BA (Hons)
Philosophy

Module Overview

This module introduces students to philosophical questions about the nature of art and beauty. For example: What is art? Can anything be a work of art? Can a pile of elephant dung be art? Is beauty objectively real or only ‘in the eye of the beholder’? Can aesthetic judgements be right or wrong? Is Beethoven better than Beyoncé? Is Shakespeare better than Eastenders? Or are aesthetic disputes like deciding between the merits of different flavours of ice cream?

Students can also consider questions that arise in relation to specific artforms: How is it possible to respond emotionally towards the plight of fictional characters that are known not to exist? Do rock/pop music and classical music require different aesthetic criteria for their appreciation and evaluation? Why do we take pleasure in the aesthetic representation of tragic events? Students will be guided through their reading of various classical and contemporary works on such issues, and encouraged to think for themselves about the problems addressed.

Module Overview

This module will give students an opportunity to engage in close philosophical study of texts by the most influential ancient philosophers. Texts will be studied in English translation. They will include works by Plato and Aristotle, as well as by less familiar philosophers of the ancient world (c. 500 BC-500 AD Greece and Rome). The focus of the module will be philosophical, not interpretive or historical: students will be expected assess the credibility of the positions and arguments advanced by Plato, Aristotle and others and to develop their own views in dialogue with these thinkers.

Module Overview

This module gives students the opportunity to build and demonstrate problem-solving skills in the context of applied philosophy. Students will be introduced to the interdisciplinary methods of applied ethics and examine together a series of selected applied ethics case studies, drawn from a variety of different areas including health care, climate justice, AI, beginning and end of life. Students will then work on an individual project which they will present in poster form at the end of the module. The module will give students a thorough grounding in applied ethics and enable them to evidence the key employability skill of problem-solving in the context of applied philosophy.

Module Overview

This module provides an introduction to Indian philosophy and gives students the opportunity to study some of the classic texts of Indian philosophy in detail. While texts will be studied in English translation students can also gain a familiarity with the elements of classical Indian (principally Sanskrit) philosophical vocabulary. Topics will be drawn from both the astika (orthodox Hindu) schools such as Naya-Vaisheshika and Samkhya-Yoga and nastika schools such as Jainism and Buddhism, and will cover areas such as logic, epistemology, metaphysics, and linguistics. The focus of the module will be philosophical, not interpretive or historical. Students will be expected assess the credibility of the positions and arguments advanced by classical Indian thinkers and to develop their own views in dialogue with them.

Module Overview

The Early Modern period in philosophy was home to great thinkers such as George Berkeley, Margaret Cavendish, Anne Conway, Rene Descartes, David Hume, Gottfried Leibniz, John Locke, and Baruch Spinoza. It also hosted a number of key philosophical divisions, for example, between realism and idealism, rationalism and empiricism, and dualism and monism. In this module we will engage with a number of these writers and positions, exploring various topics within metaphysics and epistemology, and asking questions about ourselves, the world around us, and the relation between the two.

Module Overview

Our emotions and our perceptions together make up the bulk of our everyday lived experience. They are amongst the things most familiar to us. Yet, it is possible for them to escape our attention which can instead be on the things given to us through them: we often focus on what is seen, rather than the seeing itself. In this module we will try to shift this focus, investigating emotion and perception themselves. We will investigate questions such as the following. Is an emotion a mere feeling? Can emotions be rational? Are emotions perceptions? Can we perceive things like dogs and cats? What might illusions or hallucinations tell us about perception?

Module Overview

This module explores fundamental questions about humanity's relationship with the natural world through the lens of philosophical inquiry. Drawing on both classical and contemporary thinkers, we examine key debates in environmental ethics, from the intrinsic value of nature to questions of ecological justice and sustainability. Students will critically assess different philosophical approaches to pressing environmental challenges, including climate change and biodiversity loss, while developing sophisticated arguments about environmental responsibility and stewardship. The module combines careful philosophical analysis with practical application, making it relevant for students interested in environmental issues, public policy, or fundamental questions about human-nature relationships. Through thoughtful discussion and analysis, students will be able to develop valuable critical thinking skills while engaging with one of the most significant intellectual challenges of our time.

