Module: Philosophical Texts: A Reading Group

Latest Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026

Module Title	Philosophical Texts: A Reading Group
Module Code	PHE1035 (ITS: TP603)
Faculty	Theology, Philosophy & Music	School	Humanities & Social Sciences
NFQ level	9	Credit Rating	10

Description

This GTE module aims to introduce students to classic texts and themes in philosophy. As a “reading group,” the module explores a single philosophical text at a time, over a 10-week schedule, with set readings each week. The text under consideration will be selected anew each year and will facilitate conversation for doctoral students about principal themes in philosophy, such as the meaning of language, political theory, narrative philosophy, hermeneutics, ontology, epistemology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of emotion, and so forth. Plato’s Republic or Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations or even early modern texts like Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy or Locke’s Essay on Human Understanding constitute examples of texts the module wishes to read carefully and discuss in a roundtable fashion. All doctoral candidates in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences would be eligible to attend this course for GTE credit.

Learning Outcomes

1. Identify and reflect upon the key themes that have shaped the text under consideration by the group.
2. Summarize, classify, and distill critical philosophical tools and vocabularies present in the text and the text’s legacy. Terms and themes, such as existentialism, being and consciousness, epistemology, mood, emotion, embodiment, will be appraised as they advance a particular thinker’s philosophical agenda
3. Become familiar with classic texts and thematic categories in the discipline of philosophy that continue to provide touchstones for contemporary understandings of the humanities.

*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Workload	Full time hours per semester
Seminars	20	Attendance and discussion of the weekly reading.
Independent Study	130	Reading the text, preparing presentations, and writing summary reports.
Assignment Completion	50	No Description
Class Presentation	50	No Description
Total Workload: 250

Section Breakdown
CRN	20881	Part of Term	Semester 2
Coursework	0%	Examination Weight	0%
Grade Scale	40PASS	Pass Both Elements	Y
Resit Category	RC1	Best Mark	N
Module Co-ordinator		Module Teacher

Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Assessment Breakdown
Report(s)	Students must submit brief summaries of the reading each week just after the session.	50%	n/a
Presentation	Students must lead at least one discussion session of the weekly roundtable.	50%	n/a

Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories; RC1: A resit is available for both^* components of the module. RC2: No resit is available for a 100% coursework module. RC3: No resit is available for the coursework component where there is a coursework and summative examination element. ^* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a coursework/summative examination split; where the module is 100% coursework, there will also be a resit of the assessment

Pre-requisite	None
Co-requisite	None
Compatibles	None
Incompatibles	None

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Philosophical texts
Texts shall be selected each academic year that touch on classic philosophical themes such as the structure of the mind, the nature of the body, existentialism, narrative theory, philosophy of language, hermeneutics, and political philosophy

Discussion
Each session shall consist of a thorough round-table discussion of the text, which is to be read beforehand

Facilitating debate
Each session a new student shall be charged with summarizing and facilitating the discussion of the material

Portfolio
After each session, the student shall submit a summary of that session's reading material

Indicative Reading List

Books:

Charles Taylor: 2007, A Secular Age, 1st, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 850,
Peter Goldie: 2014, The Mess Inside: Narrative, Emotion and the Mind, 1st, Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press,
Maurice Merleau-Ponty: 2014, The Phenomenology of Perception, Routledge, New York and London,
Ludwig Wittgenstein: 2009, Philosophical Investigations, 4th, Blackwell, New York,
Dan Zahavi: 2017, Self and Other: Exploring Subjectivity, Empathy, and Shame, Oxford University Press, Oxford UK,

Articles:
None

Other Resources

None