Module Directory

The general aim of this module is to improve students' ability to read, understand and critically assess philosophical texts from a range of historical periods and philosophical traditions. The particular text (or texts) under consideration in any one year will operate as exemplary for the development of philosophical reading skills more generally. Some of the texts that may be addressed include: Kierkegaard's Philosophical Crumbs, Austin's How to Do Things with Words; Anscombe's Intention; Rousseau's The Social Contract; Descartes' Metaphysical Meditations; Plato's Gorgias, Merleau-Ponty's The Prose of the World.

Each year, we look in detail at a classic philosophical text. Close attention will be paid to reading the text on its own terms and developing students' critical and philosophical skills by engaging closely with the arguments and questions raised. We will look at the text not only as a historical document, but also study it with regard to its on-going contribution to philosophical thinking.

The aims of this module are:

• To develop a good and critical understanding of a text or set of texts from the history of philosophy (such as Austin’s How to Do Things with Words or Anscombe’s Intention or Wittgenstein’s Blue Book or Plato’s Gorgias) through attentive reading of his text.


• To gain a better understanding of what it means to attentively read a philosophical text.


• To gain an insight into the role of expression within philosophy and beyond.

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

1. Be in a position to reconstruct, analyse and criticise the position found in the text or set of texts from the history of philosophy on which the module focuses.


2. Be able to enter into discussion with a range of positions on the topic in a text or set of texts from the history of philosophy.


3. Be better readers of philosophical – and other – texts.

This module will cover Edmund Husserl’s Philosophy as Rigorous Science and Martin Heidegger’s The Question Concerning Technology. Husserl and Heidegger are two of the most influential philosophers of the 20^th century. The phenomenological tradition, existentialism, hermeneutics, poststructuralism, and many other philosophical movements and disciplines likely never would have existed, at least not in their distinctive form, were it not for the seminal works of these two philosophers. We will read two of their influential works closely and carefully and consider how they continue to speak to our philosophical concerns today.

This module will be delivered via:

• Weekly discussion seminars.