Module Descriptions for Philosophy

Introduction to Philosophy
This module is designed to provide an overview of the discipline as a whole by introducing you to problems from each of the main branches of philosophy. The module will focus on the examination of a collection of issues from epistemology, philosophy of mind, metaphysics and ethics. The course stands alone but can be considered as the primary foundation from which to begin a deeper study of philosophy.

Academic Literacy: Philosophy
This module is designed to provide you with the basic tools that you need in order to study philosophy effectively in a university context. These tools include the understanding of a series of basic philosophical concepts that are presupposed in much philosophical debate. The concepts in question include those of a proposition, of an argument, of reason and evidence, of rationality and of necessary and sufficient conditions. The tools also include the ability to read philosophy, identify a philosophical question, and construct and evaluate a philosophical argument. As reasoning plays such a central role in philosophy a proportion of the module is devoted to critical reasoning. This module will include a session on employability.

Introduction to Ethics
The purpose of this module is to get you thinking in a systematic and structured fashion about ethical matters. The module divides into two parts. The first concentrates on normative theory while the second looks at how various moral theories are applied in practical cases. Theories under discussion include consequentialism, deontology, virtue ethics, and particularism. Topics in applied ethics shall typically include abortion, euthanasia, animal welfare, poverty, and war.

Theory of Knowledge
This module addresses certain very general and very fundamental questions about knowers and knowledge. What is it to know? How is knowledge distinct from mere belief? And is knowledge possible? We shall consider both what great thinkers of the past said about these issues - Plato, Descartes, Hume, Locke and Berkeley shall figure highly - and we shall also focus on the contemporary debates. In attempting to answer these questions we shall consider the nature of perception, whether we can acquire knowledge simply in virtue of hearing what someone says about a certain matter, whether we can have knowledge of the world out there (rather than just knowledge of our own minds) and whether there can be a scientific account of knowledge.

Ancient Greek Philosophy
This module is designed to introduce students to the two greatest philosophers of ancient Greece, Plato and Aristotle. The focus is on ethical and political themes in Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. Apart from their intrinsic interest, these texts are among the most influential in the history of philosophy. This module will include a session on employability.

Early Modern Philosophy
This module is designed to introduce you to representative texts from the early modern period. The module is divided roughly into two parts. The first part is devoted to Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy and examines his attempts to provide a firm basis for knowledge. The second part is devoted to Hume's Treatise on Human Nature and his Enquiry concerning Human Understanding, examining his attempts to construct a theory of the workings of the human mind and explore the implications of that theory. The module also looks at related texts by Berkeley, Locke, Leibniz, and Spinoza. This module will include a session on employability.

Philosophy of Language
This module is designed as an introduction to one of the dominant contemporary traditions in philosophy. The Anglo-American analytic tradition places great emphasis upon understanding how language works. The aim of this module is to provide you with a grounding in the basic approaches to meaning and reference found in the work of Frege, Ayer, Wittgenstein, Austin, Grice, Quine, Putnam, Evans, Dummet, Searle, Strawson, and so-called ‘ordinary language’ philosophers. The import of these theories for other areas of philosophy will also be explored.

Philosophy of Religion
The aim of this course is to introduce students to the dominant way of doing Philosophy of Religion in the UK and the USA. The emphasis in the English-speaking world has been upon the justification and explanation of religious belief through the lens of analytic philosophy. So attention will be paid to the arguments for the existence of God, and the problem that evil poses to the God of theism. Given the secular context of the UK, the emphasis on establishing the reasonableness of belief is perhaps not surprising. There are, however, dissenting voices to this endeavour, and the course will also include the contribution of Wittgensteinian and feminist philosophers of religion to the discussion of religious belief.

Vice and Virtue
This module is designed to introduce you to various debates within moral psychology. These focus primarily on those aspects of human subjectivity that enable, inform, and/or constrain rational agency. The module is thus concerned with the interrelations between philosophical psychology and ethics. Of particular relevance are issues relating to practical reason, motivation, virtue, impartiality, and responsibility.

Philosophy of Science
This module introduces you to contemporary philosophy of science by discussing a number of related issues concerning the nature and justification of scientific theories, the role of observation in science, the ontological status of theoretical entities and the structure of science.

