Content

This unit examines excerpts from major texts by philosophers of the early modern, Kantian, nineteenth-century and twentieth-century periods, who may include Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Cudworth, More, Locke, Newton, Clarke, Hume, Kant, Hegel, and representative thinkers from the nineteenth- and twentieth-century intellectual movements of idealism, existentialism, phenomenology, and hermeneutics, for example, Nietzsche, Husserl and Heidegger. The unit focuses on themes such as the relation of body and soul, the question of certain knowledge and the relationship between scientific, theological and common-sense world views. In addition, attention is given to the dispute between those philosophers engaged in sceptical or atheistic attacks on religion and those philosophers engaged with producing religion-conducive systems or defending religion.

Unit code: AP9164C

Unit status: Approved (New unit)

Points: 24.0

Unit level: Postgraduate Elective

Unit discipline: Philosophy

Proposing College: Catholic Theological College

Show when this unit is running

Learning outcomes

1.

Critically elaborate the key philosophical concepts, theories and arguments covered in the unit.

2.

Critically appraise the arguments in the unit and evaluate core concepts, positions, assumptions and implications.

3.

Develop, in written form, an exegetically robust reasoned argument related to a philosophical position covered in the unit.

Unit sequence

One foundational unit of Philosophy

Pedagogy

Lectures, seminars, tutorials. When taught online asynchronously, the tutorial/seminar component may be replaced by guided reading exercises.

Indicative Bibliography

  • Ameriks, Karl, ed. The Cambridge Companion to German Idealism. Second edition. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
  • Ariew, Roger, and Eric Watkins, eds. Modern Philosophy: An Anthology of Primary Sources. 3rd ed. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2019.
  • Emmanuel, Steven M., ed. The Blackwell Guide to the Modern Philosophers: From Descartes to Nietzsche. Blackwell Philosophy Guides. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000.
  • Guyer, Paul, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Kant and Modern Philosophy. Cambridge Companions to Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
  • Hedley, Douglas, and Christian Hengstermann, eds. An Anthology of the Cambridge Platonists: Sources and Commentary. New York, NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2024.
  • Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time: A Translation of “Sein und Zeit”. Translated by Joan Stambaugh. Revised by Dennis J. Schmidt. State University of New York Series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2010.
  • Husserl, Edmund. The Idea of Phenomenology. Collected Works. Vol. 8. Translated by Lee Hardy. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, 1999.
  • Mander, William J. British Idealism: A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
  • Shapiro, Lisa, Marcy P. Lascano, and Michel W. Pharand, eds. Early Modern Philosophy: An Anthology. Peterborough, Ontario, Canada: Broadview Press, 2022.
  • Smith, Kurt. This Is Modern Philosophy: An Introduction. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell, 2023.

Assessment

Type Description Word count Weight (%)

Variant 1

Skeleton Argument 1000 10.0
Essay 6000 90.0

Variant 2

Skeleton Argument 1000 10.0
Essay 4000 50.0
Written Examination 2000 40.0

Variant 3

Skeleton Argument 1000 10.0
Essay 2000 40.0
Essay 4000 50.0
Approvals

Unit approved for the University of Divinity by Prof Albert Haddad on 28 Jul, 2025

Unit record last updated: 2025-07-28 09:01:26 +1000