A211 Philosophy and the Human Situation (A211 Philosophy and the Human Situation)

Member Name: mjn

Product:	A211 Philosophy and the Human Situation
Date:	21/07/00 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellently structured course

Disadvantages: LOTS of reading to a timetable.

I'm taking a BSc with Open University and all of my past courses have been of a "technical nature" until I saw the course above. I have always been interested in philosophy and so I decided to put my study of it on a more formal footing. I did not make a mistake.

I've only completed the first four books in a six book set so I'm on time and in budget as it were (see timetable) but they have proved most interesting.

The subjects covered are:-

Book 1: Arguements for Freedom
Book 2: Humans and other animals
Book 3: Environments, Ethics and Human Concern
Book 4: Human Nature after Darwin
Book 5: Minds and Bodies
Book 6: Destiny, Purpose and Faith

Each book is by a different author and as such they are written in different styles. This we are told is deliberate to give the student as much experience of different philosophical styles.

Each book so far has also, in addition to discussing its chosen topic, taught the student different philosophical "techniques" such as how to read difficult passages so that you extract the true meaning from the text. How to construct recognise "conditionals" a particular style of philosophical arguement which helps the philosopher test various ideas' validity.

The subjects covered by the six books are presented in an interesting way with lots of examples and exercises to help you get a grip of the concepts. Some books have "readings" at the back which help illustrate particular points that the authors are trying to make, whilst others have exerpts pepered throughout the main text.

I particularly enjoyed book 4 about the effects of accepting Radical Dawinian theory and its implications for free will and responsibilty.

The course covers quite a wide range of philosophers from antiquity to the present day and is particularly good at exposing the student to some of the modern thinkers around today. I
have found Midgley and Radcliffe-Richards very good.

If you enjoy philosophy but haven't studied it yet, this a good place to start. Jump in the water's great!

This course doesn't have a summer school.

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