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We redesigned the curriculum for the first-year, 80-student module ‘History of\u00a0Philosophy’ to include Indian, Buddhist, Chinese and African philosophy, so that our\u00a0department could teach a history of philosophy that represents the breadth of the\u00a0discipline.<\/p>\n
Heterodox traditions of philosophy have long been left out of standard survey courses in\u00a0the English-speaking world. This has a looping effect where their exclusion further cements a limited canon of philosophical literature. Undergraduate students in our\u00a0department have explicitly requested, in a consultation, the addition of more nonWestern philosophy to the curriculum. First-year History of Philosophy has in the past\u00a0been either 100% focused on Western philosophy or featured only Western and Islamic\u00a0philosophy. The Diversity in the Curriculum funds paid for Dr Ajinkya Deshmukh, who\u00a0has a background in Indian and Buddhist philosophy, to undertake research to feature in\u00a0the lectures, tutorials, and assessment and to develop innovative new teaching\u00a0materials. We also had a guest lecture from Prof Michael Beaney (Aberdeen), on the\u00a0Zhuangzhi and Chinese philosophy.<\/p>\n
Our History of Philosophy curriculum previously began with Greek philosophy, but due\u00a0to the diversification funds we began with ancient (orthodox\/Hindu) Indian philosophy,\u00a0Buddhist philosophy, and Chinese philosophy. We interspersed early and late Buddhist,\u00a0early Indian, seventeenth-century Indian, medieval Arabic, and African philosophy with\u00a0some of the Western classics as well as some neglected Western female figures:\u00a0Plato\/Aristotle, Descartes\/Elisabeth of Bohemia, and Spinoza\/Cavendish.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finding texts and translations that are suitable to the first-year undergraduate level,\u00a0including students who are not taking single honours in philosophy, without\u00a0compromising on academic rigour, involved going over dozens of articles and chapters\u00a0to find a set that does justice to the development of philosophy around the world while\u00a0still being approachable for potential first-generation learners and for those who may\u00a0lack prior philosophical knowledge.<\/p>\n
Assessment: An innovative feature of the assessment was a short assessed weekly\u00a0exercise of identifying the premises and conclusions of a specific argument lifted out of\u00a0a classic text. This argument then forms the backbone of the tutorial discussions. The\u00a0assessed exercise is designed so that some crucial text is engaged with every week but\u00a0as the arguments will be short (1-2 pages, sometimes part of a page) the reading\u00a0demands of the tutorials will remain manageable for first-year students.<\/p>\n
There were also two essays, one on the first half of the curriculum and one on the\u00a0second. We formulated exercise and essay questions which challenge students and\u00a0reward legitimate engagement with the entirety of the module instead of piecemeal\u00a0engagement with individual lectures and readings.<\/p>\n
Students of this course acquire a more holistic understanding of the history of\u00a0philosophy, perhaps better than those who study the subject primarily through the lens\u00a0of Western philosophy. This will place the students in good stead to engage with the\u00a0subject more broadly than they otherwise would have been able to. Given the\u00a0University’s diverse student body, those who study this module will be better placed to\u00a0pursue academic interests in philosophical traditions from more parts of the world.<\/p>\n
Students who have a solid first-year grounding in world philosophical traditions will find\u00a0this very helpful if they want to explore non-Western philosophical traditions in higher level modules or dissertations. We hope that in the longer term, a more diversified and
decolonised curriculum will attract a more diverse student body in philosophy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Students commented positively on these changes in their questionnaires, including the\u00a0following,<\/p>\n
\nThe wide range of topics covered, especially the inclusion of many non western\u00a0perspectives.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\nThe content of the course was good \u2013 very well rounded and covered a broad\u00a0range of subject matter.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\nEverything, I can\u2019t fault it. It was really interesting in lectures, readings, and tutorial discussions.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
We have obtained further funding for taking these heterodox traditions outside the\u00a0University. Dr Deshmukh has already taught two preliminary sessions on Buddhist\u00a0philosophy at the Manchester Grammar School.<\/p>\n
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