Philosophy and Religion

The module involves the negotiation, design and delivery of a research project whose precise topic will be determined by the student and the project supervisor.

The dissertation will be up to 20,000 words in length. The process of producing it is designed to provide students with the opportunity to consolidate their existing knowledge and skills base while developing new knowledge and skills made possible by its project-orientated nature.

This module aims to support existing taught modules in religious studies by introducing research methods and approaches from various disciplines and working to understand theoretical and practical issues in the study of religions. It introduces cross-cultural and cross- religious examination of research topics in religious studies. The module will also give students the opportunity for developing generic skills in library research, essay writing, ethics in research, dissertation planning, and presentations.

Aims and Objectives

• Induction into the study of religions Research methodologies: case studies and examples selected from anthropological, sociological, philosophical approaches as well as from the study of texts
• Theoretical approaches to the study of religion: examples selected from the disciplines of the humanities and social sciences
• Dissertation workshop: finding a topic and supervisor, completion plan, case studies

Assessment is by 5,000 word essay.

This module serves to consolidate postgraduate research and learning support by enabling students to engage with theories, methods, and skills relevant to your studies. The module is core for all PPR PGT politics students and complements core subject and discipline-specific provision in religious studies and philosophy. Through this module we aim to equip you with the ability to reflect upon the processes and implications of research project planning, design and execution in Politics, Philosophy and/or Religion.

The first part of the module examines the principles of research, including different disciplinary traditions of knowledge production. It goes on to set out the process of structuring a research project and explores how to develop and apply theory. The second part of the module examines a range of methods for conducting research, including interviews, surveys, and case studies. The final section covers questions of ethics and goes through how to write up and present research. Through the module, students will design research projects, develop writing and critical evaluation skills, and have the opportunity to present their research ideas as part of the annual MA conference. The module involves a combination of lectures, small group discussion, and presentations covering the following areas:

• The academic research process.
• Project planning, design and process management.
• Ethics in postgraduate research.
• Resource identification and review processes.
• Data acquisition techniques and issues.
• Analytical and interpretative approaches.
• Academic conventions (e.g. making an argument, writing, referencing).

Assessment is by 5,000 word research proposal.

Philosophy is a various, contested, self-reflective discipline. It includes many different areas, questions, and approaches to answering them. Metaphysics, ethics, political philosophy, epistemology, philosophy of mind, and aesthetics are just some of the more obvious areas. Philosophers at Lancaster investigate questions about the nature of mental illness, free will, the self, the ethics of new medical technologies, Romantic thought, the emotions, autonomy, and many other topics. Our approaches range across critical reading of historical texts, engagement with special sciences including biology and psychology, conceptual analysis, literary studies, phenomenology, and more.

The aim of this module is to use guided practice in doing philosophy, and in thinking about what we’re doing, to develop the skills and virtues of a postgraduate-level philosopher. We pursue this aim in three strands:

(1) Presentations from philosophy staff on their research work, followed by discussion, to offer a tasting menu of some of the varied questions and approaches in contemporary professional philosophy as done here at Lancaster

(2) Reading and guided discussion of an important text or texts in one or more contemporary sub-disciplines of philosophy

(3) Reflective practice in central philosophical styles of skilled reading, writing, research, discussion, and presentation.

Assessment is by 5,000 word essay.

Introduction

Week 1 Introduction to the study of Gender, Religion and Islam: This session is devoted to getting to know each other and discussing key issues in the study of gender and religion in light of feminist and post-colonial approaches.

Gender in the Tradition: Weeks 2-5

Week 2 Women in Qur'anic Narratives: This session introduces students to the study of the Qur’an with a focus on the representation of gender in Qur’anic narratives.

Week 3 The Construction of Gender Norms: This session investigates the moral boundaries of gender relations in the Qur’an, Hadith and early Muslim interpretation with a focus on the model of the Prophets’ wives and its extension to Muslim women in general.

Week 4 Sexuality and Modesty: This session continues to investigate the moral boundaries of gender relations in the Qur’an and Hadith with a focus on the question of sexuality and the dress code.