Module Overview

The purpose of this module is to enable students to examine claims made about what, if anything, makes life meaningful by some of the major figures in the history of philosophy (e.g., Plato, Aristotle, St Augustine, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Marx). The module begins by considering the Question of Meaning itself. Is it intelligible? What is it to seek meaning in life? Is God necessary for life as a whole to have meaning? If so, and if God doesn’t exist, what is an appropriate response to life’s “absurdity” or lack of meaning? Is suicide an ethically defensible response? Or can individual lives have meaning even if life as a whole has none? Could a life be meaningful even if it were entirely occupied with selfish or vicious activities? Could, for example, the life of a torturer be meaningful? Or must our lives have an ethical resonance to be meaningful? We will also consider nihilist views that the conditions necessary for meaning do not obtain, and metaethical debates about the nature of value in general.

Module Overview

The aim of this module is to give students a thorough understanding of two intimately related philosophical traditions that came to prominence in the 19th and 20th centuries: existentialism and phenomenology. Each attempts to address the nature and meaning of human existence from the perspective of individual, first-person experience, focusing in particular on fundamental questions of being, meaning, death, nihilism, freedom, responsibility, value, human relations, and religious faith.

The module will examine selected existential themes through the writings of thinkers such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, De Beauvoir, and Camus. Since existentialism is as much a artistic phenomenon as a philosophical one, students will also be given the opportunity to explore existentialist ideas in the works of various literary figures, such as Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, Kafka, and Milan Kundera.

Module Overview

Explore a wide range of cutting-edge digital approaches to studying the past through a significant and growing area of research, the digital humanities. By studying this module, you can focus on developing the practical skills, techniques, and methodologies that can play a vital role in your future studies and career.

The module provides opportunities to enhance, analyse, and interpret humanistic endeavours through approaches such as social network analysis, digital mapping, data visualisation, and textual analysis. You can also explore the impact and potential of artificial intelligence on the study of humanities in the digital worlds.

Module Overview

The University has a strong commitment to providing academic programmes with high vocational relevance, which is maintained through working links with local, national and international organisations and, in particular, through student work placements.

The Placement Year aims to give students a continuous experience of full-time work within an organisation. It should be a three-way co-operative activity between employer, student and University from which all parties benefit. It is more than simply obtaining work during a gap in study – work placements should enable students to experience at first hand the daily workings of an organisation while setting that experience in the broader context of their studies.

The Placement Year constitutes a work placement during an academic year, funded by full-time paid employment* taking place between Level 2 and Level 3. The minimum duration of placement is 39 weeks.

Students wishing to undertake the work placement year must successfully complete the Level 2 of their programme.

All students on the Placement Year as part of their full-time undergraduate study will remain enrolled with the University during the period of placement and receive support. Students originally enrolled on 3-year programmes wishing to transfer to the 4-year programme must do so before the start of their placement, should gain the consent of their funders, where appropriate, and advise the University of their intention before the September enrolment.

Module Overview

This module aims to provide an introduction to the basics of Latin for students with little to no prior experience of the language. Students can gain the ability to translate and interpret sentences and short passages in prose and verse with confidence. This can aid sensitive reading of primary sources from the Classical world in translation, as well as in the original at higher levels of study.

Please note: those students with A-Level Latin or equivalent, subject to successfully sitting a diagnostic Latin test before the first term of their first year, may choose to take ‘The Medieval World’ or ‘Empire and After: Colonialism and its Consequences’ instead of this module, however, they are required to continue their language studies in Elementary Latin II.

Module Overview

Metaphysics is often described as the study of the most fundamental nature of reality. It asks not only what sort of basic entities exist, but also what existence itself is and whether there might be things in the world that do not exist. These are the kinds of questions we will investigate in this module. Examples topics that we might consider include time, space, laws of nature, causation, change, objects, properties, and possibility.

Module Overview

The purpose of this module is to develop students understanding of some of the major issues in contemporary philosophy of mind and artificial intelligence. What kind of entity is the mind? How does it relate to the brain? Can we explain consciousness in physical terms? Could a machine ever be conscious? Are we headed for the Singularity—the point in the future at which machine intelligence overtakes human intelligence and goes on to design exponentially more intelligent machines? If so, how intelligent can machine intelligence get? Where does the mind stop and machinery start? For example, could a neural implant or even a smartphone form part of your mind? Are we ourselves thinking machines?

