PHIL100 to PHIL209

PHIL100 Introduction to Philosophical Enquiry                                                                                    10 cp

Prerequisites Nil

Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.

The following issues will be discussed as they arise in Descartes’ Meditations (in Descartes,) Discourse on method and the meditations, trans. F.E. Sutcliffe, Harmondsworth, Penguin 1968): Doubt and certainty; the Cogito; the nature of the self; perception and intellectual judgement; truth and error; innate ideas; the nature of physical things; the relationship between the soul and the body; arguments for the existence of God.

PHIL101 Reason and Argument                                                                                                           10 cp

Prerequisites Nil

Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.

This unit will introduce the student to the fundamentals of logical thinking and the analysis of reasoning. Both informal and formal methods will be taught. The unit will provide grounding in critical thinking and analysis for both the general student and those interested in a philosophy major.

PHIL102 Philosophy of the Human Person                                                                                           10 cp

Prerequisites Nil

Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.

The unit will introduce the work of various philosophers on the subject of the human person, and will include an examination of theories of value, freedom and the mind. Historical as well as contemporary perspectives will be represented.

PHIL103 History of Western Philosophy                                                                                               10 cp

Prerequisites Nil

Teaching Organisation 3 hours per week for 12 weeks or equivalent.

This unit aims to give students an understanding and appreciation of the main philosophical questions which occupied the pre–Socratic philosophers and the philosophers up to the time of Augustine. Some of the questions to be considered will be chosen from: the nature of knowledge, the human person, and the conditions of his or her flourishing, the nature of ultimate reality, the possibility of rational knowledge of the origins and final destiny of human beings, the relation between faith and reason.

PHIL104 Introduction to Ethics                                                                                                             10 cp

Prerequisites Nil

Teaching Organisation 3 hours per week for 12 weeks or equivalent of lectures, tutorials and seminars.

The unit aims to introduce students to a range of ethical theories and their relevance to particular moral questions. Topics discussed will include: free choice, determinism and moral responsibility; the possibility of moral knowledge; theories of ethics such as the utilitarian, deontological and natural law approaches; the virtues; a range of particular moral issues, including economic justice, abortion and euthanasia, animal welfare, and the ethics of the environment. The unit aims to introduce students to a range of ethical theories and their relevance to particular moral questions.

PHIL105 Values and Beliefs                                                                                                                 10 cp

Prerequisites Nil

Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars

This unit contributes to the aims of the course by developing in students sensitivity to the variety of religious traditions that are influential in multicultural Australia. For both nurses and the people in their care, deep-seated values and views of reality have a strong influence on conceptions of life, death, suffering, and other notions that will regularly appear in daily practice. Students will be given the opportunity, with direction, to become more self-aware and self-critical and better able to appreciate these influences.

PHIL200 Contemporary Moral Problems                                                                                              10 cp

Prerequisites Normally PHIL104 Introduction to Ethics

Teaching Organisation lectures, tutorials, seminars.

In this unit, students will engage in a detailed philosophical study of some specific and contemporary moral problems in the light of different ethical theories.

PHIL201 Bioethics                                                                                                                                10 cp

Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory (100) level

Teaching Organisation 3 hours per week for 12 weeks or equivalent.

A study of the contemporary ethical debates in the field of health care services delivery. The unit aims to give students an understanding and appreciation of the complexities of the moral issues involved in such matters as contraception, IVF, genetic medicine, tissue and organ donation. The contributions of the Christian moral tradition, particularly Catholic moral theology, and of philosophy to these issues will also be studied.

PHIL202 Political and Social Philosophy                                                                                             10 cp

Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory (100) level

Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.

The nature of political society; theories of governmental legitimacy and the authority of law; the nature of democratic government; theories of social organisation: anarchist, liberal, libertarian, socialist, communitarian; individual political freedom and the question of natural rights; theories of social justice: Rawls and Nozick; the common good and the purposes of government; the problem of the limits of government intervention in the lives of individuals; personal fulfilment and the common good; Recent Catholic social teaching: the social encyclicals of John Paul II.

PHIL203 The Nature of Education                                                                                                        10 cp

Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory (100) level

Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.

This unit studies some of the core philosophical questions in education, beginning with the concept of education. It considers some of the major traditions of educational thought: Liberal, Progressive, Christian; Education and human fulfilment; Education and schooling. Further topics are selected from: the educational rights of children, parents, and the State; teaching and learning; curriculum theory; authority, discipline and punishment; competition; assessment and grading; indoctrination and rationality; aesthetic education; moral and religious education; justice and equality in schooling.

PHIL204 Philosophy of Knowledge                                                                                                      10 cp

Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory (100) level

Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.

Drawing on classical figures, such as Plato and Locke, this unit introduces students to the study of epistemology. It discusses the nature of knowledge and its sources, as well as the distinctions between knowledge and belief. Consideration is given to the questions of how we come to know the limits of what we can know and what justifies knowledge claims.

PHIL205 Philosophy of Mind                                                                                                                10 cp

Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory (100) level

Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.

Beginning with the puzzles about the nature of the mind first raised by Aristotle and followed by later consideration of these by such important figures such as David Hume, this unit offers students the opportunity to study some of these puzzles. The central questions in contemporary discussions about the mind are considered through such topics as personal identity and the self; free will, choice and determinism; the nature of conscious experience; reason and emotion; personal survival after death. Discussions of these issues will also be considered with special reference to the bearing they have on current Christian accounts of human nature.

PHIL206 Metaphysics                                                                                                                           10 cp

Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory (100) level

Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.

Metaphysics is concerned with the study of ultimate questions about the nature of the world and of human existence. In this unit, drawing on classical sources such as Aristotle, Aquinas and later philosophers such as Kant, as well as contemporary writers, some of the following topics will be discussed: experience, things and categories; substances and accidents; natural kinds; potentiality and act; essence and existence; causation; space and time; the concept of God as a necessary being; arguments for the existence of God. Current discussions of these issues will be considered with special reference to the bearing these have on fundamental Christian beliefs concerning the existence and nature of God.

PHIL207 Philosophy of Science                                                                                                           10 cp

Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory (100) level

Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.

This unit is concerned with the nature of scientific inquiry, the worldview science presents and the influence of philosophical theories of science on science. Some of the areas which may be considered are: historical and contemporary discussions of how the growth of knowledge is to be characterised, as well as the nature of scientific hypotheses and of scientific inference and inductive reasoning, are. More recent debates concerned with the sociology of science and what constitutes adequate explanation in different branches of science may also be discussed.

PHIL208 Faith and Reason                                                                                                                   10 cp

Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory (100) level

Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.

This unit is concerned with the philosophical examination of religious belief and practice, and includes topics such as: the concept of faith; norms of rationality; the interpretation of religious experience and the criteria for authenticity; the nature of religious knowledge; religious experience as a source of religious knowledge; the coherence of some basic Judaeo-Christian concepts: spirit, freedom, immortality, God; the ground for belief in God: selected historical and contemporary approaches; the grounds for atheism, especially the problem of suffering and evil and the diversity of religious beliefs; rationality, truth and faith.

PHIL209 Philosophy of Art                                                                                                                    10 cp

Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory (100) level

Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.

In this unit students will study major questions of philosophical aesthetics such as: aesthetic experience, aesthetic objects and works of art; beauty and art; the history and ontology of works of art; theories of art - representational, expressive, formalist, functionalist, institutional; art as imaginative creation and as a form of life; criticism, artistic intention and interpretation; criticism and evaluation; the nature of the imagination and its role in artistic creativity; artistic vision and truth; the value of art; and the moral, political and religious dimensions of art.