Aims
This course aims to:
• identify the key questions that animated European Philosophy across a range of themes
• provide insights into different philosophical methods
• equip you with the tools to understand and challenge different philosophical viewpoints
Content
The search for knowledge and the use of rationality to acquire it is the red thread that runs through the history of European Philosophy from classical Greece to the contemporary period. But how does this fundamentally human pursuit morph over centuries of historical social and political evolution? What are the key questions and methods that emerge out of each historical era, and how do the answers to these questions change in response to their context?
This introductory course identifies key moments in this journey. While it is structured thematically, each session will introduce key philosophers in their historical context and focus on unpacking their central ideas.
For instance in the first strand of this course, we will consider the evolution of the search for knowledge from its beginning in Plato’s idealist philosophy and Aristotle’s proto-empirical enquiries in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, to René Descartes’s (1596-1650) focus on rationality and method, to the development of Empiricism in the philosophy of Francis Bacon (1561-1626), David Hume 1711-1776) and John Locke (1632-1704). We will see how in the 19th and 20th century, the same thirst for knowledge is channelled through the scientific method, with examples drawn from Albert Einstein (1879-1955), Karl Popper (1902-1994) and Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996).
In the second strand of this course, we will consider moral and political questions, as they evolved from the Antiquity. We will study how moral philosophy evolved from notions of the good life and virtue ethics in Aristotle and his contemporaries, to Immanuel Kant’s (1724-1804) deontological theory of moral action and, at the opposite end of the philosophical spectrum, 20th century consequentialism in the work of Elizabeth Anscombe. We will consider the evolution of political philosophy from ancient Greece to the modern period, with a particular focus on the different philosophical responses that emerged from the troubled political context of the 17th and 18th centuries in England (Thomas Hobbes, 1588-1679) and in France (Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
1712-1778).
Presentation of the course
This course will take place in a classroom setting. It will alternate lecture content, close-reading, and small group discussions, with the aim to foster lively critical debate in the class.
Course sessions
1. The Search for Truth
This session will focus on Plato and his theory of Ideas as a means to combat illusion and attain true knowledge.
2. Rationalism and Empiricism
This session will compare Descartes’s approach to philosophical knowledge in his Discourse on Method with the development of empirical philosophy in the work of Bacon, Hume and Locke.
3. Scientific Knowledge
This session will provide a historical background to the development of scientific knowledge and an introduction to 20th-century epistemology.
4. Doing the Right Thing
This session will focus on moral philosophy and contrast approaches from different time periods to suggest answers the question: How do I do the right thing?
5. (Why) Do we need Governments?
This last session will provide an introduction to political philosophy and examine key theories of government in the light of their respective historical context (Plato, Hobbes, Rousseau).
Learning outcomes
You are expected to gain from this series of classroom sessions a greater understanding of the subject and of the core issues and arguments central to the course.
The learning outcomes for this course are:
• to gain a historical understanding of the development of philosophical debates in Europe
• to understand the main questions and debates that have animated European Philosophy since its inception in Classical Greece
• to provide you with the tools to analyse, understand and critically consider a rationally structured argument
Required reading
All required readings will be provided in the Course Reader, which will be made available to the students ahead of the course.
