Introductory and Intermediate Courses in Philosophy

These courses are currently running in Cork, Republic of Ireland, and are available to be run in the United Kingdom.

There are two courses currently available. Each Course consists of ten seminars, of which usually three are Open sessions to pick up issues which have arisen within the set themes. These courses are not currently examined courses, and can be experienced from very beginning levels and more advanced levels. Naturally the second course would presuppose a bit more prior knowledge - such as attending the first course - than the first.

The aim is to have fun, arouse interest, and increase awareness and self-reflection. The process is one of dialogue and participation. Each session begins with an open-ended period of reflection and discussion and orientation, and the 'syllabus' element is taken steadily with discussion at each point of enquiry.

First Course: Introducing Philosophy

Second (Intermediate) Course: Kant's 'Copernican Revolution' in Philosophy and some Key Heirs and Interpreters

First Course

Introducing Philosophy

The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century European Philosophers

The Empiricists and the Rationalists

The Introductory Course uses a matrix framework of philosophers and themes to introduce some of the major philosophical themes. They are not taken in historical order, but thematic availability. Each Philosopher is introduced with a brief survey of their life and context and then we move to the issues - but with on-going awareness of the historical and cultural context.

1. Introductory Survey
2. George Berkeley and the Philosophical Problems of Perception
3. David Hume and the Philosophical Problems of Causality
4. Open Session in preparation for considering John Locke and the nature of Concepts
5. John Locke and the Philosophical Problems of the nature of Concepts and Meaning
6. Rene Descartes and the Philosophical Problems of Establishing Certainty: the beginning of Epistemology
7. Baruch Spinoza, the decline of belief in God, and the Philosophical Problems of the Relationship between Nature, Science, and the Divine
8. Gottfried von Leibniz and the Philosophical Problems of the Foundation of Personal Identity
9. Open Session
10. Open Session: towards Immanuel Kant

Second (Intermediate) Course

Kant's 'Copernican Revolution' in Philosophy and some Key Heirs and Interpreters

1. Introduction to General Kantian Concepts in the Analytic of the Critique of Pure Reason
2. The Transcendental Aesthetic - Space and Time
3. The Transcendental Deduction of the Categories - Proofs of Objectivity
4. The Analogies of Experience - Demonstrating the System of Causal Connection in the World
5. Open Session
6. The Voluntarist extension of Kant: Schopenhauer and Nietzsche
7. The Objectivist extension of Kant: Heidegger and Strawson
8. Open Session
9. Wittgenstein's Great Question Mark on the Circularity of Kantian Proofs of Objectivity
10. Open Session