Content

Can my experience of myself be trusted as what is finally real? Or is this experience just another obstacle to knowing things as they are? This unit explores the modern project, beginning with Descartes, and continuing through Hume and Kant, to place the knowing self at the centre of existence.

Unit code: AP3179P

Unit status: Archived (New unit)

Points: 18.0

Unit level: Undergraduate Level 3

Unit discipline: Philosophy

Delivery Mode: Online

Proposing College: Pilgrim Theological College

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Learning outcomes

1.

Debate and appreciate the issues informing origination of the term “subject” (with Aristotle), and its link with the question of "substance", as this continues into medieval philosophy

2.

Distinguish philosophically the successive “turnings” by which the notion of the substantial subject evolves into “self” through the modern period (with Descartes, Hume and Kant).

3.

Critically explain the philosophical issues involved in the post-Kantian attempt to salvage the substantiality of the self.

4.

Classify the various accounts of the substantial self in relation other philosophical categorisations and distinctions. (Examples of these: epistemology vs. ontology, soul vs. body, mind vs. matter, freedom vs. necessity, human vs. animal, rationalism vs. empiricism).

5.

Develop a sustained argument for or against a given philosophical account of subjectivity

Unit sequence

15 points in Philosophy at Level 2

Pedagogy

  1. develop a sustained argument for or against a given philosophical account of subjectivity

Indicative Bibliography

  • Ayer, A.J. Hume. Oxford: OUP, 1980.
  • Descartes, René. “Discourse on Method”and “The Meditations.” Trans. and introd. F.E. Sutcliffe. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth:Penguin Books, 1968. (recommended for purchase)
  • Hume, David. A Treatise on Human Nature. Introd. Ernest C. Mossner. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Books, 1969. (recommended for purchase)
  • Guyer, Paul, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
  • Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason. Trans. and ed. Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
  • Melchert, Norman. The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy. 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2001. (recommended for purchase)
  • Robinson, David, and C. Garratt. Introducing Descartes. Cambridge: Icon Books, 1999. [** A book sought in the “Introducing --------” Series (Introducing Kant, Introducing Descartes, etc.) can often be found under the alternative title “-------- for Beginners” (Kant for Beginners, Descartes for Beginners, etc.), and vice versa.
  • Schacht, R. Classical Modern philosophers: Descartes to Kant. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984. (recommended for purchase)
  • Snell, R.J., and Steven F. McGuire, eds. Subjectivity: Ancient and Modern. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2016.
  • Uleman, Jennifer K. An Introduction to Kant’s Moral Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
  • Want, Christopher and Andrzej Klimowski. Introducing Kant. Cambridge: Icon Books, 1999.

Assessment

Type Description Word count Weight (%)
Essay

Essay (2000 words)

0 40.0
Essay

Essay (2000 words)

0 40.0
Essay

Online Participation (1000 words)

0 20.0
Approvals

Unit approved for the University of Divinity on 1 Jan, 2012

Unit record last updated: 2022-10-04 13:37:35 +1100