• request
• course objectives
• arrangements for the course
• what you should do
• registration
• course outline

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course objectives

• lectures


There will be eighteen 50 minute lectures, divided into three sessions.  Session I (WHY)  will occupy weeks 1 & 2 (from 8 September), and will be followed by a one week study period (from 21 September).  Session II (HOW ^{accessible only from the HKU network})  will occupy weeks 4-6 (from 28 September), and will be followed by another one week study period (from 19 October).  Session III (WHAT FOR) will occupy weeks 8-11 (from 26 October), and will be followed by a three week period for thought, revision and examination.
 

• tutorials


For each student there will be five 50 minute tutorials in small groups in which you will make presentations (which should be available in written or electronic form), and reply to presentations (the replies should be available in note form). The tutorials are a very important part of your work.  (Tutorial 1: week 4/5; tutorial 2: week 6/7; tutorial 3: week 8/9; tutorial 4: week 10/11; tutorial 5: week 12/13).
 

• exercises


Various exercises may be set from time to time.  Click for exercise 4.
 

• assessment


There will be a two-hour examination paper. 40% of the final mark will be based on your coursework.

• lectures


In lectures, it is much more important to try to follow and understand and participate than to take notes. You are encouraged to interrupt and ask questions. No question is a silly question. If you want to ask it, you should. Asking it may help others as well as yourself.
 

• tutorials


Click here for a department guide on writing essays. See also the advice of Dr Lau and of Professor Goldstein.
 

• discussion


Even more important is the opportunity for discussion. So the written work needs to be the basis of a presentation. Discussion is a crucial part of philosophy. You must sign up for a tutorial group on the notice-board in the Department by 25 September at the latest.  The details will be arranged by your tutor.   For tutorial topics, see the course outline below.
 

• the Web


You are encouraged to use the Web. We have set up a bulletin board on which you can ask questions or make points, and some of our course materials will be provided through the Web. You can get access to the bulletin board and to some of the course handouts (in what will sometimes be a fuller form than the paper handouts) through our department's home page (URL: http://www.hku.hk/philodep). To go directly to the bulletin board service, just click here.
 

• assessment


Be willing to take risks in your essays/presentations. You are much more likely to get a good mark by trying to explore and develop your own ideas than by giving an account of someone else's (including ours). I don't want to hear my own ideas repeated back to me.

If you have not yet registered in the department, please come to room MB 302 to do so as soon as possible, and ask Miss Li.

• session 1: WHY
 
• self-study week 1: preparing for your first tutorial
 
• session 2: HOW
•  topic for your second tutorial
•  The representational theory of perception
 
• self-study week 2 (reading week)

 
• session 3: WHAT FOR
• topic for your third tutorial
• "Unnatural Kinds" (This is a link to a paper outside the course Web-site.)
• functional explanation
• Chance

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(these course-pages were launched on 7 September 1998, and last revised on 23 November 1998)
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