Students
PHIL703 – Foundations of Research in Modern European Philosophy
2017 – S1 External
General Information
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| Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Michael Olson
W6A 723
by appointment
Jean-Philippe Deranty
W6A 736
by appointment
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|---|---|
| Credit points |
Credit points
4
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| Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
Admission to MRes
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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 course introduces students to a central question or theme in modern European philosophy by returning to some of the pivotal writings of that tradition. This might take the form of an examination of what ‘transcendental’ philosophy is through a reading of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, for example, or an analysis of the meaning of freedom through a reading of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right. Specific topics and readings vary by year.
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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:
- Acquire a coherent and advanced knowledge of the variety of ways politics and aesthetics have and continue to come into relation and how these relations have been analysed in the philosophical tradition.
- Analyse and synthesise information from a variety of disciplinary sources, including philosophical and literary texts, fine and popular art, history, and political theory.
- Clearly and coherently articulate philosophical arguments in scholarly and conversational media.
- Analyse and critically evaluate philosophical arguments.
- Apply acquired knowledge and skills in the context of philosophical scholarship.
- Work in cooperation with others and reflect on individual and group performance to identify opportunities for improvement.
Assessment Tasks
| Name | Weighting | Hurdle | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| Research essay | 60% | No | Week 13 |
| Short Papers | 30% | No | throughout semester |
| Discussion and Participation | 10% | No | thoughout semester |
Research essay
Due: Week 13
Weighting: 60%
The major assessment for the unit is a 4000-word research essay that addresses the theme of the seminar. Students will determine the topic of their own essays in consultation with the instructors.
Assessment criteria are outlined on the rubric provided on ilearn.
On successful completion you will be able to:
- Acquire a coherent and advanced knowledge of the variety of ways politics and aesthetics have and continue to come into relation and how these relations have been analysed in the philosophical tradition.
- Analyse and synthesise information from a variety of disciplinary sources, including philosophical and literary texts, fine and popular art, history, and political theory.
- Clearly and coherently articulate philosophical arguments in scholarly and conversational media.
- Analyse and critically evaluate philosophical arguments.
- Apply acquired knowledge and skills in the context of philosophical scholarship.
Short Papers
Due: throughout semester
Weighting: 30%
During the course of the semester, students will write five short papers (approximately 500 words each) that will serve as the basis for seminar discussion in that week. These papers, which each determine 6% of the final mark, should summarize the central arguments of the week's readings and briefly explain how those arguments bear on the theme of the unit, the relationships between aesthetics and politics.
The schedule of individual deadlines will be worked out in the first week of the seminar.
Assessment criteria include the accuracy of the paper's engagement with the material, the quality of its explanation of how that material relates to the theme of the course, and the technical and stylistic quality of the paper.
On successful completion you will be able to:
- Acquire a coherent and advanced knowledge of the variety of ways politics and aesthetics have and continue to come into relation and how these relations have been analysed in the philosophical tradition.
- Analyse and synthesise information from a variety of disciplinary sources, including philosophical and literary texts, fine and popular art, history, and political theory.
- Clearly and coherently articulate philosophical arguments in scholarly and conversational media.
- Work in cooperation with others and reflect on individual and group performance to identify opportunities for improvement.
Discussion and Participation
Due: thoughout semester
Weighting: 10%
Active preparation for and participation in in-person or online discussion.
The criteria by which this assessment is evaluated include both the quality (insight, concision, comprehension) and quantity of student participation.
On successful completion you will be able to:
- Acquire a coherent and advanced knowledge of the variety of ways politics and aesthetics have and continue to come into relation and how these relations have been analysed in the philosophical tradition.
- Analyse and synthesise information from a variety of disciplinary sources, including philosophical and literary texts, fine and popular art, history, and political theory.
- Analyse and critically evaluate philosophical arguments.
- Apply acquired knowledge and skills in the context of philosophical scholarship.
- Work in cooperation with others and reflect on individual and group performance to identify opportunities for improvement.
Delivery and Resources
In addition to in-class discussion for traditional students, this unit will involve online discussion boards. Regular access to ilearn is thus a necessity.
Unit Schedule
The following is a provisional schedule for the semester:
Week One: Introductions
What do “aesthetics” and “politics” mean?
PART I. Starting from the Artwork
Week Two: Lorenzetti's Siena Fresco
Art
Ambrogio Lorenzetti, “The Allegory of Good and Bad Government” (fresco, 1338-1339)
Readings
Quentin Skinner, “Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Buon Governo Frescoes: Two Old Questions, Two New Answers,” Journal of the Warburg and Coutauld Institutes, vol. 62 (1999), 1-28.
