General provisions

The Department of Philosophy is responsible for this course.

Entry requirements

Students admitted to a one or two year Master programme of the Faculty of Arts or students with a Bachelor's degree.

Learning outcomes

After completing the course the students are expected to:

• Have an increased understanding of how empirical claims, thought experiments and other elements of a philosophical dialectic are used efficiently when defending a philosophical thesis or argument.
• Be familiar with how to employ common philosophical argumentative strategies in one's writing, such as the use of counter-examples, intuitions, and debunking explanations.
• Have reflected on the role of writing in the process of sharpening and articulating one's philosophical ideas.
• Have reflected on how different styles of prose and different forms of exposition may affect a reader's uptake and interpretation of a text.
• Have considered and practiced different methods of co-authoring texts with others.

Content

What does it take to write a good philosophical paper? What can we do to become better philosophical writers? And how does writing philosophy relate to actually doing philosophy? The purpose of the course is to address these and related issues about philosophical writing, presentation, and thinking. The course will have both practical elements, such as writing exercises and paper workshops, and theoretical ones, concerning e.g. the understanding of concepts that tend to be central in philosophical argumentation.

Instruction

Lectures, seminars and paper-writing. The lecture-style will be thoroughly interactive. Students are expected to participate and contribute.

Assessment

Examination is made in form of written exam.

Active participation and good performance in class may be considered during the examination to the favour of the student.

A student who has failed the examination has the right to a re-examination. Normally an additional opportunity is given some time after the ordinary examination.

If the examination timeframe is not kept, the examiner decides how the examination should be conducted and the appropriate time frame for it.

Master´s students are expected to hand in longer and more extensive pieces of work than C-students. Moreover, there are higher demands on the scientific quality of the master´s students pieces of work.

Other regulations

The course is given both as a first cycle or as a second cycle course.