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Explore our courses

Courses (58)

As the restrictions imposed on us by the pandemic ease, we look forward to welcoming more students back on campus. From Trimester 1 2023, more of our courses will be delivered (at least partly) in-person to ensure we can offer you the best learning experience through workshops, field trips, placements, labs, and face-to-face tutorials and lectures. When you enrol for 2023, be sure to check what modes are available for your chosen course(s).

Showing 58 courses for the subject Philosophy

Great Ideas

FHSS103

Great Ideas is a course reflecting on some of the most exciting, important and revolutionary ideas that have shaped society and culture as it is today. It also considers how those ideas have an ongoing influence. It’s an interdisciplinary course look...

Total points

20.0

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 1,Trimester 3

Years available

2023

Minds, Brains and Persons

PHIL104

This course is an introduction to philosophical questions about the nature of minds and how they relate to brains and persons. Topics may include: What is consciousness? What can science tell us about the mind? What is a person? In virtue of what do ...

Total points

20.0

Days taught
2023

Wed,Fri

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 2

Years available

2023

The Big Questions

PHIL105

This course considers some of the most difficult questions about life, the universe, and everything. Possible topics: What is the meaning of life? Would it be good to live forever? Can we ever know anything with certainty? Does God exist? What is hum...

Total points

20.0

Years available

Contemporary Ethical Issues

PHIL106

An introduction to issues in applied ethics. Topics may include: the morality of the death penalty, war, cloning, abortion and euthanasia, and the moral status of non-human animals.

Total points

20.0

Days taught
2023

Mon,Wed

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 1

Years available

2023

Mental Health and Disorder: Inter-disciplinary Perspectives

FHSS107

This course approaches mental health and mental disorder from various disciplinary perspectives. It considers definitions of mental disorder, representations of mental illness in film and literature, cultural and scientific conceptions of the healthy...

Total points

20.0

Days taught
2023

Wed,Fri

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 2

Years available

2023

Philosophy of Media and the Arts

PHIL107

An introduction to the philosophy of art, focusing on philosophical issues concerning popular culture, film, fiction, music and the visual arts.

Total points

20.0

Years available

Critical Thinking

PHIL123

PHIL 123 is offered over January and February 2024 (which is part of the 2023 academic year). This course provides an introduction to the theory of critical thinking. It will focus on the more practical aspect of critical thinking: Rational Choice Th...

Total points

20.0

Days taught
2023

Tue,Wed,Thu

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 3

Years available

2023

Knowledge and Reality

PHIL201

This course will consist of a survey of contemporary metaphysics (reality) and epistemology (the theory of knowledge). Questions to be discussed may include: What is knowledge? How are beliefs justified? When should we believe something on the basis ...

Total points

20.0

Days taught
2023

Mon,Thu

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 2

Years available

2023

Ethics

PHIL202

This course is an examination of the 20th century approaches to ethics. Topics that may be discussed include: What is the nature of ethics and morality? Are our ethical judgments systematically mistaken? How and why have we evolved to make moral judg...

Total points

20.0

Years available

Asian Philosophy

PHIL204

This course is an introduction to classical Asian philosophy, with a focus on views about ethics, political philosophy, education, and human nature.

Total points

20.0

Years available

The Future of Work

FHSS207

Workforces are changing at a rapid pace with various predictions regarding the future nature of work. In this interdisciplinary course, students will critically examine the changing nature of the work and employment from a range of perspectives inclu...

Total points

20.0

Years available

Special Topic: Metaphysics

PHIL209

The course examines some of the toughest questions about the nature of reality, including questions about the nature of time, free will, causation, and what objects really are.

Total points

20.0

Years available

Special Topic: Ethical Theory

PHIL210

An examination of the foundations of ethics. What is distinctive about moral language? Are moral properties real? Are our moral judgements justified (and if so how)? Topics related to moral psychology and the evolution of moral cognition may also be ...

Total points

20.0

Days taught
2023

Tue,Fri

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 2

Years available

2023

Introduction to Logic

PHIL211

An introduction to the analysis of arguments using the methods of symbolic logic. Students are introduced to the use of techniques such as truth tables, trees and natural deduction to test arguments for validity.

Total points

20.0

Days taught
2023

Wed,Fri

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 1

Years available

2023

Political Philosophy and International Relations

INTP261

This course surveys the historical and philosophical development of international relations theory and political theory. It will examine foundational texts drawn from thinkers across the range of western political theory, from ancient Greece to the t...

Total points

20.0

Days taught
2023

Wed,Fri

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 3

Years available

2023

Ethics and International Affairs

PHIL264

This course examines important topics at the intersection of international relations and moral philosophy, including: just-war theory, humanitarian aid and intervention, nationalism, immigration, historical injustice, human rights and climate change....

Total points

20.0

Days taught
2023

Tue,Wed

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 2

Years available

2023

Mind and Cognition

PHIL265

This course explores the nature of the mental by investigating accounts of the mind and cognition. Topics that may be discussed include the relationship between the mind and the body, consciousness, perception, intentionality, and mental content.

