MPhil in Philosophy_1 Syllabus Mumbai University by munotes
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University of Mumbai
Department of Philosophy
MPhil Degree
in
PHILOSOPHY
(Faculty of Arts)
w.e.f. 2017 -18
1. The M. Phil. D egree programme in philosophy shall consist of three theory
papers and one dissertation paper .
2. Eligibility for admission :
(a) A candidate for being eligible for admission to the degree of Master of Philosophy (M. Phil.) course must have passed the Master’s degree examinations in philosophy, with at least a second class.
(b) No candidate will ordinarily be allowed to register the M. Phil. Degree in the subject / branch other than the one in which she/he holds his Master’s degree. However, the M. Phil. Committee may consider for admission such cases, on merits of the individual case.
3. The duration of the course for the M. Phil. Degree will be three academic terms, commencing at the start of the seco nd term of every academic year .
4. Every year, the M. Phil. Committee shall call for applications for admission to
the M. Phil. Course in prescribed forms at the end of the first semester. The Committee shall finalise admissions and registration by the beginning of the second semester. All registration forms shall be submitted to the post -
graduate section of the University within a month from the beginning or the second term.
5. A candidate, admi tted to the M. Phil. Course, is required to pay tuition and
other fees, if any, from the date of registration till the date of submission of the dissertation.
6. Candidates have to maintain an attendance of 75% as per University norms for
all the theory papers.
7. Continuous evaluation through seminars, discussions, workshops, periodic tests, book reviews, film interpre tation, projects etc., is an integral part of the
M. Phil. Course programme. The teacher shall devise the method of implementation of such continuous evaluation. Hence, there will be internal evaluation for 25 marks for each of the theory papers.
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8. Ordinarily the medium of answers for the M. Phil. Examination shall be
English.
9. There will be a final examination of 75 marks for each theory paper.
10. To pass the theory examination, a candidate must obtain a minimum of 50
marks in each paper (continuous evaluation and final University examination
taken together) and a minimum of at least 40% in the final University (examination). However, the candidate shall whether she/he has passed or failed be
informed as the case may be, paper wise.
11. The candidate will be eligible to appear for the final examination i n the theory
papers on completion of two semesters. A candidate who has appeared and
passed the theory examinations in all the papers at the end of the two semesters will be eligibl e to submit the dissertation at the end of the
third
semester .
12. No candi date will be permitted to submit the dissertation, unless she/he has
passed all the three theory papers.
13. The candidate will be admitted to appear for the theory examination as a whole or paper wise on application in the prescribed form and payment of prescribed examination fee. Similarly, the candidate shall pay the prescribed
fees while submitting the dissertation for evaluation .
14. The candidate will work on the dissertation under the guidance of a research supervisor approved by the MPhil Committee.
15. On completion, the candidate will submit the dissertation to the Department
in triplicate,
duly certified by candidate and guide as original research .
16. On the acceptance of the dissertation by an external examiner duly appointed
by the University, the candidate will be declared to have passed the M. Phil.
Degree examination. No class shall be awarded, but the candidate will be deemed to have passed the examination in second class.
17. A candidate who is enrolled for the M. Phil. Degree course but does not clear
all the theory papers in the first attempt can be permitted for reexamination as per the advise of the MPhil Committee.
18. (i) A candidate is permitted to submit her/his dissertation for the M. Phil. Degree any time after keeping three semesters but not later than 7 semesters
from the date of registration. The candidate should have completed all requirements for theory before submitting the dissertation. On failing to submit the dissertation within the stipulated time , the candidate shall be
required to register afresh for the course, and the result of the theory papers
already obtained shall be treated as
null and void.
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ii) A candidate can request for extension of one semester beyond 7 semesters. But
this cannot be claimed as a matter of righ t, but would depend upon the progress of
the candidate and the guide’s satisfaction regarding the same. The M. Phil.
Committee would review such applications and take into account the candidate’s overall performance and guide’s certification before recom mending the candidate
for extensi on of one additional semester, namely the
eighth, for submission of the
dissertation.
19. A candidate whose dissertation is returned for resubmission with revision will
have to comply and resubmit as advised. If a dissertation is rejected by two
subsequent external examiners, the candidate will be treated as failed at the
M.
Phil. Examination and will have to resubmit the dissertation. However, in
both the above cases, the candidate shall be given the benefit of two additiona l
terms (on paying prescribed tuition and other fees) for revision and/or resubmission of the dissertation.
