Texts will vary depending on the theme of the module at a given time.

They may include:
I. Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (CUP, 1999)
Burnham, Guide to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (Edinburgh UP, 2006)
R. Woolhouse, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz: Concept of Substance in Seventeenth Century Metaphysics (Routledge, 1993)
R. Harrison, Jobbes, Locke and Confusion's Masterpiece: An Examination of Seventeenth Century Political Philosophy (CUP, 2002)
Leibniz, Discourse on Metaphysics and Other Essays (Hackett, 1992)

Lecture room, seminar room, white or blackboard facilities, library and IT facilities

Lecture and seminar. The lecture would aim to introduce the week's topic and indicate key issues to look out for in reading. The seminar would aim to establish clarity in interpretation, and to offer a model of contextualised philosophical interpretative technique.

One essay 500 words [Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3]
An essay of 2000 words [Learning Outcomes 1,2,3,4,5]

These modules are core for all philosophy students. This is because they provide a set of philosophical skills and knowledge without which a philosophy degree would be stunted or fragmentary. In particular, these modules aim to fulfil three key elements of a good philosophical education:

ONE, a historical sense, by which a philosopher is able to maximise the fecundity of philosophical concepts or analyses encountered;

TWO, a capacity to read, by which a philosopher is able to penetrate a way of thought deeply and see it as part of a coherent overarching movement of thinking;

THREE, the ability to build a philosophical case, by representing in prose just such a coherent movement.

These broad ends are achieved by close textual analysis and philosophical investigation of a small number of representative philosophical texts from the history of philosophy. The texts in question will be chosen insofar as they represent a least some of the concerns and styles of their age, while also contributing to the historical development of the discipline.

Within these aims, and within the learning outcomes given above, the choice of texts will not be fixed. Indicative texts would be:

Spinoza, Ethics
Schelling, On the Essence of Human Freedom
Hobbes Leviathan
Leibniz Monadology
Locke Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Kant Critique of Pure Reason
Nietzsche Genealogy of Morality