KOR1502 – Korea: Philosophy and Religion

Course content

While being a highly dynamic modern society, South Korea continues to retain many important traits from its pre-modern legacy, especially in the ways in which people interact with each other in their daily lives. In the same vein, North Korea, while proclaiming itself a "socialist" country, relies heavily upon essentially Confucian notions of "loyalty" and "filial piety" for legitimising itself internally.

This course is aimed at giving a coherent outline of Korea’s main religious and philosophical traditions. While basically focusing upon the pre-modern developments in Confucianism and Buddhism and the relevance of those two traditions for the modern life, the course also includes lectures on Korean Christianity, nationalist and leftist thought.

Learning outcome

Upon the completion of this course you should:

• Have obtained critical insights on how various religions and ideologies influence societies and politics both in South and North Korea.
• Have gained in-depth knowledge of the textual sources for Korea’s main religions and ideologies.
• Have developed skills in critical reading of the commentaries and research literature on Korea’s religions and philosophies and in clearly formulating your own viewpoints.

Admission to the course

Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.

If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.

Teaching

The course consists of weekly lectures (2 hours each) for 10 weeks. The students are offered individualized supervision in their work on the semester assignment.

Obligatory activity

• A draft sketch of the semester assignment must be approved by the teacher in order to sit for the exam. The draft should include the title (and subtitle, if needed) of your essay, together with the detailed table of contents (including chapter titles and some sentences on the main content of each chapter) and literature list. It should be ca. 1-2 pages.

An approved draft sketch is only valid for one semester.

See Guidelines for obligatory instructional activity at HF

A student who has completed compulsory instruction and coursework and has had these approved, is not entitled to repeat that instruction and coursework. A student who has been admitted to a course, but who has not completed compulsory instruction and coursework or had these approved, is entitled to repeat that instruction and coursework, depending on available capacity.

Examination

Submission of the draft sketch is the prerequisite for being allowed to take the exam (see "Teaching" for more information).

The students write an essay (semester assignment) with a list of references. The essay should be ca. 3000 words, not including the list of references. The topic of the essay should be approved by the teacher in the beginning of the semester.

The semester assignment is to be submitted in Inspera within a given deadline.

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.

More about examinations at UiO

• Use of sources and citations
• Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
• Withdrawal from an exam
• Illness at exams / postponed exams
• Explanation of grades and appeals
• Resitting an exam
• Cheating/attempted cheating

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.