A Request For Readings. (1 Viewer)

[Gregor Samsa]

Hey. Recently, I've begun the process of preparing myself for university, or at least for a BoA, preferably at Sydney University. This process has involved trying to find the reading lists of the various units of study I'm interested in doing in the 'Junior' component, so that I may read the texts in advance.

For many of these units however, there is nothing listed beyond 'course readers'. The question I'm pondering, is what authors/texts are included in the following courses;

-ENGL1015-Inventing Modernity. (For this course, the 'Norton Anthology Of English Literature Volume Two' is listed. Which texts within it's bulk are focused upon?)
-ENGL1025-Fiction, Film And Power. (For 2nd semester, hopefully.)
-PHIL1010-Society, Knowledge And Reason.
-PHIL1011-Reality, Ethics And Beauty.
-HSTY1045-Modern European History 1750-1914 (Already have Hobsbawm's 'The Age Of Capital' and three volumes of the Fontana History Of Europe, covering 1815-1919, but wondering what other texts are recommended.)

Thanks in advance.

 

[Generator]

HSTY1045 - There was no course reader this year (I do not know whether that was a first or the norm), although the unit's course book provided a number of links to both websites and the text 'Gendering European History' for each week's tutorial discussion.

http://teaching.arts.usyd.edu.au./history/hsty1045/hsty1045.htm

That's the link for this year's course. I hope that it helps.

 

[jlh]

the course readers are about 300 pages long all with various texts from many authors. i did PHIL 1011 and there are NO prescribed textbooks just the course reader. and i know for PHIL1010, it is just the course reader as well..

if you want a detailed list of what exactly is in the PHIL1011 course reader, let me know..

 

[Gregor Samsa]

Originally posted by jlh
if you want a detailed list of what exactly is in the PHIL1011 course reader, let me know..

If you could, would you please be able to post the 'detailed list'? (PM it if you want.) I appreciate it.

Thanks to those who have helped out so far.

 

[user]

Are you sure you want to start reading before semester starts? Most of the readers are long and tedious, and i think they might change from year to year depending on whos taking the course. Also, it's not like an entire text or anything, just selected relevant pages and extracts that you may not be able to understand unless you've been to the lecture.

Since jlh is going to post up the course reading content for PHIL1011, I'll do PHIL1010.

PHIL 1010
Society, Dr Grumley
Aristotle: The Politics
Hobbes: The Leviathan
Locke: Th eSecond Treatise on Civil Government
Rousseau: Discouse on the Origins of Inequality
Rousseau: The social contract

ReasonDr Luke Russell
Readings aren't from any textbook, just notes that the lecturer made up

KNowledge: Associate Professor Paul Redding
Betrand Russell: Problems of Philosophy
Descartes: Mediations on First philosophy
Locke: An essay concerning human understanding
George Berkeley Principles of HUman KNowledge
Michael Williams: Groundless belief
Donald Davidson: "A Coherence Theory of Truth and Justification"
Hilary Putnam: "INtentionality and Lower animals"
David Armstrong: "The Termometer view of non inferential knowledge
Alvin Goldman: Barn Spotting in Barn-Facade County
Laurence BonJOur "Enternalist Theories of Empirical Knowledge"
Wilfred Sellars: "Philosophy and the Scientific Image of man" and "Empiricism and the philosophy of mind"
Robert Brandom "Study guide to empiricism"
Hiliary Putnam "Why reason can't be naturalised"

As you can see, there is a lot of boring stuff in PHIL1010, especially in the society part, but PHIL1011 is more interesting, in terms of both the course content and the lecturers.

 

[jlh]

PHIL1011 is broken up into 3 sections just like PHIL1010, these being REALITY, ETHICS and BEAUTY.

REALITY: Lecturer - Dr. David Braddon Mitchell
this is broken up into 4 sections:
1. GOD: Sober, E - Core Questions in Philosophy, Chapter 2
2. FREE WILL: Sober, E - Introduction to Metaphysics, Chapter 4
3. PERSONAL IDENTITY: Perry, J & Bratman, M - Introduction to Philosophy, Chapter 'J Perry ' A Dialogue Concerning Personal Identity'
4. PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIND: DJ Robinson - A Catalogue of Views on Body and Mind AND Churchland, P - Matter and Consciousness, Chapter 2.

