Course Catalogue

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The focus of this course is affective experience, the phenomenon of certain experiences (such as pain) feeling bad or good. Affective experience is the focus of increasing philosophical and scientific attention. It poses numerous questions across a range of philosophical areas (and beyond), from philosophy of mind and psychology to value theory.

16x1hr lectures and 4x1hr seminars as scheduled on MyCampus. This is one of the Honours options in Philosophy and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry into Philosophy, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes who qualify under the University's 25% regulation.

None

None.

Exam (90 minutes duration) - 40%

Essay (2000 words) - 40%

Short written pieces (2x500 words) - 20%

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

This course aims to:

■ Allow students to gain a detailed knowledge and understanding of debates concerning affective experience;

■ Allow students to explore the nature of affect and particular affective experiences, e.g. pain or pleasure;

■ Encourage students to develop analytical and critical skills, by considering and developing key arguments and positions.

By the end of the course students will be able to:

 Formulate clearly, and explain, the key philosophical theories of affect and of affective experiences such as pain and pleasure

 Assess the strengths and weaknesses of the key philosophical approaches to affect and to affective experiences such as pain and pleasure

 Critically assess debates about the relationship between (on the one hand) affect and affective experiences, and (on the other) representational content, perception, evaluation, desire, motivation, and action

D certain anomalous cases (such as phantom limb cases, pain insensitivity, pain asymbolia, masochism, and anhedonia) and explain their theoretical significance

 Articulate complex arguments in clear, written form.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment