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2023/2024

Metaphysics

Code: 100303 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500246 Philosophy OB 3 2

Contact

Name:
Jaume Mensa Valls
Email:
jaume.mensa@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.


Prerequisites

No prerequisite.


Objectives and Contextualisation

Metaphysics is a compulsory subject in the third year of the philosophy degree. The general objective of the subject Metaphysics is to study the problem of being and its relationship with the problem of language and truth. The course has a double pole: on the one hand, Plato as an example of a classical author who raised the great themes of metaphysics (an approach that, like no other, because it is open to various interpretations, also challenges us ), and on the other, the hermeneutic current (like the "topos" from which we interpret Plato). For this reason, also, in a third topic (the hermeneutic question) we will make explicit these presuppositions of hermeneutics.

The specific objectives of this subject are:

a) Achieve a global understanding of the metaphysical problem and its historical development;

b) Understand the main concepts related to metaphysics;

c) Read key metaphysical texts;

d) Present hermeneutics as a current alternative (that is, "postmetaphysical") of classical metaphysics.

 


Competences

  • Act within one's own area of knowledge, evaluating sex/gender-based inequalities.
  • Analysing and summarising the main arguments of fundamental texts of philosophy in its various disciplines.
  • Placing the most representative philosophical ideas and arguments of a period in their historical background and relating the most important authors of each period of any philosophical discipline.
  • Recognising and interpreting topics and problems of philosophy in its various disciplines.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
  • Thinking in a critical and independent manner on the basis of the specific topics, debates and problems of philosophy, both historically and conceptually.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Accurately using the specific lexicon of the history of philosophy.
  2. Applying philosophical rigour in a written text following the international quality standards.
  3. Autonomously searching, selecting and processing information both from structured sources (databases, bibliographies, specialized magazines) and from across the network.
  4. Communicate by making non-sexist, non-discriminatory use of language.
  5. Communicating in the studied language in oral and written form, properly using vocabulary and grammar.
  6. Demonstrating a personal stance over a problem or controversy of philosophical nature, or a work of philosophical research.
  7. Discriminating the features that define the writer's place in the context of a problem and reorganising them in a consistent diagram.
  8. Distinguishing and outlining the fundamental content of a philosophical text.
  9. Distinguishing the topics of philosophical relevance in current debates.
  10. Establishing relationships between science, philosophy, art, religion, politics, etc.
  11. Explaining the specific notions of the History of Philosophy.
  12. Expressing both orally and in written form, the issues and basic problems of the philosophical tradition.
  13. Identifying the main ideas of a related text and drawing a diagram.
  14. Indicating and discussing the main characteristics of the distinctive thought of a period and contextualizing them.
  15. Organizing their own time and work resources: designing plans with priorities of objectives, calendars and action commitments.
  16. Producing an individual work that specifies the work plan and timing of activities.
  17. Recognising, with a critical eye, philosophical referents of the past and present and assessing its importance.
  18. Relating elements and factors involved in the development of scientific processes.
  19. Relating several ideas of the current philosophical debates.
  20. Relating the various orders of the philosophical ideas of different authors and historical moments.
  21. Solving problems autonomously.
  22. Using suitable terminology when drawing up an academic text.

Content

Introduction

Topic 1. Concept of metaphysics, current panorama, beyond an ontotheological metaphysics, metaphysics as critical hermeneutics

 

The question of being

Topic 2. Plato: The theory of ideas in the Phaedo. The "second navigation"

Topic 3. Plato's ontology: being, U (Parmenides) and non-being (Sophist)

1. General introduction
2. The Parmenides: introduction, content analysis, interpretations
3. The Sophist: introduction, characters and dramatic setting, structure, concluding note

Topic 4. Plato: ontology and protology (metaphysics interpreted in the light of unwritten doctrines according to the Tübingen School)