Module Overview

This module aims to introduce students to some of the central concepts, issues, theories, and debates in an area of moral philosophy called "normative ethics", thereby providing them with a framework for thinking seriously about moral matters, and to assist them in developing their philosophical and analytical skills. We will distinguish and evaluate the leading positions on these issues through a range of more specific topics in normative ethics.

Module Overview

Friedrich Nietzsche famously proclaimed that ‘the death of God’ would lead to a period of ‘nihilism’ – the view that life lacks meaning and value. But Nietzsche also saw the death of God as a liberating opportunity to move beyond traditional moral values, which he regarded as life-denying and stifling the potential of human beings.

A central aim of Nietzsche’s philosophy, therefore, is to make his readers question the value of traditional morality. Are kindness, compassion, altruism, charity, and equality really valuable? Do such values promote the cultivation of great cultures and great human beings? Or are they simply what is most useful to, what Nietzsche called, ‘the herd’? All the major themes of Nietzsche’s philosophy will be considered: art, tragedy, ‘genealogy,’ master and slave moralities, guilt, truth, self-creation, the Übermensch (or ‘superman’), the ‘higher’ individual, life-affirmation, and eternal recurrence.

Module Overview

A paradox arises when a collection of seemingly plausible claims lead to an absurd conclusion. For example, it seems true that if two people differ in height by just one millionth of a millimetre, then if one of them is tall, so is the other. However, this apparently logically entails that if anyone is tall, everyone is tall, which is absurd. (This is an example of the so called Sorites paradox.) Because paradoxes have this nature, they force us to reexamine things we take to be true. They are thus very valuable for improving our understanding of the world. In this module we will examine a number of paradoxes relating to different aspects of the world, such as time, movement, inquiry, and truth, hopefully gaining insights related to all these topics along the way.

Module Overview

This module provides an introduction to the major issues in contemporary philosophy of artificial intelligence. Students will explore the ethical challenges posed by current AI systems, including concerns about bias, transparency, and their impact on labor markets and society. They will examine speculative and existential questions about aligning AI with human values, preventing catastrophic misuse, and predicting AI's future role in human enhancement. The course also examines profound theoretical questions, such as the potential for moral agency and consciousness in AI, and the role of AI in personal relationships. This module equips students with the philosophical tools to critically analyze the most transformative technology of our time.

Module Overview

This modules addresses the phenomenon of love through the lens of some of the greatest works in the Western philosophical tradition. We shall mostly consider reciprocal romantic love and investigate, among other things, its seeming capacity, despite the possibility of loss that is intrinsic to love, to confer meaning and purpose upon life. The module explores the Freudian view that love is essentially a search for security and asks if this search can ever be stably fulfilled or if, like Sartre, we must conclude that it is impossible. Can love be defined, or does it belong to the realm of the ineffable? Is love inherently rational or irrational? Is it reducible to the reproductive or sexual drive? Do we, in essence, love the other for their own sake, or is love always self-serving? Is possessiveness really the enemy of successful love? Does all love stem from need or lack? What, if anything, is the difference between love and infatuation? And is, as Plato held, erotic attachment a form of enslavement? In addition, we will reflect upon a range of other topics, such as sexual objectification, polyamory or ethical non-monogamy, the ethics of causal sex, pornography, sexual desire, sadomasochism, and perversion.

Module Overview

This module introduces students to some of the central questions in the aesthetics of music. We will consider such issues as: What is music? What makes something music rather than just a sequence of sounds? What is it to understand a piece of music? What is the relation between music and emotion? How is it possible for a sequence of sounds to express emotion? What is the value of music? Does music have a special capacity to evoke a sense of the divine ? We will also consider questions pertaining to the critical evaluation of music. For example, do rock and classical music require different aesthetic criteria for their assessment and evaluation? There will be extensive use of diverse musical examples (everything from Bach to Cradle of Filth!) throughout the course.

