Graduate Modules
AY 2021/22 Graduate Modules
The graduate modules offered in AY 2021-2022 are listed below. Please access the individual LumiNUS course pages for more details, and plan your modules using the following tools:
Semester 1
PH5660 Independent Study
Modular Credits: 4; Workload: 0-0-0-0-10; Prerequisite(s): Offered to Graduate students only and admission of others by permission of instructor.; Preclusion(s): Nil; Cross-listing(s): Nil
Description:
Independent research plays an important role in graduate education. The Independent Study Module is designed to enable the student to explore an approved topic in Philosophy in depth. The student should approach a lecturer to work out an agreed topic, readings, and assignments for the module. A formal, written agreement is to be drawn up, giving a clear account of the topic, programme of study, assignments, evaluation, and other pertinent details. Head’s and/or Graduate Coordinator’s approval of the written agreement is required. Regular meetings and reports are expected. Evaluation is based on 100% Continuous Assessment and must be worked out between the student and the lecturer prior to seeking departmental approval. Sub-area(s): NA
PH5420 Advanced Political Philosophy
by Neiladri SINHABABU
Modular Credits: 4; Workload: 0-3-0-0-7; Prerequisite(s): Nil; Preclusion(s): Offered to Graduate students only and admission of others by permission of instructor.; Cross-listing(s): Nil
Description:
This module invites students to engage in normative thinking about a range of issues related to politics, most of which have to do with questions about the legitimate exercise of political power. We will consider liberal views of political legitimacy and various criticisms of these views. These debates concern issues such as liberty, equality, moral values, and rights.
LumniNUS (TBC)
PH6211 Advanced Epistemology
by TANG Weng Hong
Modular Credits: 4; Workload: 0-3-0-0-7; Prerequisite(s): Offered to Graduate students only and admission of others by permission of instructor; Preclusion(s): Nil; Cross-listing(s): Nil
Description:
This module will explore an advanced topic in epistemology in depth. Some possible topics are the problem of scepticism, including realist and anti‐realist responses to it, the nature of certainty and the relationship of knowledge to chance and credence, the internalism versus externalism debate about the nature of knowledge and justification, and the definability of knowledge in terms of truth, belief, justification and their cognates. The module may also explore a problem from formal epistemology, such as the lottery paradox, the problem of logical omniscience, or probabilistic approaches to the problem of induction.
PH6243 Advanced Aesthetics (TBC)
by Moonyoung SONG
Modular Credits: 4; Workload: 0-3-0-0-7; Prerequisite(s): Nil; Preclusion(s): Offered to Graduate students only and admission of others by permission of instructor.; Cross-listing(s): Nil
Description:
At the end of Christopher Nolan’s Inception, is Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, still dreaming or back in the real world? Is Dumbledore gay in the Harry Potter series because J. K. Rowling said so during an interview? What does Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, a story about a man who turns into an insect, mean? These are questions about interpretation of fiction and artwork. In this course, we will examine philosophical theories about this topic.
This course consists of three units.
In Unit 1, we will look at theories about one kind of interpretation: the interpretation of work meaning (e.g., interpretation of The Metamorphosis’s meaning). The debate between these theories revolves around what exact role the artist’s intention plays in determining their work’s meaning.
Unit 2, on the other hand, addresses another kind of interpretation: the interpretation of truth in fiction (e.g., interpretation of whether Dumbledore is gay in the Harry Potter series). Here, our focus will be what determines what is true in fiction. The role of intention will still be an important issue in Unit 2, but we will also explore other issues, such as whether truth in fiction can be understood in terms of possible worlds and how truth in fiction and imagination are related to each other. (By the way, if you are wondering how a work’s meaning and truth in fiction differ, that is one of the questions we will address in this course.)
Lastly, in Unit 3, we will discuss a puzzle about truth in fiction: the fictionality puzzle. This puzzle is about why certain kinds of deviant claims, such as deviant moral claims (e.g., female infanticide is morally permissible), are rarely true in fiction, whereas other kinds of deviant claims, such as deviant scientific claims (e.g., time travel is possible), are regularly true in fiction.
Although this course is an advanced course in aesthetics, it requires no background knowledge of the field. If you have taken some philosophy courses, even if none of them were in aesthetics, you’ll have no problem in this course.
