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Kant and his Legacy

  • Module code: PH7801
  • Year: 2018/9
  • Level: 7
  • Credits: 30
  • Pre-requisites: None
  • Co-requisites: None

Summary

This module provides students with a grounding in Kant's philosophy, through detailed study of the Critique of Pure Reason and its competing interpretations. The module presents Kant's critical project as an historical and conceptual basis for the understanding of subsequent European philosophy as a whole.

Aims

The aims of this module are to:

  • provide students with a grounding in Kant's philosophy through detailed study of the Critique of Pure Reason;
  • enable students to interpret Kant's philosophy as an historical and philosophical basis for the understanding of subsequent European philosophy;
  • enable students to assess competing interpretations of Kant's philosophy and its legacy.

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of this module, students will be able to:

  • Understand several distinctive and fundamental features of Kant's philosophy, including his critique of metaphysics, his conception of transcendental argument and transcendental subjectivity, and the logic of Kantian dialectic.
  • Demonstrate a critical awareness of major issues in the history of the reception of Kant's work, primarily in a European context.
  • Reflect on and discuss problems relating to Kant's philosophical legacy.
  • Undertake the work of close textual analysis of a demanding philosophical text.
  • Comprehend, reconstruct and interpret philosophical arguments, and situate these arguments in the context of the history of philosophy.

Curriculum content

The module will focus on:

  • the structure of Kant's general philosophical project (transcendental philosophy and critical metaphysics);
  • the configuration of Kant's central epistemological concepts (intuition, understanding, reason, imagination; analytic/synthetic; analytic/dialectic; antinomy, etc);
  • the history of the reception of Kant's work.

Teaching and learning strategy

This module will be taught by means of a mix of lectures and seminars, supplemented by individual tutorials and private study. Emphasis is placed on seminar-based discussion.

Breakdown of Teaching and Learning Hours

Definitive UNISTATS Category Indicative Description Hours
Scheduled learning and teaching Seminars/lectures: 10 taught sessions (2.5 hours each) 25
Scheduled learning and teaching Group and individual tutorials (two scheduled hours plus office hours). 2
Guided independent study Directed and Independent Learning Total 273
Total (number of credits x 10) 300

Assessment strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to test a student's ability to meet the module's learning outcomes. Summative assessment involves two pieces of written work:

  • A 1,500-word exercise, normally submitted at or before the mid-way point of the module, worth 20% of the final mark.
  • A 3,500 to 4,000 word essay, worth 80% of the final mark.

The skills required to prepare these assessed elements will be developed in a variety of formative activities throughout the module, notably through class discussion, feedback on in-class presentations, and individual tutorials. Preparation of the final essay normally includes a scheduled tutorial with the module tutor.

Mapping of Learning Outcomes to Assessment Strategy (Indicative)

Learning Outcome Assessment Strategy
Understand several distinctive and fundamental features of Kant's philosophy, in particular his critique of metaphysics, his conception of transcendental argument and transcendental subjectivity, and the logic of Kantian dialectic. Assessed formatively through class discussion, presentations and tutorials, and summatively through the two pieces of individual written work.
Demonstrate a critical awareness of major issues in the history of the reception of Kant's work, primarily in a European context. Assessed formatively through class discussion, presentations and tutorials, and summatively through the two pieces of individual written work.
Reflect on and discuss problems relating to Kant's philosophical legacy. Assessed formatively through class discussion, presentations and tutorials, and summatively through the two pieces of individual written work.
Undertake the work of close textual analysis of a demanding philosophical text. Assessed formatively through class discussion, presentations and tutorials, and summatively through the two pieces of individual written work.
Comprehend, reconstruct and interpret philosophical arguments, and situate these arguments in the context of the history of philosophy. Assessed formatively through class discussion, presentations and tutorials, and summatively through the two pieces of individual written work.

Elements of Assessment

Description of Assessment Definitive UNISTATS Categories Percentage
Coursework Exercises 1500 words 20
Coursework Essay 3500 to 4000 words 80
Total (to equal 100%) 100%

Achieving a pass

It IS NOT a requirement that any major assessment category is passed separately in order to achieve an overall pass for the module

Bibliography core texts

Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason trans. Guyer and Wood (CUP, 1997)

Bibliography recommended reading

T. Adorno, Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (Stanford University Press, 2001)

H. Allison, Kant's Transcendental Idealism (Yale University Press, 1983; 2004)

K. Ameriks, Kant and the Fate of Autonomy (CUP, 2000)

E. Cassirer, Kant's Life and Thought (Yale University Press, 1981)

H. Caygill, A Kant Dictionary (Blackwell, 1995)

G. Deleuze, Kant's Critical Philosophy (Athlone Press, 1984)

S. Gardner, Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason (Routledge, 1999)

P. Guyer, Kant and the Claims of Knowledge (CUP, 1987)

P. Guyer, Kant (Routledge, 2006)

M. Heidegger, Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics (Indiana University Press, 1990),

M. Heidegger, Phenomenological Interpretation of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (Indiana University Press, 1990).

B. Longuenesse, Kant and the Capacity to Judge (Princeton UP, 1998).

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