BASS Social Anthropology and Philosophy

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What is analytic philosophy? What is its nature and what are its methods? In this course we will seek to answer these questions by examining key contributions from leading historical figures who shaped the evolution of the discipline. The course will begin with the origins of the tradition in the work of Russell, Frege, and Wittgenstein – examining what was distinctive about their approaches and ideas – before charting their influence over subsequent philosophers throughout the twentieth century and until the present day.

The course aims to:

• provide an understanding of the nature and development of the analytic tradition in philosophy
• provide historical background for some of the contemporary debates in the analytic tradition
• introduce students to some of the key writings in the tradition
• introduce students to some of the techniques and methods of analytic philosophy

There will be a mixture of lectures and tutorials.

Please note the information in scheduled activity hours are only a guidance and may change.

• Identify the main philosophical problems which motivated the development of early analytic philosophy  
• Clearly articulate the relevant doctrines of the early analytic philosophers and their critics

• Evaluate the claims and arguments of the early analytic philosophers and their critics
• Evaluate the lasting significance of early analytic philosophy and its developments

• Be able to dissect, interpret and criticise both the original historical texts and commentaries on them 

• Undertake independent research and apply analytic skills to complex arguments expressed in unfamiliar terms
• Appreciate the big picture at the same time as understanding the smaller details.

Essay (1750 words)

(mid-semester)

45%

Essay (1750 words)

(end of semester)

45%

Online Multiple Choice Questionnaires (MCQ)

(10 Questionnaires Weekly via Blackboard)

10%

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.

G. Berkeley Dialogues, F.H. Bradley Appearance and Reality, B. Russell Problems of Philosophy, B. Russell Lectures on the Philosophy of Logical Atomism, L. Wittgenstein Tractatus, A.J. Ayer Language Truth and Logic, Dorothy Emmet The Nature of Metaphysical Thinking, L. Wittgenstein Philosophical Investigations and W.V. Quine ‘Two Dogmas of Empiricism’.