Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Unit Convenor
Paul Formosa
Contact via paul.formosa@mq.edu.au
W6A 728
By appointment
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Credit points |
Credit points
3
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Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
39cp or admission to GDipArts
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Corequisites |
Corequisites
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Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
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Unit description |
Unit description
This unit explores some of the central issues in contemporary philosophical moral psychology. The first section focuses on freedom of the will, the nature of autonomy and debates about whether autonomy is compatible with socialisation. In the second section we discuss a range of issues concerning moral responsibility, including the implications of luck and causal determination for responsibility, whether moral responsibility requires an ability to do otherwise, and the conditions under which persons should be exempted from responsibility for their actions. The third section focuses on contemporary theories of personal identity by exploring the differences between metaphysical, practical and narrative theories of identity.
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Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
Name | Weighting | Due |
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Tutorial Participation | 10% | On-going |
Tutorial presentation | 5% | Assigned in class |
Quizzes | 15% | On-going |
Short answer test | 30% | 3/10/2016 |
Essay | 40% | 15/11/2016 |
Due: On-going
Weighting: 10%
An important part of philosophy is engaging in an active dialogue with others. This mark is allocated on the basis of your participation in both LECTURES and TUTORIALS throughout the semester. Internal students must attend at least 6 out of the 10 tutorials to be eligible for the participation mark. If you do not attend at least 6 tutorials you will receive 0 marks for participation. External students must participate in at least six different weekly online discussion forums within in a week of the relevant lecture to be eligible for the participation mark. If you do not participate in at least six different weekly online discussion forums in time then you will receive 0 marks for participation. If you meet this minimum requirement, then your mark will be awarded on the basis of the overall quality of your participation throughout the semester in lectures and tutorials or forums. If you cannot attend tutorials you can participate in online forums instead.
Due: Assigned in class
Weighting: 5%
Students will undertake a short presentation in tutorials (max: 5 minutes). This will consist of: 1) a summary of a piece of relevant research beyond the required readings; 2) a brief critical analysis of the main argument of that research; 3) a critical response to that argument; 4) and a single discussion question that should prompt engagement by other students in the tutorial. Note: external students will undertake the presentation via a forum post (either in writing or by uploading audio or video) and subsequent discussion.
Due: On-going
Weighting: 15%
Online quizzes test comprehension and understanding of the required readings. There will be 10 weekly on-line quizzes worth a total of 15% (or a maximum of 1.5% for each of the 10 quizzes). There will be 5 questions each week. You can attempt each quiz once only and there is a time limit. Quizzes start in Week 3 and run until Week 12. Each quiz will only be open for 14 days from the date of the relevant lecture.
Due: 3/10/2016
Weighting: 30%
The Short answer test is designed to test your comprehension of the essential readings and arguments in the unit, and your ability to present your understanding of the readings clearly and succinctly. You are not expected to undertake research beyond the essential readings. Handed out: 19 August.
Due: 15/11/2016
Weighting: 40%
The essay (2200 words) is designed to extend your understanding of a specific topic and to test your ability to engage with that topic in depth. Essay writing tests your ability to synthesise material from a range of readings and to express, analyse and structure key ideas and arguments clearly, logically and systematically. It also tests your ability to develop your own view, and to argue for that view in a cogent and sustained way. You will be expected to read and incorporate into your paper a miniumum of four secondary sources for this assessment (but you can use more) as well as material presented in the unit reader. The questions will be handed out on October 14.
This unit has an online presence in iLearn. Students will need to be able to access this site.
All required readings are in the unit reader. You are responsible for obtaining access to these readings.
A list of further readings is available on the unit's iLearn site.
The assessment requirements have been slightly modified, the reading list and content updated.
Week 1 (5 August).
Lecture 1: Unit outline & brief introduction
No readings this week.
No tutorials this week.
Week 2 (12 August).
Lecture 2: Background on Agency and Identity: Locke, Hume and Kant
Required reading:
1. Selections from Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding:
Book II. Chapter 27 'Of Identity and Diversity'. Sections. 1-11, 14-18, 25-26.
2. Selection from Hume's Treatise of Human Nature:
Book I, Part IV, Sect VI on 'Of personal identity'.
Book II, Part III, Sec III on 'Of the influencing motives of the will'.
3. Selections from Kant's Groundwork III:
On autonomy: 4:446-4:463.
No tutorials this week.
TOPIC 1: AUTONOMY AND CRITICAL REFLECTION
Week 3 (19 August).
Lecture 3 & Tutorial 1: Frankfurt on freedom of the will, Watson on motives and values
Required reading:
4. Harry Frankfurt: ‘Freedom of the will and the concept of a person’; Journal of Philosophy, 68(1), 1971.
5. Gary Watson: ‘Free Agency’, Journal of Philosophy, 72, 1975.
Short answer assignment handed out – 19 August
Quiz 1 opens
Week 4 (26 August).
Lecture 4 & Tutorial 2: ‘Deep Self’ and integration theories
Required reading:
6. Marilyn Friedman: ‘Autonomy and the Split-Level Self’, Southern Journal of Philosophy, vol. 24, no. 1, 1986, pp. 19-35.
7. Susan Wolf: ‘Sanity and the Metaphysics of Responsibility’ in Schoeman (ed.): Responsibility, Character and the Emotions (1987), pp. 46-62.
