BA Politics, Philosophy and Economics

Year of entry: 2024

Course unit details:
Philosophy of Religion

Course unit fact file
Unit code PHIL20021
Credit rating 20
Unit level Level 2
Teaching period(s) Semester 1
Available as a free choice unit? Yes

Overview

This course introduces the central problems and issues in contemporary philosophy of religion. Among the questions that we will consider are: Are there any persuasive arguments for the existence of God? Is religious belief rational if it is not supported by evidence? Is it reasonable to believe that just one religious tradition is true? There are no prerequisites for the course.

Aims

- Engagement with some of the most central and enduring problems in philosophy of religion;

- Enhance your power of critical analysis, reasoning and independent thought, and your ability to bring those powers to bear on important philosophical issues;

- Familiarise you with some of the most interesting and provocative texts in contemporary work on philosophy of religion.

Learning outcomes

- Knowledge and understanding of a range of central 20th century texts on philosophy of religion;

- Some in-depth critical knowledge of the most important modern and contemporary theories in the areas covered by the course;

- The ability to critically reflect on those theories, and to articulate and defend your own views.

Teaching and learning methods

One 2-hour lecture and one 1-hour tutorial weekly.

Please note the hours in Schedule activity hours is subject to change.

Employability skills

Analytical skills
Group/team working
Innovation/creativity
Oral communication
Problem solving
Research
Written communication

Assessment methods

Method Weight
Written exam 67%
Written assignment (inc essay) 33%

Feedback methods

The School of Social Sciences (SoSS) is committed to providing timely and appropriate feedback to students on their academic progress and achievement, thereby enabling students to reflect on their progress and plan their academic and skills development effectively. Students are reminded that feedback is necessarily responsive: only when a student has done a certain amount of work and approaches us with it at the appropriate fora is it possible for us to feed back on the student's work. The main forms of feedback on this course are written feedback responses to assessed essays and exam answers.

We also draw your attention to the variety of generic forms of feedback available to you on this as on all SoSS courses. These include: meeting the lecturer/tutor during their office hours; e-mailing questions to the lecturer/tutor; asking questions from the lecturer (before and after lecture); presenting a question on the discussion board on Blackboard; and obtaining feedback from your peers during tutorials.

Recommended reading

The texts for the course will be made available online.

The following text is a useful primer:

Graham Oppy, Michael Scott Reading Philosophy of Religion (Blackwell, 2010)

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Lectures 20
Tutorials 10
Independent study hours
Independent study 170

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Michael Scott Unit coordinator

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