Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management Philosophy Syllabus
Academic Year 2017-2018 MPP 522 (4 credits)
Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management
MPP19
Summer Term
PHILOSOPHY
(4 credits)
Teaching team
Adjunc Lecturer: Dr. Vu Ngoc Hoang Email: [email protected]
Teaching Fellow: Dinh Hong Phuc Email: [email protected]
Class meetings
Tuesday and Thursday: 13:30-15:00
Office Hours
Bui Van Nam Son: Appointments can be set up via email
Dinh Hong Phuc: Tuesday and Thursday: 15:00-16:30
Objectives
The course is designed to help students apprehend philosophical readings, write personal or team
essays on specific philosophical topics. By attending lectures on fundamental concepts in
philosophy, students will acquire basic knowledge of the field, and more importantly, master
analytic and synthetic thinking approaches to practise articulating and writing on philosophical
issues logically and precisely at higher abstract levels. The course also equips students with
multidimensional, interdisciplinary perspectives to identify underneath relationships of life facets;
thus, enhancing students’ performance on other courses and improving their thesis quality.
Description
The course is structured in ten (10) problem-oriented topics or 10 fundamental concepts of
philosophy to help students gain preliminary comprehension of philosophy content, methodology
and dynamics.
10 topics are structured into two components, covering dominant aspects of philosophy: the first 5
topics discuss theoretical philosophy:
- Philosophy (What is philosophy? Functions of philosophy; Fundamental
distinctions in philosophy)
- Language (Philosophy of language)
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Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management Philosophy Syllabus
Academic Year 2017-2018 MPP 522 (4 credits)
- Knowledge (Theory of knowledge or epistemology)
- Being (Ontology/Metaphysics)
- Human Being (Philosophical Anthropology)
and five topics on practical philosophy:
- The Good (Ethics)
- The Beauty (Philosophical Aesthetics)
- Nature and Technic Technology (Philosophy of Nature and Philosophy of
Technic
- Culture and Civic culture (Cultural philosophy and Political philosophy)
- Freedom and Death (Social philosophy and Life philosophy)
Students will get familiar with these broad categories on two dimensions: systematic and historical
(i.e. philosophical issues are discussed systematically in the historical context of addressing these
issues over the course of history with different traditions and schools of thoughts).
Each class is structured in 2 sessions: teachers’ lecturing and students’ discussion.
Learning outcomes
After completing the course, students are expected to
▪ Apply acquired knowledge to improve argumentative and discourse capabilities and know
how to frame fundamental and critical questions
▪ Apply philosophical concepts to accurately and appropriately explain issues in science and
in life to improve argumentative capabilities
▪ Proactively identify problems and topics in other courses to practise holistic and analytic
thinking styles
▪ Improve reading comprehension skills to read abstract philosophical texts and present orally
or in writings research studies and theses in a logical manner
▪ Kindle interests in philosophical thinking, and enrich one’s spiritual life with the habit of
independent, logical thinking oriented toward liberal and dialogue endeavors
▪ Enhance awareness on ethical and humanitarian issues in public policy and management
with high citizen awareness.
• Appreciate and be able to apply principles and values to policy and management in the
public sector.
Requirements and grading
- Students are required to read compulsory materials (marked with * before specific
readings) before class meetings, prepare some questions for class participation and
discussion. Students are encouraged to read other supplementary readings before, during
and after class meetings to enrich their knowledge.
- Diligently observe the schedule, be punctual and complete assignments as due dates
- Course grading will be structured as follows:
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Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management Philosophy Syllabus
Academic Year 2017-2018 MPP 522 (4 credits)
▪ Participation: 20%
▪ Prework assignment: 20% (assignments must be submitted no later than 8:20, 14
August 2018)
Students can choose to answer either one of the following questions for their
Prework assignments (about 1000 words):
a. In your opinion, what is philosophy and what issues is philosophy concerned
with?
b. Comment on the Plutarch’s quotes (Greek philosopher, 46-120): “The mind is
not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled”
▪ After-work individual or teamwork assignments (4-5 members in a team): 60%
Students are advised to form a group of 4 or 5, write on a philosophical topic of their
choice and submit two writings:
a) Discussion minutes
b) Group comments and opinions on the issue
The two group-writings will be peer-reviewed by other groups in class. The writings
are evaluated and graded by other groups (on the scale of 10). The teaching team will
consolidate final scores. After being assigned group scores (accounting for 60% of
the final scores), groups members decide to separate grades for each member based
on their contribution to group work.