Module Overview

This module focuses on a range of philosophical questions relating to mental illness and its treatment. What makes a person mentally healthy or mentally unhealthy? What makes a conscious state psychotic or delusional? How might mental disorders be distinguished from non-disordered mental states and conditions? Would certain putative mental illnesses be better characterized as “problems with living” rather than as specifically medical conditions? Should, as per the prevailing tendency in contemporary psychiatry, the subjective experience of individuals suffering from mental illnesses, such as depression and schizophrenia, be understood chiefly in terms of a chemical imbalance, and accordingly treated by an adjustment to brain chemistry? Or should, as per the traditional psychoanalytic view, such conditions be understood as irreducibly tied to internal symbolic content to be decoded by the analyst and patient? We will also consider questions raised by particular psychopathologies. Is psychopathy best understood as a mental illness, and if so, is it appropriate to hold psychopaths responsible for their attitudes and actions? Are certain forms of cognition currently seen as neurological/ neuro-developmental disorders (e.g., autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) better understood as representing diverse or statistically atypical ways in which humans are capable of seeing and interacting with the world? These and other questions will be explored through the lens of recent literature in the analytic tradition as well as seminal texts in the history of the philosophy of mental illness (e.g., Freud, Foucault, R.D. Laing).

Module Overview

This module explores a range of philosophical questions relating to the nature of science. How are scientific theories developed? Are scientific theories discovered through a ‘flash of genius’ or is something more methodical involved? How much of scientific discovery is down to careful observation? Do scientific theories tell us how the world really is? Do the entities scientific theories postulate – atoms, electromagnetic waves, and so on – really exist? Or are scientific theories merely useful models of reality? Is science independent of its social context? To what extent is scientific inquiry affected by gender, race or politics? Is there such a thing as truth that is not relative to a particular culture, social class or historical era? Drawing on accessible examples from a variety of scientific fields and by answering these and related questions, we shall try to reach an understanding of how science works.

Module Overview

This module provides an opportunity for History students to spend a term studying at one of the University’s partner institutions in North America or Europe. Students will be expected to cover their own transport, accommodation and living costs.

Module Overview

Language enables us to communicate about ourselves and the world around us. However, it is not clear how language achieves this nor is it clear what influence language has on these activities. Therefore, in this module we will examine language itself. We will try to clarify its nature and how it works.

Module Overview

It appears that everything we do or think is in time. We live temporal lives. However, it is not entirely clear quite what the nature of time is, nor how it bears on our lives. Therefore, in this module we will investigate time itself. As will become clear in these investigations, a proper understanding of time, requires reflection on various aspects of ourselves and our environments.

Module Overview

Ever wondered how philosophers use imaginary scenarios to tackle life's biggest questions? This module explores one of philosophy's most powerful tools: the thought experiment. From ancient Greek paradoxes to modern philosophical puzzles about consciousness, personal identity, and ethics, thought experiments have helped shape our understanding of fundamental questions about reality, knowledge, and human nature. Through a blend of analysis and creative practice, you'll learn how to dissect classic thought experiments and craft your own philosophical scenarios. You'll develop valuable critical thinking skills while exploring how philosophers use imagination to test ideas and challenge assumptions. Working collaboratively with peers, you'll move from analyzing famous thought experiments to developing your own original philosophical tools. Suitable for students interested in philosophical methodology, creative thinking, and the art of argument. This module offers a unique opportunity to develop both analytical and creative skills that are valuable not just in philosophy, but in any field requiring clear thinking and imaginative problem-solving. Assessment through a critical analysis essay and a portfolio of original thought experiments, allowing you to demonstrate both analytical and creative abilities.

Module Overview

This module builds on the first-year module ‘What is Knowledge?’ to provide students with a more in-depth exploration of epistemology. Students can examine a range of issues in contemporary epistemology, including: the nature of epistemic justification (the internalism/externalism debate, the debates between foundationalists and coherentists), the analysis of knowledge, the role of contextual considerations in dealing with scepticism, social epistemology, virtue epistemology, a priori knowledge, and epistemic naturalism.

Module Overview

This module introduces students to philosophical questions about the nature of art and beauty. For example: What is art? Can anything be a work of art? Can a pile of elephant dung be art? Is beauty objectively real or only ‘in the eye of the beholder’? Can aesthetic judgements be right or wrong? Is Beethoven better than Beyoncé? Is Shakespeare better than Eastenders? Or are aesthetic disputes like deciding between the merits of different flavours of ice cream?

