7AAN2047 Metaphysics
Credit value: 20
Module tutor: Dr Chris Hughes
Assessment:
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Formative assessment: one x 1,500–2,000-word essays, due by end of semester or as otherwise instructed
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Summative assessment: one x two-hour end of year examination
Teaching pattern: one weekly one-hour lecture and one weekly one-hour seminar
2012-13 details
Metaphysics is, as Wilfrid Sellars once put it, "the study of how things, in the most general sense of the term, hang together, in the most general sense of the term" For a certain set of rather basic and prevalent kinds of things K, metaphysicians try to figure out the answers to two questions: i) what is it to be a K (or, what is it to be K)? ii) are there Ks? (or, is there such a thing as K)? For example:
what is it for there to be freedom of the will? is there such a thing as freedom of the will? what is it to be a property? are there properties? what is to be an event? are there events? And so on.
Almost all, if not all of philosophy is metaphysics, so it's a useful course to take.
Learning outcomes
TBA