BASS Social Anthropology and Criminology

The unit introduces students to studying philosophy. It does this in two interconnected ways. Accordingly, there are two interconnected threads running through the unit. The first thread involves philosophical content (e.g. short lectures presenting key ideas and arguments for discussion). The focus of this first thread is engaging with theoretical perspectives on the nature of philosophy, philosophy of education, and engaging with a range of topics outside those likely encountered during previous study or elsewhere in the Level 4 syllabus, that help students develop an understanding of the scope and nature of philosophy are university level.  The second thread involves taught skills sessions (workshops with practical activities and guidance). The focus of this second thread is to familiarize students with the skills and methods needed to flourish as a philosophy student, and the chance to practice those skills in a supervised environment.

The unit aims to:

Help students develop a holistic understanding of the discipline of philosophy, and some core skills and methods that are foundational for studying philosophy at university.

One two-hour lecture and one one-hour tutorial per week.

Students should be able to:

• Recognise and summarise key philosophical positions and arguments;
• Articulate views about the nature of philosophy;
• Explain the relation between philosophy and the 'real world'.

Students should be able to:

• Identify, compare and criticise key philosophical positions and arguments;
• Articulate and defend their own philosophical views and arguments;
• Improve written work in response to feedback.

Students should be able to:

• Use research tools to effectively select resources in the preparation of assessments;
• Clearly communicate philosophical ideas.

Portfolio: Improved essay and commentary on how essay was improved in light of either individual or course unit level feedback (1500 words) 50%

Exam (1.5 hours) 50%

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 time 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 Canvas; and obtaining feedback from your peers during tutorials.

• Overgaard, S., Gilbert, P., & Burwood, S. (2013). Philosophy, Science and the Humanities. In An Introduction to Metaphilosophy (Cambridge Introductions to Philosophy, pp. 45-69). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139018043.004
• Odera Oruka, H. (2003). Four Trends in Current African Philosophy, In The African Philosophy Reader, edited by P. H. Coetzee, and A. P. J. Roux. Taylor & Francis Group, 2003. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.manchester.idm.oclc.org/lib/manchester/detail.action?docID=182963.
• Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the Oppressed (30th anniversary ed.). Continuum.
• Saunders, C., Mossley, D., MacDonald Ross, G. & Lamb, D. (2013). Doing Philosophy: A Practical Guide for Students (2nd edition). Bloomsbury.
• Descartes. R, Mediations on First Philosophy (Mediations 1 , and 2, and 6)
• Descartes, R. and Princess Elisabeth. 2017 (Selected correspondence (first 5 letters) in Jonathan Bennett ed. www.earlymoderntexts.com
• Amo, A. 1968. "On the Apatheia of the Human Mind" in Antonius Guitielmus, Amo Afer of Axim in Ghana: Student, Doctor Of Philosophy, master and lecturer at the universities of Halle, Wittenberg, Jena, 1727-1747: translation of his works (ed. Dorothea Siegmund-Schultze), Halle: Martin Luther University Halle- Wittenberg, pp.66-76.
• De Smedt, J. & De Cruz, H. (2011). The Cognitive Appeal of the Cosmological Argument. Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 23 (2):103–122.
• Clack, B. (2013). Feminism and the Problem of Evil. In The Blackwell Companion to the Problem of Evil, edited by J. P. McBrayer, and D. Howard-Snyder. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2013. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.manchester.idm.oclc.org/lib/manchester/detail.action?docID=1598000.
• Kiper, J., Stich, S., Barrett, H. & Machery, E. (2021). 'Experimental Philosophy'. In I. Koskinen, D. Ludwig, Z. Mncube, L. Poliseli & L. Reyes-Galindo (eds.), Global Epistemologies and Philosophies of Science. Routledge.
• Hardimon, M. O. Is Racism Essentially Systemic?. American Philosophical Quarterly 1 October 2023; 60 (4): 369–380. doi: https://doi-org.manchester.idm.oclc.org/10.5406/21521123.60.4.05
• Moody-Adams, M. (2005). Racism. In A Companion to Applied Ethics (eds R.G. Frey and C. Heath Wellman). https://doi-org.manchester.idm.oclc.org/10.1002/9780470996621.ch7