Philosophy
Philosophy
PHIL1011 Reality, Ethics and Beauty
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Thomas Dougherty Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prohibitions: PHIL1003, PHIL1004, PHIL1006, PHIL1008 Assessment: tutorial participation (10%), 1x2000wd essay (30%), on-line quizzes (10%), 1x2hr exam (50%)
This unit is an introduction to central issues in metaphysics, ethics and aesthetics. It opens with general questions about reality, God, personal identity and free will. The middle section of the unit will consider questions about values, goodness and responsibility. The final part is concerned with the question "what is art", the nature of aesthetic judgment and the role of art in our lives.
PHIL1012 Introductory Logic
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Nicholas Smith Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Assessment: tutorial participation (10%), 2x assignments (40%) and 1x2hr exam (50%)
An introduction to modern logic: the investigation of the laws of truth. One essential aspect of good reasoning or argumentation is that it is valid: it cannot lead from true premises to a false conclusion. In this unit we learn how to identify and construct valid arguments, using techniques such as truth tables, models and truth trees. Apart from being a great aid to clear thinking about any subject, knowledge of logic is essential for understanding many areas not only of contemporary philosophy, but also linguistics, mathematics and computing.
PHIL1013 Society, Knowledge and Self
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Thomas Doougherty Session: Semester 2 Classes: 2x1-hr lectures/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prohibitions: PHIL1010 Assessment: tutorial participation (10%), 1x2000wd essay (30%) and 1x2hr exam (60%)
This unit is an introduction to central issues in political philosophy, theories of knowledge and philosophical conceptions of the self. The first part will consider the state, freedom and political obligation. The second part will examine some of the major theories of knowledge in the modern philosophical tradition. The final section will look at conceptions of the self as a knowing and acting subject.
PHIL1016 Mind and Morality HSC
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Luke Russell Session: Summer Main
Note: This unit is available to HSC students only
If a robot told you that it was in pain, would you believe it? If it is wrong to kill animals, should we try to stop animals from killing each other? How do you know what the colour red looks like to your friends? What do these philosophical puzzles reveal about ourselves, our minds, and our responsibilities towards others? This one-unit HSC course focuses on contemporary disputes regarding the nature of the mind, personal identity and ethics. As you engage with these issues, you will be introduced to the philosophical theories that underpin our notion of ourselves and our place in the world, and you will improve your ability to analyse and present complex ideas and arguments.
PHIL2610 Exploring Nonclassical Logic
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Luke Russell Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: PHIL1012 Introductory Logic OR permission from coordinator Prohibitions: PHIL3214 Assessment: assignments (50%) and 1x2hr exam (50%)
Classical logic is what you study in introductory units such as PHIL1012. This unit covers major extensions of and alternatives to classical logic, such as temporal, modal, intuitionist, relevance, and many-valued logics. As well as looking at the internal workings of these logics, we examine some of their applications, and the philosophical issues surrounding them.
PHIL2612 History of Ethics
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Tom Dougherty Session: Semester 2 Classes: 2x1-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 Junior credit points in Philosophy Prohibitions: PHIL2512, PHIL3512 Assessment: 2x500wd text analysis exercises (20%), 1x1500wd essay (40%), 1x2hr exam (40%)
The nature of duty and the good: how we ought to live and what is valuable in life. A selective survey of Western normative ethical theory, covering philosophers such as Aristotle, Hume, Kant and Mill.
PHIL2615 Intermediate Logic
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Nicholas Smith Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: (12 Junior credit points in Philosophy) and (PHIL1012 or PHIL2203 or PHIL2628) Prohibitions: PHIL2215, PHIL3215 Assessment: 1x2hr exam (50%) and weekly exercises (50%)
The axiomatic approach to classical logic. The focus is on proofs of the main metalogical results - consistency, completeness, etc - for the propositional and predicate calculi.
