PHIL 611 Research Methods in Philosophy

Course Outline | Fall Semester 2015

Program Core Compulsory Course Course Teacher(s): Dr. Mohammed Mesbahi Credit Value: 3 Pre-requisites: No pre-requisites Co-requisites: No co-requisites Course Duration: 14 weeks; Semester 1 Total Student Study Time: 126 hours, including 42 contact hours of lectures and seminars.

AIMS Research Methods in Philosophy is a course that aims to introduce two key methodologies from pre-modern philosophy (argument and proof) and two from modern and contemporary philosophy (hermeneutics and phenomenology).

These methodologies are not considered as simply technical tools for searching for truth, but also as bearers of meaning that stake out a position on philosophical praxis and offer a specific world-view. While pre-modern philosophical methods emphasized the object at the expense of the subject in an attempt to pursue truth in itself, modern philosophical methods try to conceptualize the object through its permeation by the subject. The aim is to make students reflect on this contrast in method so that they might adopt an autonomous stance towards methods in general. This critical approach also encourages students to try to sense a new method or approach that transcends this contrast between modernist and classical inclinations and reach a horizon that restores a level of autonomy to the subject (that which is).

INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOME Students will be prepared to undertake academic research with confidence and competence through training in the use of philosophical concepts and theories. The course aims to provide students with the following specific skills:

1) Subject-specific skills:  Handle primary philosophical texts – to be able to read, analyze, and critique them, as well as instilling a passion for manuscripts  Develop sophistication in techniques to generate meaning from philosophical texts by means of logical inference, philosophical ambiguity, and critical thinking  Perfect means of analysis, appreciation of the importance of philosophical concepts and terminology, and practice in the deconstruction of philosophical texts and their reconstruction as new texts. Beginning with the ability to differentiate between the deductive and the interpretive, and between the dialectical and the phenomenological, students will recognize that a word may have endless manifestations according to the methods used to uncover them.

 Acquire the ability to distinguish between various philosophical trends and schools on the basis of their methods, the key meanings of their concepts, and the nature of the questions they pose.  Acquire intellectual confidence and the spirit of transcending old patterns towards new ones.

2) Core academic skills:  Ability to differentiate between the various meanings of philosophical concepts in the same text of one philosopher and in different texts by a number of philosophers belonging to contrasting philosophical visions, schools, and currents; ability to reflect on the importance of difference in meaning for changes in philosophical problems.  Awareness of the dialectical relationship between meaning and problems, or how the accumulation of different meanings leads to the emergence of doctrinal problems that oblige a critique and reconstruction of a new (theoretical) problem.  Interest in bibliography on the basis of an evolutionary and formative methodology.

3) Personal and key skills:  The objective of studying philosophical methodology is to give students a sense of the importance of acquiring a personal style of analysis and writing while adhering to strict internationally accepted methodological requirements of academic research. With this in mind, students are expected to:  Hone textual reading skills, analyze methods of construction, and consider a text’s points of incoherence.  Develop methodological freedom and autonomy of thought, interpretation, and explanation. This will emerge first through understanding the importance of methodological pluralism and the relativism of approaches. Such an approach will open unforeseen horizons for research and renewal. Methodological freedom must not, however, become opposed to methodological competence, and the course will also encourage students to choose the appropriate method for the research subject being investigated. The researcher is the product of the method employed. Methodological relativism should not however lead to a denial of truth and a descent into banal nihilism.  Understand and develop skills in footnote writing and referencing

LEARNING/TEACHING METHODS The course uses a number of teaching methods, including:

 Lectures will summarize methodologies and their criticisms for the most important theories and approaches to the subject of Philosophy without bias. Student participation is key, so a selected sample of key texts will be made available in advance of the lecture. Summaries will be given with the aid of Power Point to help students follow the development of the theories under discussion.

