Mode of study: Full-time

Duration: Two years

Tuition fee: AMD 500,000

Admission examination format: Oral

Qualification awarded: Master of Philosophy

Examination Syllabus

1. Sociocultural prerequisites for the formation of the scientific worldview

2. Early philosophical attempts to understand the world

3. Philosophical understanding of the worldview: structure and functions

4. The mythological worldview

5. The religious worldview

6. The classical (mechanistic) worldview

7. The post-classical (quantum-relativistic) worldview

8. The evolutionary worldview

9. The anthropological turn in Ancient Greek philosophy (Socrates and the Sophists)

10. Key characteristics of Renaissance philosophy

11. The problem of the foundations of knowledge in Early Modern philosophy (sensualism, empiricism, rationalism)

12. The epistemological problematic in Kant’s philosophy. Kant’s theory of autonomous morality

13. Hegel’s philosophical system and method

14. Marxism in the history of philosophical thought in the 19th and 20th centuries

15. Classical positivism of the 19th century (A. Comte, H. Spencer, J. S. Mill, H. Taine) and its influence on Armenian philosophy in the second half of the 19th century

16. The philosophy of David the Invincible

17. The Tatev School (Hovhan Vorotnetsi, Grigor Tatevatsi)

18. Major issues in 19th-century Armenian philosophy

19. Hermeneutics as an art of interpretation, method, and theory of understanding

20. The philosophy of life in the 19th century (Nietzsche)

21. Key characteristics of postmodernist philosophy

22. Key characteristics of existentialist philosophy

23. E. Husserl’s phenomenology

24. The philosophy of pragmatism

25. The structure and methods of the empirical level of scientific knowledge

26. The structure and methods of the theoretical level of scientific knowledge

27. The methodology of scientific research: method and methodology

28. The principle of beauty in the context of the methodological regulators of theory

29. The relationship between objectivity and truth in knowledge

30. Argumentation as a means of justifying knowledge: contextual forms of argumentation

31. The neopositivist programme for the justification of scientific knowledge: the principle of verification

32. The post-neopositivist understanding of the truth of scientific knowledge: the principle of falsification

33. T. Kuhn’s model of scientific development: scientific paradigms and scientific revolutions

34. The logic of scientific discovery according to Imre Lakatos: the principle of competition among research programmes

35. The postmodernist conception of the philosophy of science according to Paul Feyerabend: the principle of methodological anarchism

36. The problem of knowing the world: concepts of epistemological optimism, scepticism, dogmatism, and agnosticism

37. Thought and language: natural and artificial languages; issues of modelling thought and artificial intelligence

38. Creativity as a gender-specific human characteristic: a critique of pan-creativism and elitism

39. Signs and sign systems: philosophical issues in the theory of signs

40. Science in the context of culture: internalism and externalism as conceptions of scientific development

41. Major issues in the philosophy of language: the principle of linguistic relativity

42. Philosophical reflection on scientific revolutions

43. Classical and contemporary interpretations of causality

44. The structure of the psyche: the relationship between the conscious, unconscious, and subconscious

45. The problem of substance: materialism, idealism, and pluralism

46. The metaphysical (transcendental) conception of the relationship between the humanities and the natural sciences

47. The positivist conception of the relationship between the humanities and the natural sciences

48. The dualist (anti-interactionist) conception of the relationship between the humanities and the natural sciences

49. The dialectical (complementary) conception of the relationship between the humanities and the natural sciences

50. The stage-based model of historical development

51. The linear model of historical development

52. The utopian model of historical development

53. The materialist and modernist models of historical development

54. The synergetic and postmodernist models of historical development

55. Sociality as a fundamental property of society: forms of social existence

56. Society as a self-developing and self-regulating system

57. The essence, forms, and criteria of social progress

58. Methods for studying social existence (nomothetic and idiographic approaches) and their forms of application

59. Nature as an object of philosophical inquiry: environmental philosophy

60. Scientific and philosophical hypotheses concerning the origin of life: philosophical conceptions of life

61. Scientific and philosophical hypotheses concerning human origins: the essence of the human being

62. Scientific and philosophical hypotheses concerning the origin of culture: the essence of culture

63. Theories of the origin of civilization: collectivist and individualist civilizations

64. Philosophical theories of the origin of the state: the state as a form of organizing social life

65. The philosophical understanding of freedom: freedom, choice, and responsibility

Literature

1. Harutyunyan, E. (2019). Social Philosophy: An Introduction. Yerevan.

2. Sargsyan, A. (2016). A Course in Philosophy. Yerevan.

3. Jaspers, K. (2014). The Meaning and Purpose of History. Moscow.

4. Jaspers, K. (2000). Introduction to Philosophy. Moscow.

5. Aron, R. (2001). The Critical Philosophy of History. Moscow.

6. Russell, B. (2001). History of Western Philosophy. Novosibirsk.

7. Mironov, V. V., & Ivanov, A. V. (2014). Philosophy: An Introduction to Metaphysics and Ontology. Moscow.

8. Bakeeva, E. V. (2020). Contemporary Philosophy: An Introduction to Ontology. Moscow.

9. Barulin, B. S. (2018). Social Philosophy. Moscow.

10. Mareeva, E. V., & Mareev, S. M. (2010). History of Philosophy. Moscow.