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The following papers will be offered at the MPhil programme in philosophy:
Paper I: Research Methods & Techniques
Paper II: Discipline Paper I
“Current Trends in Western Philosophy”
Paper III: Discipline Paper II
“Study of One Indian Philosophical Text”
Paper IV: Dissertation.
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Paper I
Research Methods and Techniques
UNIT I
1. Research Forms- Report, Article, Assignment, Dissertation, and Thesis,
How to go about writing Dissertations and Theses.
2. What is data collection? Difference between science and philosophy; text as
philosophy’s data.
UNIT II
3. Natural Science and Social Science Research: Methodologies
4. Distinct features of Philosophical Research, its comparison with Science
Research
UNIT III
5. Methods in Western Philosophy- Analytical, Ph enomenological, Dialectical,
Feminist
6. Methods in Indian Philosophy- Empiricist, Rationalist, Exegetical,
Sceptical
UNIT IV
7. Avoiding Plagiarism in Research
8. Ethics of Research
Books
Balasubrmanian, R. Research Methodology in Philosophy . Madras: RIASP, 1984.
Buchler, Justus 1961 The Concept of Method . London: Columbia University Press
Carnap, Rudolf 1966 “The Experimental Method” in Philosophical Foundations of
Physics: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science , New York: Basic Books.
Collingwood, R.G. 1933 An Essay on Philosophical Method, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Cummins & Slade 1979
Writing the Research Paper - Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co
Dilthey, Wilhelm. 1996. Hermeneutics and the Study of History: Selected Works, Volume IV. Edited by R. A. Makkreel and F. Rodi. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Hempel, Carl. 1966 (1932) “The Function of General Laws in History” in
20th
Century Philosophy: The Analytic Tradition ed. Morris Weitz, 254- 68. New York:
The Free Press Kothari C.R.1985
Research Methodology: Methods & Techniques . New Delhi: Wiley
Eastern Ltd .
ParsonsC.F 1973 Thesis and Project Work Lond on: George Allen and Unwin.
Passmore, John 1961 Philosophical Reasoning . London: Gerald Duckworth.
Feinberg, Joel 2002 Doing Philosophy: A Guide to the Writing of Philosophy Papers
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Wadsworth: Belmont
Martinich, A.P. 1995 Philosophical Writing: An Introduction Blackwell: Malden
Makkreel, Rudolf. 2009. “Hermeneutics” in A Com panion to the Philosophy of
History and Historiography ed. Aviezer Tucker,529- 539. Malden MA and Oxford:
Wiley Blackwell.
MLA Handbook 8th Edition
Passmore, John 1961Philosophical Reasoning . London: Gerald Duckworth
Sherratt, Yvonne. 2006. Continental Phil osophy of Social Science: Hermeneutics,
Genealogy and Critical Theory from Greece to the Twenty- First Century
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Vaughn, Lewis Writing Philosophy: A Student’s Guide to Writing Philosophy Essays
Wallerstein, Immanuel et al.1996. Open the Social Sciences: Report of the
Gulbenkian Commission on the Restructuring of the Social Sciences New Delhi:
Vistaar Publications
Paper II ( Discipline Paper I)
Current Trends in Western Philosophy
Unit I
Post Positivist Responses and Challenges
a. Problems of Induction and Critical Rationality (Karl Popper )
b. The Two Dogmas of Empiricism (WVO Quine )
c. Incommensurability ( Thomas Kuhn )
Unit II
Interfaces in the Philosophy of Mind and Language
a. Actions and Events (Donald Davidson)
b. The problem of Intentions and Intentionality (John Searle)
c. Mental Representation (J. Fodor)
Please Note : The above units will be discussed keeping in mind the
background of debate within logical empiricism and Wittge nsteinian
perspectives on the relevant problems. The topics are merely representative and could include discussion of many more connected concepts.
Section II
Unit III:
Structuralist and poststructuralist perspectives on l anguage :
a)Ferdinand de Saussure: influence, sign- signifier, langue -parole, structure
b)Michel Foucault - appropriation of Nietzsche, critique of modern human
sciences; archaeological project; discourse on language
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c)Jacques Derrida: appropriation of Heidegger, crit ique of phonocentrism,
différance
d)Luce Irigaray: critique of “specula(riza)tion”, “Woman” as a placeholder
for diffé rance , writing the feminine, “mechanics’ of fluids”
Unit IV:
Beyond the symbolic order:
a)Gilles Deleuze: appropriation of Bergson & renewal of metaphysics, from a
“logic of sense” (language) to thinking (with F élix Guattari) on “bodies
without organs” (nature)
b)Rosi Briadotti: difference, gendered nomadism, z ōē’s biological
egalitarianism
c)Alain Badiou: appropriation of Plato & Marx , ontology and mathematics,
event.
d)Slavoj Ž ižek: appropriation of German idealism & Marx, subject and
ideology, the Real.