 Seminars ensure that students have a space to participate actively in the study of philosophical methodologies, and will allow them to raise additional questions and critiques. Seminars will make use of supplementary material. In preparation for the seminars, students will be asked to prepare presentations, to prepare bibliographies on the week’s topic, or to lead discussion on selected texts for debate and dialogue, or evidential material to defend a thesis or view. To ensure the success and value of seminar discussions, audio-visual materials may be used (recordings of lectures by major philosophers or other relevant material, and video calls may also be used to bring expert opinions into the class). The seminars are structured so that students may take a lively and contemporary attitude to discussion. The objective of the seminars is for students to feel a sense of intellectual autonomy and have the ability to make personal judgements uninfluenced by external matters. Seminars will also be a space where analysis of philosophical texts appropriate to the lectures will be carried out. These exercises aim to reflect the polyvalence of terminology and the difficulties involved in explaining and interpreting it. Use will sometimes be made of audio-visual means to display philosophical manuscripts and train students to take an interest in them and understand their sources and effects.  Supervision will be given periodically on research and writing methods, and students will be trained in bibliographical research in libraries and on the internet. The attention of students will also be drawn to the need to respect academic conventions concerning citation and editing so that research is of international standard.  Tutorials with the instructing professor will allow students to put questions to the course convener and raise general and particular issues, academic and intellectual, of concern to them.

ASSIGNMENTS Students taking the course are expected to:

 Prepare research papers, essays, and reports on a topic related to the Research Methods in Philosophy course. Papers are expected to be 2,000 to 2,500 words and should be of high standard, original, in conformity with academic standards, and reflect research effort.  In teams of two or more, produce a piece of written research of 1,500 to 2,000 words on a method or a concept related to it, or a on a chapter from the works of a key philosopher. This will be presented and defended orally during the seminar. The presenting student or students will have to demonstrate their skills in analysis, synthesis, and criticism, as well as showing an ability to work together.  Demonstrate speaking skills when participating in the seminars and introduce new facts, criticisms, and constructive questions. They should also display their ability to run the seminar discussions in an inclusive, effective, and positive way.  Prepare notecards and annotated bibliographies on a philosopher, concept, or issue related to philosophical research methods.

 Sit for two written examinations on the content and critical methods dealt with by the course. The first examination is a mid-term and the second is a final examination.  Undertake bibliographical research and prepare summaries of assigned readings  Contribute to discussions; this will be monitored in terms of pertinent questions and new solutions to issues under debate. Student cooperation, the exchange of expertise between them, and their reading of each other will also be noted. However, this will not be taken into account for their overall assessment

ASSESSMENT

Students’ knowledge and ability to understand, analyze, synthesize, write, and present orally will be assessed in a number of ways:

 Short essay of 500 words (20%)  Essay between 1500 – 3000 words (40%)  Final exam of 2 hours (40%)

SYLLABUS PLAN

The course is divided into two main parts:

Part I: Pre-modern philosophy. This is further divided into two topics: 1) The dialectical method (Plato/Aristotle); and 2) The method of proof (Aristotle and his Arab commentators). This first part of the course aims to acquaint students with the key texts on philosophical methods among the Greeks and Arab and Muslim philosophers. It also allows students to examine the debate between philosophers who adopted the method of proof as a means to reach certainty and kalam (speculative theology)—which was content with using dialectics and debate to convince the opponent— and Sufism, which adopted symbolism to add esoteric meanings to divinely-revealed texts.

Part II: The focus here is on to the methodological revolutions of modern and contemporary philosophy. The focus will be on two methods, hermeneutics and phenomenology, which are simultaneously in opposition and conjunction.

The classes are scheduled as follows:

Week 1: The Socratic method

Week 2: The dialectical method in Aristotle’s Topica

Week 3: The dialectical method in the commentaries of al-Farabi, ibn Sina, and ibn Rushd on Aristotle’s Topica

Week 4: The method of proof in Aristotle’s Analytics

Week 5: The method of proof in the commentaries of al-Farabi, ibn Sina, and ibn Rushd on Aristotle’s Analytics

Week 6: The hermeneutic revolution: from knowledge to understanding and from truth to meaning

Week 7: Key issues in hermeneutics: subjectivity and objectivity, a rehabilitation of prior opinions; language, imagination, and myth at the expense of being and reason; the place of tradition in the hermeneutic act

Mid-term examination (two hours)

Week 8: Keys concepts in phenomenology: phenomenon and essence

Week 9: Keys concepts in phenomenology: feeling and intuition

Week 10: Keys concepts in phenomenology: subject and object

Week 11: Keys concepts in phenomenology: intentionality

Week 12: Keys concepts in phenomenology: reduction

Week 13: Keys concepts in phenomenology: transcendence

Week 14: Keys concepts in phenomenology: the role of the phenomenologist

Final examination (two hours)

INDICATIVE READING LIST

ابن سينا، النجاة، تح. م. فخري، بيروت، دار اآلفاق الجديدة، 1985.