Students can also consider questions that arise in relation to specific artforms: How is it possible to respond emotionally towards the plight of fictional characters that are known not to exist? Do rock/pop music and classical music require different aesthetic criteria for their appreciation and evaluation? Why do we take pleasure in the aesthetic representation of tragic events? Students will be guided through their reading of various classical and contemporary works on such issues, and encouraged to think for themselves about the problems addressed.

Module Overview

This module will give students an opportunity to engage in close philosophical study of texts by the most influential ancient philosophers. Texts will be studied in English translation. They will include works by Plato and Aristotle, as well as by less familiar philosophers of the ancient world (c. 500 BC-500 AD Greece and Rome). The focus of the module will be philosophical, not interpretive or historical: students will be expected assess the credibility of the positions and arguments advanced by Plato, Aristotle and others and to develop their own views in dialogue with these thinkers.

Module Overview

This module gives students the opportunity to build and demonstrate problem-solving skills in the context of applied philosophy. Students will be introduced to the interdisciplinary methods of applied ethics and examine together a series of selected applied ethics case studies, drawn from a variety of different areas including health care, climate justice, AI, beginning and end of life. Students will then work on an individual project which they will present in poster form at the end of the module. The module will give students a thorough grounding in applied ethics and enable them to evidence the key employability skill of problem-solving in the context of applied philosophy.

Module Overview

This module will explore the different schools of thought and the political activities of the various groups and individuals that comprised the anarchist movement. Anarchism is a political doctrine based on freedom, egalitarianism and social justice and that developed in Europe as a political movement in the mid-XIX century. Anarchism never reached the ascendancy achieved by liberalism or communism; however, it had a significant influence on the political ideas, social movements, culture, and education of the international labour movement.

Module Overview

This module provides an introduction to Indian philosophy and gives students the opportunity to study some of the classic texts of Indian philosophy in detail. While texts will be studied in English translation students will also gain a familiarity with the elements of classical Indian (principally Sanskrit) philosophical vocabulary. Topics will be drawn from both the astika (orthodox Hindu) schools such as Naya-Vaisheshika and Samkhya-Yoga and nastika schools such as Jainism and Buddhism, and will cover areas such as logic, epistemology, metaphysics, and linguistics.

Module Overview

The Early Modern period in philosophy was home to great thinkers such as George Berkeley, Margaret Cavendish, Anne Conway, Rene Descartes, David Hume, Gottfried Leibniz, John Locke, and Baruch Spinoza. It also hosted a number of key philosophical divisions, for example, between realism and idealism, rationalism and empiricism, and dualism and monism. In this module we will engage with a number of these writers and positions, exploring various topics within metaphysics and epistemology, and asking questions about ourselves, the world around us, and the relation between the two.

Module Overview

This module aims to provide an introduction to the basics of Greek for students with little to no prior experience of the language. Students can gain the ability to translate and interpret sentences and short passages in prose and verse up to intermediate difficulty. This can aid sensitive reading of primary sources from the Classical world in translation, as well as in the original at higher levels of study.

Module Overview

This module aims to provide a continued introduction to the basics of Greek for students with little to no prior experience of the language. Students can refine their ability to translate and interpret sentences and short to medium-length passages in prose and verse up to advanced difficulty. This helps develop a foundation for sensitive reading of primary sources from the Classical world in translation, as well as in the original at higher levels of study.

Module Overview

This module aims to provide a continued introduction to the basics of Latin for students with little to no prior experience of the language. Students can refine their ability to translate and interpret sentences and short to medium-length passages in prose and verse up to advanced difficulty. This can aid sensitive reading of primary sources from the Classical world in translation, as well as in the original at higher levels of study.

Module Overview

Our emotions and our perceptions together make up the bulk of our everyday lived experience. They are amongst the things most familiar to us. Yet, it is possible for them to escape our attention which can instead be on the things given to us through them: we often focus on what is seen, rather than the seeing itself. In this module we will try to shift this focus, investigating emotion and perception themselves. We will investigate questions such as the following. Is an emotion a mere feeling? Can emotions be rational? Are emotions perceptions? Can we perceive things like dogs and cats? What might illusions or hallucinations tell us about perception?