Week 5 Authority and power: This session will explore premodern Muslim views about the status of women and male authority, particularly in light of the central text Q. 3:34 (Male guardianship and the so-called beating verse)

Week 6 Individual Tutorials

Feminist Approaches and Contemporary Movements: Weeks 7-10

Week 7 Feminist Approaches to the Islamic tradition: Deconstructing Patriarchy: This session will look at the reform discourses which led to new approaches to the Qur’an with a focus on feminist interpretations that aim to deconstruct ‘patriarchal’ readings of the Qur’an.

Week 8 Feminist Approaches to the Islamic tradition: Reconstructing Islamic law: In this session, we take a closer look at the transnational Muslim Musawah (Equality) movement associated with Sisters in Islam and its effort to reconstruct Gender norms and laws in Islam.

Week 9 Politics and Piety: Reconstructing Islamic Practice: In the final two sessions we move to look at women’s involvement in changing religious practices through political action. This session looks at the British and US contexts and the emergence of the women-led mosques.

Week 10: Politics and Piety: The Revival of the Tradition and Critiques of Feminist Approaches: This session focuses on the revivalist, more traditionally-oriented mosque movement in the Middle East with reference to Egypt. The primary aim, however, will be to critically reflect upon and assess feminist approaches to Gender in Islam.

What moral obligations do we have towards future generations – to people who are yet to be born, and to merely possible people whose very existence (or non-existence) depends on how we act now? This special subject explores this question by examining both a series of practical case studies and some of the main concepts and theories that philosophers use when thinking about these issues. Questions considered normally include:

• How should we weigh quality against quantity of life? Would a world with a relatively small number of ‘happier’ people preferable to one with many more ‘less happy’ ones?
• Ought we to try significantly to extend the human life span (to 150 years or beyond)?
• Should cryonics be permitted and what ethical issues does this raise?
  • Is there a moral obligation to refrain from having children (e.g. for environmental reasons) and what measures may governments take to encourage or enforce population control? Conversely, might there be a moral obligation to have (more) children?
  • Should we use selection techniques to minimise the incidence of genetic disorders and disabilities in future populations?
  • Should parents be allowed to use these techniques to determine the characteristics of their future children (e.g. choosing their child’s eye or hair colour, or sex selection)?
  • When considering the future, how should the interests of non-human creatures be weighed against those of humans? How strong are our moral obligations to prevent extinctions, and to preserve wildernesses?
  • When considering long-term environmental issues (e.g. climate change, nuclear power) and long-term financial issues (e.g. national debt and pensions) how should we balance the interests and rights of people who exist now against those of future people?

An Independent Study module allows you to undertake a focussed and self-directed study of your own choice of topic in philosophy, guided by a tutor with relevant expertise and research interests. Teaching consists of one-on-one tutorials, and contact hours are five hours of meetings, to be arranged between you and your supervisor over the term. You can take an independent study module in philosophy in Michaelmas and/or Lent, up to a maximum of two.

The subject-specialist tutor who supervises the student will:

• help to shape and focus the research project
• give guidance on the professional literature, and on the nature, format, and planning of the essay
• discuss the developing content of the essay
• give feedback on at least one draft
• if possible, suggest appropriate undergraduate modules which the student could audit in support of their research

Independent study requires intellectual maturity and self-direction from the student. The student will:

• work with the supervisor to shape and focus the research project
• seek out, read, and engage argumentatively with relevant disciplinary literature
• write, share, and discuss draft work towards the assessment
• engage with the supervision process

Assessment is by 5,000 word essay.

This module will involve an in depth study of a number of contemporary debates in the philosophy of mental disorder. Topics will include the following:

What is mental disorder? Students will be introduced to some of the key accounts of mental disorder: What is the relationship between evolutionary dysfunction and disorder? Are disorders necessarily harmful?

• Antipsychiatry/ postpsychiatry - The antipsychiatrists (and more recently postpsychiatrists) argue that the very concept of mental disorder is dubious. Are mental disorders substantially like physical disorders? Or, do diagnoses of "mental disorder" simply label behaviour that is unusual, socially stigmatised, or bad?
• Conceptualising cultural variations - Do mental disorders vary from culture to culture? Would cultural variation mean that a disorder is less "real"?
• Realism and constructionism about mental disorder - What does it mean to say that a disorder is real or constructed?
• Meaning and the limits of reduction - Can symptoms be reduced to faulty brain states? Or, do symptoms such as "delusion" resist reduction?

