PHIL200 to PHIL221
PHIL200 Contemporary Moral Problems
10 cp
Prerequisites Normally PHIL104 Introduction to Ethics
Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.
Students will examine some of the most influential philosophical arguments bearing on the practical moral dilemmas of the present age.
PHIL201 Bioethics
10 cp
Prerequisites 1 philosophy unit at introductory 100-level
Teaching Organisation 3 hours per week for 12 weeks or equivalent.
This unit studies the contemporary ethical debates in the fields of health care and/or the life sciences. The unit aims to give students an understanding and appreciation of the complexities of the moral issues involved in such matters as reproductive medicine, medical end of life decisions, genetic medicine, tissue and organ donation. The contributions of the Christian moral tradition, particularly Catholic moral theology and of philosophy to these issues will be studied.
PHIL202 Political and Social Philosophy
10 cp
Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory 100-level
Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.
This unit is concerned with the philosophical examination of political and social structures and theories. Topics may include any of: 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, feminist); individual political freedom and the question of natural rights; theories of social justice; 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; multi-culturalism and minority rights and treatment; Catholic social teaching.
PHIL203 Citizenship, Values and 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 nature of education and it role in the formation of human persons. It examines Liberal, Progressive and Christian traditions in educational thought and their contributions to an understanding of the purposes of education, contrasting these with economic rationalist and managerialist views. The question of the kinds of values that should be inculcated in a modern, multicultural, democratic society is examined. Further topics are selected from: the educational rights of children, parents, and the State; theories of teaching and learning; lifelong learning; curriculum theory; authority, discipline and punishment; competition; assessment and grading; indoctrination and rationality; aesthetic education; moral and religious education; public versus private values; justice and equality in schooling.
PHIL204 Philosophy of Knowledge
10 cp
Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory 100-level
Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.
This unit introduces students to the study of epistemology contrasting, for example, rationalist approaches to problems of knowledge, such as those of Plato with empiricist approaches such as those of Locke. It discusses the nature of knowledge and its sources, as well as the distinctions between knowledge and belief. This will include discussion of recent debates in epistemology, such as foundationalist and anti-foundationalist theories of knowledge. 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 Mind Matters
10 cp
Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory 100-level
Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.
Puzzles about the nature of the mind were first raised by the ancient Greeks and have been discussed ever since. This unit examines philosophical theories about the nature of the mind and its place in the world. Topics to be discussed may include: hylomorphic, dualist, materialist and functionalist theories of mind, personal identity and the self, intentionality, mental causation, artificial intelligence, innate ideas, freedom and action, the emotions, the nature of conscious experience, the nature of Psychology, Christian and other religious concepts of mind and prospects for an afterlife.
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 Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant and contemporary philosophers, metaphysical topics such as the following will be discussed: how are science and metaphysics related; the problem of universals; the nature of change, substance/ accident, and other ontologies; being and ontological categories; natural kinds; potentiality and act; essence and existence; causation and explanation; space and time; possibility and necessity; the concept of God as a necessary being; problems of realism and anti-realism.
PHIL207 Science, Knowledge and Reality
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. Topics will be chosen from broad areas such as the following: historical and contemporary discussions of how the growth of knowledge is to be characterised; the nature of scientific hypotheses and of scientific inference and inductive reasoning; debates concerned with the sociology of science and what constitutes adequate explanation in different branches of science; the ontology of science or the sciences.
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; the interpretation of religious experience and the criteria for authenticity; the nature of religious language and religious knowledge; religious experience and tradition as a source of religious knowledge; the coherence of some basic Judaeo-Christian-Islamic concepts: spirit, freedom, immortality, salvation, God; contemporary accounts of the nature of God such as Feminist views; rational arguments for belief in God: selected historical and contemporary approaches; rational arguments for atheism, especially the problem of suffering and evil and the diversity of religious beliefs; rationality, truth and faith; science and religion; morality and religion
PHIL209 Philosophy of Art
10 cp
Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory 100-level
Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.
This unit is concerned with the nature of aesthetic experience and the nature of art. Students will study some of the following issues in philosophical aesthetics from classical and/or contemporary perspectives: aesthetic experience, aesthetic objects and works of art; beauty and art; the history and ontology of works of art; theories of art; art as a form of life; criticism; artistic vision and truth; the value of art; the relationship of art to morality, politics, and religion.
PHIL210 Meaning, Truth and Reality
10 cp
Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory 100-level
Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.
The theoretical study of language has been a distinctive feature of much twentieth century thought. Philosophy this century has been also characterised by a “linguistic turn”. This unit introduces the student to central trends, schools of thought and issues that have characterised this development in philosophy. It also seeks to clarify the importance this turn towards the study of language has for traditional philosophical debates.
PHIL211 Ways of Logic, Number and Science
10 cp
Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory 100-level
Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.
This unit will consider questions concerning the foundations of mathematics and/or the sciences with a special emphasis on the contributions and limits of the techniques of modern formal logic. Topics will be chosen from the following: logicism and the theory of types, formalism, intuitionism, Cantor's Paradise and infinity, the set theoretic paradoxes, the epistemology and metaphysics of geometry and arithmetic, decision theory in the social sciences, formal methods in the foundations of physical theories, deontic logic, formal learning theory, logic and computational models in psychology.
PHIL212 Currents in Analytic Philosophy
10 cp
Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory 100-level
Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.