Module Overview

This module explores fundamental questions about humanity's relationship with the natural world through the lens of philosophical inquiry. Drawing on both classical and contemporary thinkers, we examine key debates in environmental ethics, from the intrinsic value of nature to questions of ecological justice and sustainability. Students will critically assess different philosophical approaches to pressing environmental challenges, including climate change and biodiversity loss, while developing sophisticated arguments about environmental responsibility and stewardship. The module combines careful philosophical analysis with practical application, making it relevant for students interested in environmental issues, public policy, or fundamental questions about human-nature relationships. Through thoughtful discussion and analysis, students will be able to develop valuable critical thinking skills while engaging with one of the most significant intellectual challenges of our time.

Module Overview

This module explores the history of science, sexuality and politics in the UK, Continental Europe, the US and Latin America from 1850 to 2000. It will give students an excellent grounding in modern and contemporary history that will complement further modules at level 3 that deal with sexuality, gender, race, science and medicine. It module examines the controversial rise of eugenics movements as a global phenomenon. The purpose of this module is to sustain a balanced and informed discussion about how race, reproduction, and the improvement of human heredity have acquired great political relevance in the modern period. It explores how scientists and different governments became preoccupied with hereditary theories, race, reproduction and sexual behaviour. It examines how societies across the Atlantic developed government policies around areas such as family planning, pronatalism, sterilisation, and race, which culminated in the implementation of euthanasia programmes in Nazi Germany. This module looks at eugenics programmes and politics in a transnational context, exploring how, for example, Nazi Germany’s sterilisation programmes were inspired by those already implemented in the US and how a number of Latin American countries adapted and transformed eugenics policies from Southern Europe and developed whitening policies.

Module Overview

The aim of this module is to give students a thorough understanding of two intimately related philosophical traditions that came to prominence in the 19th and 20th centuries: existentialism and phenomenology. Each attempts to address the nature and meaning of human existence from the perspective of individual, first-person experience, focusing in particular on fundamental questions of being, meaning, death, nihilism, freedom, responsibility, value, human relations, and religious faith. The module will examine selected existential themes through the writings of thinkers such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, De Beauvoir, and Camus. Since existentialism is as much a artistic phenomenon as a philosophical one, students will also be given the opportunity to explore existentialist ideas in the works of various literary figures, such as Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, Kafka, and Milan Kundera.

Module Overview

The module will give students practical experience of the workplace. Students will normally define, plan and undertake a specific project. In addition students will gain experience of a range of tasks appropriate to sector-specific professional skills.

Module Overview

This module aims to provide an introduction to the basics of Latin for students with little to no prior experience of the language. Students can gain the ability to translate and interpret sentences and short passages in prose and verse with confidence. This can aid sensitive reading of primary sources from the Classical world in translation, as well as in the original at higher levels of study.

Please note: those students with A-Level Latin or equivalent, subject to successfully sitting a diagnostic Latin test before the first term of their first year, may choose to take ‘The Medieval World’ or ‘Empire and After: Colonialism and its Consequences’ instead of this module, however, they are required to continue their language studies in Elementary Latin II.

Module Overview

The 20th century saw unprecedented social, economic, political and cultural change in Britain. However, the equally dramatic shifts in how sexuality and masculinity were experienced and represented are often ignored. This module aims to enable students to study the history of 20th Century Britain while using the lens of gender and sexuality to understand how ordinary men lived their lives. Students will get the opportunity to work with a wide variety of primary sources such as: court records, newspapers, film, photographs, music, autobiographies, oral history and literature.

Module Overview

This module builds on the second-year module ‘Moral Philosophy’, focusing in particular on the central questions in metaethics: Do moral terms and judgements refer to moral properties, and if so, what are these properties like? Are any moral judgements true, and if so, are they true objectively, in virtue of moral properties that exist in the world? If there are objective moral truths, how can we know what they are? What implications do theories of moral reasoning and moral motivation have for the question of whether there are objective truths in ethics?

Module Overview

Metaphysics is often described as the study of the most fundamental nature of reality. It asks not only what sort of basic entities exist, but also what existence itself is and whether there might be things in the world that do not exist. These are the kinds of questions we will investigate in this module. Examples topics that we might consider include time, space, laws of nature, causation, change, objects, properties, and possibility.

