Knowledge, Reason, and Society
Duration
- One Semester or Term
Contact hours
- 36 Hours
On-campus unit delivery combines face-to-face and digital learning.
Prerequisites
50 CP
Corequisites
NilAims and objectives
This unit aims to familiarise students with contemporary approaches to the investigation of the concepts of reason, truth and knowledge, and to apprise them of the practical significance of this area of research. The unit also aims to promote cross-cultural understanding and communication through enhancing student understanding of cross-cultural variations in how these concepts are understood. In the process, it aims to enhance student’s ability to provide well-developed responses to long-standing epistemological questions with a view to enabling them to respond more effectively to challenges facing the contemporary world.
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit of study students are expected to understand:
- The nature of rationality, knowledge and truth, and why these concepts are fundamental to our philosophical self-understanding
- The need for a radical rethinking of how these themes are understood in the light of contemporary challenges
- The problem of relativism along with the dangers of imposing our conception of knowledge and rationality on other cultures
- Key themes in the contemporary feminist debate about reason and knowledge
- Arguments for and against the cross-cultural implementation of human rights standards notwithstanding significant variations in cultural contexts.
Students are expected to develop their skills in:
· Appreciating the importance of the concepts of reason, truth and knowledge for our self and cultural understanding
· Recognising how cultural, historical and even gender-based presuppositions can condition our perceptions of reason, truth and knowledge
· Acquiring the ability to weigh the arguments on different sides of the debate.
· Constructing well-reasoned arguments grounded in recommended readings in support of their viewpoints
· Communicating their findings clearly and effectively
Courses with unit
This unit is no longer offered
Unit information in detail
- Teaching methods, assessment, general skills outcomes and content.
Teaching methods
One class (3 hours) and independant study.
Assessment
Participation in class and online (10%)
Two 2,000-word essays (30% each)
Class presentation (15%)
Critical Journal (15%)
Two 2,000-word essays (30% each)
Class presentation (15%)
Critical Journal (15%)
General skills outcomes
The graduate attributes which relate to this unit help to produce graduates who are:
- Capable in their chosen professional, vocational or study areas
- Entrepreneurial in contributing to innovation and development within their business, workplace or community
- Effective and ethical in work and community situations
- Adaptable and able to manage change
- Aware of local and international environments in which they will be contributing (eg socio-cultural, economic, natural)
Content
Issues considered in this unit include:
- What is rationality, and why has it always been regarded as integral to philosophical inquiry?
- How have contemporary changes in our self-understanding motivated the case for a radical rethinking of rationality so as to take greater account of the broader historico-cultural context? What are the implications of the revised conception for practice as well as theory?
- What is knowledge, and how can we differentiate the reliable from the unreliable? Does the gender, or sex, of the knower influence the kinds of knowledge we can, or should, acquire? Does gender. or sex, of the knower have a bearing on the conduct of scientific inquiry?
- What is truth? Is truth relative to us, or independent of the knower? Can we ever really know truth?
- Is reason universal or relative to culture? Should the western conception of rationality provide the standard with reference to which the beliefs and practice of other cultures are assessed? Does it make sense to talk of ‘alternative rationalities’?
- Are human rights universal or relative to culture? Should we attempt to impose our standards on other cultures even in the interests of improving their human rights record?
Study resources
- Reading materials.
Reading materials
Brown, H., Rationality, Routledge, London, 1990.
Fay, B., Contemporary Philosophy of Social Science: A Multicultural Approach, Blackwell, Oxford, 1996.
Healy, P., Rationality, Hermeneutics, and Dialogue: Toward a Viable Postfoundationalist Account of Rationality, Ashgate, Aldershot.
Fay, B., Contemporary Philosophy of Social Science: A Multicultural Approach, Blackwell, Oxford, 1996.
Healy, P., Rationality, Hermeneutics, and Dialogue: Toward a Viable Postfoundationalist Account of Rationality, Ashgate, Aldershot.