Researching Ideas

This subject is not offered in 2014.

120 hours

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

The subject introduces students to central contemporary methodological approaches to philosophy and to cutting edge research in the following four core areas of philosophy: practical philosophy; metaphysics and epistemology; logic, philosophy of language and mind; and the history of philosophy. It also gives students practical instruction in how to present and defend their philosophical research, with a view to preparing them for their confirmation seminars.

Format: The seminar meets for 1.5 hours for a total of 16 sessions, 8 per semester. Over the course of the year, four seminars cover the following methodological approaches to philosophy:

1. Apriori reasoning and analyticity
2. Experimental approaches to philosophy
3. Logical models for philosophy
4. The phenomenological method(s)

One seminar each semester is devoted to how to present and defend philosophical research.

Successful completion of the Research Workshop will enable students to have an enhanced awareness of the range of contemporary scholarship in the discipline or interdisciplinary area. In the assessment, students will be expected to demonstrate the ability to critically evaluate the contemporary research literature that is relevant to the thesis topic. The Research Workshop will also enable students to formulate and present the research proposal for confirmation.

• one 2,500-word literature review positioning essay. Due at the end of first semester (50%)
• one 2,500-word research essay. Due during mid-second semester (50%)

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.