Module Overview

The purpose of this module is to develop students understanding of some of the major issues in contemporary philosophy of mind and artificial intelligence. What kind of entity is the mind? How does it relate to the brain? Can we explain consciousness in physical terms? Could a machine ever be conscious? Are we headed for the Singularity—the point in the future at which machine intelligence overtakes human intelligence and goes on to design exponentially more intelligent machines? If so, how intelligent can machine intelligence get? Where does the mind stop and machinery start? For example, could a neural implant or even a smartphone form part of your mind? Are we ourselves thinking machines?

Module Overview

Friedrich Nietzsche famously proclaimed that ‘the death of God’ would lead to a period of ‘nihilism’ – the view that life lacks meaning and value. But Nietzsche also saw the death of God as a liberating opportunity to move beyond traditional moral values, which he regarded as life-denying and stifling the potential of human beings.

A central aim of Nietzsche’s philosophy, therefore, is to make his readers question the value of traditional morality. Are kindness, compassion, altruism, charity, and equality really valuable? Do such values promote the cultivation of great cultures and great human beings? Or are they simply what is most useful to, what Nietzsche called, ‘the herd’? All the major themes of Nietzsche’s philosophy will be considered: art, tragedy, ‘genealogy,’ master and slave moralities, guilt, truth, self-creation, the Übermensch (or ‘superman’), the ‘higher’ individual, life-affirmation, and eternal recurrence.

Module Overview

A paradox arises when a collection of seemingly plausible claims lead to an absurd conclusion. For example, it seems true that if two people differ in height by just one millionth of a millimetre, then if one of them is tall, so is the other. However, this apparently logically entails that if anyone is tall, everyone is tall, which is absurd. (This is an example of the so called Sorites paradox.) Because paradoxes have this nature, they force us to reexamine things we take to be true. They are thus very valuable for improving our understanding of the world. In this module we will examine a number of paradoxes relating to different aspects of the world, such as time, movement, inquiry, and truth, hopefully gaining insights related to all these topics along the way.

Module Overview

This module provides an introduction to the major issues in contemporary philosophy of artificial intelligence. Students will explore the ethical challenges posed by current AI systems, including concerns about bias, transparency, and their impact on labor markets and society. They will examine speculative and existential questions about aligning AI with human values, preventing catastrophic misuse, and predicting AI's future role in human enhancement. The course also examines profound theoretical questions, such as the potential for moral agency and consciousness in AI, and the role of AI in personal relationships. This module equips students with the philosophical tools to critically analyze the most transformative technology of our time.

Module Overview

This module explores a variety of questions relating to the concept of evil, and introduces students to a range of philosophical theories of the nature of evil. Students can explore the language and ontology of evil, the concepts of ‘radical’ and ‘banal’ evil, and examine how the existence of evil is accounted for by key figures in the history of philosophy. Typically, questions to be considered include: Is evil an irreducibly theological concept? Are notions of evil relative to individuals or cultures? Is evil a positively existing force or is it the absence of some quality, as darkness is the absence of light? Why are humans capable of wickedness?

Module Overview

This module explores a range of philosophical questions that arise in relation to love and sexual desire. Can love be defined, or does it belong to the realm of the ineffable? Is love inherently irrational? Is it reducible to the reproductive or sexual drive? Do we love the other for his/her own sake, or is love always self-serving? Are jealousy and possessiveness really the enemy of successful love? Does all love stem from need or lack? What, if anything, is the difference between love and infatuation? And is, as Plato held, love a form of enslavement?

In this module, students can address such questions through the lens of some of the greatest works in the Western philosophical tradition. We shall mostly consider reciprocal romantic love and investigate, among other things, its capacity to confer meaning and purpose upon life. We shall also explore the Freudian view that love involves regression to a situation in childhood in which we were perfectly safe, the search for love essentially being an attempt to recover this earlier form of security or wholeness. Can this need for wholeness ever be fully and stably fulfilled, or is, as Sartre argued, the project of love impossible? In addition, we shall reflect upon the nature of pornography, sadomasochism, and sexual perversion.

