Postgraduate Course: Puzzles & Paradoxes MSc (PHIL11150)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course provides an overview of a number of famous philosophical puzzles and paradoxes and important attempts to solve them.
Shared with undergraduate course Puzzles and Paradoxes PHIL10156.
For courses co-taught with undergraduate students and with no remaining undergraduate spaces left, a maximum of 8 MSc students can join the course. Priority will be given to MSc students who wish to take the course for credit on a first come first served basis after matriculation. |
| Course description |
Paradoxes have formed a central topic of philosophical investigation. Paradoxes figure both in influential arguments for philosophical theses and in famous (alleged) refutations of philosophical theses. Bertrand Russell advised that one should "stock the mind with as many puzzles as possible, since these serve much the same purpose [in philosophy] as is served by experiments in physical science".
Class 1. Russell's paradox (and Cantor's paradox)
Class 2. The liar paradox (and Curry, Berry, and Yablo's paradox)
Class 3. The sorites paradox
Class 4. Cartwright's paradox
Class 5. Paradoxes of names (Bhartrhari's paradox, empty names, Frege's puzzle)
Class 7. Surprise exam paradox
Class 8. The preface paradox and Moore's paradox
Class 9. The St. Petersburg paradox
Class 10. Newcomb's paradox
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2015/16, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Revision Session Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
174 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
A 2500 word final essay [100%]
Assessment deadline: Thursday 21st April 2016 by 12 noon.
Word limit: 2500 words maximum (excluding references)
Return deadline: Friday 13th May 2016 |
| Feedback |
Students have the opportunity to submit a formative essay by week 6 deadline on Turnitin via Learn. The essay cannot be draft of summative essay but it can be on the same topic.
Formative essay deadline: Thursday 25th February 2016 by 12 noon
Return deadline: Friday 18th March 2016
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- understand some core philosophical puzzles and paradoxes, and the important attempts to solve them.
- deploy logical and formal methods in the service of philosophical problems.
- acquaintance with a wide-range of philosophical problems, and an appreciation of an overarching pattern in terms of both the structure of the problems and the methodology used to confront them.
- introduction to some important issues in philosophy of language, philosophical logic, decision theory, and formal epistemology centring around the nature of reference, truth, rational belief, and knowledge.
- independently research, concisely present, and write about a philosophical puzzle.
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Reading List
Textbooks:
- Sorensen (2005) A Brief History of the Paradox: Philosophy and the Labyrinths of the Mind, Oxford University Press.
- Sainsbury (2009) Paradoxes, Cambridge University Press. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
- Writing skills,
- Speaking skills
- Problem solving
- Evaluating arguments |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
The course will be taught by Dr Brian Rabern. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Brian Rabern
Tel:
Email: brian.rabern@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Lynsey Buchanan
Tel: (0131 6)51 5002
Email: Lynsey.Buchanan@ed.ac.uk |
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