Download Undergraduate Courses 2012

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Undergraduate Courses 2012
PHILOSOPHY
PHL111/111E, PHL111F Introduction to Philosophy
Purpose: To introduce the nature, methods, history and basic issues of the philosophical tradition
Contents: What is philosophy? Dialogical character of philosophy. Philosophy and the sciences. Nature of philosophical
questions and answers. Branches of philosophy. Variety of philosophical approaches. Historical periods of
philosophy.
Instruction:
Lectures, self-study packets, tutorials
Credits:
8
Assessment: Continuous assessment through tests, group work, assignments
Summative Assessment: 2 hour examination
Prerequisites: None
PHL112/112E, PHL112F Elementary Logic
Purpose:
To introduce Elementary Logic as one of the primary branches of philosophy and basis of all scientific thinking
Contents: The Argument (premises and conclusions, form and content, truth and validity, probability). Practical Logic: Material
fallacies and Linguistic Fallacies. Formal Logic: standard form categorical syllogisms, Venn diagrammes, truth
tables.
Instruction:
Lectures, self-study packets, tutorials
Credits:
8
Assessment: Continuous assessment through tests, group work, assignments
Summative Assessment: 2 hour examination
Prerequisites: None
PHL116/116E Logic and Ethics for Law Students
Purpose: To introduce basic reasoning skills (Elementary Logic) and more specifically moral reasoning competencies (Ethics)
essential to Legal Training.
Contents: The Nature of Logic, The Structure of Arguments, The Role of Language, Arguments and Non-arguments, Deductive
and Inductive Arguments, Truth, Validity and Soundness, Fallacies, The Nature, Function and Need of Ethics, Core
Ethical Issues, Comparison of Ethical Approaches, Applied Ethical Problems.
Instruction: Lectures, self-study packets, tutorials
Credits: 16
Assessment: Continuous assessment through short class tests and tutorial exercises
Summative Assessment: 2 hour examination
Prerequisites: None
PHL126/126E, PHL126F Classical Problems in Philosophy
Purpose:
To introduce the historical period and themes of ancient Greek philosophy as core to the development of the scien
tific
world-view and method
Contents: Greek mythological thinking. History and features of ancient Greek philosophy. Question of arché. Problem of the
One and the Many. Pythagorean School. Matter and mind. Problem of truth: Sophists, Socrates. Problem of
universals: Plato, Aristotle. Concept of well-being. Reason and faith.
Instruction:
Lectures, self-study packets, tutorials
Credits:
8
Assessment: Continuous assessment through tests, group work, assignments
Summative Assessment: 2 hour examination
Prerequisites: None
PHL125/125E, PHL125F Ethics
Purpose: To present Ethics as one of the major braches of the philosophical tradition, and demonstrate its use, relevance and
significance for everyday life, as well as in select professions.
Contents:
Ethics (theory) and morality (practice). Function, need and history of ethics. Core ethical problems. Compar
ison of
selected ethical theories. Applied ethical problems. Moral dialogical competencies.
Instruction:
Lectures, self-study packets, tutorials
Credits:
8
Assessment: Continuous assessment through tests, group work, assignments
Summative Assessment: 2 hour examination
Prerequisites: none
PHL211/211E Renaissance and Enlightenment Philosophy
Purpose: To introduce the historical period and main themes of the Renaissance and Enlightenment and its significance for the
development of philosophy and science
Contents:
Transition from medieval period to modernity. Renaissance, reformation, new sciences, inventions and discover
ies,
socio-political revolutions. Empiricism: Bacon, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume). Rationalism: Descartes,
Spinoza, Leibniz. Romanticism: Voltaire, Rousseau.
Instruction:
Lectures, self-study packets, tutorials
Credits:
8
Assessment: Continuous assessment through tests, group work, assignments
Summative Assessment: 2 hour examination
Prerequisites: PHL111/111E
PHL212/212E Philosophical Anthropology
Purpose:
To introduce the development and themes of Philosophical Anthropology as core to the humanities and the sciences.