Reading List
Section I:
1. Popper Karl, The Logic of Scientific Discovery , Hutchinson, London,
1959
2. Quine WVO, “Two dogmas of Empiricism” in Philosophical Review (60)
1951.
3. WVO, Quine, “Epistemology Naturalized” in Ontological Relativity and
Other Essays, Columbia University Press, New York, 1969.
4. Kuhn Thomas, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of
Chicago Press, Chi cago, 1962.
5. Searle John, Intentionality: An Essay in the Philosophy of Mind, Cambridge University Press, 1983.
6. Davidson Donald, Actions and Events, Oxford University Press, 1980
7. Jerry Fodor, The Language of Thought, Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, 1975.
Section II:
Badiou, Alain 2003 Infinite Thought: Truth and the Return to Philosophy
Continuum: London and New York
2005 Being and Event Continuum: London and New York
Briadotti, Rosi 1993 “Embodiment, Sexual Difference, and the Nomadic Subject” Hypatia, 8 (1), pp. 1- 13
1994“Toward a New Nomadism: Feminist Deleuzian Tracks; or,
Metaphysics and Metabolism,” in Constantin Boundas & Dorothea Olkowski (eds.) Gilles Deleuze and the Theatre of Philosophy Routledge: New York
2002 Metamorphoses: Towards a Materialist Theory of Becoming Polity:
Cambridge
2006 Transpositions On Nomadic Ethics Cambridge Malden: Polity Press
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2009 “Animals, Anomalies, and Inorganic Others” PMLA, 124 (2): 526 -532
Derrida, Jacques 1989/1978 Edmund Husserl's Origin of Geometry: An Introduction
University of Nebraska Press: Nebraska
1978 Writing and Difference University of Chicago Press: Chicago
1982 Margins of Philosophy , tr., Ala n Bass, University of Chicago Press:
Chicago
2002 “ Geschlecht: Sexual Difference, Ontological Difference” in Heidegger
Reexamined vol 1 ed. Hubert Dreyfus and Mark Wrathall Routledge: New York and
London
Deleuze, Gilles 1990 (1969) The Logic of Sense Columbia Uni versity Press: New
York
& Félix Guttari 1987 (1980) A Thousand Plateaus University of Minnesota
Press: Minneapolis
1988 (1986) Foucault University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis
Foucault, Michel 1973 (1966) The Order of Things Vintage: New York
1972 ( 1969) The Archaeology of Knowledge Harper and Row: New
York
2003 Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France 1974- 75 Verso: London
Gatens, Moira 2000 Feminism as "Password": Re -Thinking the "Possible" with
Spinoza and Deleuze” Hypatia, 15 (2): 59- 75
Glen dinning, Simon 1999 Edinburgh Encyclopedia of Continental Philosophy
Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh (Relevant essays)
Gutting, Gary, 1989 Michel Foucault's Archaeology of Scientific Reason
Cambridge University Press: Cambridge
Irigaray Luce 1985a Speculum of the Other Woman. Ithaca: Cornell University Press
1985b This Sex which is not One. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
2004 “Towards a Sharing of Speech” in her Key Writings , 77-94. London:
Continuum.
Saussure, Ferdinand de 2011 (1916) Cour se in General Linguistics Columbia
University Press: New York
Sturrock, John 1979 Structuralism and Since Oxford University Press : Oxford
Žižek, Slavoj 2003 (1993) Tarrying with the Negative: Kant, Hegel and the Critique
of Ideology Duke University Pres s: Durham
Students can refer to Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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Paper III ( Discipline Paper II)
Study of One Indian Philosophical Text
In this paper a student is required to make a critical study of one Indian philosophical text with the help of a teacher. The text can be chosen from a list that is made
available by the Department. The student should give in writing the text which he or she wishes to study and prepare a bibliography of the articles and books related to it. She or he will have to read the text critically, present the key arguments in the text
and justify the appraisal given. The student is also expected to critically evaluate what others have said about the text.
Paper IV: Dissertation