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Modern and Contemporary Philosophy

Code: 103565 ECTS Credits: 6
2025/2026
Degree Type Year
Humanities OB 3

Contact

Name:
Joan Carles Cirera Izquierdo
Email:
joancarles.cirera@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

This course has no prerequisites since it is a compulsory subject in third year of the Humanities Degree.


Objectives and Contextualisation

The course offers a general overview of the main ideas belonging to modern and contemporary thinking. It gives special attention to the historical genesis and transformation of such concepts as reason, nature, freedom, body and power by analyzing key authors and texts.

The course has three objectives:

  1. General objective: students become familiar with specific and continuous traits between modern and contemporary philosophy and humanities, art, science and general history.
  2. Specific objective: to provide double function training. On the one hand, helping to identify theoretical issues from each author and school of thought. On the other hand, to provide tools to accurately analyze the new issues of the XXI century.
  3. Final objective: to provide students with the necessary analytical tools to develop their own creative thinking by reading, analyzing and reflecting critically about classic texts of modern and contemporary philosophy.

At the end of the academic year, students should be able to:

  1. Understand specific philosophical issues of modern and contemporary philosophy.
  2. Identify different theoretical approaches, analytical methods and conceptual works from the authors.
  3. Acquire the ability to analyze and defend critically philosophical texts and issues.
  4. Develop their own critical thinking skills to analyze current philosophical issues.

Competences

  • Critically analysing today's culture and its historical conditions.
  • Properly using the resources and methodologies of the study of contemporary culture.
  • Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Drawing up an academic text using the discipline's specific vocabulary.
  2. Engaging in debates about historical facts respecting the other participants' opinions.
  3. Identifying the characteristic methods of the history of philosophy and using them in the analysis of concrete facts.
  4. Indicating and discussing the main characteristics of the of a period and contextualizing them.
  5. Indicating and summarising the common content of several manifestations of various fields of culture.
  6. Indicating the main issues of the history of the field.
  7. Preparing a summary from a given text.
  8. Summarising acquired knowledge about the origin and transformations experienced in the several fields of anthropology.

Content

Content

  1. From the Renaissance flourishing to Rationalism and the New Science
  2. The Enlightenment and transcendental idealism
  3. Phenomenology and Hermeneutics
  4. Nietzsche
  5. From ontology to quantum mechanics
  6. Contemporary feminine thought

Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Lessons 40 1.6 1, 3, 6, 8
Type: Supervised      
Debates 6 0.24 4, 5, 6, 2, 8
Tutorials 5 0.2 3, 6, 8
Type: Autonomous      
Analyze the fundamental philosophical problems. 30 1.2 5, 7, 3, 6, 8
Reading and critical analysis of texts. 30 1.2 1, 3, 6, 8
Study 34.5 1.38 4, 1, 3, 6, 8

Methodology

The teaching scenario will presumably be a bimodal hybrid (face-to-face and/or virtual) due to the vulnerability situation by COVID-19. Therefore, the possible modifications will depend on the regulations approved by the health authorities, the rectory and the government institutions.

Learning will be based on three kinds of activities:

Directed activities:

  • Theoretical master classes
  • Discussion of fundamental concepts of modern and contemporary philosophical and scientific speech
  • Identifying philosophical issues through analysis and commentary of primary sources

Supervised activities:

  • Class debates aimed to establish connections with other Humanities subjects
  • Individual tutoring sessions either on-site during office hours or virtual campus

Autonomous activities

  • Reading philosophical texts
  • Critical reflection on the reading

 

In this subject, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is not allowed in any of its phases. Any work that includes fragments generated with AI
 will be considered a lack of academic honesty and may lead to a partial or total penalty in the grade of the activity, or greater sanctions in serious cases.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
First test 20% 1.5 0.06 4, 5, 3, 6, 2, 8
Second test 40% 1.5 0.06 4, 5, 7, 1, 3, 6, 2, 8
Third test 40% 1.5 0.06 4, 5, 7, 1, 3, 6, 2, 8

The review process of each activity

The review of the tests will be done according to the nature of each test with evaluation criteria appropriate to the exceptional conditions of academic training. Following the regulations of the department, the faculty and the rectory deem it necessary. The regulation of the criteria will be mentioned to the students when proceeding to the tests. It will depend on the training situation at each moment.

