An interest in philosophy is all that is
required for this course - it is suited both to beginners and to those who have
some experience of the subject. The five sessions will tackle a series of
thought-provoking questions, looking at each from a variety of angles. There
will be plenty of opportunity for group discussion, in an informal atmosphere.
The views of major philosophers and their theories will be presented in
relation to each topic considered. By the end of the course, students should
find they have developed their ability both to think philosophically and
express their thoughts in a philosophical way. Mental adventures can be every bit as exhilarating as physical ones!
Session
One
This
session will start with a brief introduction to philosophy by considering the
question: What is the value of doing philosophy? We shall look at the views on
this expressed by Socrates and Bertrand Russell. The main part of the session
will be spent looking at extracts from some famous works of literature - drama,
novels and poems - and exploring the philosophical ideas that lie within them.
For example, we shall consider Hamlet's 'To be or not to be' soliloquy, and the
opening lines of George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. We shall end the session with the question:
Can fiction enable us to acquire knowledge about the real world?
Session
Two
In
this session, we shall address the question: What is sacred and what makes it
so? We shall think about the idea of sacred spaces and whether they are sacred
because they are inherently mysterious and spiritual, or because people have
designated them as sacred out of political or commercial motives. We shall ask:
Do you need to be religious in order to hold something sacred? The views of
philosophers of religion will be considered, including those of Rudolf Otto,
who wrote about the 'numinous' experience that, for him, underlies all
religion. We shall explore what the concept of sacredness might mean for an
atheist, such as Richard Dawkins, and for a nihilist, such as Nietzsche.
Session Three
We shall seek to
answer the question: How can I live a good life? by considering it in the
context of a number of related questions. To start with, this question begs the
question: What is a good life? Does
it demand acting morally - and if so, how much of the time? We shall look at
how Aristotle believed that an education in virtue could equip people to act
morally at all times - a view popular among philosophers of ethics today. It
could be argued that acting morally is necessaryto achieve happiness, but is it? When we are deciding what is the moral thing
to do in a situation, should we use our heads or our hearts? We shall then move
on to consider some case studies involving moral dilemmas and think about which
action we would take in each, and why. To end this session, we shall discuss
whether we are always able to distinguish between the things in our control and
the things outside our control, as Epictetus and the Stoics believed - a view
shared by René Descartes.
Session
Four
The
main question for this session will be: What is freedom? We shall explore the
concept of freedom in a range of contexts, starting with that of personal
freedom, asking: What is free will and do we have it? In a broader context, we
shall ask: What makes a society free? This will involve considering issues of
censorship, politics, religion, ethnicity, culture, sexuality and gender. We
shall look at the tradition of liberalism, with reference to John Locke, noting
its focus on the rights of the individual. We shall ask: What are my rights?
The concept of human rights will be discussed, and we shall look at how it
emerged from the concept of natural rights, with reference to philosophers such
as Thomas Paine and Karl Marx.
Session Five
In the final session,
the big question will be: What can we know? We shall consider the connections
between belief, knowledge and truth. We shall look at what Plato wrote about
knowledge, moving on to consider the history of philosophical scepticism,
covering ideas held by René Descartes, John Locke and Karl Popper. We shall
also consider present-day developments in the field of artificial intelligence,
and ask: Can machines think? They can store far more information than humans
but do they have knowledge? We shall look at the counter-argument to claims of
artificial intelligence put forward by philosopher John Searle. As a conclusion
to the whole course, we shall ask: What kind of knowledge does philosophy give
us?
It is not essential to do preparatory reading
for this course, but the following books may be of interest:
Julian Baggini Freedom Regained: The Possibility of Free Will
Simon Blackburn The Big Questions: Philosophy
Mark Vernon The Big Questions: God
Nigel Warburton (ed.) Basic Readings
