Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Convenor; Lecturer (Section 1)
Jennifer Duke-Yonge
Contact via Email
25WWB609
By arrangement
Lecturer (Section 2)
Robert Sinnerbrink
Lecturer (Section 3)
Paul Podosky
Tutor details will be available in iLearn
|
---|---|
Credit points |
Credit points
10
|
Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
|
Corequisites |
Corequisites
|
Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
|
Unit description |
Unit description
The unit introduces the big philosophical questions about human nature, personal identity and the meaning of life. Are human beings somehow unique in nature? Do we have distinct selves that endure through time? Do we have free will? What is the relation between our identity and the things that matter to us? The main theme is whether there is such a thing as human nature at all. We begin by asking whether mind is entirely physical or could in principle survive bodily death. We also explore the links between the self, time, and memory. The remainder of the unit introduces some key thinkers of the twentieth century; and we explore their views on freedom, lived experience, and our relations to others. The unit as a whole offers a detailed introduction to controversial questions about the nature of the mind, showing how historical understanding animates current debates, and demonstrating the relevance of philosophy to live modern issues about science, human nature, and culture.
|
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:
Detailed assessment information and rubrics
Detailed information about each of the assessments, including rubrics, will be available in iLearn. Please make sure you read the assessment information carefully, and contact the convenor if you have any questions.
Submission and return of assessments
Assessments in this unit are to be submitted through the appropriate 'Turnitin' links in the unit website. They will be marked through 'Grademark', which will allow you to access your marked assignments directly through the website. For information about Turnitin and Grademark, see:
Special Consideration
Requests for extensions should be submitted via a Special Consideration request, which is available in the http://ask.mq.edu.au portal. Your request should be submitted no later than five days after the due date and should be accompanied by appropriate documentation. Please see https://students.mq.edu.au/study/assessment-exams/special-consideration for further details and instructions. Read this information closely as your request may be turned down if you have not followed procedure, or if you have not submitted a request in a timely manner. The Macquarie University Special Consideration Policy can be found at the end of this document.
Late Submission Penalty
Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for lateness will apply – 10 marks out of 100 credit will be deducted per day for assignments submitted after the due date – and (b) no assignment will be accepted more than seven days (incl. weekends) after the original submission deadline.
Academic Integrity
In Philosophy, academic honesty is taken very seriously, and a range of methods, including but not restricted to the use of Turnitin, are used to detect plagiarism. Misrepresenting someone else's work as your own may be grounds for referral to the Faculty Disciplinary Committee. If you have questions about how to properly cite work or how to credit sources, please ask the convenor for help and see also the Academic Integrity Policy https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policies/academic-integrity
Please note that the policy also prohibits resubmitting work you have already submitted in another unit or unit offering. This counts as self-plagiarism. To avoid self-plagiarism, if you have done this unit previously, you should write on another topic this time. If this presents you with any problems, please contact the unit convenor as soon as possible.
All assessment tasks in this unit are individual tasks. Using other students' work or making your work available to other students counts as collusion, which also puts you in breach of the Academic Integrity policy.
A helpful resource if you would like to know more about referencing and avoiding plagiarism is Macquarie's Academic Integrity Module, available here: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/skills-development. You will need to complete this Module before accessing the unit content, if you have not already done so. More information is available in iLearn.
Academic Writing and Study Support
Macquarie University offers a number of services to help with academic writing, referencing and study skills. For details, see: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/skills/assignments
For information about policies related to Assessment, see Policies and Procedures section below.
Name | Weighting | Hurdle | Due |
---|---|---|---|
Tutorial Participation/Online Participation | 15% | No | Ongoing |
Reflective tasks | 20% | No | Part 1 23:59 6/3/22; Part 2 23:59 3/4/22 |
Online Quizzes | 25% | No | 23:59 Sundays, weekly |
Essay preparation task | 5% | No | 23:59 15/5/22 |
Essay | 35% | No | 23:59 5/6/22 |
Assessment Type 1: Participatory task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 15 hours
Due: Ongoing
Weighting: 15%
Students should be well prepared for tutorials, having done the required reading and devised questions and discussion points. Students should make a constructive contribution to classroom/online discussion and associated activities.
