Honours Seminars in the Department of Philosophy for 2009

Advanced Philosophy of Science
Prof Paul Griffiths

This focus of this course is epistemic analysis of the various processes that might be thought to make up science: explaining phenomena, reducing one class of phenomena to another, formulating laws and theories and confirming those laws and theories. The course assumes familiarity with the classic ‘philosophies of science of Popper and Lakatos, Kuhn and Feyerabend taught in most introductory philosophy of science courses (see e.g. Chalmers, A. F. (1999). What is This Thing Called Science (Third Edition). Queensland: University of Queensland Press.) Texts: Salmon, M. H., Earman, J., Glymour, C., Lennox, J. G., Machamer, P., McGuire, J. E., et al. (1992). Introduction to the Philosophy of Science. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, plus selected articles and chapters from the research literature for each topics.

On Toleration
Dr Thomas Besch
In recent political philosophy, toleration has received considerable attention. Yet even philosophers that agree that toleration matters often disagree about its nature, content, and methodological standing: some see it as an quality of practices and institutions, while others see it as something by which to govern our very thinking about political justification, reasoning, and justice. The course addresses a range of recent texts on the topic. It introduces students to contemporary ideas of toleration, their depth, aspirations and their limits.

Romanticism as Philosophy
Prof Paul Redding
Besides the romantic sensibility pervading many distinct areas of 19th European culture, a distinctly philosophical variant of romanticism has recently been acknowledged. This unit examines versions of philosophical romanticism from the 1790s to the present, interpreting and evaluating them as responses to what has been perceived as the nihilistic consequences of a distinctly modern form of human subjective existence. The links of philosophical romanticism to the movements in the arts, politics, science and religion will be examined.

Rights & Norms
Dr Justine McGill
If rights are universal and norms particular, then how should we understand the relation between them? Do social, cultural and political norms shape our understanding of rights? Should rights always be understood as universal and norms particular? This unit will explore recent work on the justification of rights as well as criticisms of them. It will also examine case studies to do with Aboriginal rights and women's rights as well as explore the link between rights, cosmopolitanism and ideas of freedom.

Kant's Moral Philosophy
Prof Paul Redding
In this unit we closely examine Immanuel Kant's Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals. Issues to be pursued will include: the place of this account of practical philosophy within the project of Kant's "transcendental idealism" as a whole; its relation to competing accounts of practical reason, both naturalistic and those of later idealists; and the problems facing a Kantian "moral psychology". Text: Immanuel Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysic of Morals, trans. Mary Gregor (Cambridge UP, 1998)

Cosmopolitanism and Community
Dr Thomas Besch
Should we think of our moral and political obligations as limited by our membership in particular communities? Should we define our conceptions of moral and political community according to particular cultural or national characteristics, or in terms of of a shared common humanity? Do we have special obligations to our compatriots or general obligations to humanity as a whole? What is the relation between universal principles and local practices, and what are the consequences for our conceptions of practical reason? We shall explore these questions, and others, through an engagement with the arguments of leading contemporary moral and political philosophers.

Metaphilosophy
Dr Adrian Heathcote
The purpose of this course is to examine certain logical problems that permeate philosophy, but examine them at a higher level than is usually done. So this year I will be looking at use-mention problems that affect the theory of truth, identity and modal logic. A set of readings will be provided, starting with Quine's discussion of use-mention in his Mathematical Logic. Another important paper that students may wish to look at before the course begins is Quine's "The Problem of Interpreting Modal Logic" in the Journal of Symbolic Logic, 1947, pp. 43-8.

Philosophical Naturalism
Dr David Macarthur
"Naturalism" - a slogan which signals a new relationship between philosophy and science - is the dominant philosophical movement in contemporary analytic philosophy; and it has played an important role in the history of continental philosophy e.g. the Methodenstreit of the late C19th. In this unit we will discuss naturalism, anti-naturalism and supernaturalism. Key issues taken up include scientific method, the scientific image, the legitimacy of the human sciences, the "placement problems" of contemporary metaphysics and especially those concerning normativity.

Ayer & Quine
Dr Michael McDermott
Analytic philosophy in the first half of the twentieth century was dominated by "Logical Positivism". Its main doctrine was the "Verification Principle", which (roughly speaking) identified the meaning of a statement with its consequences for experience. Analytic philosophy in the second half of the century was dominated by Quine. This course examines Quine's philosophy, especially his attack on the concept of meaning presupposed by the Positivists.

Venue details for all of these units will be posted on the philosophy notice board, outside the Philosophy Common Room S413, Main Quad A14, at the beginning of semester.