Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Synopsis This subject aims to provide an introduction to the main issues in metaphysics and epistemology. Topics to be covered include scepticism, perceptual knowledge, language and meaning, concepts of substance, identity and causation, minds and persons. The discussion of these topics will be introduced through the work of the major rationalist and empiricist philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries - especially Descartes, Locke and Hume - but the emphasis will be on issues of contemporary relevance.
Assessment Written (5000 words): 70% + Examinations (1 hour): 30% + Optional replacement of one essay by a 2-hour examination + The Keller Plan assessment program is offered as an alternative (see above for details)