Teaching on the Tripos - Lecures, Seminars (discussion) and Logic Classes.
Lectures
Each paper you sit will have several series of lectures associated with it, each on a more specific subtopic of that paper. Undergraduates are expected to go to all the lecture courses scheduled for the papers they are sitting. They are especially designed to assist your preparation for the Tripos examinations. They provide a broader context for the material you read for supervisions, and are a particularly valuable means of acquiring a general overview of a topic, filling in the gaps not covered in your essays, and of learning about general perspectives and trends. Examiners invite lecturers to suggest questions for the exam, so it is quite common for many examination questions to assume familiarity with material covered in lectures.
Lecturers often give out useful reading lists and handouts at lectures. Some lecturers make their notes or slides available on moodle. However, these are often very compressed, and so merely reading these handouts, notes, and slides would not be an adequate substitute for attending the lectures, where there is also the opportunity for questions and discussion.
Lectures start on the first Thursday of each full term, and run for eight weeks in the Michaelmas and Lent Terms, and for four weeks in the Easter Term. Philosophy Lectures are mostly given at Sidgwick Avenue, the exact location being posted on the screens in the lobby of the Lecture Block, and on the Philosophy Faculty Lecture List.
The Faculty produces a lecture list which includes room locations and is available on the “Current Students” section of the website, at:
https://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/curr-students/lecture-list
It is also possible to access the Philosophy Faculty lecture list in calendar view (as well as the lecture lists of other Faculties) at:
Directors of Studies can advise students which lectures are most relevant to their courses; but students may request permission to attend any lectures listed in the Lecture List including those organised by other faculties and departments; to request permission you could normally email the lecturer concerned.
At the end of each lecture course you attend, you will be asked to fill in a questionnaire to provide feedback on the Faculty's teaching. Summaries of the feedback on previous lecture courses may be consulted in the Faculty Library.
Seminars and Logic classes
There are many general seminars available that are of interest to philosophy undergraduates. Often these will be covering the material for a particular paper but in a less formal or more wide-ranging way than the usual undergraduate lecture, and with more time for discussion. Some seminars also provide opportunities for student presentations.
The Faculty organises seminar groups (formerley discussion groups) and logic classes for 1st-year students during the Michaelmas and Lent Terms. There will be 4 discussion sessions and 4 logic classes in each term, alternating week by week, with a final logic class for revision in Easter Term. The aim of the seminar `(discussion) groups is to supplement college supervisions, to teach the close reading of philosophical texts, to encourage debate, and to develop presentation and argumentative skills. Readings for the IA discussion groups can be found on the “Current Students” section of the philosophy website. The aim of the logic classes is to improve students' understanding of formal logic and their ability to solve logical problems.
The Faculty also organise Seminar (discussion) groups for 2nd-year students in Lent Term only. These discussion groups are normally directed at one or more individual Tripos paper (e.g. History of Analytic Philosophy, Ethics, etc.) The Faculty will normally advertise any such discussion groups in advance. It is then up to interested students to sign up, after which attendance becomes compulsory, as it is for supervisions.
Although they are organised by the Faculty, these seminar (discussion) groups and logic classes are officially counted as formal college supervisions. Your group leader will submit a report on you towards the end of term, which your Director of Studies will discuss with you, together with the reports on your usual essay-based supervisions.
Attendance at your discussion group or logic class, as at supervisions, is an obligation not an invitation. If you repeatedly fail to attend, then many colleges will charge you for the cost of missed discussion groups/logic classes.