Total points

20.0

Years available

Great Philosophers

PHIL267

This course covers western philosophy from the presocratic thinkers, through Plato adn Aristotle, and then passing to the modern period to cover Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume and Reid.

Total points

20.0

Years available

Philosophy of Popular Culture

PHIL268

This course presents a series of contemporary philosophical controversies and questions raised by art and culture.

Total points

20.0

Days taught
2023

Mon,Tue

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 1

Years available

2023

Data Ethics

PHIL269

Data ethics is a new branch of ethics. Students who enrol in this course will study new and emerging ethical problems related to data (including generation, recording, curation, processing, dissemination, sharing and use), algorithms (including artif...

Total points

20.0

Years available

Ethical Theory

PHIL302

An examination of the foundations of ethics. What is distinctive about moral language? Are moral properties real? Are our moral judgements justified (and if so how)? Topics related to moral psychology and the evolution of moral cognition may also be ...

Total points

20.0

Days taught
2023

Tue,Fri

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 2

Years available

2023

Rights, Equality and Freedom: Contemporary Political Philosophy

PHIL303

This course examines major positions and issues in contemporary political philosophy, including questions about rights, equality, justice, freedom, and democracy. This course is also able to be taken towards a major in POLS. See major requirements fo...

Total points

20.0

Years available

Mathematical Logic

MATH309

An introduction to the semantics and proof theory of symbolic languages, explaining the role of logic in describing mathematical structures and formalising reasoning about them. Topics covered include propositional logic, first-order logic of quantif...

Total points

15.0

Days taught
2023

Mon,Tue,Wed,Fri

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 2

Years available

2023

Special Topic: Data Ethics

PHIL309

Data ethics is a new branch of ethics. Students who enrol in this course will study new and emerging ethical problems related to data (including generation, recording, curation, processing, dissemination, sharing and use), algorithms (including artif...

Total points

20.0

Years available

Special Topic: Studying the Future

PHIL310

This course addresses a variety of challenges to predicting and preparing for the future. It takes an essentially interdisciplinary approach, drawing on a wide variety of sources of information about the future. Among its focuses are the biases that ...

Total points

20.0

Years available

Special Topic: Existentialism and Phenomenology

PHIL311

This course introduces students to the thought of the existentialist school of the 20th Century, such as Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Albert Camus. We will discuss the ideas of these thinkers both in relation to their o...

Total points

20.0

Days taught
2023

Wed,Fri

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 2

Years available

2023

Philosophy of the Arts

PHIL313

This course will examine a series of contemporary philosophical issues concerning what art is, whether there are objective standards of taste, objective aesthetic properties, when works of art start and finish, collaborations and art, morality and ar...

Total points

20.0

Years available

Philosophy of Science

PHIL318

This course surveys the issues and positions in modern philosophy of science, beginning with a discussion of the history of philosophy of science from Logical Positivism to the present. We then discuss particular problems such as the problem of induc...

Total points

20.0

Years available

Metaphysics

PHIL325

The course examines some of the toughest questions about the nature of reality, including questions about the nature of time, free will, causation, and what objects really are.

Total points

20.0

Years available

Language and the World

PHIL331

This course examines the conceptual development of the theories of meaning and reference to the present. We discuss the problem of interpreting what others say and the role of context in the understanding of language.

Total points

20.0

Days taught
2023

Wed,Fri

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 1

Years available

2023

Logic

PHIL335

This course covers central systems of extra-classical and non-classical (or 'deviant') logic. A selection of the following logics will be studied in this course: temporal logic, modal logic, intuitionist logic, relevant logic and many-valued logic.

Total points

20.0

Years available

Bioethics

PHIL361

This course will introduce students to some central questions in bioethics. Topics covered may include the ethical issues associated with assisted reproduction, severely disabled newborns, euthanasia, informed consent, human cloning, stem cell therap...

Total points

20.0

Years available

A Topic in Political Philosophy: Feminist Theory

POLS362

This course enables students to engage deeply with a broad range of feminist thought. We will first focus on feminist critiques of social/political institutions, then on feminist prescriptions, and finally look at the means feminists have suggested f...

Total points

20.0

Days taught
2023

Mon,Wed

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 1

Years available

2023

Paradoxes

PHIL371

This course studies a variety of paradoxes and contemporary philosophical responses to them. Paradoxes to be discussed may include: Zeno’s paradoxes, the Sorites paradox, Newcombs’ paradox, prisoners’ dilemma, the surprise examination paradox, and th...

Total points

20.0

Years available

Experimental Philosophy

PHIL373

This course will survey and critique the new and emerging field of experimental philosophy. This will include looking at some of the ways in which empirical methods have been brought to bear on philosophical questions in areas such as epistemology, p...

Total points

20.0

Days taught
2023

Mon,Fri

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 1

Years available

2023

Philosophy of Law

PHIL375

This course is a comprehensive examination of jurisprudence and the philosophy of law. Questions that may be discussed are: What is a law? From where do laws derive their authority? What is the relationship between the law, ethics and morality? 100% ...

