Entry requirements

120 credits, or equivalent, including 60 credits in philosophy, aesthetics, musicology, literature or art history. Also required is proficiency in English equivalent to the Swedish upper secondary course English 6.

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.

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, workshops, and writing tasks. The lecture-style is thoroughly interactive and students are expected to participate and contribute.

Assessment

Short writing assignments to be completed throughout the course, and a longer writing assignment at the end of the course.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.

Other regulations

This course overlaps with the courses 5FP054 Writing and Doing Philosophy and 5FT063 Philosophical Perspectives 1. Only one of the three courses may be used in one and the same degree.