HOW TO USE THE MODULE
The Nathan Bodington Building
Hypertext Mark-Up Language
Pages
The Home Page
Navigating
The structure of the module
The instruction ‘go to’
Screen and Font size
Taking notes
Printing
Communications
Developments
Apart from the Leibniz set text, the whole of the required reading for the module is contained in files in the part of the Leeds University network called the Nathan Bodington Building. (You might like to know that Nathan Bodington was the first Vice-Chancellor of the University, and that he spent some of his time teaching philosophy, starting in 1891.)
These files have been created in a computer language called ‘hypertext mark-up language’ (HTML). In some respects, it is not as sophisticated as a word-processor, and it cannot handle such things as complex formatting, varied font styles, or automated footnotes. On the other hand it has powerful advantages:
(a) The files take up far less disk space (this whole module, which is equivalent to a good-sized book, fits onto a couple of floppy disks).
(b) It can be accessed from anywhere in the world, if you have a modem, a telephone connection, and your password. If you are planning to spend your vacation climbing a mountain in Australia, and have a laptop and a mobile phone, you can do all your revision there.
(c) The files can (in theory) be read by any World Wide Web ‘browser’, such as Netscape Navigator (which is the one on the University network) or Microsoft Explorer; on any machine (such as a PC or an Apple Mac); and using any operating system (such as Microsoft Windows, or Unix). They can also be read by the more advanced word-processing packages, such as Microsoft Word 7. Unfortunately, Microsoft is trying to drive its rivals out of business by making files generated with its HTML software (which I use) unreadable by Netscape or Unix, which underlie the Nathan Bodington Building. Virtually every file has had to be amended by hand so that it can be read correctly. This has slowed down development of the module, and there may still be glitches which I haven’t spotted.
(d) The files are linked by what are known as ‘hyperlinks’, which mean that you can immediately jump from one file to another with a click of the mouse, and choose your own route through the module. Of course, you cannot do this if you work from hard-copy print-outs.
Confusingly, each file is known as a ‘page’, however many sides of paper it takes up if you print it out. It’s a nuisance for the reader if all the pages are very small, since you keep on having to jump from one page to then next, and you might get lost (it’s also more time-consuming for the architect). On the other hand, it’s also a nuisance if they’re too large, since you have to scroll through many screens to find things, and can’t easily get back to where you were. For textual material, the ideal size is probably around three or four sides of A4; but some of the ‘pages’ in this module are up to a dozen sides, since 17th-century writers didn’t have computer networks in mind, and there are no natural breaks between the level of the small paragraph and the large chapter.
Everything hangs on the Home Page. It’s where you begin, and if you get lost, you can always get back to it, and start again. Do not click on the HOME button on the toolbar at the top of the screen, which will take you out of the module altogether, and to the University of Leeds Home Page. To get back to the Home Page of Spinoza and Leibniz, go to the end of the page you are in, and click on the highlighted ‘Go to SL Home Page’. The quickest way of getting to the end of the page is to simultaneously press CONTROL and END on your keyboard, or to drag the square on the right of the screen to the bottom using the mouse. Alternatively, you can scroll through with the mouse, or use the down arrow on the keyboard.
You can always return to the top of the page you are in by simultaneously pressing CONTROL and HOME on your keyboard.
Some of the texts are supplied with references and footnotes. References look like this: [r.1]; and footnotes look like this: [n.1]. Don’t bother with references, unless you want to look them up in the library. Sometimes footnotes are in fact only references (I haven’t had time to separate them all out); sometimes they are relatively minor points about the translation; but on other occasions they include explanations which should help you understand the passage. I’m sorry I haven’t yet developed the system enough to make the distinction clearer; and there are some texts to which I have not yet added any notes at all. It will help me considerably if you tell me where you have a difficulty, and I can add a note.
At the time of writing, most of the footnotes are in numerical order. Unfortunately, HTML cannot renumber footnotes automatically, so any additional ones will be out of numerical order. However, this doesn’t make them any more difficult to use. All the notes relating to a particular text (e.g. the whole of Descartes’ Principles) are together, in numerical order, in a single web page, which can be read or printed like any other. However, if you browse around it, you may lose your way. The assumption is that you will read only the note relating to the point in the text you are at. In the text, click on the highlighted note number, and it will take you to the note. Read the note, and click on the highlighted ‘Return to text,’ which will take you back to where you were. If you click on any other ‘Return to text,’ it will take you to a different place, which may not even be in the same web page.
Note that, when you return to the text, the screen moves so that the line you were reading is now at the top of the screen. Irritatingly, if the note number was at the end of a line, it will be just out of sight, above the top of the screen. To see it again, you will have to use the cursor keys or the scroll bar.
In the case of Spinoza’s Ethics, some passages are referred to many times. Return to where you were before simply by pressing the BACK key on the Netscape toolbar.
Note also that, once you have used a hyperlink, its colour changes. This tells you which other pages you have recently visited, and which you have not.
If you follow a link to a text in Introduction to the History of Modern Philosophy, you will have to return by using the BACK key on the Netscape toolbar (once for every additional link you have followed. If you get lost, you can go to the bottom of the page your are on, and click on IHMP Home Page, where you will find a link back to the SL Home Page.
There are two main routes through the module. The first starts from ‘The Module’ on the Home Page, and it takes you to an index of contents. In order to fulfil the requirements of the module, you must complete this route. After you have read the Module Handbook and Introduction, it will take you through the 10 units which comprise the module — one for each week. You can always check what you should be doing when, by going to the Schedule from the Home Page or the Contents page.
