Philosophy
Department Handbook
Section C: Studying Philosophy
[Approaching the Subject] [Teaching] [Learning] [Improving Your Work] [Employability]
Approaching the Subject
To study philosophy is to do philosophy. That requires you to appreciate the character of philosophical problems and to think critically and constructively about them. You will be expected to acquire information about, and understanding of, philosophical problems and attempts to solve or dissolve them. But you will also be expected to engage critically with the subject-matter. That requires you to examine in a critical spirit the assumptions that underlie problems and the various ways in which people have attempted to deal with them.
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Teaching
Teaching in Philosophy is mainly by lectures, seminars, and one-to-one consultations.
Lectures provide guidance on set topics and stimulate students to take an interest in the issues and engage in independent study. They demonstrate what it is to discuss a topic philosophically in a way that no book can. Lecturers not only explain current thinking but also offer their own considered views on the subject-matter. Often they will themselves have conducted original research on the issues and contributed to the literature. It would be foolish not to attend lectures regularly, since, apart from the stimulus that they can provide, the guidance they offer is not always available elsewhere.
Seminars provide an opportunity for you to discuss a set topic, having done preparatory work, usually with the help of specified literature. Though tutors at seminars will be prepared to clarify points when this seems appropriate, it is important not to treat seminars simply as occasions for such clarification. Seminars are intended to facilitate real discussion among those present (not just exchanges between individual students and the tutor). You are expected and encouraged to participate. If you do so, you are likely to find that you gain in confidence and communicative skill as well as in understanding.
Consultations: at all stages you are invited, and expected to attend, one-to-one consultations on your written work with the tutor who has marked it. (In the first three semesters such consultations are formally available only for the first essay assignment.) Though you might find it daunting, at least initially, to have critical comments put directly to you by a tutor you should make every effort to attend such sessions. You will probably find that criticisms and points of encouragement come over to you more clearly and vividly than written comments alone.
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Learning
Learning in the University context is not simply a matter of taking in what you are given with a view to returning it in essays and examinations. It is a matter of coming to understand a subject-matter, mastering unfamiliar concepts and arguments, and acquiring the relevant analytical and communicative skills. Learning in this sense can be achieved only by independent study drawing on all the guidance that is available. You will find it useful to remind yourself of the following from time to time.
- At lectures take brief notes that select and condense the main points. (Don’t try to transcribe everything said.) Leave gaps in notes for subsequent amendments. Try to read over the notes the same day and then, or soon after, try to formulate your own thoughts on the issues and your impressions on what the most important points are, and why.
- Prepare for seminars by taking notes on the literature and formulating your own impressions and reactions. Identify, and write down, points of difficulty, or of special interest, from the literature and from lectures, with a view to generating discussion at seminars.
- Read actively right from the start of the module. It is easy to read over a text thinking you get the general drift, but then find that, without looking it, you are unable to write down or report on what you have read. Active reading is reading with a frame of mind in which you identify and note key points and issues, paying particular attention to what you don’t understand and to points for or against the views or arguments under consideration. Note what you agree with or disagree with, and try to say why. As you read, formulate questions and try to find out whether, and, if so, how, they are answered in the text, or how they might be answered on the basis of what is in the text.
- Read carefully. It is a good idea not to ‘speed read’, or to assume that you can read works of philosophy as quickly as you would read a novel. Works of philosophy should—indeed must—be read slowly. Sometimes you will have to read a passage several times. Do not expect to understand everything on a first reading. Indeed, do not expect to understand everything. If philosophy was easy it would not be half as fascinating. Difficult ideas take time to understand. If you find some point hard to grasp, do not automatically assume that the philosopher has failed to express him or herself clearly, and be open to the idea that the point he or she is trying to make is difficult, and cannot be grasped without effort.
- Thinking critically about a topic means being prepared to look for, and consider, objections to views to which you are sympathetic and being prepared to consider what might be said in support of views to which you are unsympathetic. It means testing out views and arguments by weighing up points for and against.
- Think ahead. Plan your time. Take into account the fact that the literature will probably need to be read several times to achieve understanding. In preparing for essays bear in mind that if you have three essays due in three weeks time that leaves an average of only one week to prepare each essay. It is inevitable that essay deadlines will come close together. It is your responsibility to manage your time so that you can submit work on time.
- Get to know the Library, which has a good supply of books. Familiarise yourself with the facilities in the Library, including the Reserved Book Room. When works are in limited supply relative to the size of a class you will often find it helpful to borrow a book well in advance of an essay deadline or an examination and take a photocopy of a relevant article or chapter. If you do this then attend to the guidelines relating to copyright.
- Get to know how to use the Web and make use of the sources of information available to you through the Student Portal. If in doubt contact the Information Centre in the Library (tel. ext. 7250).
- Guidance on essays is provided in Section E of this document. Careful attention to that section and to the guidance above should help you to prepare, not only for essays, but for exams as well.