ابن سينا، الشفاء-البرهان، تح. ع. بدوي، القاهرة 1966.

ابن سينا، الشفاء-املنطق/الجدل، تح. أحمد فؤاد األهواني، القاهرة، الهيئة املصرية العامة للكتاب، 1965.

ابن رشد، أبو الوليد، شرح برهان أرسطو وتلخيص البرهان، ع. بدوي، الكويت، 1984.

ابن رشد، أبو الوليد، تلخيص كتاب أرسطوطاليس في الجدل، تحقيق م. س. سالم، القاهرة، الهيئة املصرية العامة للكتاب، 1980.

الفارابي، أبو نصر، املنطق، تح. ر. العجم، بيروت 1983.

الفارابي، املنطقيات للفارابي، 3 اجزاء، تح وتقديم محمد تفي دانش ثرو، قم، 1310.

الفارابي، أبو نصر، كتاب الحروف، تح. م. مهدي، بيروت 1961.

Aristotle. Topica. Translated by E. S. Forster. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989.

Aristotle. Posterior Analytics, Trans. by Mure, G. R. G., The University of Adelaide, 2007.

Aristote et les problèmes de la Méthode. Louvain-Paris: Université de Louvain, 1961.

Cherniss, H., Aristotle's Criticism Plato and the Academy, Baltimore, 1944.

Etudes Aristotéliciennes, Métaphysique et Théologie, Paris, Vrin, 1985.

Festugière, A.J., Etude de Philosophie Grecque, Paris,Vrin, 1957.

Grayeff, Felix, Aristotle and his School, London, 1974.

Irwin, T.H., Aristote's First Principles, Oxford, 1990.

Le Blond, J.M. Logique et méthode chez Aristote. 3e ed. Paris: Vrin, 1973.

Leszl, W., Logic and Metaphysics in Aristotle, Padova, 1970.

Owens, Josef, The Doctrine of Being in the Aristotelian Metaphysics, Toronto, 1951.

Revue Internationale de la Philosophie, La méthodologie d'Aristote, n° 133-1224, 1980.

Stigen, A., The Structure of Aristotle's Thought, Oslo, 1966.

ريكور، بول، من النص إلى الفعل : الخطاب وفائض املعنى، ت سعيد الغانمي، الدار البيضاء، 2003.

ريكور، بول، نظرية التأويل : أبحاث التأويل، ت. محمد برادة وحسان بورقية، الرباط، دار األمان، 2004.

Gadamer, Philosophical Hermeneutics. Trans. and ed. by David Linge. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976.

Gadamer, Truth and Method. 2nd rev. edition. Trans. J. Weinsheimer and D. G. Marshall. New York: Crossroad, 2004

Greisch, J., L’âge herméneutique de la raison, Paris, Cerf, 1985.

Greisch, J., Comprendre et interpréter. Le paradigme herméneutique de la raison, Paris, Beauchense, 1993.

Grondin, J. Le tournant herméneutique de la philosophie, Paris, Puf, 2003.

Ricoeur, Paul, The Conflict of Interpretations: Essays in Hermeneutics, ed. Don Ihde, trans. Willis Domingo et al. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1974.

Vattimo, G., Beyond Interpretation: The Meaning of Hermeneutics for Philosophy. Trans. D. Webb. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997.

هوسرل، أدموند، تأمالت ديكارتية، أو املدخل إلى الفينومينول وجيا، ترجمة وتقديم نازلي إ. حسين، القاهرة، دار املعارف، 1970.

Heidegger, M., The Basic Problems of Phenomenology, 1988.

Heidegger, Martin, Le problèmes fondamentaux de la phénoménologie, tr. Jean -Françoit Courtine, Pari, Gallimard, 1985.

Husserl, Leçons pour une phénoménologie de la conscience intime du temps, 2 ed., Paris, puf, 1983.

Husserl, E., Cartesian Meditations, Translated by D. Cairns, Dordrecht: Kluwer 1988.

Husserl, E., The Idea of Phenomenology. Translated by W.P. Alston and G. Nakhnikian. The Hague, Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, 1966.