PHIL2616 Philosophy of Human Rights
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Alexandre Lefebvre Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 junior credit points in Philosophy or Government and International Relations Assessment: 1x1500wd take home exercise (30%), 1x2500wd essay (60%), tutorial participation (10%)
This unit addresses central themes from the history and philosophy of human rights. Topics may include the relationship between human rights and religion, natural law, moral and aesthetic justifications of human rights, claims and challenges to universality of the part of human rights, and tensions between human rights and state sovereignty. Thinkers may include Paine, Burke, Kant, Wollstonecraft, Tocqueville, Arendt, Schmitt, and Rawls.
PHIL2617 Practical Ethics
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Tom Dougherty Session: Semester 1,Summer Late Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 junior credit points Prohibitions: PHIL2517, PHIL3617 Assessment: 1x2500wd essay (40%), tutorial participation (10%), tutorial presentation (10%) and 1x2000wd take-home exam (40%)
This unit draws on contemporary moral philosophy to shed light on some of the most pressing practical, ethical questions of our time, including euthanasia, abortion, surrogacy, censorship, animal rights, genetic testing and cloning and environmental ethics. By the end of the unit, students should have a good understanding of these practical ethical issues; and, more crucially, be equipped with the conceptual resources to think through new ethical questions and dilemmas as they arise in their personal and professional lives.
PHIL2621 Truth, Meaning and Language
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr David Macarthur Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 Junior credit points in Philosophy Assessment: 1x2500wd essay (60%) and 1x2hr exam (40%)
This unit covers central issues in contemporary philosophy of language, such as the relationship between language and the world, the nature of meaning and truth, problems involved in interpreting and understanding the speech of others, the role of context in determining meaning, and the nature of metaphor.
PHIL2622 Reality, Time & Possibility: Metaphysics
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 Junior credit points in Philosophy Prohibitions: PHIL3662 Assessment: 1x1400wd essay (33%), 1x2000wd essay (45%) and 11 short multiple choice quizzes (22%)
This is a unit in metaphysics: the discipline that tells us about the nature of the world. The unit carries on from the Reality component of first year. We engage with questions like: What is time? What is space? What makes something a person? How much change can I undergo and still be me? Are objects four-dimensional space-time worms? Do the past or future exist, and could we travel to them? Are there numbers?
PHIL2623 Moral Psychology
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Luke Russell Session: Semester 1,Winter Main Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 Junior credit points in Philosophy Prohibitions: PHIL2513, PHIL3513 Assessment: 1x2500wd essay (50%) and 1x2000wd take-home exam (50%)
We go beyond the question of which actions are morally right to consider the following: How should we evaluate motives and emotions? Is anyone actually virtuous, or are we all weak-willed, self-deceived confabulators? Are any actions or persons evil? When should we feel guilty or ashamed? Should forgiveness be unconditional? Is morality the product of Darwinian natural selection, or of culture and learning? Is there any objective truth in morality, or are moral claims merely subjective or culturally relative?
PHIL2626 Philosophy and Psychoanalysis
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2,Summer Main Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 Junior credit points in Philosophy. Prohibitions: PHIL2207, PHIL3207, PHIL2226, PHIL3226 Assessment: 1x2500wd essay (50%) and 1x2000wd take-home exam (50%)
An analysis and critique of the main ideas in Freudian psychoanalysis, their philosophical background, and their influence in subsequent philosophy of mind.
PHIL2627 Philosophy and Psychiatry
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Dominic Murphy Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: (12 Junior credit points of Philosophy) or (12 Junior credit points from GCST, SCLG, ANTH, ENGL1008, ENGL1026) Prohibitions: PHIL2227 Assessment: 2x2250wd essays (100%)
Can the concept 'mental illness' be a valid one? What might delusions tell us about the structure of the mind? What assumptions underlie attempts to classify mental disorder? Can we be justified in compelling people to submit to psychiatric treatment? This unit will examine philosophical questions raised by mental disorder and our attempts to understand/treat it, and will connect psychiatry to debates in philosophy such as the mind/body problem, the concept of a person, and the possibility of knowledge.
