Bachelor in Philosophy - Year two

This course will provide an overview of the history of philosophy in the Latin West during the millennium that stretches from the 6th century to the 15th century. This epoch , as everyone knows, is characterized by the decisive influence of Christian faith on the cultural and doctrinal life of the West. We should begin by noting that the Middle Ages, according to some, forms a parenthesis — something like a void — in the history o f philosophy. And in light of this, we should ask:  Can we be both Christians and genuine philosophers? Are faith and philosophy mutually exclusive, or not?

Seventh Lesson: Saint Bonaventure

Eighth Lesson: Saint Thomas Aquinas

Ninth Lesson: Radical Aristotelianism

Tenth Lesson: The Turning Point of 1277 and the Movement of Doctrine in the Late 13th century

Eleventh Lesson: John Duns Scotus

Twelfth Lesson: Doctrinal Life in the Order of Preachers in the 14 th Century

Thirteenth Lesson: William of Ockham and the Movement of Doctrine at the End of the Middle Ages

The term ‘anthropology’ is derived from two Greek words: ἀνθωπος (anthrōpos) and λογος (logos). The former (anthrōpos) refers to ‘man’ in the generic sense, that is to say, it means ‘human being’; the latter (logos) signifies ‘discourse’ or ‘science. Philosophical anthropology is thus concerned with a philosophical account of the mystery of the human being. Naturally, the history of philosophy has produced a wealth of approaches and an abundance of profound insights concerning the human being. It has also given rise to numerous errors in this regard.
This course will engage the question of how we are to construe the relationship that obtains between body and soul/mind. Rather than adopting a purely historical approach, beginning with Aristotle,
the text begins with an exposition of three different contemporary treatments of this issue before proceeding to expound important aspects of Aristotle’s and St. Thomas Aquinas’s metaphysics of human nature.

This course seeks to introduce students to some attempts at outlining the definition and purpose of philosophy of language. From there students will be taken through some traditional problems of philosophy of language such as theories of meaning, reference and denoting, and how these have been debated. The importance of language as a communicative tool that conveys meaning and intentions as well as our own understanding of the world is obvious. This course will seek to take students through this importance from a philosophical perspective.

This course seeks to introduce students to analytic philosophy. Students will be taken through some attempts at defining what analytic philosophy is, in particular how analytic philosophy understands philosophical problems and its own suggestions at approaching those problems. Then students will be led through an example of a debate in analytic philosophy. We will look at Strawson’s paper on referring and Russell’s response to it. The rest of the course will look at various topics considered proper to analytic philosophy.

This course will take students through ethical discourse from the time of Plato to Aristotle, then to Kant and utilitarians. The principal aim of this course is to make students aware of the different traditions or approaches to ethics. Students can then be able to compare some of the most influential ethical theorists in human history.