HS 301 – Introduction to Philosophy (2021)

Course offered in:

Autumn 2021

Instructors:

Prof. Ranjan Kumar Panda

Prerequisites:

None

Difficulty:

Easy

Course Content:

The following topics were covered (in order):

Introduction –

What is Philosophy?

What are the branches of Philosophy?

Nature and scope of Philosophy?

Classical Greek Philosophy –

Thales, Pythagoras, Heraclitus

Socratic Period –

Socrates, Plato, Aristotle

Modern Philosophy –

Hobbes, Descartes, Locke and Hume

Indian Philosophy –

Charvaka, Samkhya and Buddhism

In addition to the above topics, we were asked to read the book “The Courage to Exist: A Philosophy of Life and Death in the Age of Coronavirus” and review a chapter from it as an assignment.

Feedback on Lectures –

The instructor used slides (online-sem) and explained the points in those. Time was allotted at the end for doubts, where at times, the instructor would call out students to ask if they had any queries. The instructor is quite friendly and approachable in case of doubts and discussions on philosophy. The lectures are essential for understanding concepts and are pretty interesting. 

Feedback on Evaluations –

The evaluation policy consisted of the following components:

Assignment (20%)

Midsem (Subjective – 20% and Objective – 10%)

Endsem (Objective – 50%)

The assignment was based on reviewing a chapter (400-600 words) from the book mentioned above. Groups of up to 2 people were allowed. The correction was lenient and sufficient time was given for the same. 

The Objective component of midsem was based on the slides (based on the part comprising Aristotle) and could be answered easily if one has gone through the slides. 

The subjective component was based on other philosophers discussed before midsem. We were supposed to answer three questions, two of five marks and one of ten marks, with word limits of 250 and 350 words for each question, respectively. Each question pertained to a philosopher’s teachings, where we had to explain some quote or method followed by the philosophers. We had some choice in selecting the questions as the paper had questions from all the philosophers discussed. Attending lectures and making notes are essential for this part. Additionally, reading the references (Thilly) and online writeups/videos about philosophers can help with this part to get ideas about writing answers, but this is not mandatory.

The end-semester exam was objective and consisted of questions from the post-midsem half. Again slides were sufficient for this part. Also, Sanskrit words and their meanings formed a considerable part of the exam. 

The grading is lenient. The following were the stats for our batch:  AA-38, AB-58, BB-79, BC-56, CC-18, CD-14, DD-1, FF-2, Total-266.

Study Material and References

A History of Philosophy – Frank Thilly

A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy – Chandradhar Sharma 

Follow-up Courses

Any course pertaining to Philosophy

Final Takeaways

The course stands true to its name and would be interesting to someone who wants to explore the subject of Philosophy. Try to engage yourself in discussions in the class and with the instructor; it will significantly aid your understanding and learning. Also, videos on youtube and encyclopedias on philosophy are great tools for understanding the concepts in detail.

Review by – Aniket Sadashiva, 2024(DD)