Admission requirements
Admission to this course is restricted to pre-master students Philosophy.
Description
Metaphysics considers the big questions about reality and our place within it. Is the passage of time real or just an illusion? Is everything that will ever happen already pre-determined, and if so, does that mean we don’t have free will? Are gender and race socially constructed?
In this course we will approach metaphysical questions from a variety of perspectives, including analytic philosophy and South and East Asian philosophical traditions. We will see how topics such as time, free will and social construction have been discussed by philosophers in many different traditions of different social and historical contexts. Many of them are still hotly debated by contemporary analytic philosophers today.
We will read primary texts by contemporary philosophers such as Derek Parfit, David Lewis and Sally Haslanger, as well as selections of texts from classical Jain and Daoist thinkers (Zhuangzi) on modality, classical Confucian (Mengzi) and Mohist “Disputation” thinkers on determinism and agency, classical Indian Buddhist (Nagarjuna) and Confucian (Xunzi) thinkers on social construction, and classical Buddhist (Vasubandhu) and Hindu (Udayana) thinkers on time and causality.
Course objectives
The aim of this course is to familiarize students with the classic themes of (analytical) metaphysics and the most important contemporary debates, as well as the methods of analytic philosophy more broadly. This is a writing-intensive course in which you will polish your philosophical skills.
The student who has successfully completed the course has knowledge of:
classic topics from (analytic) metaphysics, including ontology, modality, free will and time;
the most important concepts and theories in those areas.
The student who has successfully completed the course is able to:
analyse and evaluate abstract philosophical argumentation;
contrast analytic approaches to metaphysics with South and East Asian perspectives;
defend a nuanced and well-founded position on basic metaphysical issue in the form of a written essay.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
- Lecture
Assessment method
Assessment
Midterm exam (2 hours, digital)
Final exam (2 hours, digital)
The midterm will cover material from the first half of the course, the final material from the second half. The exams will mainly consist of open essay questions.
Weighing
Midterm exam: 50%
Final exam: 50%
The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average. To pass the course, the weighted average of the partial grades must be 5.5 or higher.
Resit
The resit consists of one exam that covers the entire course material, in the form of a written exam. The grade for this resit replaces all previously obtained partial grades and determines 100% of the final grade. It is not possible to resit only one of the two partial exams. Sufficient attendance at lectures and tutorials is a condition for participation in the resit.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
The reading material will be made available via Brightspace.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Huizinga
Remarks
Not applicable.