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PHIL3056 – Contemporary Topics in Philosophy

2022 – Session 2, Online-flexible

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff Convenor, Lecturer, and Tutor
Robert Sinnerbrink
Contact via 9850 9935
25B Wally's Walk, Room 611
By appointment
Lecturer and Tutor
Adam Hochman
Contact via 9850 8859
Credit points Credit points
10
Prerequisites Prerequisites
130cp at 1000 level or above
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description

This unit provides students with the opportunity to engage with cutting edge areas of research in contemporary Philosophy. Topics and readings will be carefully curated by leading researchers in the department. You will have the opportunity to enhance your skills of argument and critical reflection as you are guided through these exciting areas of research. Topics might include: The Philosophy of Race, Work and the Good Life, Pragmatism, Embodied Cognition, Virtue Theory, Artificial intelligence, Film and Philosophy, and Contemporary Critical Theory.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • ULO1: Identify and critically evaluate core philosophical concepts from the readings.
  • ULO2: Produce arguments and analysis of philosophical positions across the readings.
  • ULO3: Use your research skills to deepen your knowledge and understanding of the topics.
  • ULO4: Express yourself clearly and precisely when communicating your argument and analysis.

General Assessment Information

Submission of Assessments

All assessment pieces are to be submitted via Turnitin portals that will be made available the unit's iLearn site. Written assessment pieces will be run through the Turnitin software system which detects unoriginal work.

Special Consideration Extensions and Penalties

All work must be submitted on time unless an extension has been granted. Requests for extensions (Special Consideration) will only be considered on serious grounds and with appropriate evidence (e.g., medical certificates, counsellor's letters). See this link for policy details: https://students.mq.edu.au/study/assessment-exams/special-consideration. Please note that work due concurrently in other subjects is NOT an exceptional circumstance and does not constitute a legitimate reason for an extension.

Late Assessment Penalty

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark) will be applied each day a written assessment is not submitted, up until the 7th day (including weekends). After the 7th day, a mark of ‘0’ (zero) will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. Submission time for all written assessments is set at 11.55pm. A 1-hour grace period is provided to students who experience a technical issue. This late penalty will apply to written reports and recordings only. Late submission of time sensitive tasks (such as tests/exams, performance assessments/presentations, scheduled practical assessments/labs will be addressed by the unit convenor in a Special consideration application.

 

Special Consideration Policy

The University classifies a disruption warranting special consideration as serious and unavoidable if it:

• could not have reasonably been anticipated, avoided or guarded against by the student; and

• was beyond the student's control; and

• caused substantial disruption to the student's capacity for effective study and/or completion of required work; and

• occurred during an event critical study period and was at least three (3) consecutive days duration, and / or

• prevented completion of a final examination.

Students with a pre-existing disability/health condition or prolonged adverse circumstances may be eligible for ongoing assistance and support. Such support is governed by other policies and may be sought and coordinated through Campus Wellbeing and Support Services.

How to submit a Special Consideration Notification

A Special Consideration Notification must be completed and submitted online through www.ask.mq.edu.au within five (5) working days of the commencement of the disruption.

Applying for Special Consideration:

1. Log in at ask.mq

2. Click 'Special Consideration' from the 'Submit' menu on the left

3. Fill in the required fields as prompted.

Once you have completed filling out the information, please click on 'Submit'.

 

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due
Quiz 20% No 23:55 Sundays, Fortnightly from Week 3
Participation and engagement 20% No Ongoing throughout semester
Reflective writing tasks 20% No 23:55 09/09/2022 Week 7
Philosophical Essay 40% No 23:55 06/11/2022 Week 13

Quiz

Assessment Type 1: Quiz/Test
Indicative Time on Task 2: 15 hours
Due: 23:55 Sundays, Fortnightly from Week 3
Weighting: 20%

 

Weekly quizzes testing knowledge of key concepts and arguments

 


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Identify and critically evaluate core philosophical concepts from the readings.

Participation and engagement

Assessment Type 1: Participatory task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 15 hours
Due: Ongoing throughout semester
Weighting: 20%

 

Contribution to class discussion and engagement in on-campus or online tutorial activities. Students are expected to be well-prepared and make a constructive contribution.