1. Introduction: interpretations of Plato's philosophy
2. Schleiermacher: explanation of the hermeneutic principles of interpretation of the Platonic dialogues
3. The Tubingen School
4. Plato: philosophy and writing
5. Krämer and the reconstruction of Plato's metaphysics based on the indirect tradition
6. Interpretation of Plato's metaphysics in the light of unwritten doctrine (texts from the Phaedo, the Parmenides, the Sophist). Note on the interpretation of the demiurge in the school of Milan

Topic 5. Plato and Gadamer's hermeneutic method

Unit 6. From Plato's One to the Christian Trinitary God: Augustine of Hippo and Neoplatonism

1. Neoplatonic reading of the Parmenides
2. Augustine of Hippo: God and creation

Topic 7. Thomas Aquinas and Aristotelian metaphysics

1. Concept of metaphysics: from Aristotle to Thomas Aquinas
2. Aristotelian metaphysics*
3. Interpretations of Aristotelian metaphysics: Jaeger, Reale, Aubenque

 

Language and truth

Unit 8. Plato: language and knowledge (Cratylus)

Topic 9. Augustine of Hippo: philosophy of language (De magistro)*

Topic 10. Gadamer: language and hermeneutic experience

1. The concept of language in history
2. Language as a means of the hermeneutic experience
3. Language as the horizon of a hermeneutic ontology

 

The linguistic turn in metaphysics. The hermeneutical question

Topic 11. Concept of hermeneutics

Topic 12. History of hermeneutics: Luther, Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger*, Bultmann, Ricoeur*

Topic 13. Gadamer's hermeneutics: Reading of the third part of Truth and method*

Theme 14. Hannah Arendt*, María Zambrano*, Habermas*, Apel*, Vattimo and Girard. Zubiri*


[*= possible topics for a class presentation: see "assessment"]


Methodology

 

In class, the teacher will present the topics and comment on some particularly significant texts. The student will have a dossier with notes and texts (Virtual Campus). It is recommended that the student come to class with the notes and texts read. It is very important to attend and participate in class.

In addition, the student must carry out two compulsory personal readings: Plato's Parmenides; and the third part (chapters 12, 13 and 14) of Gadamer's Truth and Method. On one of these two readings, he/she will write an essay (cf. evaluation)

We will use the Virtual Campus basically to share the materials and deliver the activities. On the other hand, if the student want to contact the teacher, it is necessary to do so by email.

On a voluntary basis, students who wish may make a class presentation on any of the topics marked with an asterisk (*). This activity is especially recommended for people who aspire to the highest grade (it will help the teacher to give a quality grade).

In order the student can schedule the course well, the first day of class the Lecturer will post a calendar on the Virtual Campus with the most important dates of the course (exams, delivery of work, etc.).

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Master class 42 1.68 7, 10, 11, 22, 14, 17, 19, 20, 1
Type: Supervised      
Tutorials 15 0.6 3, 8, 5, 15, 1
Type: Autonomous      
Preparation of topics and texts. Bibliographic expansion 20 0.8 4, 7, 8, 13, 15, 20
Reading. Gadamer, "Truth and Method", III (c. 12, 13, 14) 15 0.6 6, 9, 8, 10, 13, 15, 17, 19
Reading. Plato: "Parmenides" 15 0.6 7, 8, 13, 20
Study and commenting on especially significant texts 30 1.2 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 8, 10, 11, 12, 5, 22, 15, 20, 1

Assessment

SINGLE ASSESSMENT

The single assessment will be a written exam consisting of three parts:

a) Questions of a theoretical nature about the contents (35%);

b) Commentary on texts (35%);

c) Questions (contents) and activities, comments and arguments about the compulsory readings (30%).

To pass the exam it is necessary that the overall mark of the exam is at least 50% of the possible mark and  the mark of each part is at least 40% of the possible mark.

Recovery exam

The recovery excam can only be taken if the student has obtained at least a 3.5 in the single assessment exam.

The characteristics of the recovery exam will be the same as those of the single assessment exam. Even if the student has passed one or two parts of the single assessment exam, he/she must take the entire exam.

