Please note - Swinburne University of Technology

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~ ~ 1 0 2 Theories of the Universe
No. of hours per week: three hours
Prerequisites: nil
Assessment: continuous
Subject aims and description
Ideas about the world and our relationship to the universe.
Within the general framework of social history the main
emphasis is on the interaction of culture, civilisation, social
change, and science.
Major topics include: ancient societies, religion and science,
concepts of the universe, theories and hypotheses.
Preliminary reading
Koestler, A. The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of
the Universe. Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1964
Textbook
Kuhn, T. The Copernican Revolution. Cambridge. Mass., Haward
University Press. 1957, Repr. 1973-74
g. References
3 Boas, M. The Scientific Renaissance. London, Fontana, 1970
% Crombie, A. Augustine to Galileo. 2 vols., 2nd edn, Harmondsworth.
m Penguin, 1969
. Toulmin, S. and Goodfield, J. The Fabric of the Heavens.
Harmondsworth. Penguin, 1963
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5 ~ ~ 1 0 3 Critical Thinking
No. of hours per week: three hours
Prerequisites: nil
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g
E
Assessment: by examination and class exercises
Subject aims and description
The aim of this course is to help students develop critical
reasoning skills which they can apply both in the assessment
of arguments encountered in academic and everyday
contexts and in the construction of strong arguments in
support of their own claims. A variety of practical skills is
taught. For example, how to: distinguish claims from
evidence; assess claims on the basis of the evidence
presented; identify fallacies in arguments; organise material
in logically coherent patterns; evaluate objections to claims
made and to respond to them in a sustained and objective
manner. Such skills are basic to the effective completion of
academic assignments.
Textbooks
Please consult with lecturer before buying textbooks
References
Barry, V. and Rudinow, J. Invitation to Critical Thinking. 2nd edn,
Fort Worth, Tex., Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1990
Govier, T. Practical Study of Argument. 3rd edn, Belmont, CA,
Wadsworth, 1992
~ ~ 2 0 1 Mind, Language and Thought
No. of hours per week: three hours
Prerequisite: one of AH1 00, AH1 01, AH102,
AH 103 or approved equivalent
Assessment: continuous
Subject aims and description
Th~subject explores theories of the relationship between
mind, cognition, language and culture. Themes studied will
be chosen from the following list: mind, brain and cognition;
language, meaning and truth; language as representation
and as metaphor; signs, language and culture.
Preliminary reading
Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago,
University of Chicago Press, 1980
Teichman, J. Philosophy and the Mind. Oxford, Blackwell, 1988
Textbooks
Please consult with your lecturer before buying textbooks
Reference
Dreyfus, H.L. What Computers Still Can't Do. Cambridge, Ma, MIT
Press, 1992.
AHZO~ Nature and Human Nature
No. of hours per week: three hours
Prerequisites: AH1 00, AH1 01, AH1 02, AH1 03 or
approved equivalent
Assessment: continuous
Subject aims and description
The purpose of this subject is to examine the ways in which
biological theories of behaviour and heredity have influenced
social thought. The interrelationships between theories of
human nature are explored in terms of the birth of the new
science of psychology at the end of the nineteenth century.
Themes to be explored include: the his-measure of man';
the origins of the naturelnurture controversy; the rise of the
concept of culture in social science: the origins of industrial
psychology; biology and scientific utopias; the concept of the
savage; behaviour and the perfectibility of man; scientific
theories of race and their impact; the image of the black
Australian in European anthropology; Sigmund Freud, his life
and times.
Textbooks
Fancherf, R. Pioneers of Psychology. 2nd edn, New York, Norton,
1990
Freud, S. Two Short Accounts of Psychoanalysis. Harmondsworth,
Penguin, Repr. 1972
Reference
Gould, S.J. The Mismeasure of Man. Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1984
~ ~ 2 0 4 Philosophy of Culture
No. of hours per week: three hours
Prerequisite: one of AH100, AH101, AH102,
AH 103 or approved equivalent
Assessment: continuous
Subject aims and description
This subject is designed to provide students with the
historical, philosophical and theoretical background to
current research in the study of culture, to examine the
assumptions underlvinq the maior theoretical developments
and major schools of c;ltural &dies and thereby toshow the
relationships between the different dimensions of culture, to
reveal the practical implications of such research, and to
consider what are the most promising lines of research for
the future. The subject examines ~arxist, hermeneuticist,
structuralist, post-structuralist and svmbolic interactionist
approaches t'o culture, and the confiicts between the
proponents of these different approaches.