Face-to-face , first term, 30 hours of theory.

First term
Thursday from 14:00 to 16:00 at 43 Botanique 7

French

This course on the philosophical method has two main objectives: to introduce students to research in philosophy and develop their ability to write in a way that is consistent with the norms of philosophical writing.

At the end of the course, students will have learned how to conduct research on a theme or on a particular scholar. They will also have learned how to construct and write a dissertation in the field of philosophy.

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The course has two parts corresponding to the two objectives stated above:

- The first part involves studying how to begin, conduct and present research: choosing a research subject/question, distinguishing a philosophical text from a non-philosophical text, the difference between primary and secondary literature, how to choose a translation, how to read and construct a bibliography, etc.

- The second part looks at how to write a dissertation: with a focus on the importance of defining terms and setting out the research problem. Students learn how to make a case, to offer examples, and how to faithfully transpose the ideas and reasoning of other scholars. The course includes an in-depth discussion on dissertation structure. Rounding off the course, students learn how to use philosophical language, style and tone.

At the same time, the course examines the philosopher's method, and the way in which some philosophers have theorised it, in some cases going so far as considering method a separate philosophical concept in its own right. The course focuses among others on Cartesian philosophy in order to understand to what extent our discipline would not be possible without a method.

The aim of the course is not to oblige students to follow a given method (as if only one might be possible of effective), but to help them to determine their own, and to the extent that there would be no sense in abstractly studying a method only in formal terms and that exists ‘outside' of philosophical debate, the course uses applied and genuine philosophical cases study examples and includes library work and writing seminars, applied cases in class, debates, etc.

Assessment is based on homework assignments. Assignments are designed to test student's ability to (1) conduct research on a theme/philosopher and (2) to construct and write a dissertation.

The first assignment requires students to demonstrate that they know how to construct and organize a bibliography on a philosopher of their choice, and at the same time tease out a concept or set of concepts on which it appears interesting and useful to focus research questions. Students are asked to briefly explain why this concept or set of concepts stand out in the philosopher's work, and also clearly set out why it is useful to conduct research on it/them.

The second assignment involves producing a draft dissertation: the introduction and the conclusion are to be written in full, a comprehensive dissertation plan (title, the foundations and structure of the argument being made, a mention of examples to be used, fully-drafted transitions) are also to be produced. Assessment is mainly based on the clarity of expression and the (intellectual) rigour with which the argument is made.
The lecturer is also available to check exercises done voluntarily and with a view to preparing the ground for the main assignment.

Supplied as the course progresses.

Support: course notes.