Responsibility and disorder - Are those with

This module will look at Indian source texts on politics and ethics. In particular, it will be looking at sources that explore the concept of dharma, a term that incorporates issues of justice, religion, ethics, duty, and law. The module will examine the sources of dharma both in their own historical and cultural contexts, as well as in the context of contemporary debates in political theory and ethics. The texts examined will include: the inscriptions of Ashoka, the Buddhist Nikayas, the Arthashastra, the Law Codes of Manu, the Mahabharata, and the Kamasutra. These sources are examined in connection with modern political figures, such as Gandhi and Savarkar, as well as in connection with recent debates in India about secularism, democracy and pluralism.

Whether global, national, ethnic or ethical, conflicts frequently involve religion. Between themselves, in their relations with secular states and ideologies, and even at the level of sects or denominations, religions engage in conflict arising from deeply held beliefs and values, as well as in struggles for power, status and legitimacy. Understanding how and why religious groups contribute to global and regional conflicts and civil wars – from terrorist attacks, through historically embedded disputes in Israel/Gaza and Northern Ireland, to Christian/Muslim violence in Nigeria, Uganda and India – is vital for development, humanitarian intervention, international relations, diplomacy and conflict resolution.

This module provides the knowledge and skills to help students understand and analyse why conflict happens within and between religious groups, and to assess the positive and negative contributions that religions make to wider struggles – from local disputes through to global terrorism.

Week 1: An Historical Introduction to 'Religion and Conflict' Week 2: Religion and Secularism in the West

Week 3: Religion and Secularism in India Week 4: Religion and Ethnic Conflict

Week 5: Conflict, Religion, and International Relations Week 6: Religion and Violence

Week 7: Religion and Protest: Mohandas Gandhi Week 8: Religion and Protest: Martin Luther King Week 9: Religion and Society: Islam in Britain Week 10: Consolidation Lecture

The module is designed to introduce students to key concepts and issues in scholarship on religion and conflict: e.g. on the relationship between conflict and violence, religion and ethnicity, the ‘clash of civilizations’, intra-religious as well as inter-religious conflict, jihad and martyrdom. Equal attention will be given to the importance of context – historical, social, geographical and political. Analysis and debate about religion and conflict will be situated in particular cases, from the UK and Europe, the US, the Indian sub-continent and sub-Saharan Africa. Lecture podcasts and online discussion activities will be complemented by online talks by experts and short films. There will be plenty of opportunities for online interaction with peers and tutors.

Assessment is by 5,000 word essay.

Psychology is an attempt to understand the meaning of human behaviour which focuses upon there being an influential unconscious as well as a conscious side to the personality. Directly and indirectly, it has come to play an influential role in modern life. Words like ‘Oedipus complex', ‘introverted', ’neurotic', ‘obsessional', are in fairly common use, often with little clear understanding of their meaning. Psychoanalysts have had a major impact upon ideas of what it is to be a person. They have also provided key elements in the criticism frequently levelled at religion that it is nothing but the comforting projection of personal and social problems into another illusory world. We shall be examining these issues in detail. To this end, we shall study selected texts by Freud and other texts which may vary from year to year, but will be drawn from the work of such thinkers as Jung, Nietzsche, Bataille, Lacan, Kristeva, de Certeau and Foucault.

Assessment is by 5,000 word essay.

In this module we will encounter some of the most foundational religious and philosophical texts of the Hindu and Buddhists traditions. Texts will vary from year to year, but may include: the ?g Veda, Upani?ads, Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita, or the Yoga Sutra from the Brahmanical/Hindu tradition, and the Nikayas, Vinaya, Jatakas, Lotus Sutra, and The Bodhicaryavatara from the Buddhist tradition. Through close readings, we will examine some of the core religio-philosophical ideas of early Indian thought as well as pay close attention to the composition, style, and structure of the texts themselves. We will also attempt to situate Hindu and Buddhist textual material within a social and historical context, paying close attention to who participates in the religio-philosophical world of ancient India and in what types of social circumstances religio-philosophical ideas are discussed. Alongside reading the primary sources, we will also situate our engagements within scholarly debates about methods of interpretation such as text-historical criticism, hermeneutics, phenomenology, orientalism, and post-colonial theory.

Assessment is by 5,000 word essay.