 

CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT

Continuous assessment presupposes class attendance and constant work.

To pass the course it is necessary: a) that the mark of each one of the two exams is, at least, 4; b) that the average of the various activities add up to at least 5. If a student does not meet these two conditions, it will be necessary for them to take the reassessment of the exam or exams that prevent them from achieving a pass. The student will only be able to appear for the reevaluation if at the time they have taken the partial exams.

The work is not subject to reevaluation, even if it is suspended.

The student who has only carried out evaluation activities for a value less than or equal to 30% will be qualified as Not Evaluable.

There is no second call.

The teacher will assign a day, time and place for the exam revision once she has evaluated the course activities and has given the overall qualification mark. Students who must take the reassessment will have a specific revision day once they have completed the aforementioned reassessment activity.

Observations on evaluation activities

Exams. The exam can consist of two parts: theory questions and commentary on a fragment. In the theory questions it will be necessary to give a reason for the content of the topics, the basic bibliography on that topic and the compulsory reading. The subject of the first partial exam will be the topics of the first half of the course and the reading of the Parmenides; that of the second, the topics of the second half of the course and the third part of Truth and Method.

Essay. The student can choose between: Plato, Parmenides; or Gadamer, Truth and Method (third part, c. 12, 13. 14). The work will have an approximate length of 5000 words. The main objective of the work is to summarize and comment on the content of the reading, contrast itwith bibliography and contextualize it in the life, work and philosophy of the author. Only works delivered in the Virtual Campus (in digital format) and on paper in class, within the deadline, will be accepted.

Class participation. The teacher will appreciate that students participate actively in class. Prepare classes at home, expand content, make contributions, etc. These are activities that, apart from their value in evaluating the course, can help round off the grade.

Presentation. On a voluntary basis, especially students who wantthe highest grade, can make a presentation in class on one of the topics marked with an asterisk (see Contents).

 

Recovery exam

The recovery exam will consist of a test that will combine theory questions and a text commentary.

 

In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the eventof several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject. 


Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
First test: exam 35% of the final grade 1.5 0.06 2, 4, 6, 9, 8, 10, 11, 12, 5, 22, 14, 17, 19, 20, 18, 21, 1
Second test. Essay ("Parmenides" or "Truth o Medhod", III, c. 12-14) 30% of the final grade 10 0.4 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 8, 16, 10, 12, 5, 22, 13, 15, 17, 19, 20, 18, 21, 1
Third test: exam 35% of final grade 1.5 0.06 2, 4, 6, 9, 8, 10, 11, 12, 5, 22, 14, 17, 19, 20, 18, 21, 1

Bibliography

 Compulsory readings

PLATÓ, Parmènides (Textos Filosòfics, 55), Barcelona, Edicions 62; i Diàlegs, XIV (Fundació Bernat Metge, 144), Barcelona, 1995.

GADAMER, H.G., Verdad y método [III, c. 12-14], Salamanca, Sígueme, 1977.

 

Basic bibliography

DILTHEY, El naixement de l'hermenèutica (Textos Filosòfics, 76), Barcelona, 1997;

R. GABÁS, Filosofía del siglo XX, dins J. Hirschberger, Historia de la filosofía, III, Barcelona, Herder, 2011.

F. NEF, Qu'est-ce que la metaphysique?, París, 2004.

Teresa OÑATE, Para leer la "Metafísica" de Aristóteles en el siglo XXI, Madrid, Dykinson, 2001.

RECAS BAYON, J, Hacia una hermenéutica crítica. Gadamer, Habermas, Apel, Vattimo, Rorty, Derrida y Ricoeur, Madrid, Biblioteca Nueva, 2006.

VATTIMO, G, Más allá de la intepretación, Barcelona, Paidós, 1995.

 
 N.B.: in the student dossier you will find the specific bibliography of each subject.

 


Software

The essay will be presented in a .doc and/or .pdf file.

If an online session had to be done, Teams or Meet would be used