guide to pre-advising in honours philosophy - University of St Andrews

elationships to objects purely qualitative in some sense, or can we refer directly to
objects and grasp singular propositions about them? What is it for a proposition to be
singular, for a term to be singular, and for a term to be referring? What are the
relationships between these phenomena? What expressions of natural language are
referring terms? Must we be acquainted with an object to refer to it or to have singular
thoughts about it? What philosophical consequences follow from different answers to
these questions?
Assessment method: 50% continuous assessment; 50% exam
Preliminary reading:
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entries "Singular Propositions" and
"Reference" will be useful background. A core text for the module will be The
Reference Book, by J. Hawthorne and D. Manley. Students may also want to revisit the
following texts discussed in PY3701: G. Frege's "On Sense and Reference", B. Russell's
"On Denoting", and S. Kripke's Naming and Necessity.
PY4635 CONTEMPORARY MORAL THEORY
Credits: 30.0
Pre- and Co-requisite: PY3702
Anti-requisite: PY4808
Course coordinator: Ben Sachs (email: bas7)
Course teacher: Marcia Baron (email: mb253)
Class Hour: TBA
Description: This module aims to provide a critical appreciation of the main
contemporary moral theories. It focuses on the debate between the two main rival
impartial moral theories, consequentialism and deontology. It then considers critiques
of both these theories and their responses, and some alternative approaches, including
– for example - virtue ethics, feminist ethics and moral particularism.
Assessment method: 50% continuous assessment; 50% exam
Suggested preliminary reading:
Scheffler, S. (ed.), Consequentialism and Its Critics, OUP 1988.
Kagan, S., Normative Ethics, Westview 1998.
Darwall, S., Deontology, Blackwell, 2003.
GK4117 Lies, History and Ideology in Athenian Literature and Thought
Co-ordinator: Alex Long (agl10)
Class hour: Thursday 11am to 1pm
We shall examine stories about the Athenian past, particularly the myth of
‘autochthony’, according to which the Athenians’ native land gave birth to
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