Point of the exams – test if we can defend a position.
The exam will be open book.
What’s history of philosophy?
Dialogical nature of philosophy – philosophers engage with the ideas of previous ones. Methodological view of history – attempt to do the history of philosophy. – interacting with the ideas of the past, finding a way of dealing with it, fitting it into our world picture.
It is important to understand philosophers on their own terms, everyone works in their own cultural, conceptual environment.
History of philosophy – a chain, every philosopher is a link. It branches out.
Reading
Doesn’t get easier :(
Every sentence is a point that philosopher makes – the premises that the philosophers think are necessary to convince you of their ideas. Sentences makes claims. Claims makes sections – something consistent of claims. Analogy: leaves → trees → forest.
As of now, it is important to understand the big idea, not necessarily what each sentence tries to represent. Start with the general ideas and move to more intricate details.
What is the text trying to convince me of?
We will be able to bring texts to the exam (need to print). You can print your annotated pdfs.
Reading
1. Skimming for structure (good for figuring out if the text is relevant for research)
a. Prereading
i. Title, preface
ii. Table of contents
b. Skimming
i. Main ideas
ii. Visualising yourself with the text
2. Contextual Exploration
a. The professors will introduce the philosophers through the lens of their own.
b. Extra readings aren’t necessary for success in this course. The point is to understand primary texts.
c. Understand how the philosopher fits within their context. The big picture.
3. Critical analysis
a. What are the individual statements, claims?
b. Are the arguments convincing?
c. Logical flow of arguments.
4. Annotating and engaging
a. Commenting, summarizing, indicating important parts of the text.
b. Making the text easily accessible for the exams.
c. Fact check yourself – am I interpreting the text correctly?
d. Don’t overdo it.
5. Synthesis and review
a. Self-evaluation.
b. Understanding what’s important, key takeaways.
c. Focus on the clearest ideas.
d. Memorisation – all this helps retain information.
i. Make flowcharts.
ii. Or other things
e. Summarizing – self-evaluation, understanding what’s going on. – the point is to be able to explain the text to somebody else.
i. Themes – what’s it about?
ii. Arguments – how they do it?
iii. Critical targets – who specifically do they target? (Other philosophers, the reader, idk).
f. Put in the hard work :/ (lame)
In other words: read → reread → summarize. Make sure the text makes sense to you.