Undergraduate Module Descriptor

PHL3117: Philosophy and Psychedelics

This module descriptor refers to the 2023/4 academic year.

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

We will read chapters from Sjöstedt-Hughes, P. & Hauskeller, C. (eds.), Philosophy and Psychedelics, Bloomsbury 2022

And supplement it with texts such as:

Baier, K. (2022) High Mysticism: On the interplay between the psychedelic movement and academic study of mysticism

Benjamin, W. (1927–34) On Hashish

Foucault, M. (1970) Theatrum Philosophicum

Gibson, L. (2013) A Whiteheadian Perspective on Psychedelic Experience and Research: An Update

Hofmann, A. (1979) LSD: My Problem Child

Huxley, A. (1954) The Doors of Perception

James, W. (1902) The Varieties of Religious Experience

Jay, M. (2019) Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic

Lundborg, P. (2014) Note Towards a Definition of a Psychedelic Philosophy

Partridge, C. (2018) High Culture: Drugs, Mysticism, and the Pursuit of Transcendence in the Modern World

Pollan, M. (2018) How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics

Russell, B. (1910) Mysticism and Logic

Thompson, S. J. (2014) From ‘Rausch’ to Rebellion: Walter Benjamin’s On Hashish and the Aesthetic Dimensions of Prohibitionist Realism

Ward, R. H. (1957) A Drug-Taker's Notes