Philosophy

Plato ranks as one of the most important thinkers in the Western philosophical tradition. This module introduces the student to some of the fundamental ideas that inform his works as well as guiding the student through some developments in his presentation of these ideas.

This course introduces some of the key elements in Aristotle's thought. 

Metaphysics is the study of things in their ultimate causes. As such, the specialty of metaphysics is that it seeks the final explanation or the ultimate causes of things precisely in so far as they are, in so far as they exist, or in so far as they are real. Aristotle called it “First Philosophy” or “Theology” since it leads to the first principle or the ultimate explanation of all things.

All human knowledge begins with sense experience but can terminate sometimes in the senses, or in the imagination or in the intellect alone . Accordingly we can distinguish between three levels of scientific knowledge corresponding to the three degrees of abstraction from matter which can be made by the intellect in its examination of reality.

The course aims to show that from its origins through the early efforts made by the earliest oriental thinkers before the era of ancient great Greek thinkers, philosophy has remained a branch of knowledge concerned with fundamental questions concerning existence, human values, language, knowledge and many other matters.

Etymologically, the word "Epistemology", from the Greek, means the science of knowledge. It is an investigation of knowledge and its problems. A synonymous term is Criteriology which again from the Greek means to distinguish or judge. It deals with testin g knowledge to find truth or detect error.

According to Gibelin in his Foreword to Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone, Freedom is the central theme of Kant’s philosophy. This course will introduce to Kant, centering on Freedom as a key concept to understand his philosophy, in the three spheres defined by the critical project: Metaphysics, Moral and Aesthetics.

This course is the second part to Introduction to Moral theories in Bioethics I.
The course will introduce the students to the historical beginning of bioethics, as well as some of the moral theories employed in bioethics discourse.

Essential Questions of Philosophy in this very complete course about Being and Knowing.

This course will take students through ethical discourse from the time of Plato to Aristotle, then to Kant and utilitarians. 

This is a comprehensive and systematic course on the philosophy of David Hume – a prominent Scottish Enlightenment philosopher widely known for his influential system of philosophical empiricism, naturalism and scepticism. Based on his influential and extreme Empiricist ideas, Hume can be rightly considered as one of the most important philosophers of all time.

Metaphysics, a discipline with long standing history, has been understood in different ways. Traditionally, it is considered as the most general and fundamental discipline of all other disciplines. Metaphysics or the Philosophy of Being as Being seeks to answer questions about existence. 

Etymologically, the word Epistemology is derived from two Greek words episteme (knowledge) and logos (the science of knowledge). Thus the word ‘Epistemology’ would mean knowledge of knowledge or science of knowledge and is more commonly called a theory of knowledge. This philosophical term is commonly associated with the inquiry of truth and knowledge.

Aesthetics is a wider term which includes all kinds of objects and experiences of art, beauty and life. There are many interconnected terms to the process of understanding and the enjoyment of beauty. Artistic experience, philosophy of art, philosophy of beauty, and philosophy of aesthetics are some of the different branches of aesthetics from a general perspective.

Logic equips individuals with the required skills to identify errors, known as fallacies in an argument. Logic generally studies the relations the mind creates between different products or contents of intellectual knowledge; that is perceptions, propositions and arguments, and seeks to understand the different relations, which arise in the human mind when it knows things. This comprehensible course on logic is divided into two parts: the second part (sections III and IV) on formal logic focus on the core aspects of categorical syllogisms.  

Just as pertinent knowledge and expertise are required when making right decisions and choices, certain skills and rules are necessary when attempting to reason correctly. Equipping one with logical skills and rules is the major aim of logic or philosophy of logic. This comprehensible course on logic is divided into two parts: the first part (sections I and II) give an overview of logic and common informal fallacies.

Important issues in legal philosophy range from abstract conceptual questions about the nature of law and legal systems, to normative questions about the relationship between law and morality, politics and other norms as well as the justification of various legal institutions. Although this course will deal with conceptual themes of philosophy of law especially in the first section, the course generally focusses on the practical and readily applicable aspects of the field.

The Hegelian philosophy presents itself as a system, a systematic knowledge. It is not the expression of a feeling or an intuition. Philosophy is a science, a knowledge. It's not a way of life like ancient philosophy...