Course 301: Introduction to western philosophy

Plato:

1. Allegory of the Cave. (1000%)

2. Distinction between Knowledge vs opinion or universals vs particulars (with
reference to cave and divided line) (1000%)
3. Justice (Soul and state).
4. Forms.

Plotinus:

1. Relationship between Divine Mind and The One. (1000%)

2. Plotinus’ attitude towards material universe. (1000%)
3. Soul as a bridge.

Rationalism:

1. Cartesian Doubt, its importance, and the process and methods of Cartesian Doubt.
(1000%)
2. Relationship between Substance and its Attributes.

Marxism:

1. Class struggle. (1000%)

2. Different productions and their relationship: Forces of production, modes of production,
relation of production. (1000%)
3. Materialism and Dialectic Materialism. *****
4. Base and superstructures and their relationship (including the role of ideology)
Evolutionism

1. Morgan: His two principles, emergent evolution. (1000%)

2. Bergson: elan vital, his criticism against Spencerian evolution but his theory is also
fraught with fallacies.

Existentialism

1. Three Stages.
2. Heidegger: Dasein, Care, Dread( How is it contrasted with Kierkegaardian dread?),
structure of man. (1000%)

Short Notes:

1. Rationalism, Empiricism: (Innate/ a-priori ideas, Thought and Extension, Cartesian

Dualism, Tabula Rasa , Pre-existing Harmony.
2. Neo- Platonism: (The One/Soul)
3. Evolution: (Space-Time Matrix, elan vital)
4. Plato: (Philosopher King, Form)

Course 307: Literary Criticism

Aristotle

1. Catharsis. (1000%)

2. Constituent elements of tragedy; and how is it contrasted with Epic? (1000%)

3. Plot as the life blood. *****

Wordsworth

1. Four Stages. (1000%)

2. Language and subject matter of poetry. (1000%)

Eliot

1. Historic Sense (1000%)

2. Depersonalization.

Coleridge

1. Primary and secondary imagination.

2. Fancy vs imagination. (1000%)

Eagleton

1. Development of English, and how it is admixtured with ideology. (1000%)

2. Eagleton’s view of literature, and Rise and role of English Literary studies. *****

Course 308: English and the Media

1. Traditions: (i) Rhetoric Tradition-*** (ii) Cybernetic Tradition--***

2. Theories: (i) Media Hegemony (ii) Television Violence- 1000% (iii) McLuhan and the
Future of Print Media- 1000% (iv) Bullet and Cultivation theory.
3. Four theories of Press. 100000%
 Course 302: Poetry from Chaucer to Milton

1. Donne: (i) Canonization -1000% (ii) Sun Rising- 1000% (iii) Any of the Sonnets ****

2. Chaucer: (i) Chaucer’s methods of satire ( admixture with humour, economy, realism
etc)- 1000% (ii)Any of the religious characters. ***** (iii) Type vs individual characters.

3. Milton: (i) Description of Hell, along with Pandemonium; and how they, especially
the later, are connected with materialism and wealth. 1000% (ii) Stylistic Devices
( Epic simile, metaphors, epic style, with reference to Milton’s originality and
conventionality)*** (iii) catalogue of fallen angels and Milton’s attitude towards them.
(iv) Speeches

4. Spenser: (i) Knight’s encounter with other characters, including the good and evil ones.
(ii) Allegorical significance- 1000% (iii) Style and various traditions- ***

S.M. Ishmam Alam (Riyadh)

Email: riyadhedru472@gmail.com

EDRU ‘14