Philosophy: The Great Thinkers

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2010:

For the purposes of considering requests for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.

The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website : http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

This subject introduces and examines several famous ideas in Western philosophy, from various periods and traditions but with important recurring concerns including the scope of human reason, the case for religious belief, the nature of morality, and the freedom of the will. These ideas will include: (1) Plato's account of the human ‘soul’ or mind as consisting of three elements (Reason, Spirit and Appetite), and the parallel he draws with the structure of his ideal society; (2) Ideas about the existence of God, including: Pascal's Wager, which recommends belief in God not as supported by any proof or evidence, but as a very wise gamble; and whether belief in God involves faith rather than reason or argument; (3) David Hume's view that 'reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions', and that it is 'not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger'; (4) Immanuel Kant’s view that moral values are derived from reason, David Hume’s different view that they express only our sentiments or feelings, and some contemporary descendants of Hume’s view (5) Jean-Paul Sartre's 'existentialist' view that human beings are ‘radically free’, and that this freedom warrants 'anguish' because it carries our 'total and deep responsibility' for our lives and for those of everyone else; and other views in the long-standing debate about whether we really do have free will.

Students who successfully complete this subject will

• acquire knowledge and understanding of the texts studied.
• appreciate what these texts have to show us about what it means to be a human being.
• be able to present accurate and well-expressed exposition of important issues and views arising in them.
• be able to present informed and fair-minded philosophical evaluation of them.

A subject reader will be available from the University Bookshop at the start of semester.

This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:

• Bachelor of Biomedicine
• Bachelor of Commerce
• Bachelor of Environments
• Bachelor of Music
• Bachelor of Science
• Bachelor of Engineering

You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects.

Students who successfully complete this subject will

• be able to recognise philosophically important similarities and differences between views and issues arising in different texts and contexts.
• be able to apply the analytical skills developed in this subject to other philosophical and non-philosophical studies.
• be able to apply the critical skills developed in this subject to other philosophical and non-philosophical studies.