PY4671 Dreaming and Waking

Academic year

2023 to 2024 Semester 2

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

30

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 10

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Availability restrictions

Permission of the Philosophy Honours advisor.

Planned timetable

To be confirmed

This information is given as indicative. Timetable may change at short notice depending on room availability.

Module Staff

Dr Cecily Whiteley, Dr Derek Ball

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

Dreaming occupies a central place in our lives. But what are dreams, and why do we have them? Can dreams be sources of insight, or are they best understood as threatening our everyday knowledge of the world? This module explores these and a variety of other philosophical issues. We’ll start by examining the appeal to dreams as the basis of a powerful argument for skepticism. These skeptical arguments tend to rely implicitly on a variety of metaphysical assumptions about the nature of dreams, to be explored in subsequent weeks: that dreams are conscious experiences that occur whilst asleep, and that these conscious experiences are perceptual experiences of the same kind that we have whilst awake. In the final section of the module, we’ll examine how philosophical reflection on dreams and other forms of sleep experience such as lucid dreams and disorders of dreaming can shed light on related, but relatively unexplored, philosophical phenomena such as sleep and wakeful consciousness.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisites

BEFORE TAKING THIS MODULE YOU MUST PASS PY1012

Assessment pattern

100% coursework

Re-assessment

100% coursework

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

Students will attend 3 hours of classes (2 hours of lectures and 1 of seminars) per week.

Scheduled learning hours

33

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

259

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.

Intended learning outcomes

  • demonstrate an advanced understanding of the central conceptual problems in modern dream research.
  • explain in-detail the central claims, arguments, and solutions to be found in contemporary discussions of dreaming in philosophy of mind and epistemology.
  • present and critically asses philosophical ideas orally and in writing in a clear and rigorous way.
  • show an understanding of the importance of the empirical sciences and their development for complex philosophical problems and the ability to disentangle, where possible, the philosophical and scientific aspects of the problems of dreaming.
  • interpret, synthesise and criticise complex texts and positions; specifically, the ability to defend one view on the nature of dreaming in contrast to its rivals, explain the ways in which the view is superior to its rivals, and acknowledge and respond to objections that could be made by someone who accepts a rival view.
  • explain the importance of philosophical research for ethical and clinical research relating to disorders of sleep and dreaming.