Hellenistic Philosophy
In ancient Greece, philosophy was thought to be more than simply a discipline of academic interest. Many philosophers saw themselves as analogous to physicians. If physicians treat and heal the body, the work of the philosopher was to provide comparable therapy for the soul. This view was common to Aristotle, the Epicureans, the Sceptics and the Stoics. This module is designed to introduce you to this philosophical tradition and the work of its proponents.

Culture, Gender and Sexuality
This module explores the relationship between issues of gender, sexuality and culture as key factors in human identity, development and society. It critiques traditional and static understandings of gender and sexuality, drawing on the insights of a diversity of disciplines, including those of gender studies, critical theory, queer theory, feminist theology and feminist criticism. The aim of the module is to encourage you to question your existing ‘common sense’ understanding of terms such as gender and sexuality, and to think about the uses to which such terms are put in contemporary culture. Indeed, the aim of this course is not to provide answers, but to encourage you to ask questions.

Metaethics
This advanced module is devoted to the sustained and detailed exploration of a topic introduced in the compulsory Introduction to Philosophy, namely, the realism vs. noncognitivism dispute in meta-ethics. The implications of meta-ethical theories for normative ethics will also be explored.

Philosophy of Mind
This module is designed to introduce you to one of the liveliest areas of current research, namely, contemporary philosophy of mind. Much current work in the field is devoted to the task of explaining how mental phenomena can be accommodated within a physicalist framework. Various physicalist theories are examined as is the prospect of explaining consciousness in physicalist terms. The issue of the relationship between the mind and the external world is also explored.

Wittgenstein’s Later Philosophy
This module is designed to introduce you to the mature work of Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), one of the most influential thinkers in the history of philosophy. Particular emphasis is placed upon his posthumous masterpiece Philosophical Investigations (1953) in which he attempts to dissolve many problems central to philosophy through an investigation of language and its use. The module thus also contrasts his radical conception of philosophy with that normally found in other works, including those of his younger self.

Special Topics in Philosophy
This module is designed to hone the reading and oral presentation skills of students. This is predominantly a student-led module. Students present seminar papers on classic philosophical works - either journal articles or chapters from seminal monographs - in the areas of metaphysics and the philosophy of logic and students assess each other’s presentations. You will then write an essay on a topic related to your seminar presentation. There is no fixed set of articles or monographs; rather, the chosen writings will change to match the current state of the discipline.

Foundations of German Idealism
This module introduces students to Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, one of the most important works in the history of philosophy. The central epistemological and metaphysical themes of the Critique will be explored focussing on Kant’s ‘Copernican Revolution’ and his doctrine of Transcendental Idealism.

Independent Study in Philosophy
A single advanced module designed to develop independent learning skills and to enable you to build upon your knowledge and disciplinary skills in the philosophy field. You will carry out individual projects and must negotiate an overall programme plan and method of assessment with an appointed supervisor.

Medieval Philosophy
This module introduces you to an unfairly neglected period in the history of western philosophy. This module is designed to introduce you to the extremely high quality work produced in this period by a variety of thinkers, work that continues to attract current interest. It is also designed to provide you with the means of filling in the historical gap between ancient Greek philosophy and the modern period.

Continental Philosophy of Religion
This course will introduce you to some of the key thinkers in Continental European Philosophy through a discussion of the concept of God and the understanding of religion that emerges from this engagement. Beginning with ‘the masters of suspicion’, Nietzsche, Marx and Freud, the course will proceed to consider different responses to the critique of God and religion. Attention will be paid to the existentialist tradition as well as the contribution of psychoanalytic approaches, all of which lead to a rather different account of what God and religion might look like to that offered by mainstream Anglo-American philosophy of religion.

Freedom, Justice and the Community
An examination of key political concepts, freedom, justice, and the community, taking account of affiliated concepts including rights and equality. In considering these concepts, differing theoretical treatments of them will be related to the roles they play in the practical world of politics. Liberal, radical, feminist and communitarian theoretical standpoints are analysed.

Dissertation in Philosophy
An extended critical investigation and written presentation of a topic, theme or issue, selected by the student and relevant to the field of philosophy.

Interdisciplinary Dissertation in Philosophy
A critical investigation and written presentation of a topic, theme or issue, selected by the student and relevant to the field of philosophy.