Week and lecture topic 

Description

Part one

CLASSICAL DEBATES

Lecturer: Dr Jennifer Duke-Yonge

1. Introduction

A general introduction: What is Philosophy? What is an argument? What is a thought experiment? And an introduction into the general themes and concerns surrounding the notion of human nature that we will explore throughout the rest of the course.

2. The Mind-Body Problem

This week we discuss the mind-body problem: is the self or mind only material? Or is there an immaterial aspect of human nature, a soul? If so, how does this dualistic composition of mind and matter interact?

3. Personal Identity

Does the self persist over time? We will examine John Locke's and Derek Parfitt’s thought experiments exploring the questions of whether and how a self persists over time.

4. Free Will and Determinism 

Is human nature determined? Or do we have free will? This week we will discuss this debate that has enraptured Western Philosophy since its inception.

Part Two

EXISTENTIAL TOPICS

Lecturer: Associate Professor Robert Sinnerbrink

5. Human Freedom and Consciousness

What is human freedom? How does it relate to consciousness? Are human relationships inevitably conflictual? This week introduces existentialism and focuses on Jean Paul Sartre’s existentialist account of freedom, consciousness, and our relations with others.

6. Being-in-the-world and Mortality

An introduction to phenomenology focusing on practical everyday existence. Martin Heidegger’s anti-dualistic account of human existence as ‘being-in-the-world’. How we deal with our environment but also with our mortality.

7. Essay Writing workshop 

There are no tutorials this week. Instead, the lecture discusses the first essay assignment and provides students with preparation and skills for how to go about researching and writing philosophical essays. (Lecture to be delivered by Dr Alexander James Gillett)

Mid Semester Break (Take a well-earned break)

8. Literature and Art as Philosophical Tools

The importance of art and literature as alternative ways of exploring philosophical questions. Sartre on literature and why it helps us understand human freedom. Merleau-Ponty on visual art as a way of exploring the ‘phenomenology of perception’.

Part Three

BIOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY

Lecturer: Dr Alexander James Gillett

9. Human Nature after Darwin

Having considered a range of classical and existential questions, we now turn to how questions about human nature have been radically altered by scientific findings related to evolution. Is human nature innately determined and fixed by our genetics? Or is human nature malleable and shaped by our cultural environment?

10. Essay Plan Week

Students are to submit an essay plan this week. As such, there are no lectures or tutorials scheduled.

11. Humans and Animals 

A perennial feature of the debates about human nature involve contrasting ourselves to the other parts of the animal kingdom. This week we discuss whether other animals have minds and “higher” mental faculties. Relatedly, one can ask whether humans are a unique species different from all other animals? Or whether we are just another kind of animal? What are the implications of these questions and how we answer them? 

12. Human Nature and Technology 

This week we examine the question of human nature in the light of technology. Is human nature being radically altered by modern technology? Or are we pre-adapted in some sense to be intimately interconnected with an artificial environment filled with tools, what Andy Clark calls “Natural Born Cyborgs”? What is the future of human nature? 

13. Tying it All Together

In the final session of the course we bring together all the various debates and topics surrounding human nature to examine the differences and similarities between positions. And to prepare for the final assessment. There are no tutorials scheduled in this week.