Units timetabled for 2013 and 2014 are provisional only, and details of semester and time will change. The official timetable for each year is released on 1 September of the prior year.
Archived unit descriptions for 2011 are available here.
The Modern Self as Subject: From Descartes to Kant
Unit Code:
AP370
RTI:
United Faculty of Theology
Unit Value:
15 points
Can my experience of myself be trusted as what is finally real? Or is this experience just another obstacle to knowing things as they are? This unit explores the modern project, beginning with Descartes, and continuing through Hume and Kant, to place the knowing self at the centre of existence.
Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this unit, it is expected that students will be able to:
discuss the issues attending Aristotle’s origination of the term “subject”
explain, and debate the significance of, the developments St. Thomas Aquinas brings to Aristotle’s idea of “being”
explain why Descartes abandons the Aristotelian/Medieval view of the subject; debate the validity of the criteria Descartes employs in his quest for reliable knowledge.
explain and critique the process by which Descartes attempts to confirm the existence of the (thinking) self
critically assess the ways in which Hume, more radically still than Descartes, attempts to challenge key assumptions of the Aristotelian tradition, including the claim for an immaterial soul, and the reality of self-perception
explain and assess the ways in which Kant’s description of the “I” of thought takes into account Hume’s objections to, e.g., Descartes
discuss why, how, and how successfully Kant seeks to demonstrate that his reasoning subject has genuine freedom
discuss how Kant’s description of the human faculty of judgement attempts to show how the “natural” subject and the “free” subject are reconciled