Evaluation

The continuous evaluation system consists of:

  1. A partial exam: Make a reading sheet or presentation of a poster previously agreed with the person in charge of the subject.
  2. Two global exams (one for modern and other for contemporary): The students must show that they have understood the essential contents of the subject and the fundamental readings, knowing how to express this knowledge in a clear and orderly way; arguing rigorously and consistently, using concepts accurately, and synthesizing ideas.

The final grade will be the average grade of the three tests, maintaining the weighting mentioned.

Those students who do not take any of the three tests during the continuous assessment period, fail one of them, or want to raise a grade in any of the three tests, may take a re-assessment and take to complete the exams they need.

A student will be considered "non-assessable" when he/she has not taken at least one of the two global tests.

In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.

Final recovery procedure.

To participate in the recovery, students must have previously been assessed in a set of activities whose weight is equivalent to a minimum of 2/3 of the total grade. To participate in the recovery process, the teacher may require the student to have obtained a minimum final grade, which may not, in any case, exceed 3.5. Activities that the teacher considers to be non-recoverable may be excluded from the recovery process (with the approval of the study coordination and the center), for example, oral presentations, group work, tasks related to the activity. daily teacher. Here you will find the adaptation to the new evaluation regulations regarding the recovery approved by the Permanent Board of April 12, 2018 (along with other rules of the Faculty): https://www.uab.cat/web/study/academic-regulations-of-the-centre-1345719553493.html

Plagiarism

In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.
 

At the time of carrying out each assessment activity, the teacher will inform the students (Moodle) of the procedure and the date of review of the qualifications.


Unique assessment

The same recovery system will be applied as for continuous assessment.
The review of the final grade follows the same procedure as for continuous assessment
 

Bibliography

References
  • Arendt, H.  (2005). La condición humana (1958). Barcelona: Paidós.
  • Benjamin. W. (1974/1988). El Concepto de Crítica de Arte en el Romanticismo Alemán. Ed. Península
  • Descartes, R. (1977). Meditaciones metafísicas (1641). Madrid, Alfaguara.
  • Pico della Mirandola, G. (2004). Discurs sobre la dignitat de l’home. (Trad. Antoni Seva Llinares). Publicacions de la Universitat de València
  • Spinoza, B. (2018). Ética demostrada según el orden geométrico. Madrid: Alianza.
  • Heidegger, M. (2014). Construir Habitar Pensar (1951). Madrid. La Oficina.
  • Kant, I. (2013): ¿Qué es la Ilustración? (1781). Madrid, Tecnos, 2002.
  • Maquiavelo, N. (2009): El príncep (1513). Barcelona, Edicions 62.
  • Merleau-Ponty, M. (1993): «El cuerpo». En Fenomenología de la percepción (1945). Planeta de Agostini: Barcelona, pp. 108-190.
  • Nietzsche, F. (1990). El nacimiento de la tragedia (1872). Madrid: Alianza. 
  • Schelling, F. (1996). La filosofia de la naturaleza (1801). Madrid: Alianza.
  • Weil, S. (2015). Reflexiones sobre las causas  de la libertad y de la opresión social. Colección Estructuras y Procesos. Editorial Trotta. Filosofía. Madrid.

Complementary bibliography

I will send the complimentary bibliography (in Spanish, Catalan and English language) to work with that.

Reference manuals

  • Bréhier, E., (1998). Historia de la filosofiayla ciencia. Madrid: Tecnos.Colomer, E. (1995). El pensamiento alemán de Kant a Heidegger (3 vol.). Barcelona: Herder.
  • Copleston, F., (2001). Manual de filosofia (9 vol.) Barcelona: Ariel, 2011.
  • Geymonat, L., (1998). Historia de la filosofia y de la ciencia. Barcelona: Crítica.
  • Reale, Giovanni et. Al. (1983). Historia del pensamiento filosófico y científico

 

Dictionaries

  • Ferrater Mora, J., (1979), Diccionario de filosofia, Madrid: Alianza.
  • Volpi, F. (2005). Enciclopedia de las obras filosóficas. Barcelona: Herder.

Software

No program


Groups and Languages

Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan first semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan first semester morning-mixed