Module Overview

This module introduces students to some of the central questions in the aesthetics of music. We will consider such issues as: What is music? What makes something music rather than just a sequence of sounds? What is it to understand a piece of music? What is the relation between music and emotion? How is it possible for a sequence of sounds to express emotion? What is the value of music? Does music have a special capacity to evoke a sense of the divine ? We will also consider questions pertaining to the critical evaluation of music. For example, do rock and classical music require different aesthetic criteria for their assessment and evaluation? There will be extensive use of diverse musical examples (everything from Bach to Cradle of Filth!) throughout the course.

Module Overview

This module focuses on a range of philosophical questions relating to mental illness and its treatment. What makes a person mentally healthy or mentally unhealthy? What makes a conscious state psychotic or delusional? How might mental disorders be distinguished from non-disordered mental states and conditions? Would certain putative mental illnesses be better characterized as “problems with living” rather than as specifically medical conditions? Should, as per the prevailing tendency in contemporary psychiatry, the subjective experience of individuals suffering from mental illnesses, such as depression and schizophrenia, be understood chiefly in terms of a chemical imbalance, and accordingly treated by an adjustment to brain chemistry? Or should, as per the traditional psychoanalytic view, such conditions be understood as irreducibly tied to internal symbolic content to be decoded by the analyst and patient? We will also consider questions raised by particular psychopathologies. Is psychopathy best understood as a mental illness, and if so, is it appropriate to hold psychopaths responsible for their attitudes and actions? Are certain forms of cognition currently seen as neurological/ neuro-developmental disorders (e.g., autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) better understood as representing diverse or statistically atypical ways in which humans are capable of seeing and interacting with the world? These and other questions will be explored through the lens of recent literature in the analytic tradition as well as seminal texts in the history of the philosophy of mental illness (e.g., Freud, Foucault, R.D. Laing).

Module Overview

In this module you will learn how scientific knowledge evolves and what makes it distinctive. Through analysis of various scientific fields, you will explore how theories develop - from careful observation to conceptual breakthroughs - and examine whether scientific theories reveal fundamental truths about reality. The module investigates whether theoretical constructs like atoms and electromagnetic waves represent physical reality or serve as sophisticated models. You will critically evaluate how social and cultural contexts, including gender, politics, and historical circumstances, influence scientific inquiry, while examining the possibility of objective scientific truth.

Module Overview

Language enables us to communicate about ourselves and the world around us. However, it is not clear how language achieves this nor is it clear what influence language has on these activities. Therefore, in this module we will examine language itself. We will try to clarify its nature and how it works.

Module Overview

It appears that everything we do or think is in time. We live temporal lives. However, it is not entirely clear quite what the nature of time is, nor how it bears on our lives. Therefore, in this module we will investigate time itself. As will become clear in these investigations, a proper understanding of time, requires reflection on various aspects of ourselves and our environments.

Module Overview

Ever wondered how philosophers use imaginary scenarios to tackle life's biggest questions? This module explores one of philosophy's most powerful tools: the thought experiment. From ancient Greek paradoxes to modern philosophical puzzles about consciousness, personal identity, and ethics, thought experiments have helped shape our understanding of fundamental questions about reality, knowledge, and human nature. Through a blend of analysis and creative practice, you'll learn how to dissect classic thought experiments and craft your own philosophical scenarios. You'll develop valuable critical thinking skills while exploring how philosophers use imagination to test ideas and challenge assumptions. Working collaboratively with peers, you'll move from analyzing famous thought experiments to developing your own original philosophical tools. Suitable for students interested in philosophical methodology, creative thinking, and the art of argument. This module offers a unique opportunity to develop both analytical and creative skills that are valuable not just in philosophy, but in any field requiring clear thinking and imaginative problem-solving. Assessment through a critical analysis essay and a portfolio of original thought experiments, allowing you to demonstrate both analytical and creative abilities.

Module Overview

This module builds on the first-year module ‘What is Knowledge?’ to provide students with a more in-depth exploration of epistemology. Students can examine a range of issues in contemporary epistemology, including: the nature of epistemic justification (the internalism/externalism debate, the debates between foundationalists and coherentists), the analysis of knowledge, the role of contextual considerations in dealing with scepticism, social epistemology, virtue epistemology, a priori knowledge, and epistemic naturalism.