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Improving Your Work in Philosophy
Whether you are in second year or in later years it is a good idea to take stock of how you have been performing in the past and think of how you can improve your knowledge and understanding of philosophy. Even if philosophy is neither your main subject nor one of your main subjects, you can still benefit from acquiring the skills that the study of the subject fosters. The following advice is intended to help you to improve.
Make use of the assistance available to you
Make use of your tutors. All members of academic staff have office hours at which they are available to see students without prior appointment. Of course, it helps if you have made an effort to sort out any difficulties you have by working on them and trying to think them through yourself. But if you have been regularly attending seminars and lectures, and trying hard to understand the set reading, but still have problems in coming to grips with some of the material, then consult your tutor. Similarly, if you are unsure how to approach an essay, or stuck or puzzled by some particular issue, then go to see your tutor.
Make the most of your classes
Do not underestimate the value of lectures. While we aim to make lectures stimulating, their value is not directly proportionate to how exciting they are. How exciting you find them to be will in any case depend significantly on your capacity to appreciate what is going on. That in turn is likely to depend on how much effort you have put into your own preparatory work. You will gain far more from lectures if you have kept up with the reading for the module than if you come to the lecture with a blank mind.
Get the most out of seminars.
Whether seminars are dull or thought provoking depends to a significant extent on the level of preparation undertaken by the participants and on their willingness to volunteer contributions to discussion. You can help to make a seminar go well just by being willing to say what you find puzzling in the material for discussion; but you will be able to contribute usefully only if you have read and thought about the material.
Make the most of the variety of materials available to you
Many different materials are made available to you, in the form of module handouts, lecture notes, library and web resources. Look out for hints and guidance. You might find it helpful to make use of ‘resource’ works in philosophy. For instance, if you are not sure about how some technical term is used you might consult:
Simon Blackburn, Dictionary of Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994).
This is available online: from the Portal go to http://www.is.stir.ac.uk/research/reference/philref.php
For much fuller explanations of concepts and arguments see the following:
E. Craig (ed.) The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (London, Routledge).
A hard copy of this multi-volume work is in the Library. It is also available online: from the Portal go to http://www.rep.routledge.com/
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
This is available on-line: go to http://plato.stanford.edu
The publisher Blackwell produces numerous ‘Companions’ and ‘Guidebooks’ on different areas of the subject. Oxford University Press publishes a series of ‘Oxford Handbooks’. Cambridge University Press publishes a series of ‘Cambridge Companions’. All are useful guides to students beginning to explore an area of the subject.
Connect
When you take any series of philosophy modules think of yourself as building up a picture—albeit a partial one—of the landscape of the subject. This will help you to deepen your understanding of the character of philosophical thinking and will put you in a better position to tackle new topics or gain a better understanding of ones you have already studied. You will not get the most out of your study if you think that once you have completed a module you have finished with the issues it raised. So try to retain as much as you can of the knowledge and understanding you have gained from previous semesters and always try to connect the subject matter and style of thinking you encounter in one module with what you encounter in others. The ‘resource’ works mentioned above may be of help here.
Organize yourself and your time
Think of what you want to achieve and consider realistically whether your work and life patterns are likely to help or hinder you in reaching your goals.
Avoid "Arts Students Syndrome". This is a pattern of activity in the course of a semester. It starts with, at most, desultory reading. Then there is not much else until about ten days short of the first set of deadlines for essays. This is followed by frenetic and stressful activity, resulting in essay submissions some of which might lose penalty points for lateness, and none of which are likely to be as good as they could have been. Then there is rest and recuperation, some more desultory reading, and another bout of activity for the second essay assignments. By this time the exams are looming, tiredness sets in, and it’s probably too late to catch up on the seminar topics on which you have not written essays. You leave three-hour exams after two hours, if not before. The result is a set of exam grades several notches below what you obtained for essays. Many of you will have been able to avoid this pattern of activity. But all of you should at least consider whether or not your own pattern of activity significantly resembles that which characterises the syndrome.
You may well have found that the topics which you have best understood in the past are the ones on which you have written essays. Since exams are structured in such a way that good answers will not simply reproduce essay material you need to take into account the need to master other topics. Trying to master those topics in the high-pressure period between submitting the last assignments and examinations is not likely to result in good grades. So work effectively throughout the semester and not just on the essay topics.
If you want to do well on your programme then you should use some of the time in vacations for reading related to modules you are about to study and for taking stock of what you have studied previously. Pre-registration module outlines will specify texts to be studied.
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Employability
Throughout your programme you should reflect on how your studies, and the experience you are gaining, through your programme and more generally, might be relevant to your future career. The skills fostered by the study of philosophy are relevant to any area of employment in which clear, cogent thinking is called for. The experience you will gain in seminars, provided that you are willing actively to contribute to them, will help you to become accustomed to working cooperatively with others, defending your point of view, and taking criticism on board. The experience you should gain in managing your time—planning your activities so as to meet deadlines—will prepare you for meeting similar demands in the wider world.