 


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Identify and critically evaluate core philosophical concepts from the readings.
  • Produce arguments and analysis of philosophical positions across the readings.
  • Express yourself clearly and precisely when communicating your argument and analysis.

Reflective writing tasks

Assessment Type 1: Reflective Writing
Indicative Time on Task 2: 15 hours
Due: 23:55 09/09/2022 Week 7
Weighting: 20%

 

Reflective writing tasks

 


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Identify and critically evaluate core philosophical concepts from the readings.
  • Produce arguments and analysis of philosophical positions across the readings.
  • Use your research skills to deepen your knowledge and understanding of the topics.
  • Express yourself clearly and precisely when communicating your argument and analysis.

Philosophical Essay

Assessment Type 1: Essay
Indicative Time on Task 2: 30 hours
Due: 23:55 06/11/2022 Week 13
Weighting: 40%

 

Philosophical Essay

 


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Identify and critically evaluate core philosophical concepts from the readings.
  • Produce arguments and analysis of philosophical positions across the readings.
  • Use your research skills to deepen your knowledge and understanding of the topics.
  • Express yourself clearly and precisely when communicating your argument and analysis.

1 If you need help with your assignment, please contact:

  • the academic teaching staff in your unit for guidance in understanding or completing this type of assessment
  • the Writing Centre for academic skills support.

2 Indicative time-on-task is an estimate of the time required for completion of the assessment task and is subject to individual variation

Delivery and Resources

This unit uses an iLearn website and Echo360 lecture recordings (https://ilearn.mq.edu.au/login/ MQ/). The website contains links to the reading material, lecture notes, lecture recordings, and other learning materials such as video clips, weblinks, and images. Students will therefore require access to a computer and a good internet connection in order to access all the material and participate in the unit effectively. PHIL/PHIX3056 will be delivered using a combination of lectures (livestream and recorded via Echo360) and tutorial classes. Lectures are organised around key texts in which fundamental concepts and arguments are introduced and explained. The fortnightly quizzes are designed to practise the various skills required in philosophical writing. They will be scaffolded to help students in the preparation for tackling Assessment tasks. External students will engage in these activities online via dedicated iLearn discussion forums. For lecture times and classrooms please consult the MQ Timetable website:

http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au.

This website will display up-to-date information on your classes and classroom locations.

Lectures:

Lectures will take place on Fridays 11am-1pm (11 Wally's Walk, Tutorial Room 120) and will be both livestreamed on the day and recorded; these lectures will be available via Echo360 shortly afterwards.

Tutorials:

Weekly tutorial classes (both on-campus and online) will be conducted on Fridays commencing from Week 2 (on-campus tutorials held at 11 Wally's Walk, Tutorial Room 120; Zoom tutorial class for internal students on Fridays 2-3pm via the dedicated Zoom link on iLearn). Week 1 will be an Introductory session where students introduce themselves to each other and we discuss any issues relevant to studying this unit. Weekly Tutorial Discussion Questions will be posted after the lecture recordings have been posted. Students are required to respond to the Tutorial Discussion Questions and engage each other in discussion responding to issues raised in these responses. N.B.: Weekly tutorials will begin in WEEK 2 and will continue until WEEK 12 (Week 13 tutorial will be kept free or may involve a voluntary online peer review session for the Essay).

Required and Recommended Texts and/or Materials

PHIL3056 Contemporary Topics in Philosophy will be using electronically available readings available via Leganto on the iLearn website. For Part I, my book will also be a valuable resource and is a recommended background reading: Robert Sinnerbrink, New Philosophies of Film: Thinking Images (Continuum/Bloomsbury, 2011) or New Philosophies of Film: An Introduction to Cinema as a Way of Thinking, Second Edition (Bloomsbury, 2022). Textbooks for this unit can be purchased online from Booktopia https://www.booktopia.com.au/coop

 

Unit Schedule

PHIL3056 Contemporary Topics in Philosophy comprises two parts, spanning cutting-edge debates in aesthetics/philosophy of film and in philosophy of race. In Part I, ‘Film as Philosophy’ we will examine recent debates in the philosophy of film, focusing on the idea of ‘film as philosophy’ and the question whether film can contribute to philosophical understanding via cinematic means. As part of this debate we will explore particular case studies/films in depth that focus on emotion, empathy, and the idea of cinematic ethics (using cinema as a medium of ethical experience). In Part II, ‘Philosophy of Race,’ we will examine the debate about the existence of human biological races from a philosophical perspective.