PHIL2629 Descartes and Continental Philosophy
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Anik Waldow Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 Junior credit points in Philosophy Prohibitions: PHIL2004, PHIL3004 Assessment: 1x1000wd tutorial exercise (30%), 1x1000wd presentation (20%), 1x2500 word essay (50%)
Descartes is generally regarded as the founder of modern philosophy, and in this unit we look both at his own contribution, and at his influence on the subsequent course of philosophical thought in the work of Malebranche, Spinoza, and Leibniz. Just over half the unit will be devoted to Descartes' own thought, and we will look at the various stages in the development of his ideas. In the second half of the unit, we will examine the ideas of his successors on selected metaphysical themes, above all on perception and the mind/body question.
PHIL2633 Theorising Modernity
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr John Grumley Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 junior credit points in Philosophy Prohibitions: PHIL1007, PHIL2533 Assessment: 1x2000wd essay (50%) and 1x2500wd take-home exam (50%)
A survey of a range of classical 19th century theories from the standpoint of what they offer to the understanding of the newly emerging modern bourgeois social world. The work of Hegel, Marx, de Tocqueville, and Nietzsche will serve as paradigmatic attempts to discover the essence of this new society. Recurring themes and features will be examined through the prism of these thinkers: these include the problem of meaning after the collapse of tradition, the rise of secularism, capitalism, industrialisation, democracy, bureaucratisation and individualism -- their features, antinomies and problems. The unit is also intended as an introduction to the thinkers concerned while focusing in each case on their theorisation of modernity.
PHIL2634 Democratic Theory
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Thomas Besch Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: (12 Junior credit points in Philosophy) or (6 junior credit points of Philosophy and ANHS1600) Prohibitions: PHIL2514 Assessment: presentation (10%), 1x2000wd essay (45%) and 1x2000wd take-home exam (45%)
A unit in normative political philosophy. The unit will examine ideas of democracy, as well as historical foundations of these ideas, and it will do so in order to address key issues in contemporary democratic theory, such as the tension between republican and liberal ideas, the relationship between justice and democracy, the challenges of social and cultural pluralism, the limits of democratic inclusion, and, importantly, the nature of political legitimacy and the challenge of a suitably inclusive justification of political principles.
PHIL2635 Contemporary Political Philosophy
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Thomas Besch Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: (12 Junior credit points of Philosophy) or (12 Junior credit points from GCST, SCLG, ANTH, ENGL1008, ENGL1026) Prohibitions: PHIL3535, PHIL2535 Assessment: 1x2000wd essay (50%), 1x500wd tutorial paper (10%) and 1x2000wd take-home exam (40%)
This unit offers a critical introduction to the major schools of thought in contemporary political philosophy organised around the theme of inclusion and exclusion. The inclusive ambitions of liberal political theory will be confronted with objections from thinkers motivated by concern with various aspects of social and political exclusion based on categories such as gender, cultural difference, and statelessness.
PHIL2640 Environmental Philosophy
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Adrian Currie Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 junior credit points in Philosophy Prohibitions: PHIL2240 Assessment: 2x2250wd essays (2x50%)
This unit presents a variety of philosophical issues associated with the study and management of the natural environment. We will look at questions such as: what does it mean to live in harmony with the environment? what is sustainability? why should we preserve biodiversity? what is the best way to achieve conservation goals? what are ecological models and how do they work? and what is the proper relationship between environmental science and the values found in environmental policy and management?
PHIL2642 Critical Thinking
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Luke Russell Session: Semester 2,Winter Main Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 junior credit points of Philosophy Assessment: 1x1500wd essay (30%), 1x in-class test (20%) and 1x2hr exam (50%)
An introduction to critical thinking and analysis of argument. By examining arguments drawn from diverse sources, including journalism, advertising, science, medicine, history, economics and politics, we will learn how to distinguish good from bad arguments, and how to construct rationally persuasive arguments of our own. Along the way we will grapple with scepticism, conspiracy theories and pseudoscience. The reasoning skills imparted by this unit make it invaluable not only for philosophy students but for every student at the University.