Regulations on assignment submission, complaints, plagiarism, exam cheating, or other
exceptions are specified in Student Handbook which are delivered to all students.
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Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management Philosophy Syllabus
Academic Year 2017-2018 MPP 522 (4 credits)
COURSE OUTLINE
I. PHILOSOPHY (Tuesday, 7 August 2018)
1. Differentiate:
- Everyday life question
- Scientific question
- Philosophical question
2. Philosophy and universal questions: What? From where? For what? To where? related to:
- Foundations of reality and cognitive capacity
- Foundations of human relationships
- Foundations of human fates
3. Three paradigms of philosophical thinking from above universal questions:
- Ontological paradigm: what is reality vs. state of being?
- Mentalistic paradigm: What can we know / How do we know?
- Linguistic paradigm: What can we speak? What are the meanings of our spoken words?
4. Four basic questions of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804):
- What can I know?
- What do I have to do?
- What can I hope for?
- What is the human being?
5. Fundamental distinctions in philosophy:
- Oriental vs. Western philosophy
- Theoretical vs. Practical philosophy (descriptive vs. normative)
- Historical vs. Systemic philosophy
- Continental (European school) vs. Analytic philosophy (British-American school)
- Philosophy and other discrete scientific fields:
• Linguistics vs. Philosophy of Language
• Natural sciences vs. Philosophy of Nature
• Cognitive science (the mind) vs. Philosophy of Knowledge
• History vs. Philosophy of History
• Politics vs. Political philosophy
• Sociology vs. Social philosophy
• Religion studies vs. Philosophy of Religion
• Aesthetics vs. Philosophical Aesthetic
• Etc.
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Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management Philosophy Syllabus
Academic Year 2017-2018 MPP 522 (4 credits)
- Philosophy vs. Arts
- Is Philosophy a science?
6. Three functions of Philosophy:
- Enlightenment
- Moderation (balancing different views) or Philosophy vs. common sense
- Instructions for reality actions
7. Readings and other referential materials:
* Bùi Văn Nam Sơn, Trò chuyện triết học, Tập 1, NXB Tri thức, 2017, tr. 13-83.
- Trần Văn Toàn. Hành trình đi vào triết học. Nxb. Tri thức, 2012.
- Nermi Uygur. “What is a Philosophical Question?” trong Mind, New Series, Vol. 73, No. 289
(Jan., 1964), pp. 64-83
- What is Philosophy?
Link: https://www.philosophybasics.com/general_whatis.html
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Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management Philosophy Syllabus
Academic Year 2017-2018 MPP 522 (4 credits)
II. LANGUAGE (Thursday, 09 August 2018)
1. Why must modern philosophy begin with linguistic analysis and criticism? Is it because
objective and obvious structure of cognition is not contained in consciousness but in language,
as languages are intersubjective incidence between Me-You and the World? Distinguish
between “mistake” and “misunderstanding”?
2. Two perspectives on the relationship between language and cognition:
- Magical perspective on language:
• Figurative speech: the power of words
• Rationalist: belief in the power of arguments and argumentation
- Mystic perspective on language:
• Language’s impotence as an obstacle of recognition and unification with subjects.
3. Analyzing language’s structures is criticizing and preventing linguistic abuse
4. “Utterance” is “Action”:
- Today, philosophy does not start directly with Being or indirectly with cognition but through
external means (language) to argue about being and cognition?
- From body language to spoken and written language: are they actions?
- Speech acts (Roger Searle *1932) / Sprachspiel / language game (Ludwig Wittgenstein,
1889-1951): argue that languages obey specific rules for different purposes as do actions.
5. Three functions of speech acts:
- Descriptive
- Expressive
- Imperative
6. Utterances and meanings:
- How can we come from the external forms (i.e. utterances) to internal meaning?
- Syntax: relationships between words in an utterance
- Semantics: relationships between objects and words
- Pragmatics: relationships between utterances and audience
- Semiotic triangle(s)?
7. Readings and other referential materials:
* Bùi Văn Nam Sơn, Trò chuyện triết học, tập I, NXB Tri thức, 2017, “Lưỡi không xương”, tr.
127 và tiếp.
* Philosophy of Language (Wikipedia).
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_language
- Max Black. “Wittgenstein's Language-games” in Dialectica, Vol. 33, No. 3/4 (1979), pp. 337-
353.