 

Part I 'Film as Philosophy'

Week 1: What is Philosophy of Film/Film-Philosophy?

What is “philosophy of film”? Can films “philosophise”? The distinction between philosophy of film and ‘film as philosophy’ or ‘film-philosophy’.

  • Thomas E. Wartenberg, ‘Philosophy of Film’, Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophyhttp://plato.stanford.edu/entries/film
  • Robert Sinnerbrink, ‘Film-Philosophy’, in Edward Branigan and Warren Buckland (eds), The Routledge Encyclopedia of Film Theory (London/New York: Routledge, 2014), 207-213.

Week 2: Ontologies of the Moving Image

What are 'moving images'? Is the movement we see real or apparent? Andre Bazin’s 'ontology of the cinematographic image'. Noel Carroll’s critique and alternative definition of moving images. What about digital images? Do these undermine any claims that movimg images can depict reality faithfully?

  • Andre Bazin, ‘The Ontology of the Photographic Image’, What is Cinema? Volume 1, trans. Hugh Gray (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967/2005), pp. 9-16.
  • Noël Carroll, “Defining the Moving Image” in Theorizing the Moving Image (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 49-74:
  • Rafe McGregor, ‘A New/Old Ontology of Film’, Film-Philosophy, vol. 17, no. 1 (2013), 265-280.

Week 3: Understanding Film Narrative

How and why do movies makes sense? Cognitivist theories of narrative and narrative comprehension. Carroll’s ‘erotetic’ model of narrative. Critical questions from an aesthetic and phenomenological point of view. Are films just about narrative content?

  • Noël Carroll, ‘The Power of Movies’, Daedalus, Vol. 114, No. 4, The Moving Image (Fall, 1985), pp. 79-103.
  • Katherine Thompson-Jones, ‘The Thinking Viewer’, in K. Thompson-Jones, Aesthetics and Film (London/New York: Continuum, 2008), pp. 99-114.

Week 4: Cognitivism Goes to the Movies

The ‘cognitivist turn’ in film theory. What can cognitivist theories offer to philosophy of film? The challenge to cognitivist approaches presented by art cinema. Critical questions for cognitivism and recent cognitivist responses to these critiques. Lars von Trier's films as case study.

  • Ted Nannicelli and Paul Taberham, ‘Introduction: Contemporary Cognitive Media Theory’, in T. Nannicelli and P. Taberham (eds), Cognitive Media Theory (Routledge, 2014).
  • Torben Grodal: ‘Frozen Style and Strong Emotions of Panic and Separation: Trier’s Prologues to Antichrist and Melancholia’, Journal of Scandinavian Cinema, vol. 2, no. 1 (2012): 47-53.

Week 5: Affect and Emotion in Cinema

Theories of Affect and Emotion in Cinema. Empathy, sympathy and 'emotional contagion'. The expressive power of the close-up. Emotional contagion and empathy/sympathy/antipathy in Silence of the Lambs.

  • Jane Stadler, ‘Empathy in Film’, Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Empathy (Routledge, 2016).
  • Noël Carroll, ‘The Ties that Bind: Characters, the Emotions, and Popular Fictions’, in Minerva’s Night Out (Wiley Blackwell, 2013), 40-63.
  • Amy Coplan, ‘Catching Characters’ Emotions: Emotional Contagion Responses to Narrative Fiction Film’, Film Studies, Issue 8, 2006, pp. 26-38.
  • Carl Plantinga, ‘Facing Others: Close-ups of faces in narrative film and in The Silence of the Lambs’, in Lisa Zunshine (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Literary Studies (Oxford, 2015), Chapter 14.