PHIL2643 Philosophy of Mind
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Prof David Braddon-Mitchell Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 Junior credit points in Philosophy Prohibitions: PHIL2213, PHIL3213, PHIL2205, PHIL3643 Assessment: 1x2500wd essay (60%) and 1x2000wd take-home exam (40%)
An introduction to modern theories of the nature of mind, and some important contemporary issues in the philosophy of mind. Topics will include the problem of mental representation (how can minds think about the world?), the relationship of minds to brains, and the problem of consciousness.
PHIL2645 Philosophy of Law
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 Junior credit points in Philosophy Prohibitions: PHIL2510, PHIL3510 Assessment: 1x2500wd essay (50%) and 1x2hr exam (50%)
This unit looks at fundamental issues in the philosophy of law, including the role of law, civil liberties, legal obligation, punishment, responsibility and morality. It considers questions about whether or not a legal system is necessary, arguments for anarchy, and reasons for safeguarding freedoms from the force of law. It considers arguments for obedience to law, and seeks a moral justification of punishment. The discussion of practical issues in law leads to consideration of relation between law and morality.
PHIL2647 The Philosophy of Happiness
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Caroline West Session: Semester 1,Summer Late Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 Junior credit points Prohibitions: PHIL3647 Assessment: 1x2500wd essay (45%), 1x2000wd take-home exam (45%) and tutorial participation (10%)
We all want to be happy and to live a worthwhile life. But what is happiness? Why should we want it? And how do we get it? These are among the most fundamental questions of philosophy. We will evaluate the answers of major thinkers from ancient and modern and eastern and western traditions; and consider the implications of current psychological research into the causes of happiness for the question of how to live well, as individuals and as a society.
PHIL2648 German Philosophy, Leibniz to Nietzsche
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 Junior credit points in Philosophy Prohibitions: PHIL2641, PHIL3011 Assessment: 1x1000wd tutorial exercise (25%), 1x500wd essay outline (15%), 1x2500-3000wd final essay (60%)
This unit surveys German Philosophy from Leibniz via Kant and the German idealists to Nietzsche. The first half of the unit examines the main aspects of Kant's "Copernican revolution" as a response to Leibniz's "monadology". The second half examines extensions and transformations of Kant's philosophy by critical appropriators extending from Fichte to Nietzsche. Throughout, the philosophical views involved will be related more generally to questions of science, morals and politics, art, education, and religion.
PHIL2649 The Classical Mind
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: (12 Junior credit points in Philosophy) or (6 junior credit points of Philosophy and ANHS1600) Prohibitions: PHIL2613, PHIL3639 Assessment: tutorial participation (10%), 1x in-class test (15%), 1x1500wd essay (25%), 1x2hr exam (50%)
An introduction to the philosophical outlook, conceptions, and arguments of Classical Greek philosophy. This unit will survey the rich period of Greek thinking from 600 BCE to the beginning of the Common Era, examining the Presocratics, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Hellenistic philosophers. This unit will demonstrate the incredible originality of Greek philosophy, and reveal both its legacy in and differences from philosophy today.
PHIL2651 Bodies and Passions
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Anik Waldow Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 Junior credit points in Philosophy Assessment: 1x tutorial presentation (20%), 1x in-class test (30%) and 1x2000wd essay (50%)
This unit is an introduction to theories of the passions. Paying special attention to Descartes, Spinoza and Hume, it will explore the notion that the body is the source of error and irrationality. However, bodily passions and associations also are crucial to our wellbeing and can make positive contributions to cognitive processes. In addition to the study of central figures in the history of philosophy, this unit aims to provide historical grounding for important issues in contemporary moral psychology.