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Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management Philosophy Syllabus
Academic Year 2017-2018 MPP 522 (4 credits)
III. KNOWLEDGE (Tuesday, 14 August 2018)
1. Brief overview of Theory of Knowledge / Epistemology:
- Description and Classification (Aristotle, 384-322 B.C.)
- Inductive approach to discover natural laws (Francis Bacon, 1561-1621)
- “The a priori conditions of a possible experience in general are at the same time conditions
of the possibility of objects of experience” (I. Kant, 1724-1804, Critique of Pure Reason)
2. Sensual perception and reasoning capabilities through argument and argumentation
3. Two primary arguments: deductive and inductive
4. Strengths and weaknesses of deduction
5. Strengths and weaknesses of induction
6. Hypothetico-deductive Model and Falsification of Karl Popper (1902-1994)
7. Readings and other referential materials:
* Bùi Văn Nam Sơn, Trò chuyện triết học, tập I, NXB Tri thức, 2017, tr. 147-205.
* Falsifiability (Wikipedia). Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability
- Robert Wachbrit, “A Note on the Difference between Deduction and Induction” in Philosophy
& Rhetoric, Vol. 29, No. 2 (1996), pp. 168-178.
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Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management Philosophy Syllabus
Academic Year 2017-2018 MPP 522 (4 credits)
IV. BEING (Thursday, 16 August 2018)
1. Four meanings of the word “BEING”:
- Primary meaning: existence
- Three secondary copulative meanings: “to be” something; a member of a “class” which exists
within and depends on the “class”.
- What is the difference between Ontology (Metaphysics/Aristotle) which studies of being (or
of things) in so far as they are beings (“being qua being”) and all others sciences that study a
certain domain of being under different aspects?
2. Existence and facts:
- Real existence: perceived or can be perceived by senses;
- Real existence exists in relationships with other real existence through categories;
- Such relationship is known as fact; thus, we don’t say the event “is”, but “is the case” →
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951): “The world is all that is the case. The world is the totality
of facts, not of things.”
The question: “what exists” can be more precisely rephrased into “what facts?”
3. Physical and psychological events:
- External and internal senses of perception;
- Broadly speaking, psychological or cognitive events are perceived by internal senses;
- Mental activity processes and eye movements during dreams can be precisely tracked but why
other people can’t dream my dreams?
4. Semantic existence and Semantic fact:
- Semantic existence (vs. real existence) and Semantic fact (vs. real fact) are randomly created
by humans without limits;
5. Existence of universals, fictitious objects and nihility?
6. Relationship between real existence and semantic existence?
7. Readings and other referential materials:
* Bùi Văn Nam Sơn: “Tồn tại và Dấn thân: hai nẻo đường của thuyết nhân bản”, trong Trò
chuyện triết học, tập 3, NXB Tri thức, 2017.
- Jean-Paul Sartre, “Về sự hiện hữu” trong Buồn nôn. Phùng Thăng dịch. Phiên bản điện tử:
http://triethoc.edu.vn/vi/truong-phai-triet-hoc/chu-nghia-hien-sinh/ve-su-hien-huu_727.html
- “A History of the Notion of Being in the West”:
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Being
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Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management Philosophy Syllabus
Academic Year 2017-2018 MPP 522 (4 credits)
- John Wild. “The Concept of Existence”, in The Monist, Volume 50, Issue 1, 1 January 1966,
pp. 1–16.
V. GOODNESS (Tuesday, 21 August 2018)
1. The ethical goodness and the non-ethical goodness:
- Is goodness relative or instrumental?
- Does goodness have absolute or ethical value?
- Ethics is the study of the ethical goodness.
- Differentiate Moral that is principles for evaluation, admonition, prohibition or permission vs.
Ethics that discusses those principles. We can consider Ethics as descriptive Ethics,
normative Ethics and Metaethics.
2. Two (meta) theories on the ethical Goodness:
- Cognitivism
- Emotivism
3. Strengths and weaknesses of cognitivism:
- Can ethics be deemed an objective incident?
- How can we come up with such perception?
- From “objective incident”, how can ethical commands be rendered “imperative”
(compulsory)?
4. Strengths and weaknesses of emotivism:
- Ethical propositions are not objective but a subjective expression of human’s emotions?
- But how can subjective emotional propositions act as foundations for universal and essential
ethical commands?