Nirit Ben-Aryeh Debby, “War and peace: the description of Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Frescoes in Saint Bernardino’s 1425 Sienna Sermons,” Renaissance Studies, vol. 15, no. 3 (2001), 272-286.
Week Three: Visualising an Idea
Art
Abraham Bosse, Frontispiece of Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan (etching on paper, 1751)
Readings
Justin Champion, “Decoding the Leviathan: Doing the History of Ideas through Images, 1651-1714,” in Michael Hunter (ed.), Printed Images in Early Modern Britain: Essays in Interpretation (Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2010), 255-275.
Magnus Kristiansson and Johan Tralau, “Hobbes’ hidden monster: A new interpretation of the frontispiece of Leviathan,” European Journal of Political Theory, vol. 13, no. 3 (2014), 299-320.
Week Four: Representing the Sovereign
Art
Diego Velasquez, “Las Meninas” (oil on canvas, 1656)
Hans Holbein the Younger, "Portrait of Henry VIII" (oil on canvas, 1536-1537)
Hyacinthe Rigaud, "Portrait of Louis XIV" (oil on canvas, 1701)
Readings
Michel Foucault, “Las Meninas,” in The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences [1966] (London: Routledge, 1970), 3-18.
Daniel Arasse, “The Eye of the Master,” in Take a Closer Look [2000], trans. Alyson Waters (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013), 129-159.
PART II. Aisthesis and Perception
Week Five: De gustibus non disputandum est
Readings
David Hume, “Of the Standard of Taste” [1757], in The Philosophical Works of David Hume, ed. T.H. Green and T.H. Grose, 4 vols. (London: Longman, Green, 1874-1875), vol. 3, 246-273.
Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste [1979], “The Aristocracy of Culture,” trans. Richard Nice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984), 11-96.
Art
Johann Sebastian Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier (1722).
George Gerschwin, Rhapsody in Blue (1924).
Johann Strauss II, The Blue Danube (1866).
Week Six: Everyday Pleasures
Readings
Theodor Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damanged Life [1949], trans. E.F.N. Jephcott (London: Verso, 2005), ## 19-20, 74-78.
Theodor Adorno, “On the Fetish Character in Music and the Regression of Listening” [1938], in Adorno, The Culture Industry (London: Routledge, 1991), 29-61.
Art
Musical extracts from Tchaikosky, Symphony No5, Brahms' First Symphony, Marx Brothers A Night at the Opera
Prints from Alfred Brehm, The Lives of Animals (1876)
Week Seven: Regimes of the Arts
Readings
Jacques Rancière, Mute Speech [1998], trans. G. Rockhill (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), 29-51.
Jacques Rancière, “The Poet of the New World (Boston, 1841-New York, 1855)”, in Aisthesis [2011], trans. Zakir Paul (London: Verso, 2013), 55-74.
Art
Extracts from Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Poet”, and Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass.
PART III. Art as Friend and Foe of Political Order
Week Eight: Platonic Ambivalence
Readings
Plato, Republic [c 380 BCE], trans. Tom Griffith (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 595-608b.
Plato, Laws [348 BCE], Book VII.
Graham Pont, “Plato’s Philosophy of Dance”, in Jennifer Neville (ed.), Dance, Society and the Body Politick (University of New England, 2008), 267-281.
Art
Extracts from Star Trek, Season 3, Episode 10, "Plato's Stepchildren"
Missy Eliott "Lose Control"
Week Nine: Greek Tragedy
Art
Aeschylus, The Eumenides [458 BCE], in Aeschylus II, Loeb Classical Library, ed. E. Capps, T.E. Page, and W.H.D. Rouse, trans. H.W. Smyth (London: William Heineman, 1928), 269-371.
Readings
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, extract from Essay on Natural Law [1802], in Hegel. Political Writings, trans. H. B. Nisbet (Cambridge University Press, 2004), 147-163 .
Jean-Pierre Vernant, “Myth and Tragedy,” in Essays on Aristotle’s Poetics, Amelie Oksenberg Rorty (ed.) (Princeton University Press, 1992), 33-50.
Martin Thibodeau, “The Essay on Natural Law: Tragedy in Ethical Life”, in Hegel and Greek Tragedy (Lexington, 2013), 55-92.
Week Ten: A Lost Aura
Reading
Walter Benjamin, “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproducibility” [1936], in Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn (New York: Schocken Books: 2008), 217-251.
Art
Leni Riefenstahl (dir.), The Triumph of the Will (1935).
Dziga Vertov (dir.), Man with a Movie Camera (1922).