Total points

20.0

Years available

Pre-honours Seminar

PHIL389

This course will (1) introduce students to theoretical questions about the nature of philosophy and the sub-discipline known as metaphilosophy, (2) teach students practical skills to enhance their ability to do research in philosophy, and (3) support...

Total points

20.0

Years available

Philosophy, Politics and Economics

PHPE401

This course examines topics at the intersection of philosophy, politics and economics. Topics may include: social choice theory, rational choice theory, economic history, value theory, the politics of global finance, global governance, and comparativ...

Total points

30.0

Days taught
2023

Mon,Wed

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 2

Years available

2023

Approaches to Microeconomics

PHPE402

This course gives students an in depth knowledge of the principles of microeconomics and their application.

Total points

15.0

Days taught
2023

Fri

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 1

Years available

2023

Approaches to Macroeconomics

PHPE403

This course gives students an in depth knowledge of the principles of macroeconomics and their application.

Total points

15.0

Days taught
2023

Thu

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 2

Years available

2023

Directed Individual Study in Economics

PHPE404

Students will undertake an approved, supervised course of study relating to economics and complementing their work in the Philosophy, Politics and Economics programme.

Total points

15.0

Years available

Directed Individual Study

PHIL420

Students will undertake an approved, supervised course of study relating to philosophy and complementing their work in the Honours Degree within the Philosophy programme.

Total points

15.0

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 1,Trimester 2

Years available

2023

Formal Logic

PHIL421

This course will be an introduction to standard model and proof theory.

Total points

15.0

Years available

Philosophical Logic

PHIL422

This course will be an in-depth discussion of one or more problems in contemporary philosophical logic. Topics will change from year to year, but they may include vagueness, theories of truth, modal logic applied to problems in philosophy, or the phi...

Total points

15.0

Years available

Metaphysics and Epistemology

PHIL441

This course considers questions about the fundamental nature of reality and what we can know and justifiably believe about it.

Total points

15.0

Years available

Language and Mind

PHIL442

This course considers questions about how our thoughts and language can represent the world.

Total points

15.0

Days taught
2023

Thu

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 1

Years available

2023

Value Theory

PHIL443

This course will consider closely some topics in moral philosophy, social and political philosophy, aesthetics, and the philosophy of religion.

Total points

15.0

Days taught
2023

Fri

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 2

Years available

2023

Advanced Ethics

PHIL444

This course examines contemporary debates in philosophy about the fundamental moral principles that govern and constrain human behaviour.

Total points

15.0

Years available

Contemporary Approaches to Philosophy

PHIL445

This course examines topics that continue to shape and influence contemporary western analytic philosophy.

Total points

15.0

Days taught
2023

Tue

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 1

Years available

2023

New Books in Philosophy

PHIL446

This course will involve students closely reading and critically evaluating two recently published monographs in philosophy.

Total points

15.0

Days taught
2023

Tue

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 2

Years available

2023

Special Topic:

PHIL447

Total points

15.0

Years available

Political Philosophy

PHIL449

This course is an in-depth survey of central and fundamental questions in political philosophy. It will consider concepts such as politics, liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and authority. It will ask what these concepts mean and why they are ...

Total points

15.0

Days taught
2023

Mon

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 2

Years available

2023

Research Project

PHIL489

This course gives students the opportunity to pursue an individual research project with guidance and support from a supervisor. Regular supervision is arranged with the supervisor, and signed off by Philosophy's Coordinator of Graduate Studies.

Total points

30.0

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 1,Trimester 1 + 2

Years available

2023

Research Project

PHPE589

This course gives students the opportunity to pursue an individual research project relating to an aspect of the PPE programme. Students will be given guidance and support from a supervisor. Regular supervision is arranged with the supervisor, and si...

Total points

30.0

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 1,Trimester 3

Years available

2023

Philosophy, Politics and Economics Internship

PHPE590

This course builds on the skills and knowledge gained through Part 1 of the PPE programme. It provides students with the opportunity of gaining direct insights into the workings of government, ministries or related workplaces. Placements will be orga...

This course is offered in person only.

Total points

30.0

Days taught
2023

Fri

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 3

Years available

2023

Thesis

PHIL591

MA thesis in Philosophy.

Total points

120.0

Trimesters taught
2023

Full Year

Years available

2023

Dissertation

PHPE593

This course gives students the opportunity to pursue an individual research project relating to an aspect of the PPE programme. Students will be given guidance and support from a supervisor. Regular supervision is arranged with the supervisor and sig...

Total points

60.0

Trimesters taught
2023

Trimester 1 + 2,Trimester 3

Years available

2023

Philosophy for PhD

PHIL690

Total points

120.0

Trimesters taught
2023

Full Year

Years available

2023

Showing results 1 - 58 of 58 results

Showing 1 - 58 of 58 results for Philosophy

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