The page for each unit consists of explanatory material, which covers the same ground as a lecture would in a more traditional module. At appropriate points you are told to go to a particular text. You should go to it, and study it carefully — as many times as is necessary to master it thoroughly, since the core of the module is your reading of the primary texts. You should keep a note of the number of the unit you are working on, so that you can return to the point at which you left it when you come to the instruction ‘Return to unit n.’ Some texts are referred to more than once, and there will be different points at which you are asked to return to different units.
You will also be told what work you have to do in preparation for the seminars in the following week. I cannot repeat too often that you will get nothing out of this module unless you do the required reading first, and discuss it and listen to what I have to say second.
The other main route is more at your own discretion. The first route gives you mainly snippets, where the context is a particular theme, treated in different ways by different philosophers. If you want to do really well on this module, you need to study Spinoza and Leibniz vertically as well as horizontally – that is to say, you should follow their argument through from beginning to end, as it moves from one topic to the next in the order they themselves chose. You can access the texts directly by clicking on The Texts on the Home Page.
I leave it up to you how you find the time to do this. When you follow this route, you can access the explanatory material in the units by clicking on ‘Go to unit n’ at the appropriate point.
The expression ‘Go To’ is ambiguous. In some cases it is an instruction: in order to fulfil the requirements of this module, you must click here, and read the page it leads to. In other cases it is permissive: if this is where you want to go, click here. I hope it is sufficiently clear in the context whether it is an instruction or a permission. Use your common sense; and if you get lost, go back to the SL Home Page, and start again.
Since I am giving you all the texts in hard copy, you won’t need to print them out, and there is no advantage in using a small font size. They are in 12-point to make them easier to read on screen. If you still have difficulty, some versions of Netscape allow you to increase the font size under the VIEW menu.
I sometimes use different colours to distinguish text from comment, and red for instructions.
If you find the text window too cramped, you can eliminate the Nathan Bodington coloured bits with the mouse. Click on the edge when the mouse pointer shows two parallel lines, and move it as far is it will go (move the horizontal bar first). You can also make the window even larger by removing all but the top Netscape toolbars (depending on the version, you will find ticked SHOW items under VIEW or OPTIONS — click to remove). The main thing you lose is the BACK button, but you can still click on GO and then BACK with the same effect.
If you have difficulty reading on screen (as some people do), you may find it easier if you alter the colour of the text and background. Select OPTIONS in the Netscape toolbar, then GENERAL PREFERENCES, then COLORS. You can experiment with various combinations (but remember that hypertext links will become invisible of you use the same colour for the background).
Another thing worth noting is that every page you visit during a session is stored on the hard disk of your workstation. If you take a quick trip round everything you’re going to want to read, it will still be accessible even if the network goes down.
If you write notes by hand, you aren’t taking full advantage of the computer. What you need to do is to run Nathan Bodington and Word at the same time. At the top right-hand corner, there are three buttons. The first one (with the single line) reduces the application to an icon at the bottom of the screen, and you can restore it by clicking on that icon. The third one (with the ×) closes the application altogether. The middle one switches between a full-size and a small window. If you open both Netscape and Word, and reduce them both to small windows, they will be visible at the same time.
There are then two ways of working. One way is to have one on top of the other. Suppose you are reading one of the module documents in Netscape, and you want to make a note of something. Just click with the mouse anywhere on the visible part of the Word window, and it will come to the top, and you can write the note. Having written the note, you get back to the document by clicking anywhere on the visible part of the Netscape window. To make things easier, you can get back to full screen size on either application by clicking the middle button on the top right-hand corner, and back again to the small window by clicking the same button again.
You can also copy anything from the module document to your Word document (though not the other way round) by selecting the passage you want to copy, and clicking on EDIT, COPY. Then switch to your Word document, put the cursor where you want the passage to be, and click the PASTE button (or FILE, PASTE).
The other way of working is to change the size of the small windows by moving the edges with the mouse when the pointer turns into a double-headed arrow. You can then have the two windows side-by-side, or one above the other. As before, you switch from one to the other by clicking anywhere on the other one. Again as before, you can make either of them full-size at any time by clicking on the middle button on the top right-hand corner, and switch back to the same arrangement with the same button.
ALWAYS REMEMBER TO SAVE YOUR WORK FREQUENTLY. If the network does down, the module materials are unaffected, but you will lose any unsaved notes.
You can print out the web page currently displayed (i.e. the whole file) by clicking on the PRINT button on the Netscape toolbar. It’s slightly more difficult to print only part of it, since the image on your screen doesn’t give you page numbers (in the sense of sides of A4). To find out, you have to use PRINT PREVIEW on the FILE menu. When you know which pages you want to print, close print preview, click on PRINT, and specify the numbers of the first and last pages in the dialogue box.
Unless you have serious problems getting access to a workstation at convenient times, I do not recommend printing more than the bare minimum of pages. It could cost you a lot of money, and you don’t have the benefit of the hyperlinks.
My strong advice is that you should build up your own file of notes, summarising as far as possible, and copying into them only the most important passages. This means that you will be digesting the material as you go along, and you will end up with much more manageable documentation for revision purposes. If you have access to a computer at home, you shouldn’t need to print it out at all.
In addition to reading the texts and the explanations, you can join in discussion with your fellow students, and you can mail questions directly to me. To use either of these facilities, click on Communications from the Home Page.
This is only the second time I have put a module on the network. It has taken more time than I anticipated, and some of the later pages will not be available until after the module has started. In order to make sure that it works, I have had to keep it simple.
If a hypertext link is not highlighted, it is not yet available. To check whether something has become available since you last looked, click on Update in the Home Page.
In developing this facility, it will be of great help to me if you tell me what you find difficult. Send me an email explaining your difficulty via Communications on the Home Page. To get back to where you were, you will have to use the BACK button on the Netscape toolbar a number of times.
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