PPE workload (first year)

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Wizardtb

I found the reading list a bit ridiculous. Yeah, like the hell I'm going to go and read Leviathan, what are they- on crack or something? Really, just going down the list- I'm begin to doubt the course in general.

Why proscribe the actual philisophical texts when Betrand Russel's "History of Western Philisophy" will suffice as a subsitute? Most of the people here haven't actually done Philisophy before, so reading a work like Leviathan is pointless. The difference between Russel's book and the actual texts, is that Russel's is actually readable by highschool students.

Or, perhaps "The Worldly Philisophers" for those who want to be introduced to Economics. The books aren't meant to be taken lightly... and really shouldn't be read without someone to guide you through them. Hell, my dad read "Utilitarianism" with a teacher in a postgraduate course and they expect us to read it by ourselves?

Good luck with the first week of Issues in Philosphy, Mackie's "subjectivity of values" is NOT an easy read. And thats the first week introductory text, it gets harder.

Reply 41

Apisith

What a way to dampen the feelings of excitement that I had!

Reply 42

Linda

you'll get used to it, they put you in groups of 2-3 people and then you have to present it to your seminar group, it really helps discussing it with other people. I think the way they do it with semiars/tutorials are great, it might be difficult but at least you learn something of value rather than something you could have just done on your own.

Reply 43

tangsiuje

i didn't particularly like the first lecture of mackie. but we didn't need to do it, since we could choose between that module and logic.

for this year, they've revamped the course programme, so you guys will start out with descartes. the first four meditations or so are awesome, so i think you'll enjoy it loads. i found it quite daunting at first, since i had no previous experience in doing philosophical readings, but hatfield's guidebook helped loads. especially for exams.

hope you all do well.