Assessment Type 1: Reflective Writing
Indicative Time on Task 2: 15 hours
Due: Part 1 23:59 6/3/22; Part 2 23:59 3/4/22
Weighting: 20%
Short reflective tasks
Assessment Type 1: Quiz/Test
Indicative Time on Task 2: 15 hours
Due: 23:59 Sundays, weekly
Weighting: 25%
Multiple choice questions will cover material discussed in the weekly content.
Assessment Type 1: Plan
Indicative Time on Task 2: 5 hours
Due: 23:59 15/5/22
Weighting: 5%
A short essay preparation task
Assessment Type 1: Essay
Indicative Time on Task 2: 25 hours
Due: 23:59 5/6/22
Weighting: 35%
An argumentative Essay about themes from the unit.
1 If you need help with your assignment, please contact:
2 Indicative time-on-task is an estimate of the time required for completion of the assessment task and is subject to individual variation
Lectures
Lectures will be delivered live on campus from 9-11 on Monday of each week, in 29WW T1. Internal students are strongly encouraged to attend, but the lectures will also be streamed and recorded for online students, and those unable to attend. All students need to have attended or watched the lectures before attending tutorials or engaging in tutorial discussions, since each week's tutorial discussions will focus on content from the same week's lecture. Please take this into consideration when choosing a tutorial time.
Tutorials
All students will engage in the same tutorial activities with their classmates and tutor, but the mode of participation will depend on how you've enrolled:
Reading
All the essential readings and some supplementary readings for the course will be available electronically through the library, with links from iLearn. A list of weekly readings will be available through iLearn in week 1. You should do the essential weekly reading before your tutorial/discussion.
Website
The unit website is available through iLearn (http://ilearn.mq.edu.au). It contains essential resources for the unit, and you are expected to log in on a regular basis.
Student Email
Communications about the unit may be sent to your MQ student email address. Please make sure you check it regularly. For more information about accessing your MQ email, and how to redirect it to a personal email account if you wish to do so, can be found here: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/technology/service-desk/student-email
SECTION 1 - HUMAN NATURE: TRADITIONAL DEBATES Lecturer: Dr Jenny Duke-Yonge |
|
Week 1 (week beginning 21st February) |
Introduction A general introduction: What is Philosophy? What is Human Nature? This week we will have a general introduction to the methods of Philosophy, and to the concerns about human nature that we will be examining over the unit. |
Week 2 (w/b 28th February) |
The Mind/Body Problem This week we discuss the mind-body problem: Are we purely physical beings, or do we have a mind that cannot be explained in physical terms? If we have an immaterial mind, how does it fit into the material world? But if we don’t, how can we make sense of our experience? |
Week 3 (w/b 7th March) |
Personal Identity What makes you a person? And what makes you the same person over time? This week we’ll look at some classic and contemporary arguments and thought experiments to help us understand what it is for you to be you. |
Week 4 (w/b 14th March) |
Free will and Determinism Do we have free will? Or are our actions determined by causes outside our control? What implications does this question have for our sense of agency and responsibility? |
SECTION 2 – EXISTENTIAL QUESTIONS Lecturer: Associate Professor Robert Sinnerbrink |
|
Week 5 (w/b 21st March) |
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. |
Week 6 (w/b 28th March) |
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’. Why we are ‘skilled copers’ rather than disengaged knowers. How we deal with our environment but also with our mortality. (Reflective task part 2 due Sunday 3/4) |
Week 7 (w/b 4th April) |
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 and social relations. Merleau-Ponty on visual art as a way of exploring the ‘phenomenology of perception’ What painting can show us about embodied perception and experiencing nature. |
|
(Mid-Semester break 9/4-25/4 ) |
Week 8 (w/b 25th April) No tutorials this week
|
Essay Writing (Jenny Duke-Yonge) This week’s lecture will focus on essay writing, to help you develop skills for researching and writing philosophical essays, in preparation for your essay due at the end of semester. ***This lecture will be delivered online due to the ANZAC Day holiday on Monday, and there will be no tutorials this week.*** |
SECTION 3 - ARE HUMANS UNIQUE? Lecturer: Dr Paul Podosky |
|
Week 9 (w/b 2nd May) |
