PPR450: What is Philosophy? Methods, Aims, Debates

Objectives

The question of how to do philosophy is itself a philosophical question. The primary aim of this team-taught module is to teach students to reflect on different conceptions of what philosophy is and how it should be done. Students will explore the following and/or other topics in metaphilosophy:

1. Thought experiments – How do thought experiments enable us to gain knowledge? How can they fail? How should they be used?
2. Conceptual analysis – What is conceptual analysis? how can it be used?
3. The role of intuitions in philosophy – Is it appropriate to make use of intuitions in philosophical inquiry? Can the method of reflective equilibrium justify the role of intuitions in philosophical reflection? Are empirical studies of the nature of intuitions relevant to philosophical practice?
4. Boundaries of the subject – Does philosophy have a distinct method? Is philosophy continuous with science, or literature, or any other subject?
5. The continental-analytic split – What are the differences between analytic and continental philosophy?
6. The role of consensus within philosophy – Why do philosophers so seldom agree?  What role can consensus play in philosophy?
7. The role of the history of philosophy – Is the history of philosophy essential for philosophy? Should past philosophers be read in the light of their contemporary context or ours?

Select Bibliography

David Archard, 'Why Moral Philosophers Are Not and Should Not be Moral Experts', Bioethics  2009: 1-9

Julian Baggini, The Pig that Wants to be Eaten, and Ninety-Nine Other Thought Experiments (Cambridge University Press 2005)

Nancy Bauer, 'Is Feminist Philosophy a Contradiction in Terms?', Chapter 1 of her Simone de Beauvoir, Philosophy and Feminism (Columbia University Press 2001).

Paul Feyerabend, 'Progress in Philosophy, the Sciences and the Arts' in his Farewell to Reason (Verso 1987)

Genevieve Lloyd, 'The Man of Reason' (Routledge 1984; revised edn 1993)

Richard Rorty, 'Method, Social Science, and Social Hope' in his Consequences of Pragmatism (University of Minnesota Press 1982)

Peter Singer, 'Moral Experts', Analysis 32(1972): 115-117

Nigel Warburton et al., 'What is Philosophy?', Philosophy Bites podcast, http://philosophybites.com/2010/11/what-is-philosophy.html (accessed 30 May 2012)

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