate Professor
Available via Moodle
Of 27 hours, 0 (0%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
27 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
* Please note: due to differing publication schedules, items marked with an asterisk (*) base their information upon the previous academic year.
Disclaimer: The University makes every effort to ensure that this information on its Module Directory is accurate and up-to-date. Exceptionally it can
be necessary to make changes, for example to programmes, modules, facilities or fees. Examples of such reasons might include a change of law or regulatory requirements,
industrial action, lack of demand, departure of key personnel, change in government policy, or withdrawal/reduction of funding. Changes to modules may for example consist
of variations to the content and method of delivery or assessment of modules and other services, to discontinue modules and other services and to merge or combine modules.
The University will endeavour to keep such changes to a minimum, and will also keep students informed appropriately by updating our programme specifications and module directory.
The full Procedures, Rules and Regulations of the University governing how it operates are set out in the Charter, Statutes and Ordinances and in the University Regulations, Policy and Procedures.