What’s so Special about Humans? There is a long tradition of thinking about humans which proposes that we are a unique species. Prior to Darwin the prevalent view (in the West) was that humans were unique because they were created with special properties that no other creature possessed: an immortal soul; freedom of the will; reason; language; etc. In other words, Humans are discontinuous with the rest of the natural world, including other species. Darwin and the incredible success of evolutionary Biology in the twentieth century gave a very different account of Human nature: humans are continuous with the rest of the natural world; our capacities for thinking, communicating, emotions and technology have evolved from earlier precursors; and there are hallmarks of all these traits in other species. We are not discontinuous with the rest of the natural world. How then to explain some of the features of human nature that have been proposed as markers of uniqueness? |
Week 10 (w/b 9th May) |
Animals Like Us: Why Animals Have Minds Philosophers such as Aristotle and Descartes have argued that animals don’t really have minds like us. Descartes went so far as to propose that animals are essentially mechanisms, whereas Aristotle proposed a hierarchy of souls with humans at the top and animals being incapable of rational thought. Were they right? This lecture will propose an answer to the question: They were wrong. The balance of argument is between some of the markers of uniqueness of human nature with the Darwinian account of the continuity of humans with the natural world. We will look at some of the fascinating accounts of animal mindedness and arguments for both the continuity and discontinuity of human nature. |
Week 11 (w/b 16th May) |
Emotions, what are they good for? We’ve all got them, but why do we have them? Why do we spend so much time thinking about our own emotions and those of others? Why do we have so many ways that we express them, or evaluate them? Why do we want to be moved by Art and fiction? One possibility is that emotions in humans evolved for social bonding and engagement. This lecture will expand on the idea that Human Nature is strongly pro-social and human emotions should be considered in the light of human sociality. |
Week 12 (w/b 23rd May) No tutorials this week |
Tools for Thought: Technology, Culture and Mind We make, we learn, we inherit artefacts, stories, religions, rules, morals and traditions. Humans are cultural and technical animals. We make cultures and we inherit them. We learn about them from our parents, teachers and peers. The way that we do this appears to be the result both of the way that our minds have evolved, but also, that the slow, incremental process of the evolution of culture has gradually transformed our minds as well. This lecture argues that Humans are both continuous in Darwin’s sense, but also unique, in that we are the pre-eminently cultural and technological species. |
Week 13 (w/b 30th May) |
There are no lectures or tutorials this week: Use the time to finalise your essay. We hope you have enjoyed PHIL/PHIX1031. (Essay due Sunday 5/6) |
Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:
Students seeking more policy resources can visit Student Policies (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/policies). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.
To find other policies relating to Teaching and Learning, visit Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au) and use the search tool.
Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/admin/other-resources/student-conduct
Results published on platform other than eStudent, (eg. iLearn, Coursera etc.) 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 or if you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au
At Macquarie, we believe academic integrity – honesty, respect, trust, responsibility, fairness and courage – is at the core of learning, teaching and research. We recognise that meeting the expectations required to complete your assessments can be challenging. So, we offer you a range of resources and services to help you reach your potential, including free online writing and maths support, academic skills development and wellbeing consultations.
Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/
The Writing Centre provides resources to develop your English language proficiency, academic writing, and communication skills.
The Library provides online and face to face support to help you find and use relevant information resources.
Macquarie University offers a range of Student Support Services including:
Got a question? Ask us via AskMQ, or contact Service Connect.
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.
Minor changes to assessment and readings.
Unit information based on version 2022.03 of the Handbook