This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
This module explores a number of questions and issues that have predominated, and thereby shaped, philosophical study and debates about the photographic medium. Some of these issues have a long history, such as whether photographs are a distinctive representational and pictorial kind or just a new way of making fundamentally the same kind of picture that existed prior to photography's invention. Others are questions that have only emerged relatively recently to dominate discussion, such as the debate about what exactly a photograph is. Although the exact topics to be explored in any year may change, the curriculum will consistently be structured around the issues of the disputed nature and value of photographs, similarities and differences with other modes of pictorial representation, and the significance of the advent of digital technologies. In addition, the exploration of these issues will look beyond the debates to the cultural sources and impacts of the ideas being explored philosophically.
Total contact hours: 50
Total private study hours: 250
Total module study hours: 300
Main assessment methods
Essay 1 (1500 words) – 30%
Essay 2 (2500 words) – 50%
Seminar Portfolio (3000 words) – 20%
Reassessment methods
Like for like
Costello, D (2017) On Photography: A Philosophical Inquiry, London, Routledge
Costello, D and Lopes, D (eds.) (2012) The Media of Photography, Oxford, Blackwell
Lopes, D (2016) Four Arts of Photography: An Essay in Philosophy, Oxford, Blackwell
Walton, K (2008) Marvellous Images: On Values and the Arts, Oxford, OUP
Walden, S (ed.) (2010). Philosophy and Photography, Oxford, Blackwell
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
The intended subject specific learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the level 5 module students will be able to:
1 Demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of a wide range of philosophical issues to which the medium of photography gives rise.
2 Demonstrate an ability to analyse, discuss and critically assess a wide range of philosophical issues to which the medium of photography gives rise.
3 Demonstrate an ability to use examples from the history of photography to support or question ideas defended by philosophers and theorists of the medium.
4 Demonstrate an ability to analyse, critically discuss and assess the ideas and arguments of historians and theorists that have shaped debates about the nature and value of photography
5 Demonstrate an ability to formulate and defend a critically informed position on key topics in the field of the philosophy of photography.
The intended generic learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module both Level 5 and 6 students will be able to:
1 Demonstrate skills of visual, critical and historical analysis, together with generic intellectual skills of synthesis, summarisation, critical judgement and problem-solving, that will allow for the construction of original and persuasive arguments.
2 Demonstrate the skills of communication, improving performance, problem-solving, working with others and effective use of appropriate vocabulary and illustrations, ideas and arguments in both a written and oral form.
3 Appropriately use a range of learning and reference resources (including visual resources) within the Templeman Library and elsewhere, including the critical use of the internet and a range of primary and secondary texts.
4 Employ information technologies to research and present their work.
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