BASS Sociology and Philosophy

Year of entry: 2024

Course unit details:
Founding Mothers: Women Philosophers and their Role in The Development of Analytic Philosophy

Course unit fact file
Unit code PHIL30351
Credit rating 20
Unit level Level 3
Teaching period(s) Semester 1
Available as a free choice unit? Yes

Overview

The course unit aims to: introduce students to some of the foundational debates of early and mid analytic philosophy concerning the relationship of language to the world: logical and linguistic analysis, ontology, and modal language. Students will closely read and interpret some classic texts on language, analysis, and language-world relations, as well as some lesser-known but worthwhile texts by marginalised female figures of the period. Students will also dissect and assess the arguments of those texts, compare them to contemporary accounts, and form and defend their own views on the course themes in language and analysis. 

Aims

The unit aims to: 

The course unit aims to: introduce students to some of the foundational debates of early and mid analytic philosophy concerning the relationship of language to the world: logical and linguistic analysis, ontology, and modal language. 

Learning outcomes

Teaching and learning methods

-Tutorials (10 hours): small group discussion will facilitate student engagement 

-Office Hours: students will have access to the course convenor through regular office hours 

-VLE: learning materials (reading lists, lecture slides, etc.) available online (asynchronous) 

-Essay Plans: students will be encouraged to submit essay plans for formative feedback

Knowledge and understanding

-identify the main philosophical questions of the set texts 

-trace historical influences among philosophers of the early to mid analytic period 

Intellectual skills

-evaluate the philosophical arguments of the set texts 

-relate these arguments to other areas of philosophical inquiry 

Practical skills

- interpret and criticise both primary and secondary texts

Transferable skills and personal qualities

-present complex material

Assessment methods

Method Weight
Other 35%
Written assignment (inc essay) 35%
Oral assessment/presentation 20%
Set exercise 10%

-Essay 1, 1500 words, 35%

-Essay 2, 1500 words, 35%

-Presentation, 10 mins, 20%

-Online Exercise, 10%

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.

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 lectures); and obtaining feedback from your peers during tutorials.

Recommended reading

The following reading list is indicative, and students are not required to read all the publications listed.

-Constance Jones `A New Law of Thought' Proc. Arist. Soc 1910-11. 

-Susan Stebbing, `The Method of Analysis in Metaphysics', 

-Alice Ambrose, `Linguistic Approaches to Philosophical Problems' J. Phil 1952.  

-Ruth Barcan Marcus `Nominalism and the Substitutional Quantifier', Nous 1978. 

-Jane Heal, `Replication and Functionalism' reprinted in her Mind, Reason and Imagination, CUP 2003.

Study hours

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

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Frederique Janssen-Lauret Unit coordinator

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