PH_SoZ Comprehensive Examination in Philosophy

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2011
Extent and Intensity
0/0/0. 0 credit(s). Type of Completion: SoZk (examination).
Teacher(s)
prof. PhDr. Břetislav Horyna, Ph.D. (alternate examiner)
prof. PhDr. Josef Krob, CSc. (alternate examiner)
prof. PhDr. Jan Zouhar, CSc. (alternate examiner)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Jan Zouhar, CSc.
Department of Philosophy – Faculty of Arts
Prerequisites
The collective exam should pass those students studying combinated (twofold) Mgr. study programme.
To join the exam students are required to possess the desired number of credits of the 1st cycle; their branch work must be accepted.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The subjects of bachelor exam: The history of the European philosophy from Antique till XX. cent., ethics.
Syllabus
  • Selected questions from the history of ancient and medieval philosophy:
  • 1.Order and chaos (logos and chaos) - the base of future ontological concepts, not only ancient
  • 2.Mythological cosmogony and the beginnings of Greek philosophy (Milesians, Pythagoras, Heraclitus)
  • 3.The Eleatics and so-called Physics after Parmenides (Empedocles, Anaxagoras)
  • 4.Ancient Atomism
  • 5.The Sophists and Socrates
  • 6.Plato (the dialogues like Cratylus, Phaedo, Phaedrus, The Republic, Parmenides, Sophist, Philebus, Timaeus)
  • 7.Aristotle - ontology in physics and metaphysics
  • 8.Aristotle (logic, psychology, ethics, policy)
  • 9.Scepticism
  • 10.Stoicism
  • 11.Ancient and medieval Neoplatonism (Plotinus, Proclus, Philo, Ps. Dionysius, Eriugena)
  • 12.Arabic reception of Greek philosophy and its influence to European philosophy (Avicenna, Averroes)
  • 13.Greek and Latin Church fathers (Gregor of Nisa, Origen, Boethius)
  • 14.St Augustine - two approaches to the understanding of Time
  • 15.Medieval dialectic and the problem of universals
  • 16.Anselm's argument and its history
  • 17.Scholasticism (St Thomas Aquinas, Jean Duns Scotus, William Ockham)
  • 18.Czech medieval thought
  • Selected questions from the history of modern philosophy and philosophy of XIX. cent.; selected questions from philosohy of XX. cent.:
  • 1.New world picture and its influence to the philosophy, new science; ideal and reality (Nicholas of Cusa, B. Telesio, M. Copernicus, G. Bruno, da Vinci, Kepler, Galilei, Vico, de la Ramée, F. Bacon)
  • 2.Social and political philosophy of Renaissance (N. Machiavelli, M. de Montaigne, H. Grotius)
  • 3.Philosophical thoughts of J. A. Comenius
  • 4.Mathematical and mechanical understanding to the nature, question of being, question of cognitive methods (R. Descartes, followers and critics; P. Bayle, B. Pascal)
  • 5.Rationalistic concept of substance, question of knowledge, nature and society (Spinoza, G. W. Leibniz)
  • 6.Social, political and ethical concepts of English philosophy of XVII. and XVIII. cent. (Hobbes, Locke, English moral philosophers)
  • 7.Concept of reality and knowledge in English empirism of XVII. and XVIII. cent. (Locke, Berkeley, Hume)
  • 8.Mechanical materialism, its grounds and limits - XVII. - XIX. cent.
  • 9.Enlightenment; the elements, French Enlightenment, philosophy of Enlightenment in Gernamy
  • 10.The question of modern philosophy today: its reflection, evaluation, analysis in world and Czech philosophy, influence, relation to modernism, Czech translations; critical reception of Enlightenment, question of a Modern Period and modernism in contemporary philosophy
  • 11.Kant: question of criticism and transcendental philosophy, Critique of Pure Reason, understandind to the experience, observational forms, question of antinomies, the list of categories, Critique of Practical Reason, Critique of Judgement, Groundwork to the Metaphysic of Morals; Kant's natural philosophy, philosophy of religion; Kant's followers and enemies: F. H. Jacobi, Fr. Schiller, K. L. Reinhold, J. S. Beck, J. G. Hamann, S. Maimon
  • 12.German romantism: Fr. Schiller, F. Schlegel, Novalis, Hölderlin, idea of "new mythology" (Schelling), its content, account and history, influence of German romantism to the philosophy of XIX. and XX. cent.