PH6660 Independent Study
Modular Credits: 4; Workload: 0-0-0-0-10; Prerequisite(s): Offered to Graduate students only and admission of others by permission of instructor.; Preclusion(s): Nil; Cross-listing(s): Nil
Description:
Independent research plays an important role in graduate education. The Independent Study Module is designed to enable the student to explore an approved topic in Philosophy in depth. The student should approach a lecturer to work out an agreed topic, readings, and assignments for the module. A formal, written agreement is to be drawn up, giving a clear account of the topic, programme of study, assignments, evaluation, and other pertinent details. Head’s and/or Graduate Coordinator’s approval of the written agreement is required. Regular meetings and reports are expected. Evaluation is based on 100% Continuous Assessment and must be worked out between the student and the lecturer prior to seeking departmental approval. Sub-area(s): NA
PH6770 Graduate Research Seminar
by Daniel WAXMAN
Modular Credits: 4; Workload: 0-3-0-0-7; Prerequisite(s): Offered to Graduate students only and admission of others by permission of instructor.; Preclusion(s): Nil; Cross-listing(s): Nil
Description:
This is a required module for all research Masters and Ph.D. students admitted from AY2004/05. The module provides a forum for students and faculty to share their research and to engage one another critically in discussion of their current research projects. The module will include presentations by faculty on research ethics and dissertation writing. Each student is required to present a formal research paper. Active participation in all research presentations is expected. The module may be spread over two semesters and will be graded “Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory” on the basis of student presentation and participation. Sub-area(s): NA
Semester 2
PH5660 Independent Study
Modular Credits: 4; Workload: 0-0-0-0-10; Prerequisite(s): Offered to Graduate students only and admission of others by permission of instructor.; Preclusion(s): Nil; Cross-listing(s): Nil
Description:
Independent research plays an important role in graduate education. The Independent Study Module is designed to enable the student to explore an approved topic in Philosophy in depth. The student should approach a lecturer to work out an agreed topic, readings, and assignments for the module. A formal, written agreement is to be drawn up, giving a clear account of the topic, programme of study, assignments, evaluation, and other pertinent details. Head’s and/or Graduate Coordinator’s approval of the written agreement is required. Regular meetings and reports are expected. Evaluation is based on 100% Continuous Assessment and must be worked out between the student and the lecturer prior to seeking departmental approval. Sub-area(s): NA
PH6210 Topics In History of Western Philosophy
by Peter MILICAN
Modular Credits: 5; Workload: 0-3-0-0-7; Prerequisite(s): Offered to Graduate students only and admission of others by permission of instructor.; Preclusion(s): Nil; Cross-listing(s): Nil
Description:
The module will intensively examine a historical period in Western Philosophy. Historical traditions that may be studied may include (but is not restricted to) Greek Philosophy, Medieval Philosophy, Early Modern Philosophy, Twentieth-Century Analytic Philosophy, and Twentieth Century Continental Philosophy. The module will especially attend to the major philosophical problems that define each of these historical frameworks. The relations between the major thinkers of the period under consideration will be profiled.
LumniNUS (TBC)
PH6240 Advanced Metaphysics
by Ben BLUMSON
Modular Credits: 4; Workload: 0-3-0-0-7; Prerequisite(s): Offered to Graduate students only and admission of others by permission of instructor.; Preclusion(s): Nil; Cross-listing(s): Nil
Description:
This module will explore in depth some advanced topics in metaphysics. Some possible topics include whether similar things have universals in common, whether time flows, whether past and future exist, whether a whole is something over and above the sum of its parts, whether chance is objective, whether there are other possible worlds, and whether numbers, gods, or chairs and tables exist.
LumniNUS (TBC)
PH6760 Philosophical Topics
by TANG Weng Hong
Modular Credits: 4; Workload: 0-3-0-0-7; Prerequisite(s): Offered to Graduate students only and admission of others by permission of instructor.; Preclusion(s): Nil; Cross-listing(s): Nil
Description:
The module will study a topic in various areas of philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, aesthetics, political philosophy, a topic that crosses area boundaries. An example might be "Theories of Human Nature". The module might approach the topic from within the perspective of one philosophical school or from a comparative perspective that examines the views of more than one philosophical school, eastern or western.
PH6660 Independent Study
Modular Credits: 4; Workload: 0-0-0-0-10; Prerequisite(s): Offered to Graduate students only and admission of others by permission of instructor.; Preclusion(s): Nil; Cross-listing(s): Nil
Description:
Independent research plays an important role in graduate education. The Independent Study Module is designed to enable the student to explore an approved topic in Philosophy in depth. The student should approach a lecturer to work out an agreed topic, readings, and assignments for the module. A formal, written agreement is to be drawn up, giving a clear account of the topic, programme of study, assignments, evaluation, and other pertinent details. Head’s and/or Graduate Coordinator’s approval of the written agreement is required. Regular meetings and reports are expected. Evaluation is based on 100% Continuous Assessment and must be worked out between the student and the lecturer prior to seeking departmental approval. Sub-area(s): NA
PH6770 Graduate Research Seminar
by Robert BEDDOR
Modular Credits: 4; Workload: 0-3-0-0-7; Prerequisite(s): Offered to Graduate students only and admission of others by permission of instructor.; Preclusion(s): Nil; Cross-listing(s): Nil
Description:
This is a required module for all research Masters and Ph.D. students admitted from AY2004/05. The module provides a forum for students and faculty to share their research and to engage one another critically in discussion of their current research projects. The module will include presentations by faculty on research ethics and dissertation writing. Each student is required to present a formal research paper. Active participation in all research presentations is expected. The module may be spread over two semesters and will be graded “Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory” on the basis of student presentation and participation. Sub-area(s): NA