PHIL511 GRADUATE READINGS IN PHILOSOPHY I
| Course Code: | 2410511 |
| METU Credit (Theoretical-Laboratory hours/week): | 3 (3.00 - 0.00) |
| ECTS Credit: | 8.0 |
| Department: | Philosophy |
| Language of Instruction: | English |
| Level of Study: | Graduate |
| Course Coordinator: | Assoc.Prof.Dr. AZİZ FEVZİ ZAMBAK |
| Offered Semester: | Fall or Spring Semesters. |
Course Objectives
When Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) first published his Leviathan, or the Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill in 1651, it was immediately controversial. Published at the end of the English Civil Wars, his ties with the royalists, with whom he was in exile in Paris, were severed and he fled to England under Cromwell’s Commonwealth. In 1666, after the 1660 Restoration of Charles II, Parliament passed a bill that resulted in his being banned from writing anything on human affairs. Yet Sir Robert Filmer, ardent defender of the divine right of kings, writes that he likes the result of Hobbes’s philosophy although not its foundations and Charles granted him a pension.
The controversy has hardly ever abated. Immanuel Kant found Hobbes’s views terrifying, Leo Strauss argued that he is the founder of liberalism, and Arnold A. Rogow called him a radical in service of reaction.
All or most of this controversy stems from Hobbes’s political philosophy. However, as we will see, Leviathan is about much more than that. Indeed, it is hard to think of another single book in Anglophone philosophy that takes up so many topics—metaphysics, theology, logic, mathematics, psychology, linguistics, rhetoric, physics, historiography, and economics as a start, in addition to politics—let alone with such stylistic beauty and systematic clarity. In this course, we will attempt to read this book with the care it deserves.
Course Content
Examination of major philosophical texts in history and social sciences.
Course Learning Outcomes
Students who pass this course will
-have an understanding of Hobbes's political philosophy, metaphysics, theology, logic, mathematics, psychology, linguistics, rhetoric, physics, historiography, and economics.
-have developed that understanding in relation to both its historical context and to its meaning for the contemporary world.
Program Outcomes Matrix
| Level of Contribution | |||||
| # | Program Outcomes | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 1 | Do independent academic research in order to be successful in academic studies. | ✔ | |||
| 2 | Have knowledge about contemporary philosophical issues, concepts and problems. | ✔ | |||
| 3 | Make original philosophical interpretations on the topic specialized. | ✔ | |||
| 4 | Have verbal and written presentation and effective communication skill. | ✔ | |||
| 5 | Do interdisciplinary readings and associate them to philosophical problems. | ✔ | |||
| 6 | Have knowledge about ethical code which is a requirement for doing academic research and publishing it. | ✔ | |||
0: No Contribution 1: Little Contribution 2: Partial Contribution 3: Full Contribution