PART IV. Art as Agent of Political Change
Week Eleven: Art and Conservative Revolution
Readings
Martin Heidegger, “The Origin of the Work of Art” [1935-1937; published 1950] in Basic Writings, ed. David Farrell Krell (San Francisco: harper Collins, 1993), 139-212.
Ernst Jünger, “Total Mobilisation” [1930], trans. Joel Golb & Richard Wolin in Richard Wolin (ed.), The Heidegger Controversy: A Critical Reader (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998), 119-139.
Michael Zimmerman, Heidegger’s Confrontation with Modernity: Technology, Politics, and Art (Bloomington, IN: University of Indiana Press, 1990).
Art
Ernst Jünger photographs
Fritz Lang (dir.), Metropolis (1927)
Week Twelve: Visual Enlightenment
Reading
Rolf Reichardt, “Light against Darkness: The Visual Representations of a Central Enlightenment Concept,” trans. Deborah Louise Cohen, Representations, no. 61 (1998), 95-148.
Art
Francesco Cepparuli, "Truth Opens the Eyes of the Blind" (1744; engraving).
Week Thirteen: Art and Progressive Revolution
Readings
T.J. Clark, “Painting in the Year 2,” Representations, no. 47 (1994), 13-63.
Mona Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution, trans. Alan Sheridan (Harvard University Press, 1988), xv-xviii, 33-60, 197-216.
Art
Jacques-Louis David, "The Death of Marat" (oil on canvas, 1793).
Policies and Procedures
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
Assessment Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy_2016.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 (in effect until Dec 4th, 2017): http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/disruption_studies/policy.html
Special Consideration Policy (in effect from Dec 4th, 2017): https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policies/special-consideration
In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.
Student Code of Conduct
Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/student_conduct/
Results
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.
Student Support
Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/
Learning Skills
Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.
Student Services and Support
Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.
Student Enquiries
For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au
IT Help
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.
Graduate Capabilities
PG - Discipline Knowledge and Skills
Our postgraduates will be able to demonstrate a significantly enhanced depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content knowledge in their chosen fields.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Acquire a coherent and advanced knowledge of the variety of ways politics and aesthetics have and continue to come into relation and how these relations have been analysed in the philosophical tradition.
- Analyse and synthesise information from a variety of disciplinary sources, including philosophical and literary texts, fine and popular art, history, and political theory.
- Clearly and coherently articulate philosophical arguments in scholarly and conversational media.
- Analyse and critically evaluate philosophical arguments.
- Apply acquired knowledge and skills in the context of philosophical scholarship.
Assessment tasks
- Research essay
- Discussion and Participation
PG - Critical, Analytical and Integrative Thinking
Our postgraduates will be capable of utilising and reflecting on prior knowledge and experience, of applying higher level critical thinking skills, and of integrating and synthesising learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments. A characteristic of this form of thinking is the generation of new, professionally oriented knowledge through personal or group-based critique of practice and theory.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Analyse and synthesise information from a variety of disciplinary sources, including philosophical and literary texts, fine and popular art, history, and political theory.
- Analyse and critically evaluate philosophical arguments.
- Apply acquired knowledge and skills in the context of philosophical scholarship.
Assessment tasks
- Research essay
- Short Papers
- Discussion and Participation
PG - Research and Problem Solving Capability
Our postgraduates will be capable of systematic enquiry; able to use research skills to create new knowledge that can be applied to real world issues, or contribute to a field of study or practice to enhance society. They will be capable of creative questioning, problem finding and problem solving.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Analyse and synthesise information from a variety of disciplinary sources, including philosophical and literary texts, fine and popular art, history, and political theory.
- Clearly and coherently articulate philosophical arguments in scholarly and conversational media.
- Analyse and critically evaluate philosophical arguments.
- Apply acquired knowledge and skills in the context of philosophical scholarship.
Assessment tasks
- Research essay
- Short Papers
- Discussion and Participation
PG - Effective Communication
Our postgraduates will be able to communicate effectively and convey their views to different social, cultural, and professional audiences. They will be able to use a variety of technologically supported media to communicate with empathy using a range of written, spoken or visual formats.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Clearly and coherently articulate philosophical arguments in scholarly and conversational media.
- Work in cooperation with others and reflect on individual and group performance to identify opportunities for improvement.
Assessment tasks
- Research essay
- Short Papers
- Discussion and Participation
PG - Engaged and Responsible, Active and Ethical Citizens
Our postgraduates will be ethically aware and capable of confident transformative action in relation to their professional responsibilities and the wider community. They will have a sense of connectedness with others and country and have a sense of mutual obligation. They will be able to appreciate the impact of their professional roles for social justice and inclusion related to national and global issues
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcome
- Work in cooperation with others and reflect on individual and group performance to identify opportunities for improvement.