Week 6: Cinematic Ethics

Film as a medium of ethical experience. Emotion, sympathy, and moral evaluation in and of movies. Cinematic ethics in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007).

  • Noël Carroll, ‘Movies, the Moral Emotions, and Sympathy’, Midwest Studies in Philosophy XXXIV (2010): 1-34.
  • Carl Plantinga, ‘Moralities and Characters as Moral Agents’, in C. Plantinga, Screen Stories: Emotion and the Ethics of Engagement (Oxford, 2018), Chapter 7, 135-156.
  • Jane Stadler, ‘Cinema’s Compassionate Gaze: Empathy, Affect, and Aesthetics in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly‘, in Jinhee Choi and Mattias Frey (eds), Cine-Ethics: Ethical Dimensions of Film TheoryPractice and Spectatorship (London and New York: Routledge, 2014), 27-42.

Week 7: Cinematic Ethics Case Study: Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2016)

Exploring experiences of racism and the problem of complicity through horror movies: the case of Get Out (Peele, 2016) 

  • Mary K. Bloodsworth-Lugo, 'Race, Bodies and Lived Realities in Get Out and Black Panther', in Christina Rawls, Diana Neiva, and Steven S. Gouveia (eds), Philosophy and Film: Bridging Divides (Routledge, 2019), 
  • 'Lewis R. Gordon, 'What is the Fear of Black Consciousness?' The Religion and Ethics report, with Stan Grant: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/religionandethicsreport/what-is-the-fear-of-black-consciousness-philosopher-lewis-gordon/13869872
  • Lewis R. Gordon, 'Black Issues in Philosophy: A Conversation on Get Out', April 3, 2018: https://blog.apaonline.org/2018/04/03/black-issues-in-philosophy-a-conversation-on-get-out/

 

[Mid-semester break]

 

Part II: 'Philosophy of Race'

Week 8: Race as Subspecies, and the Flight to Reference

In the second half of the unit, we explore the debate about the existence of human biological races from a philosophical perspective. The closest thing to a scientific synonym for ‘race’ is subspecies. We begin by examining theoretical and empirical issues with applying subspecies classification to humans, using Robin Andreasen’s work as an example. If there are no human subspecies, as is generally accepted, then either there are no races or race needs to be defined differently. In the second half of the lecture, we turn to the philosophy of language for resources to help us evaluate the other definitions of race we consider in this unit.

Week 9: Race as Population

This week we consider 20th century biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky’s definition of race as ‘genetic population’. Did Dobzhansky, in attempting to define races as populations, actually offer an alternative to the concept of race? In the second half of the lecture, we turn our attention away from genetics and toward morphological differences. Some have argued that forensic anthropologists, who routinely classify human bodily remains according to “race”, prove that race is biologically real. Are they right?

Week 10: Race as Genetic Cluster

The biological race debate was reignited in the early 21st century after new findings were published, using new genetic clustering techniques, that many interpreted as showing that race is biologically real. We will look closely at this study, which does not mention ‘race’ once, to determine whether it really supports biological racial realism.

Week 11: Race as a Folk Category

Quayshawn Spencer and Michael Hardimon, two of the most influential biological race realists, argue that if we want to know what race is, and whether it is real, we should not look to scientists, but to ordinary people: the folk. These philosophers argue that race, as understood by the folk, is biologically real. This week we will evaluate their arguments. Who gets to define race?

Week 12: Other Contemporary Approaches

The philosopher Philip Kitcher once argued that races are “inbred lineages”: populations between which interbreeding is low. He later revised his view and now defends a pragmatist approach to race, according to which the reality of race is relative to its usefulness. We will evaluate his inbred lineage approach, as well as his pragmatist arguments for and against biological racial realism. Finally, we will consider one last version of biological racial realism: race as ecotype.

Week 13 (optional): Essay Peer Review Session

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Changes from Previous Offering

This unit includes new material for Part II on Philosophy of Race, focusing on the biological aspects of 'race', and new content for Week 7 of Part I, a case study of the film Get Out (Peele, 2016)


Unit information based on version 2022.03 of the Handbook