Postgraduate Course: Philosophical Methods (PHIL11218)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course offers an introduction to philosophical methodology, with a particular focus on thought experiments, conceptual analysis and the role of rational intuitions. Conceptual analysis was once considered to be of primary concern to philosophers: to understand what a particular property is, such as being morally good, being conscious, being caused, or being known, one must produce necessary and sufficient conditions for something to fall under the concept of that property. Moreover, such conditions must be spelled out in a way that is independent of the concept in question. Many analyses have been confronted with counterexamples that rely on rational intuitions about how to describe possible cases. In response, some philosophers have given up on conceptual analysis altogether, some have adopted various weaker kinds of conceptual entailments, and some have argued that such intuitions are defeasible if the conceptual analysis in question leads to an otherwise explanatorily powerful philosophical theory about the property in question. These are some of the central issues in contemporary philosophical methodology, which we will be addressing in this course. We will examine the rational intuitions that particular thought experiments are meant to elicit, and we will assess the role of these intuitions in supporting or criticising a philosophical theory, or even in adjudicating between rival philosophical theories. |
| Course description |
This course will be delivered through a combination of pre-recorded lectures, live online seminars, and online discussion forums. Pre-recorded lectures will be delivered by a range of faculty. All live online seminars will be delivered by the Course Organiser. Please direct any queries regarding any segment of the course to the Course Organiser.
Synchronous online seminars will be held regularly at a time to be announced. Students will also have access to online discussion forums.
Syllabus:
Week 1: Agency and acting for a reason
Week 2: Hume on miracles: The great original
Week 3: Hume on miracles: Bayesian approaches
Week 4: The open question argument and the paradox of analysis
Week 5: Moral twin earth
Week 6: Galileo's falling bodies, Newton's bucket and Einstein's elevator
Week 7: Artificial intelligence and the Chinese room argument
Week 8: Functionalism, inverted qualia and Blockhead
Week 9: Folk psychology, eliminativism and instrumentalism
Week 10: Phenomenology and cognitive science
Week 11: Phenomenology and cognitive science
This course is only available to students enrolled on an online, distance-learning programme.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
| Course Start Date |
15/09/2025 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 22,
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) |
Essay plan 15%
Final Essay 85% - 3000 words |
| Feedback |
Students have the opportunity to submit a formative essay by week 6 deadline on Turnitin via Learn. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- grasp fundamental issues in philosophical methodology, e.g. the nature of thought experiments, the role of rational intuitions, conceptual analysis
- critically analyse and engage with literature by key philosophers in this field
- present arguments clearly and concisely both within a classroom context and in a final essay
- gain transferable skills in research, analysis and argumentation
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Reading List
Week 1: Agency and acting for a reason
Class Reading
Velleman, J.D., 1992. What happens when someone acts?. Mind 101: 461-481.
Hornsby, J., 2008. Agency and alienation. In M. de Caro and D. MacArthur (Eds.), Naturalism in Question. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (pp. 173-87).
Week 2: Hume on miracles: The great original
Class Reading
Hume, D., 1777/1975. Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals, edited by L. A. Selby-Bigge and 3rd ed. revised by P. H. Nidditch. Oxford University Press. ¿First Enquiry, Section X, 'Of Miracles'¿
Pritchard, D. and Richmond, A., 2012. Hume on miracles. In A. Bailey and D. O¿Brien (eds.), The Bloomsbury Companion to Hume. London: Continuum. (pp. 227-44).
Week 3: Hume on miracles: Bayesian approaches
Class Reading
Gower, B., 1991. Hume on probability. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 42(1): 1-19.
Week 4: The open question argument and the paradox of analysis
Class Reading
Moore, G. E., 1903. Principia Ethica. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Chapter: The subject matter of ethics].
Baldwin, T., 2010. The Open Question Argument. In J. Skorupski (Ed.), The Routledge Companion to Ethics. Oxford: Routledge. (pp. 312-322).
Week 5: Moral twin earth
Class Reading
Hare, R. M., 1952. The Language of Morals. Oxford University Press. ¿pp. 148-50¿.
Horgan, T. and Timmons, M., 1991. New wave moral realism meets moral twin earth. Journal of Philosophical Research, 16: 447-465.
Week 6: Galileo¿s falling bodies, Newton¿s bucket, and Einstein¿s elevator
Class Reading
Norton, J. D., 1995. Are thought experiments just what you thought?. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 26(3): 333-366.
Week 7: Artificial intelligence and the Chinese room argument
Class Reading
Searle, J.R., 1980. Minds, brains and programs. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3(3): 417-424.
These commentaries on the paper (also in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3(3)):
o Abelson, R.P. Searle¿s argument is just a set of Chinese symbols. (pp. 424-425).
o Block, N. What intuitions about homunculi don¿t show. (pp. 425-426).
o Dennett, D. The milk of human intentionality. (pp. 428-430).
o Hofstadter, D. R. Reductionism and religion. (pp. 433-434).
o Minsky, M. Decentralized minds. (pp. 439-440).
o Rorty, R. Searle and the special powers of the brain. (pp. 445-446).
Week 8: Functionalism, inverted qualia and Blockhead
Class Reading
Block, N., 2013. Troubles with Functionalism. In N. Block (Ed.), Readings in Philosophy of Psychology, Volume 1. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (pp. 268-306).
Week 9: Folk psychology, eliminativism and instrumentalism
Class reading
Churchland, P.M., 1981. Eliminative materialism and propositional attitudes. Journal of Philosophy, 78(2): 67-90.
Dennett, D., 1991. Real patterns. Journal of Philosophy, 88(1): 27-51.
Week 10: Phenomenology and cognitive science
Class Reading
Merleau-Ponty, M., 1964. Phenomenology and the sciences of man. In J. Edie (Ed.), The Primacy of Perception. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
Week 11: Phenomenology and cognitive science
Class Reading
Gardner, S., 2015. Merleau-Ponty¿s transcendental theory of perception. In S. Gardner and M. Grist (Eds.), The Transcendental Turn. Oxford University Press.
Wheeler, M., 2013. Science friction: phenomenology, naturalism and cognitive science. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, 72:135-167.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Aspiration and personal development; research and enquiry; personal and intellectual autonomy; communication. |
| Keywords | Methodology,Ethics,Epistemology,Mind,Philosophy of Science |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Jack Shardlow
Tel:
Email: jshardlo@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Olivia Coltman
Tel:
Email: ocoltman@ed.ac.uk |
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