5. Can institutionalism resolve conflicts between those two theories?
6. Descriptive Ethics: 6 stages of Moral Development (Lawrence Kohlberg, 1927-1987)
7. Normative ethics:
- Virtue ethics (Aristotle / Thomas Aquino
- Can “Goodness” act as foundation of ethics? (I. Kant)
- Goodness vs. Usefulness (Deontological ethics vs. Utilitarian ethics)
- Ethical minimum vs Ethical maximum
8. Readings and other referential materials:
* Bùi Văn Nam Sơn “Mấy lời giới thiệu của người dịch: “Phê phán lý tính thực hành” và sự
phản tư đạo đức học”, trong Immanuel Kant, Phê phán lý tính thực hành, Bùi Văn Nam Sơn
dịch và chú giải, NXB Tri thức 2007, tr. XI – LX.
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Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management Philosophy Syllabus
Academic Year 2017-2018 MPP 522 (4 credits)
* Bùi Văn Nam Sơn, “M.E và đối thoại triết học,” Trò chuyện triết học, tập 6, NXB Tri thức,
2017, tr. 118-149.
- Ethics (Wikipedia). Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics
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Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management Philosophy Syllabus
Academic Year 2017-2018 MPP 522 (4 credits)
VI. BEAUTY (Thursday, 23 August 2018)
1. Differentiate:
- Cognitive judgement
- Ethical judgement
- Aesthetics judgement
2. The Beautiful and the Sublime in I.Kant
3. The Beautiful and the Sublime after I.Kant
4. Chronicle record of beauty over time
5. Paradigms against Beauty and post-modern consciousness
6. What is “aesthetic experience”, “aesthetic value”, “aesthetic objects”?
7. Readings and other referential materials:
* Bùi Văn Nam Sơn “Mấy lời giới thiệu của người dịch”, trong Immanuel Kant Phê phán năng
lực phán đoán, Bùi Văn Nam Sơn dịch và chú giải, Nxb. Tri thức 2007, tr. XV – LXXIX.
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Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management Philosophy Syllabus
Academic Year 2017-2018 MPP 522 (4 credits)
VII. HUMAN BEINGS (Tuesday, 28 August 2018)
1. Three classical definitions of human beings:
- Self-aware animals with the ability to speak (Aristotle)
- The image of God (Bible)
- Free animals which are unbounded by any laws or regulations (Pico Della Mirandola, 1463-
1494)
2. Criticisms of three definitions:
- Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543): the Earth is not the centre of the universe?
- Charles Darwin (1802-1882): human beings evolve from more primitive forms of life?
- Sigmund Freud (1856-1939): “The ego is not the master in its own house?”
3. Evaluations of three criticisms
4. Human beings vs. animals
5. Is the nature of human beings debatable?
7. Readings and other referential materials:
* Bùi Văn Nam Sơn, “Con Người Tự Nhiên Văn hóa” trong Trò chuyện triết học, tập 2, NXB
Tri thức, 2017, tr. 7-30.
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Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management Philosophy Syllabus
Academic Year 2017-2018 MPP 522 (4 credits)
VIII. NATURE AND TECHNOLOGY (Thursday, 30/8/2018)
1. Overview of opinions on Natural world:
- Nature as a mode of being
- Nature as phenomena of the physical world collectively: the domain of the necessity
- Nature as God’s creation
- Nature as a norm
2. Three attitudes towards Nature:
- Theoretical attitude
- Practical attitude
- Aesthetic attitude
3. Three behaviors towards Nature:
- Nature as an objective entity
- Nature as an obstacle for humans to conquer
- Nature as living habitats, which needs protection and preservation
4. Opposite facets of Nature
- Physis - Techne
- Physei - Thesei
- Cognito, ergo sum (René Descartes, 1596-1650)
- Nature – Freedom (I.Kant)
- Transcending opposites and dualism in German idealism and materialism
- Reductionism or reconciliation with Nature?
5. Technology
- Three functions (transformative, conductive, accumulative) and nine aspects of “technological
system”
- What is “technicity”?
6. Criticisms and advocates for technological advances and innovation
7. Readings and other referential materials:
* Bùi Văn Nam Sơn, “Kỹ thuật và Công nghệ”, trong Trò chuyện triết học, tập 2, NXB Tri
thức, 2017, tr. 171-213.
- Philosophy of Technology (Wikipedia).
Link: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/technology/
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Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management Philosophy Syllabus
Academic Year 2017-2018 MPP 522 (4 credits)
IX. CULTURE AND COMMUNICATIVE REASON (Tuesday, 4 September 2018)
1. Culturalism vs Naturalism
- Within culture, which elements are natural (phýsei) and which are established by humans
(thesei)?