  • 13.J. G. Fichte: philosophy of "self" (I, Me), moral philosophy, philosophy of religion and concept of nation
  • 14.W. J. Schelling: theory of transcendental idealism, concept of nature, the place of nature in philosophical system, religious philosophy (titanic, dionysian and apollinian principle)
  • 15.W. F. Hegel; system of philosophy, theory of knowledge (question of cognitive method and its relation to the critical philosophy), The Phenomenology of Mind - natural philosophy, philosophy of Intellect, philosophy of religion, G. W. F. Hegel: philosophy of history; process of birth of rational state; Hegelianism and Neo-Hegelianism: Hegelian schools, selected persons (Stirner, Bauer, Feuerbach, Marx, B. Croce, Bosanquet, Gentile, Renan ad.); Hegel's heritage today (Ch. Taylor)
  • 16.Marx and his followers
  • 17.Positivism; A. Comte; English Neo-Empirism: J. S. Mill, H. Spencer; empirio-criticism; Avenarius, Mach, Ostwald; epistemology, role of experience, theory of science, metodological questions of science
  • 18.Czech philosophy of XIX. cent.
  • 19.Irrationalism and voluntarism in the philosophy of XIX. cent. (S. Kierkegaard , A. Schopenhauer, F. Nietzsche)
  • 20.Neo-Kantianism; schools, exponents, their philosophical benefit; Kantianism today
  • 21.Lebensphilosophie of W. Dilthey, F. Nietzsche, H. Bergson
  • 22.The beginning of Phenomenology and its method
  • 23.Antropological ontologies, their methods and goals (Jaspers, Heidegger, Sartre)
  • 24.Philosophy of language and Hermeneutics
  • 25.New questions of epistemology in XX. cent.
  • 26.The Truth in philosophical ideas of the end of XIX. and the first half of XX. cent.
  • 27.Subject - object in the philosophy of XX. cent. a) scientific and b) antropologic
  • 28.Problem of the development of science and scientific judgement (pragmatism, Kuhn, Feyerabend).
  • 29.Critical rationalism
  • 30.The beginnings and development of structuralism
  • Selected questions from ethics:
  • 1.Origin of moral, beginnings of ethical reflection: habits, traditions, moral and legal norms of ancient civilisations
  • 2.Main types of understanding to the Good in the history of ethics
  • 3.Ancient ethics: the art of a good life (ascetic and therapeutic models), theory of happiness, concept of virtues, various philosophical concepts of ethics
  • 4.Medieval ethics: the Church fathers, Augustine's concept of ethics, the Christianity, ethics by St Thomas aquinas, Reformation, Anti-Reformation
  • 5.Renaissance ethics: Humanism, Mystics, Utopia, Erasmus of Rotterdam, N. Machiavelli, M. de Montaigne, Th. Morus
  • 6.Beginnings of modern ethics: ethics by R. Descartes and Th. Hobbes
  • 7.B. Spinoza and construction of ethical system
  • 8.British and Scottish moral philosophers: J. Lock, Schaftesbury, B. Mandeville, F. Hutcheson, J. Butler, D. Hume, "moral sense", concept of human naturality
  • 9.Utilitarianism: roots, protagonists and followers, J. Bentham, J. S. Mill
  • 10.Changes of moralism in the history of ethics: ancient moralism, humanistic moralism, English and French moralism in XVII. and XVIII. cent., A. Schopenhauer and F. Nietzsche as moralists, casual moralism of XX. cent.
  • 11.Meta-ethics: the language of moral, moral facts, quality, the Good (Idea), moral behaviour
  • 12.Non-cognitivistic theories: Emotion and Decision theories
  • 13.Cognitivistic theories: naturalistic fallacy, intuitionism, moral realism
  • 14.Evolutional and social/biological warrant of moral: Ch. Darwin, E.O. Wilson, R. Dawkins, R. Wright
  • 15.Liberalism versus komunitarism: main characters and main questions
  • 16.Consequentialism: questions, arguments, critique
  • 17.Contemporary ethical theories and their exponents: discursive ethics, conventional theory of rightness, ethics of responsibility, ethics of virtues, preferential utilitarism
  • 18.Free will, human "nature" and a question of responsibility
  • 19."Why to be moral?": possible answers in the history of ethics
  • 20.Ethical relativism
  • 21.Question of qualities in ethics
  • 22.Religion and moral: religious warrant of moral, ethic reflections of religion, relation of religious and ethic qualities
  • 23.Applied ethics: bio-ethics, environmental ethics, ethics of technics, political ethics, economical ethics, ethics of risks, scientifical ethics
Literature
  • Literatura dílčích předmětů I. cyklu magisterského studia.
Assessment methods
Oral exam.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
The course can also be completed outside the examination period.
The course is taught each semester.
Listed among pre-requisites of other courses
Teacher's information
http://www.phil.muni.cz/fil/vyuka/zkousky.html
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 1999, Spring 2000, Autumn 2000, Spring 2001, Autumn 2001, Spring 2002, Autumn 2002, Spring 2003, Autumn 2003, Spring 2004, Autumn 2004, Spring 2005, Autumn 2005, Spring 2006, Autumn 2006, Spring 2007, Autumn 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Autumn 2009, Spring 2010, Autumn 2010.
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