ETHICS: Lecturer - Dr. Caroline West
Plato - Euthyphro from The Collected Dialogues of Plato
Gensler, H.J. - Supernaturalism in Ethics: A Contemporary Intro
Nietzsche, F - Twilight of the Idols and the Anti- Christ
Hume, D - A Treatise on Human Nature
Rachels, J - Subjectivism from A Companion to Ethics
Rachels, J - The CHallenge of Cultural Relativism from The Elements of Moral Philosophy
Plato - The Ring of Gyges
Hobbes, T - The Leviathan from Ethical THeory
Le Guin, U - THe Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas from The Wind's Twelve Quarters
Pettit, P - Consequentialism from A Companion to Ethics
Bentham, J - The Principle of Utility
Godwin, W - The Archbishop and the Chambermaid
Nozick, R - The Experience Machine
WIlliams, B - A Critique of Utilitarianism and Utilitarianism For and Against
Kant, I - THe Categorical Imperative and On a Supposed RIght To Lie from Altruistic Motives
Singer, P - Animal Liberation

BEAUTY: Dr. Rick Benitez
Iris Murdoch - from The Fire and THe Sun
Plato - From the Symposium and Hippias Major
Leo Tolstoy - from What is Art?
Wassily Kandinsky - from The Spiritual in Art
David Hume - from THe Standard of Taste
Immanuel Kant - from The Critique of Judgement
Plato - Ion


theres the complete reading for all of the 307 pages of reading for the PHIL1011. oh there are extra lecture notes as well so there is more reading.

as 'user' already said, they are just extras from texts and you might not be able to fully grasp the content without the lectures. i do have lecture notes if you want them.

as for the course itself, the first section, REALITY with DBM is the best, he is the funniest lecturer you will have. i just took this unit as a filler, but i'm thinking of taking his second year unit. as for the other two, i can't really say anything about them cuz i only went to the REALITY lectures and skipped the rest of the course. but i heard ETHICS really make you think about your actions and BEAUTY is just boring!

GOOD LUCK.

oh, there might be a course reader in FISHER LIBRARY at USYD in SPECIAL RESERVE that you might want to look at. i don't think you can borrow it, but if your really interested, take a look at it.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

Thanks again.

I realise that they might be hard to understand outside of a lecture context, but my plan is to try and have most of my course readings (This is easier for English and History units) read by the time the semester starts. It's always easier reading a text for the second time, and it counts as a good way of avoiding boredom, I think.

 

[jlh]

yeah with philosophy, it is recommended that you read the text a few times because most likely you will not fully understand the whole idea.

i have to say.. your really motivated, i wish i was.. hahaha!

good luck!

 

[user]

Having finished both PHIl courses, I can't say I've completly read and understood everything in both readers. There are still some bits that I haven't read yet, and will never read. The bare minimum for me!

 

[Gregor Samsa]

Originally posted by user
Having finished both PHIl courses, I can't say I've completly read and understood everything in both readers. There are still some bits that I haven't read yet, and will never read. The bare minimum for me!

Huzzah. What amount constitutes the bare minimum?


I've had quite good luck in finding the various English texts.. Have all three texts for 'Fiction Film And Power', Endgame for 'Inventing Modernity' (and I've studied Blade Runner before.. Still need that Norton Anthology though), and 'Ulysses' and 'Mrs Dalloway' for 'Modernism'. All good..Only the 'reading' part to go.

 

[user]

Bare minimum depends on what you can get away with not reading. eg in the first year philosophy courses, the assessment is 1 essay based on the first part of the course (i.e. society for phil 1010 and reality for phil 1011). After that essay, you don't have to do any more assessments on that part. So you just choose the essay question that you can answer, and read the relevant parts.

The other sections are assessed by the end of semester exam. You should have a vague idea of all the ideas that hte lecturer will make you write stuff on, choose a couple of ideas you want to write on, read all the parts for that, and just revise the lectures on everything else.

Of course, this is not a foolproof idea. I got a 73 for phil1010 and a 53 for phil1011 using the forementioned methods.