- Is culture a rotten phenomenon that should be criticized or a desirable value?
- Naturalness is good, but it must be a civilized naturalness that is no longer wild or barbarian?
- “State of Nature” is assumed to be norms but need to be discarded for evolution?
2. Culture as…alienation?
- Alienation is “self-alienation”, which is the first cultural achievement of humans?
- Historical philosophical outlook: reconciliation between Nature/Culture (as primitive human
beings are uncivilized and homogenous with nature?)
- The model of “unification – separation – reconciliation” (German idealism, Marx): is
humanization of nature and naturalization of human the “solution for historical puzzle?”
- We can criticize culture but can’t negate or despise culture?
3. Alienation as…culture?
- Freedom and self-perfection abilities are pinnacles of ethics and cultural values?
- Cultural criticism becomes comprehensive reflection of modern people?
4. Are there two cultures?
- Natural science vs. Social science?
- Working/Constructing Culture vs Action Culture (Hannah Ardendt, 1906-1975)?
5. Communicative Reason and Cultural Modernization (Jürgen Habermas (1929-):
- Three characteristics of modern culture:
• Self-defined
• Decentralized
• Reflective
- Communicative reason vs. Instrumental reason
- Discourse Ethics vs. Colonization of the life-world
6. Civic culture:
- “Civic culture is a subjective dimension in social infrastructure of a political system filling the
gap between individuals and systems” (Gabriel Almond / Sidney Verba):
- Pre-modern political culture is local and superficial;
- Parochial political culture: mostly concerned with output of political system;
- Participatory political culture: concerned with input of all citizens in the society;
Three directions in civic culture (Gabriel Almond / Sidney Verba):
• Awareness (understanding of political system)
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Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management Philosophy Syllabus
Academic Year 2017-2018 MPP 522 (4 credits)
• Emotional (sharing transparent and supervisory process)
• Evaluative (trust/distrust in policy issuance)
- Signs of a healthy political culture
- Trust (material and post-material values) is the key factor in political culture
7. Readings and other referential materials:
* Bùi Văn Nam Sơn: Giữa Tự nhiên và Văn hóa, Trò chuyện triết học, tập 2, NXB Tri thức,
2017, tr. 94-164.
* Bùi Văn Nam Sơn, “Văn hóa và Văn hóa chính trị”, Trò chuyện triết học, tập 3, NXB Tri thức
2017, tr. 150 và tiếp.
- Andrew Edgar. “Colonisation of lifeworld”, “Communicative Reason”, trong Habermas: The
Key Concepts. Routledge, 2006, pp. 17-21, 23-26.
- Gabriel Almond & Sidney Verba: The Civic Culture, 1963, 1918. Link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Civic_Culture
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Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management Philosophy Syllabus
Academic Year 2017-2018 MPP 522 (4 credits)
X. FREEDOM AND DEATH (Thursday, 6 September 2018)
1. Freedom concepts: the West vs. the East
2. What is transcendental freedom?
3. Social and political freedom are “rights of freedom”
4. Freedom and salvation
5. Concept of biological death
- Definition and standards
6. Philosophical concept of the death
7. Death and immortality
8. Readings and other referential materials:
* Bùi Văn Nam Sơn, “Sáng mai xõa tóc thả thuyền ta chơi”, Trò chuyện triết học, tập 1, NXB
Tri thức 2017, tr. 84-88.
* Bùi Văn Nam Sơn, “Bất hoại như những vì sao”, “Thước đo của tự do” trong Trò chuyện triết
học, tập 1, NXB Tri thức 2017.
- John Stuart Mill, Bàn về Tự do, Nguyễn Văn Trọng dịch, Nxb. Tri thức, 2012.
- Francis C. Wade. “The Concept of Freedom” in The Review of Metaphysics, Vol. 10, No. 2
(Dec., 1956), pp. 273-281.
- Death. Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death
- Mike Sutton: “The Concept of Death in Philosophy and Experience: Martin Heidegger,
Thomas Nagel and Philip Gould”.
Link: https://theoxfordphilosopher.com/2016/08/03/the-concept-of-death-in-philosophy-and-
experience-martin-heidegger-thomas-nagel-and-philip-gould/
XI. Friday, 7 September 2018
Adjunct Lecturer: Dr. Vu Ngoc Hoang
Topic: Marx-Lenin doctrines and contemporary issues
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