100% by continuous and formative portfolio. (2500 words)
[Learning outcomes 1 - 3]

Key Information Set Data:
Coursework 80% of assessment
Practical exams 20%

It could be said that we are currently living in an age in which we are experiencing a `crisis' regarding the meaning or values we attach to our lives. This course assesses this claim by juxtaposing our apparent need for certainty and meaning against our experiences of uncertainty and ambiguity of meaning. It starts with the ancient Greeks and charts how, from their thinking, the `meaning of life' has developed through first the rise of Christianity and then the rise of science. It also examines how philosophical scepticism has been a constant source of resistance to the definition of this meaning, and how both modern philosophy (existentialism and postmodernism) and modern science (evolution and complexity theories) strongly suggest that such a definition is just not possible.

Contact time will comprise some or all of: lectures, seminars, small group work, individual or small group scheduled tutorials, whole or partial group workshops, student individual or group presentations, in-class tests or other in-class forms of assessment, student-led group discussions, student-requested or drop-in tutorials, telephone or other technology-assisted tutorials or conferences, visiting speakers, and on-line discussion, advice or feedback.
The Continuous and Formative Portfolio will consist of a set of elements, all of a formative (learn while doing) nature, and variously distributed throughout the teaching semester. There may also be diagnostic-formative assessments (learn while doing, but not formally assessed). The portfolio may include some or all of the following elements, among others: bibliographic exercises, PDP development diaries, quizzes, essay planning exercises, oral examinations, short answer or multiple choice in-class tests, self-evaluative exercises or reports, exposition essays, research essays, mentoring evaluations, individual or group oral presentations, presentation write-ups or evaluations, informal logic exercises, dissertations, field work reports and discussions, evaluation reports, literature reviews, on-line discussion forum contribution, continuous assessments of performance or contribution, on-line workshop write-ups, critical discussions, article or book reviews, research plans, methodological reviews and evaluations, career planning exercises and reports, take-away examinations, draft versions of any of the above, revised versions of any of the above. All elements of assessment within the portfolio must be passed for the module to be passed.

Key Information Set Data:
Scheduled Learning & Teaching Activities 15%
Guided Independent Learning 85%

Seminar/ workshop room with computer and projector; library resources; office space for tutorials; university computing facilities; Blackboard.

Cottingham. (2002). On the Meaning of Life, Routledge.
Davis. (2010). Metaphysics and the Meaning of Life. Three Brothers.
Eagleton. (2008).The Meaning of Life. Oxford.
Hanfling (ed) (1987). Life and Meaning: A Reader, Blackwell.
Sartre. (1973). Existentialism and Humanism, Methuen.
Schacht (ed) (1993). Nietzsche: Selections, MacMillan.
Sprigge. (1984) Theories of Existence, Penguin.
Trigg. (1988). Ideas of Human Nature, Blackwell.