CS112-4-SP-CO:
Ways of Knowing
PLEASE NOTE: This module is inactive. Visit the Module Directory to view modules and variants offered during the current academic year.
2025/26
Philosophical, Historical, and Interdisciplinary Studies (School of)
Colchester Campus
Spring
Undergraduate: Level 4
Inactive
Monday 12 January 2026
Friday 20 March 2026
15
14 May 2024
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
CS101
(none)
BA T7N2 Latin American Studies with Business Management,
BA T7N4 Latin American studies with Business Management (Including Foundation Year),
BA T7M8 Latin American studies with Human Rights (Including Foundation Year),
BA T7M9 Latin American Studies with Human Rights,
BA R108 European Studies and Language Studies,
BA R109 European Studies and Language Studies (Including Foundation Year),
BA C900 Global Studies with Sustainability,
BA C901 Global Studies with Sustainability (Including Foundation Year),
BA C902 Global Studies with Sustainability (including Placement Year),
BA C903 Global Studies with Sustainability (including Year Abroad),
BA K44E Urban Sustainability Studies
We exist within systems of knowledge – assumptions about the world and how it works that are so ingrained that we rarely stop to examine them. These ways of knowing seem like common sense to us, because we are so used to them – but in fact they are highly specific to the times and places in which we live. This module traces the origins and effects of diverse ways of knowing around the globe. At its close, students will better understand the constructed and contested nature of different systems of knowledge, and will have developed the critical skills to question what they see and hear around them.
Our expert lecturers will serve as guides through a variety of ‘ways of knowing’ from around the world. By tracing the historical and cultural origins of these diverse knowledge systems, this module will offer insight into these systems’ inner logic and an appreciation of their deep social influence. Students will learn how these different ways of knowing have shaped human understanding across time and geography, illuminating the complexities of our interconnected global landscape. Through engaging discussions, reflective exercises, and in-depth analyses, students will cultivate critical thinking skills that enable them to interrogate and challenge entrenched beliefs and ideologies.
The aims of this module are:
- To introduce students to diverse ways of knowing from around the world to help them cultivate a truly global perspective on their education.
- To provide students with a framework and background knowledge to navigate successfully their studies in future years.
By the end of this module the students will be expected to be able to:
- Develop an understanding of the diverse ways of knowing from around the world.
- Analyse the constructed and contested nature of different systems of knowledge.
- Explore how various perspectives and ways of knowing have shaped human understanding across different temporal and geographical contexts.
- Cultivate critical thinking skills through discussions, reflective exercises, and in-depth analyses.
- Read, assess and summarise the arguments of challenging texts.
- Learn the conventions of an academic writing including structure, quotation, reference, and bibliography.
- Show the ability to work from particular questions on a specific text, and to write a coherent essay in response.
- Assess and evaluate specific arguments and texts and write a critical analysis.
- Compare and contrast two or more selected texts in one particular aspect and express their similarities and differences.
No additional information available.
This module will be delivered via:
- One 1-hour lecture each week.
- One 1-hour class/seminar each week.
Week 21 is Reading Week.
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Pasnau, R. and Dyke, C. van (2010)
The Cambridge history of medieval philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Available at:
https://doi-org.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/10.1017/CHO9781107446953.
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Collins, R. (1998)
The sociology of philosophies: a global theory of intellectual change. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Available at:
https://app.kortext.com/Shibboleth.sso/Login?entityID=https://idp0.essex.ac.uk/shibboleth&target=https://app.kortext.com/borrow/1860328.
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‘Mariana Dam Disaster’ (no date). Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ce4UikC2aI.
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Qureshi, S. (2004) ‘Displaying Sara Baartman, the “Hottentot Venus”’,
History of Science, 42(2), pp. 233–257. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/007327530404200204.
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Viveiros de Castro, E. (2013) ‘The relative native’,
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 3(3), pp. 473–502. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.14318/hau3.3.032.
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de Castro, E.V. (1998) ‘Cosmological Deixis and Amerindian Perspectivism’,
The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 4(3). Available at:
https://doi.org/10.2307/3034157.
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Eduardo Viveiros de Castro (2004) ‘Perspectival Anthropology and the Method of Controlled Equivocation’,
Tipití, 2(1). Available at:
https://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol2/iss1/1/.
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Laura Dudley Jenkins (1170) ‘Another “People of India” Project: Colonial and National Anthropology’,
The Journal of Asian Studies, 62(4), pp. 1143–1170. Available at:
https://www-jstor-org.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/stable/3591762.
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Kharkhordin, O. (1999)
The collective and the individual in Russia: a study of practices. Berkeley, Calif: University of California Press. Available at:
https://app.kortext.com/Shibboleth.sso/Login?entityID=https://idp0.essex.ac.uk/shibboleth&target=https://app.kortext.com/borrow/2347519.
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Henrich, J., Heine, S.J. and Norenzayan, A. (2010a) ‘Most people are not WEIRD’,
Nature, 466(7302), pp. 29–29. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1038/466029a.
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Henrich, J., Heine, S.J. and Norenzayan, A. (2010b) ‘The weirdest people in the world?’,
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33(2–3), pp. 61–83. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X0999152X.
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Vallor, S. (2024)
The AI Mirror How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking. Oxford University PressNew York. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197759066.001.0001.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's
reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Exam |
Main exam: In-Person, Open Book (Restricted), 120 minutes during Summer (Main Period)
|
| Exam |
Reassessment Main exam: Remote, Open Book, 24hr during September (Reassessment Period)
|
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 Matthew Burch, email: mburch@essex.ac.uk.
PHAIS General Office - 6.130; isugadmin@essex.ac.uk.
Yes
Yes
Yes
No external examiner information available for this module.
Available via Moodle
Of 31 hours, 28 (90.3%) hours available to students:
3 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s), module, or event type.
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