AY19/20, Semester 2
Module Type: Lecture
Lecture Size: 60+ students
Lecturer: Professor Fatema Amijee
Grading Structure:
Attendance and Participation - 15%.
Midterm test- 30%
Textual Analysis - 25% (Students will be required to write a textual analysis of an assigned passage. The analysis should be no longer than 800 words. Submission of this assignment will be through LumiNUS)
Term Paper - 30% (Students will be required to write a term paper no longer than 1200 words. Essay topics will be distributed ahead of time. Submission of this essay will be through LumiNUS)
Review #1
Module Content:
An introduction to both early-modern Philosophers David Hume and Immanuel Kant. Some introductory material on A Priori and A Posteriori distinctions. Emphasis was placed on the first eight chapters (with the exception of Chapter 6) of Hume's "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding", focusing on Hume's theory of causation and free will. Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" is read in response to Hume's views on inductive systems, with focus on his concepts of the Synthetic A Priori, the Transcendental Aesthetic (concerning Space and Time), the Analogies (Substance and Causation), the Four Paralogisms, and the Antinomies (Freedom and Morality).
Assignment Structure:
I took this module during the semester COVID first struck Singapore. Lectures and Tutorials that were initially physical were shifted quickly onto Zoom. The textual analysis assignment was converted into the form of weekly forum posts on LumiNUS, each post being a personal academic response to the week's reading, of no more than 300 words. The term paper was reduced to 1000 words, and Prof. Amijee gave a very generous deadline for submission.
Tutor Feedback:
Prof. Amijee was the tutor, and she was very good in clarifying any doubts we had about the concepts explored. In her own handouts, she made concepts extremely accessible.
Weekly Workload:
The weekly forum postings are somewhat manageable (it might not be for those who are overloading modules). Prof. Amijee wanted us to be clear and concise in our responses, with little emphasis on word length, which is a general practice in the Philosophy department.
Expected Grade: B+
Actual Grade: A
Recommended For:
For those who need an introduction to the most important concepts and theories of Hume and Kant, especially for those who intend to take other modules that explore Inductive Reasoning/The Problem of Induction, and for those who are planning to take the higher level Kant modules (PH3261 Kant's Critique of Pure Reason or PH4261 Kant)