Quiz 2 opens
Week 5 (2 September).
Lecture 5 & Tutorial 3: Competence and relational theories of autonomy
Required reading:
8. Catriona Mackenzie & Natalie Stoljar: ‘Autonomy Refigured’, in Mackenzie & Stoljar (eds.) Relational Autonomy (2000): pp. 3-22.
9. Diana Meyers: ‘Personal Autonomy and the Paradox of Feminine Socialization’ Journal of Philosophy, 84(11), 1987, pp. 619-28.
10. Paul Benson: ‘Autonomy and Oppressive Socialisation’, Social Theory and Practice, XVII (3), 1991: pp. 385-408.
Quiz 3 opens
TOPIC 2: MORAL RESPONSIBILITY AND FREEDOM
Week 6 (9 September).
Lecture 6 & Tutorial 4: Moral Luck.
Required reading:
11. Thomas Nagel: ‘Moral Luck’ in Mortal Questions, (New York: Cambridge UP, 1979).
12. Bernard Williams: ‘Moral Luck’ in Moral Luck, (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1981).
Quiz 4 opens
Week 7 (16 September).
Lecture 7 & Tutorial 5: Moral responsibility and ‘reactive attitudes’
Required reading:
13. Peter Strawson: ‘Freedom and Resentment’ in P.F. Strawson, Freedom and Resentment and Other Essays, (London: Methuen, 1974).
14. Gary Watson: ‘Responsibility and the Limits of Evil: Variations on a Strawsonian Theme’, in Schoeman (ed.) Responsibility, Character and the Emotions (1987).
Quiz 5 opens
MID SEMESTER BREAK
3 October – short answer assessment due
Week 8: (7 October).
Lecture 8 & Tutorial 6: ‘Could have done otherwise’, Moral Responsibility and Incompatibilism
Required Reading:
15. Harry Frankfurt: ‘Alternate possibilities and moral responsibility’, Journal of Philosophy, 66, no. 23, 1969.
16. Derk Pereboom: ‘Hard Incompatiblism’, in Four Views on Free Will (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007), pp. 85-125.
Note: Guest lecturer, Prof Neil Levy. LECTURE ATTENDANCE COMPULSORY THIS WEEK
Quiz 6 opens.
TOPIC 3: PERSONAL, PRACTICAL AND NARRATIVE IDENTITY
Week 9 (14 October)
Lecture 9 & Tutorial 7: Parfit: Persons, Bodies, and Survival
Required reading:
18. Derek Parfit: ‘What we believe ourselves to be’ [Ch 10], ‘How we are not what we believe’ [Ch. 11] in Reasons and Persons (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984).
Quiz 7 opens
Essay questions handed out 14 October
Week 10 (21 October).
Lecture 10 & Tutorial 8: Practical Identity: Responses to Parfit
Required reading:
19. Susan Wolf: 'Self-interest and Interest in Selves', Ethics 96 (1986).
20. Christine Korsgaard: ‘Personal Identity and the Unity of Agency: A Kantian Response to Parfit’, Philosophy and Public Affairs10 (2), 1989.
Quiz 8 opens
Week 11 (28 October).
Lecture 11 & Tutorial 9: Narrative Self-Constitution
Required reading:
21. Catriona Mackenzie: ‘Practical Identity and Narrative Agency’ in Catriona Mackenzie & Kim Atkins (eds.) Practical Identity and Narrative Agency, (New York: Routledge, 2008), pp. 1-17.
22. Marya Schechtman: ‘The Narrative Self-Constitution View’, Ch. 5 of The Constitution of Selves, (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 1996).
Quiz 9 opens
Week 12 (4 November).
Lecture 12 & Tutorial 10: The Self and Meaningfulness
Required reading:
23. Susan Wolf, ‘Meaning in Life’ in Meaning in Life and Why it Matters, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010), pp. 1-33.
24. Cheshire Calhoun, ‘Losing one’s self’, in Catriona Mackenzie & Kim Atkins (eds.) Practical Identity and Narrative Agency, (New York: Routledge, 2008), pp. 193-211.
Quiz 10 opens
Week 13 (11 November).
No lecture or tutorial this week.
No quiz this week.
Week 14
Essay due 15 November
Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central. Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:
Academic Honesty Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html
New Assessment Policy in effect from Session 2 2016 http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy_2016.html. For more information visit http://students.mq.edu.au/events/2016/07/19/new_assessment_policy_in_place_from_session_2/
Assessment Policy prior to Session 2 2016 http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy.html
Grading Policy prior to Session 2 2016 http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grading/policy.html
Grade Appeal Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/gradeappeal/policy.html
Complaint Management Procedure for Students and Members of the Public http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/complaint_management/procedure.html
Disruption to Studies Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/disruption_studies/policy.html The Disruption to Studies Policy is effective from March 3 2014 and replaces the Special Consideration Policy.
In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.
Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/student_conduct/
Results shown in iLearn, or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au.
Late penalties
To obtain an extension please see the Disruption to Studies policy and apply via ask.mq.edu.au. For very short extensions of less than three days, you can email the convenor to apply for an extension. Work submitted late will attract a penalty of 5% per day for the first two days and then 2% per day thereafter. Weekends, but not public holidays, count in the calculation of late penalties.
Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/
Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.
Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.
For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au
For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/.
When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.
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