Contents:
What does it mean to be human? Comparative analysis of various views of man: Naturalism, Idealism, Voluntar
ism,
Existentialism, Marxism, Pragmatism, African thinking, Eastern philosophies. Systematic aspects: constitution
of man, man and science, man and philosophy today.
Instruction:
Lectures, self-study packets, tutorials
Credits:
8
Assessment: Continuous assessment through tests, group work, assignments
Summative Assessment: 2 hour examination
Prerequisites: PHL112/112E
PHL223/223E Kantian Philosophy
Purpose:
To introduce the thinking of Immanuel Kant as leading philosopher of the Enlightenment.
Contents:
Kant?s life and works. The critical problem in Kant?s transcendental philosophy. Development and unity Kantian
of
philosophy. Kantian epistemology, ethics, politics.
Instruction:
Lectures, self-study packets, tutorials
Credits:
8
Assessment: Continuous assessment through tests, group work, assignments
Summative Assessment: 2 hour examination
Prerequisites: PHL123/123E
PHL224/224E Social and Political Philosophy
Purpose: To introduce the main aspects and trends of social and political philosophy.
Contents: Ideologies of individualism and communalism. Social determinism. Person and structure. The social contract.
Concepts of the State. Citizenship and sovereignty. Bills of rights and Constitutions. International law.
Instruction:
Lectures, self-study packets, tutorials
Credits:
8
Assessment: Continuous assessment through tests, group work, assignments
Summative Assessment: 2 hour examination
Prerequisites: PHL124/124E
PHL311/311E Philosophical Hermeneutics
Purpose:
To introduce Philosophical Hermeneutics as leading philosophical discipline of late modernity and post-modernity
Contents:
Historical development of hermeneutics as philosophical discipline. Hermeneutical theory Schleiermacher, Dilt
hey,
Betti. Hermeneutic philosophy: Heidegger, Gadamer. Critical hermeneutics: Apel, Habermans.
Phenomenological Hermeneutics: Ricoeur.
Instruction:
Lectures, self-study packets, tutorials
Credits:
16
Assessment: Continuous assessment through tests, group work, assignments
Summative Assessment: 3 hour examination
Prerequisites: PHL211/211E
PHL312/312E Contemporary Philosophical Trends
Purpose: Overview and comparative analysis of the most influential trends in 20th century philosophy
Contents:
Philosophy of life. Pragmatism. Phenomenology and Existentialism. Marxism and neo-Marxism. Neo-Positivism
and
Analytic philosophy. Structuralism and post-modernism, African philosophy (capita selecta).
Instruction: Lectures, self-study packets, tutorials
Credits: 16
Assessment: Continuous assessment through tests, group work, assignments
Summative Assessment: 3 hour examination
Prerequisites: PHL212/212E
PHL323/323E Philosophy of Science
Purpose:
Analysis of the major issues in contemporary philosophy of science
Contents:
Concepts of science. Critical reflection on the scientific method. Conceptual foundations of the scientific met
hod.
Transcendental character of scientific theories. Scientific methodology and types of knowledge. Science and
ethics.
Instruction:
Lectures, self-study packets, tutorials
Credits:
16
Assessment: Continuous assessment through tests, group work, assignments
Summative Assessment: 3 hour examination
Prerequisites: PHL223/223E
PHL325/325E African Philosophy
Purpose: To introduce the main tenets, debates and schools that constitute present-day African philosophy.
Contents:
Debate about the identity of African philosophy. Trends and representatives in contemporary African philoso
phy.
Dialogue between western and African philosophies. Significance of African philosophy. In-depth study fo
selected themes and authors.
Instruction:
Lectures, self study packets, tutorials
Credits:
16
Assessment: Continuous assessment through tests, group work and assignments
Summative Assessment: 3 hour examination
Prerequisites: PHL224/224E