PHIL2658 Philosophy in Film
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr David Macarthur Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week, 1x film screening/week Prerequisites: (12 junior credit points of Philosophy) or (18 junior credit points including ENGL1011) Assessment: 1x500wd tutorial presentation (10%), 1x1500wd take-home assignment (30%), 1x2500wd essay (50%) and tutorial participation (10%)
This unit will use the screening and criticism of carefully chosen classical and contemporary films to raise important philosophical questions and to contribute to our response to them. Each film screening will be paired with a key philosophical question that is explored in the film and further investigated in class: problems of freedom, human action, democracy, crime, love, otherness, marriage, conversation, selfhood, and being human. The class will also explore some central questions in the philosophy of film.
PHIL2661 Philosophy of Sex
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Caroline West Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: (12 Junior credit points of Philosophy) or (12 Junior credit points from GCST, SCLG, ANTH, ENGL1008, ENGL1026) Assessment: 1x2500wd essay (50%) and 1x2hr exam (50%)
This course addresses philosophical issues concerning sex. From the perspective of metaphysics, we will ask what sexual differences and relations are. From the perspective of moral and political philosophy, we will ask which sexual relationships and identities are ethically justifiable. Sample questions include: What is it to have a sexual identity? Is sexual difference innate or socially constructed? Is intoxicated sexual consent valid? Is there anything wrong with being a sex object? Is pornography problematic? Is bestiality ever ok?
PHIL2663 Justice
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Tom Dougherty Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 junior credit points of Philosophy Prohibitions: PHIL3663 Assessment: 600wd editing assessments (5%), 600wd argument analysis assessment (15%), 600wd multiple-choice tests (20%), 1x1200wd research essay (30%) and 1x1.5hr exam (30%)
This unit examines ethical questions concerning social justice. It surveys influential theories of which institutions and social relationships are necessary for a just society. The unit provides students with an overview of views of freedom and equality. Finally, it critically reviews attempts to reconcile these apparently conflicting goals, e.g. as they pertain to questions like: Is taxation theft? Is private education inegalitarian? Are there moral limits to markets? Should we be free to engage in speech that undermines others' statuses?
PHIL3617 Practical Ethics Advanced
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: PHIL2655 or PHIL2663 Prohibitions: PHIL2617 Assessment: 1x1250wd research essay (30%), 1x500wd essay feedback to peers (5%), 1x1250wd revision of research essay in response to feedback (30%) and 1x1.5hr exam (35%)
This is the advanced version of PHIL2617, with common lectures, but separate tutorials and assessment. Students will apply advanced methods of contemporary moral philosophy to the understanding of practical ethics. They will evaluate approaches to pressing questions concerning euthanasia, abortion, surrogacy, censorship, animal rights, genetic testing and cloning and the environment. Students will learn how to apply their understanding of practical ethical issues to extant ethical dilemmas, and, more crucially, new ones that arise in their personal and professional lives.
PHIL3643 Philosophy of Mind Advanced
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Prof David Braddon-Mitchell Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 senior credit points in Philosophy Prohibitions: PHIL2643 Assessment: 1x1500wd essay (30%), 1x2500wd essay (50%) and 10xweekly tests (20%)
This is an advanced Philosophy of Mind course which has common lectures with PHIL2643 but different assessments and tutorials. It will cover the latest research on metaphysics of mind, and the theory of the content of mental states - how it is that mental stages get to be 'about' the world. It deals with similar issues as PHIL2643 but at a more advanced level, with reading from contemporary journal articles and research-based essays as the principal assessment.
PHIL3647 The Philosophy of Happiness Advanced
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Caroline West Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 senior credit points in Philosophy Prohibitions: PHIL2647 Assessment: 1x2500wd essay (50%) and 1x2000wd take-home exam (50%)
This is the advanced version of PHIL2647, with common lectures but separate tutorials and assessments. Students will apply advanced philosophical methods to the understanding of happiness. Students will analyse influential theories of what happiness is, why we should want it and how we get it. They will evaluate the implications of psychological research into happiness's causes. Students will learn to apply their understanding of happiness to the question of how to live well, as individuals and as a society.
