Postgraduate Module Descriptor

PHLM013: Philosophy and Psychedelics

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Aims

This module aims to provide a critical, pluralistic understanding of psychedelic substance use past and present, as well as a deeper, focussed understanding of certain emerging concerns related to problems of the mind and of power relations. As such, pivotal issues in philosophy can be used and developed in this exponentially growing field, such as:— the relation of ‘mental health’ to metaphysical, phenomenological, and political analyses of the ‘self’. The unfathomable extent of consciousness, and thus the extention of aesthetics and the augmentation of the subject and object of philosophies of mind. Related thereto arise questions of cognitive liberty, indigenous epistemicide, environmentalism, and the potential of future theologies of mysticism.

 

Students will gain knowledge of this emerging field, and therewith new arenas in which philosophical knowledge can be fruitfully applied. Moreover, students will realize and benefit from the web of interconnections that psychedelic research allows philosophy to weave throughout cultural and social anthropology, political science, neuroscience, theology, in addition to psychology and psychiatry.

 

The writing of short review essays will advance your ability to summarize arguments succinctly and you will be guided to write one brief essay on a theme of your choice from the course.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here - you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. demonstrate solid knowledge and understanding of multiple perspectives on psychedelic narratives.
2. demonstrate understanding of the problems of mind highlighted by psychedelic experience.
3. present your own analyses of the implications of theories on pressing debates of our time.
Discipline-Specific Skills4. demonstrate a high level of knowledge about psychedelic theories and their application
5. demonstrate sound knowledge of past and current debates in philosophic psychedelia.
Personal and Key Skills6. demonstrate capacity to conduct research independently
7. demonstrate aptitude for succinct oral presentations to groups
8. write reflective academic review and research essays

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.

Key text: Hauskeller, C., & Sjöstedt-Hughes, P. (forthcoming) Philosophy and Psychedelics (London: Bloomsbury)

 

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

Benjamin, W. (1927–34) On Hashish

Boothroyd, D. (2006) Culture on Drugs: Narco-cultural Studies of High Modernity

De Quincey, T. (1821) Confession of an English Opium Eater

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

Huxley, A. (1956) Heaven and Hell

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

James, W. (1897) Note to ‘On Some Hegelisms’, in: The Will to Believe

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

Shanon, B. (2002) The Antipodes of the Mind

Shulgin, A. & Shulgin, A. (1990) Pihkal: A Chemical Love Story

Suzuki, D. T. (1971) Religion and Drugs

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

Ustinova, Y. (2018) Divine Mania: Alterations of Consciousness in Ancient Greece

Zaehner, R. C. (1972) Zen, Drugs, and Mysticism