Undergraduate
BA and Diploma in Philosophy
Who is it for?
The study of Philosophy
What is reality? What things exist? What is
knowledge? Can human beings ever have knowledge of the external world?
What is the mind? How should one understand the relationship of the mind to
the physical world? What is rationality? Can there be rules of rational
reasoning, and, if so, what are they? What is truth? What is meaning? How
is language related to thought and reality? Is there such a thing as moral
value? Can the good person be harmed? What is beauty? Say what
constitutes a work of art?
These questions,
and many other more specific ones, are the starting points
of philosophy. They are questions that at some time or other,
and in some form or other, occur to most ofthe people. Any
thoughtful person will find asking them irresistible. But
the questions themselves are only the starting points.
For the past twenty-five hundred years
thinkers have struggled to refine these questions and to set about
answering them. Moreover, by and large they have not undertaken these
tasks in a solitary way. They have felt the need to test their proposals
by rational interchange with other thinkers; the need to convince others
of the truth and reasonableness of what you say – and thereby to expose
your views to counterargument – is a central feature of philosophical
inquiry. One could think of the human effort to confront these deep
questions as like a vast debate that has been going on for generations,
where the context and terms of the debate change in all sorts of ways from
one generation to another. Joining in such a debate is bound to be
difficult – for a start you have to understand just where the participants
have got to – but it is necessary. Whilst it is of course in principle
possible for anyone to set about answering philosophical questions for
themselves, rational humility would suggest that the study of what others
have said should precede and inform these efforts. It is for this reason
that the study of the history of philosophy figures so centrally in this
and in any reasonable philosophical syllabus. Amongst others, you will be
asked to study works by Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Locke, Berkeley,
Hume, Spinoza, Leibniz and Kant as well as those by more contemporary
philosophers. In spite of its importance, one should not mistake the study
of the history of philosophy for the subject itself. One should never lose
sight of the questions mentioned above that animate the subject of
philosophy. Study what Plato said because he made proposals which can
contribute to the own struggles with these questions, and not merely
because he is a major figure in the culture. An assumption built into the
syllabus is that students will use their own intellectual resources to
confront philosophical questions. A typical examination question in the
non-historical part of the course might ask you about knowledge, value or
meaning, and you will be expected to say not merely what others have said,
but what you think is true. And you will also be expected to defend your
answer. Anyone embarking on this course becomes a participant in the vast
debate that is philosophy, and not merely an observer. This is what makes
the study of philosophy both so exciting and at times so unnerving.