PHIL3662 Reality Time & Possibility M'physics Adv
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 2x1-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 senior credit points in Philosophy Prohibitions: PHIL2622 Assessment: 1x1475wd essay (33%), 1x2000wd essay (45%) and 12 quizzes (22%)
This unit is an advanced version of PHIL2622. It explores the relationship between space, time and modality. It asks the questions: What is time? What is space? How do objects exist through time? Could our world have been other than it is? What sorts of things are persons? Is it possible to travel backwards in time? Is our world ultimately composed of fundamental simple objects? The course provides a general background in analytic metaphysics.
PHIL3663 Justice (Advanced)
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Tom Dougherty Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2-hr lecture/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: PHIL2617 or PHIL2655 Prohibitions: PHIL2663 Assessment: 1x1250wd research essay (30%), 1x500wd essay feedback to peers (5%), 1x1250wd revision of research essay in response to feedback (30%), 1x1.5hr exam (35%)
This is the advanced version of PHIL2663, with common lectures but separate tutorials and assessments. Students will apply advanced ethical methods to the understanding of social justice. Students will analyse influential theories of a just society's institutions and social relationships. They will evaluate views of freedom and equality. Students will learn to apply their understanding of justice to reconciling these goals, e.g. when answering: Is taxation theft? Is private education inegalitarian? Are there moral limits to markets?
PHIL4011 Philosophy Honours A
Credit points: 12 Session: Semester 1,Semester 2 Classes: 2x2-hr seminars/week Prerequisites: 48 credit points of Philosophy at Senior level, with a credit average or better, and including 6 credit points from each of the three programs (History of Philosophy; Epistemology, Metaphysics & Logic; Aesthetics, Ethics and Political Philosophy). Intending Honours students are strongly encouraged to discuss their unit choices with the Honours Coordinator at the beginning of their third year. The department places importance on the breadth of the philosophical education of its Honours graduates, and encourages intending Honours students to avoid over-specialisation at Senior level Assessment: a thesis of 12,000-15,000 words, 4,000-5,000 words of written work or its equivalent for each seminar and a 20 minute mini-conference presentation
Note: Department permission required for enrolment
The Honours program in Philosophy consists of:
1. a thesis written under the supervision of one or more members of academic staff
2. four seminars that meet weekly for two hours for one semester.
The thesis should be of 12,000-15,000 words in length. Each seminar requires 4,000-5,000 words of written work or its equivalent.
The thesis is worth 40% of the final Honours mark and each of the seminars is worth 15%.
Students may choose their four seminars from a range of seminars offered by permanent academic staff and visiting researchers. For details see the Philosophy Department Honours website:
http://sydney.edu.au/arts/philosophy/undergrad/honours.shtml
1. a thesis written under the supervision of one or more members of academic staff
2. four seminars that meet weekly for two hours for one semester.
The thesis should be of 12,000-15,000 words in length. Each seminar requires 4,000-5,000 words of written work or its equivalent.
The thesis is worth 40% of the final Honours mark and each of the seminars is worth 15%.
Students may choose their four seminars from a range of seminars offered by permanent academic staff and visiting researchers. For details see the Philosophy Department Honours website:
http://sydney.edu.au/arts/philosophy/undergrad/honours.shtml
PHIL4012 Philosophy Honours B
Credit points: 12 Session: Semester 1,Semester 2 Prerequisites: Refer to PHIL4011 Corequisites: PHIL4011
Note: Department permission required for enrolment
Refer to PHIL4011
PHIL4013 Philosophy Honours C
Credit points: 12 Session: Semester 1,Semester 2 Prerequisites: Refer to PHIL4011 Corequisites: PHIL4012
Note: Department permission required for enrolment
Refer to PHIL4011
PHIL4014 Philosophy Honours D
Credit points: 12 Session: Semester 1,Semester 2 Prerequisites: Refer to PHIL4011 Corequisites: PHIL4013
Note: Department permission required for enrolment
Refer to PHIL4011