This unit will introduce the student to major figures, and debates that have defined twentieth century Analytic Philosophy. Some of the major movements in the tradition, such as pragmatism, logical positivism, conceptual and linguistic analysis and ordinary language philosophy and recent Realist Philosophy will studied. Some of the major themes to be followed will be selected from broad areas such as the following: the nature of philosophy, the treatment of ethics and religion in the tradition, the philosophy of mind and language, the nature of knowledge, the philosophy of science, and the impact of Analytic Philosophy on the Judaeo–Christian tradition.
PHIL213 Recent European Philosophy
10 cp
Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory 100-level
Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.
Contemporary continental European philosophy has been an important influence in shaping our understanding of the human condition. This unit studies a selection of important European philosophers since the later nineteenth century to the present and their ideas on topics such as: essence and existence, consciousness, perception, the emotions, the mind-body problem, freedom and responsibility, and the legacy of modernity. Philosophers and philosophical approaches to be studied will include such as the following: Husserl, Heidegger, Marcel, Sartre, Levinas, Gadamer [Phenomenology, Existentialism, Hermeneutics]; the Frankfurt School, Habermas [Critical Social Theory]; Saussure, Foucault and Derrida [Structuralism and Post-Modernism].
PHIL214 Medieval Philosophy
10 cp
Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory 100-level
Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.
The Medieval period is most important in the history of the West and particularly, in the history of the Christian tradition. This unit comprises a study of some of the major figures and issues in philosophy during the Middles Ages. Study will be made of topics such as the following: the problem of universals, time and eternity, God, being and creation, the insolubilia, and logical paradoxes, the nature of conscience and related issues, natural law, the relationship between nature and grace. The unit will study such thinkers as the following: St. Augustine, Boethius, Avicenna, Anselm, Moses Maimonides, St. Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, Duns Scotus and William of Occam.
PHIL215 Modern Western Philosophy
10 cp
Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory 100-level
Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.
The unit will examine some of the major developments of western philosophical thought in the period from Descartes to Kant. It will trace some central debates of the period, including discussion of the nature of mind and matter, God and the world, rationality and the extent of human knowledge, and the conduct of life and of social organisation.
PHIL216 The Enlightenment
10 cp
Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory 100-level
Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.
The unit will examine the sources and main features of the eighteenth-century intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment. It will concentrate, first, on central themes of the movement, such as the impact of the new forms of natural science on conceptions of human nature and values and their implications for religion and traditional authority; and, secondly, on its historical impact, for example in beginning such distinctively modern social sciences as sociology and economics. Attention may also be given to the contemporary debates about the nature of Enlightenment itself.
PHIL217 Philosophy of East and West
10 cp
Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory 100-level
Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials, seminars.
Historically, Philosophy in the West and Philosophy in India and East Asia have developed in their own distinctive ways though never in complete isolation and not without similarities of debate and ideas. This unit will introduce the student to Eastern philosophy by presenting a comparative approach to a range of philosophical questions, drawing upon eastern and western traditions and thinkers. It will review western and eastern treatments of various issues, including the nature of human knowing, ultimate reality, and right conduct; and, besides selected western philosophical ideas, it will examine such eastern traditions of philosophy (and thinkers) as the Vedanta (Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva) Madhayamika (Nagarjuna), Confucianism, Daoism, and Zen (Dogen).
PHIL218 Issues in Moral Philosophy
10 cp
Prerequisites PHIL104 Introduction to Ethics
Teaching Organisation 3 hours per week for 12 weeks or equivalent of lectures, tutorials and seminars.
This unit will offer students the opportunity to deepen their understanding of morality through a careful examination of some of the major issues in contemporary moral philosophy such as the nature and measures of moral good and evil; roles of reason and emotion in moral judgement; the relationship between moral and aesthetic judgement; the place of emotions like shame and remorse in the moral life, and the role which tradition plays in moral reflection.
PHIL219 Elementary Symbolic Logic
10 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation 3 hours per week for 12 weeks or equivalent of lectures, tutorials and workshops.
This unit will teach the student the elementary theory (excluding Metatheory) and skills of contemporary symbolic logic up to basic quantificational logic, including, if time permits, identity and other relations. Particular attention will be given to applications to natural language reasoning.
PHIL220 Philosophy: Special Study
10 cp
Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory 100-level
Teaching Organisation 3 hours per week for 12 weeks or equivalent of seminars, lectures and tutorials.
This unit offers studies in a specialised area of philosophical research, which is undertaken by a present member of staff or a visiting scholar. The unit will provide students with the opportunity to develop their philosophical knowledge in one of the major areas of study: ethics and applied philosophy, epistemology and metaphysics, history of philosophy, and logic and philosophy of language. Student requirements will vary according to the expertise of the staff member or visiting scholar teaching the unit.
PHIL221 Modern Catholic Thinkers
10 cp
Prerequisites 1 Philosophy unit at introductory 100-level
Teaching Organisation 120 hours of focused learning per semester.
This unit involves an examination of some of the key elements in the thought of a number of modern philosophers who can broadly be described as 'Catholic Thinkers'. The philosophers concerned will be chosen from the following: John Henry Newman, Jacques Maritain, Gabriel Marcel, Bernard Lonergan, Edith Stein, Simone Weil, Elizabeth Anscombe, Charles Taylor and Alasdair MacIntyre. Attention will be paid not only to the contributions which these thinkers have made to the Catholic intellectual tradition, but also to the contributions they have made to the wider tradition of Western philosophy and culture.
Page last updated: 2017-06-29
Short url: https://handbook.acu.edu.au/61579
Page last updated: 2017-06-29
Short url: https://handbook.acu.edu.au/61579