PE013-712 - Introduction to Philosophy

  • 2,784 Standard Tuition Fee
  • 12
    Credit Points
  • 0.125 EFT 
  • 7
    AQF level
  • Category developing unit
    B
  • philosophy ethicsUnit Discipline

Exclusions

Prior to 2020, this unit content was delivered under the unit code PE513. Unit exclusions: PE008-612, PE008-712, PE008-812

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will

A. Know and understand

1. Demonstrate Functional knowledge and understanding of the nature and issues of Philosophy in their implications for Christian thought and doctrine.

B. Be able to

1. Discuss the major movements and issues in Philosophy in their bearing on Christian thought and doctrine.

2. Demonstrate skill in relating philosophical thinking to Christian thought and doctrine.

3. Present Critical evidence-based perspectives on Philosophy and Christian thought and doctrine.

C. Be in a position to

1. Applying perspectives from ‘Introduction to Philosophy’ to contemporary Christian living and ministry practice as a reflective practitioner.

Content

1. General introduction to philosophy

2. Plato with background in the pre-Socratics 

3. Aristotle’s logic and metaphysics 

4. Augustine’s Christian response to Neo-Platonism

5. Aquinas and scholastic philosophy 

6. Descartes, Locke and Hume on Epistemology.

7. Kant on Knowledge, Reason and Religion 

8. Kierkegaard’s Christian philosophy 

9. Friedrich Nietzsche on the human condition and the death of God. 

10. Wittgenstein on language and speech act theory in Austin and Searle

11. Heidegger on being.

Set Readings

Addis, Mark, Wittgenstein: A Guide for the Perplexed (London & New York: Continuum, 2006).

Allen, Diogenes & Eric O. Springsted, Philosophy for Understanding Theology (Louisville: WJK, 2007).

Anagnostopoulos, Georgios (Ed.), A Companion to Aristotle (Blackwell, 2013).

Bartholomew C. G. & M. W. Goheen, Christian Philosophy (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2013).

Beiser, Frederick, C (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Hegel (Cambridge :1993).

Bird, Graham, A Companion to Kant (Blackwell, 2010).

Cochrane, Charles N. Christianity and Classical Culture: A Study of Thought and Action from Augustus to Augustine (Oxford: 1944).

Copleston, Frederick, A History of Philosophy, 8 Vols (New York: Image Books, 1962).

Durant, Will. The Story of Philosophy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1933).

Evans, C. Stephen, Kierkegaard: An Introduction (Cambridge: 2009).

Hoffecker, W. A. (ed.), Revolutions in Worldview: Understanding the Flow of Western Thought (P&R Publishing, 2007).

Kenny, Anthony, A New History of Western Philosophy (Oxford, 2012).

Kraut, Richard (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Plato (Cambridge, 1992).

Kirkham, Richard L. Theories of Truth: A Critical Introduction (Massachussets: MIT Press, 1992).

Leinsle, Ulrich G. Introduction to Scholastic Philosophy (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 2010).

Nash, Ronald H, Light of the Mind: Augustine’s Theory of Knowledge (University Press of Kentucky, 1969).

Solomon Robert C. & Kathleen M. Higgins, A Short History of Philosophy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).