LPHIL5233 Metaphysics Course Descriptor

Course Overview

This course investigates the fundamental nature of reality, and such topics as time, modality, causality, personal identity, and free will. What is existence? Could two objects be exactly similar in every respect? Are entities of two fundamental kinds, particulars and universals? In virtue of what is it true that Aristotle could have been a poet? Does time flow? Is the future real? Are we simply our bodies? Under what conditions does a person continue to exist from one time to another? If the thesis of determinism is true, in what sense (if any) can we be free?

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Transferable and Employability Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and range of additional resources (e.g. readings, question prompts, tasks, assignment briefs, discussion boards) to orientate and engage students in their studies.

The scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course are:

Interactive lectures/seminars

40 scheduled hours – typically including induction, consolidation or revision, and assessment activity hours.

• Version 1:all sessions in the same sized group

OR

• Version 2: most of the sessions in larger groups; some of the sessions in smaller groups

Faculty hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to drop in or sign up to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback, individually or in small groups. 

Students are to attend and participate in all the scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and independent study.

Indicative total learning hours for this course: 150

Assessment

Both formative and summative assessment are used as part of this course, with purely formative opportunities typically embedded within interactive teaching sessions, office hours, and/or the VLE.

Summative Assessments

Further information about the assessments can be found in the Course Syllabus.

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on assignments, through email or the VLE) or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or in office hours).

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is for a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Garrett (2011), What is this Thing Called Metaphysics? 2nd edition, Abingdon: Routledge.
• Kim, Korman, and Sosa (2012), Metaphysics: An Anthology. 2nd edition, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Ney (2014), Metaphysics: an Introduction, Abingdon: Routledge.
• Journals:
• Anscombe (1971), ‘Causality and Determination: an Inaugural Lecture’, Cambridge University Press.
• Lewis (1973) ‘Causation’, The Journal of Philosophy 70/17: 556-67.
• McTaggart (1908), ‘The Unreality of Time’, Mind 17: 457-73.
• Quine (1948), ‘On What There Is’, Review of Metaphysics 2: 21-38.
• Electronic resources:
• The Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy (plato.stanford.edu)

Indicative Topics

Note: Comprehensive and current topics for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative topics provided below is used as a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Ontology
• Modality
• Causation and freedom
• Time and persistence
• Personal identity