Philosophy MA

A 12 000-word dissertation on a topic agreed with the supervisor and the Director of Postgraduate Studies.

Your dissertation is usually completed during the summer.

This is a compulsory module worth 60 credits.

The module will cover topics from a range of areas in philosophy by focusing on particularly influential pieces of work. The module will cover one philosophical topic each week.

Representative areas of philosophy include (but are not limited to):

• Philosophy of Language (Frege, Russell, Geach, Milikan, Saul, etc.)
• Epistemology (Haack, Zagzebski, etc.)
• Philosophy of Mind (Putnam, Chalmers, Churchland, etc.)
• Metaphysics (Quine, Kim, Thomasson, etc.)
• Political Philosophy (Rawls, Arendt, Appiah, etc.)
• Ethics (Ayer, Anscombe, Parfit, Nussbaum, etc.)
• Feminist Philosophy (Alcoff, Anderson, Haslanger, Fricker, etc.)
• History of Philosophy (Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Cavendish, Spinoza, etc.)

 This is a compulsory module worth 20 credits.

This course will examine debates in ethics, construed broadly to cover issues in applied ethics, normative ethical theory and meta-ethics.

The course may include detailed study of particular theories which aim to articulate and justify the nature and content of morality.

The particular theories studied will be tailored to the ongoing research interests of the convenor.

Representative topics include (but are not limited to):

• the nature of moral obligations
• the demandingness of moral obligations
• the action-guidingness of ethics
• ethics and decision procedures
• the objects of ethical evaluation
• moral principles such as the Doctrine of Doing and Allowing, and Double Effect
• the nature and evaluability of moral emotions such as guilt and shame
• theories of right action such as consequentialism, deontology, virtue ethics and particularism
• axiology
• the value of nature
• feminist ethics
• the objectivity of ethics (realism and anti-realism)
• the nature and structure of moral concepts
• applied ethical topics such as the ethics of abortion, euthanasia, vegetarianism and cloning.

The module aims to provide the opportunity for advanced study of contemporary debates in normative ethics, applied ethics and meta-ethics. In particular, it aims to enable students to familiarise themselves with debates in this area up to a level suitable as a basis for further research.

Representative authors include Dale Jamieson, Brad Hooker, Philippa Foot and Christine Korsgaard.

This is a compulsory module worth 20 credits.

The module will cover questions in epistemology and the philosophy of language.

Typical topics covered include (but are not limited to):

• Approaches to theories of knowledge (including conceptual analysis and formal approaches)
• Internalism, externalism, and contextualism
• Social epistemology
• Theory of meaning (including proper names)
• Speech act theory and pragmatics
• Discourse about fictions

 This is a compulsory module worth 20 credits.

The module will cover questions in the philosophy of mind and metaphysics.

Typical topics covered include (but are not limited to):

• Essence, grounding, and the nature of modality
• Causation, counterfactuals, and laws of nature
• Nature of time and space
• The nature of mind and consciousness
• Perceptual experiences and illusion
• Alief and belief

 This is a compulsory module worth 20 credits.

This course will examine some of the major questions of social and political philosophy through the detailed study of traditional and contemporary writings.

Representative topics could include (but are not limited to):

• political obligation
• immigration
• structural injustice
• civil disobedience
• punishment
• multiculturalism
• war and pacifism
• global poverty
• distributive justice
• philosophy of social categories (including race and gender).

 This is a compulsory module worth 20 credits.

We will help you to apply your arts MA across society to enhance your career and contribute to wider society.

We'll demonstrate how the arts can be used to:

• transform society, politics and culture
• enhance the careers of arts and humanities MA students.

You'll be able to explore, explain and then detail how your disciplinary skills can impact upon wider issues to emphasise the applicability of the arts and humanities. From the role of the scholar activist to understanding ‘knowledge transfer’ and ‘public engagement’, you'll develop professional skills in preparation for a career within academia or across a range of sectors.

You will:

• harness the ways in which the arts and humanities enable us to think differently and to innovate
• work on issues of research, networking, grant-writing and cultural exchange
• learn how to engage, communicate and create.

This module is worth 20 credits.

You will achieve:

• greater confidence in dealing with original research
• a recognition of the huge range of approaches that can be used to address research questions.

We build on the research skills you have already developed during both your undergraduate degree and discipline-specific MA modules. The emphasis is on:

• ensuring you are possessed of a range of practical ways to approach research
• making you think about the nature of your discipline-specific approaches within a context of growing interdisciplinarity.

You will have the chance to consider topics as varied as:

• academic publishing
• digital transformations
• use of illustrations in dissertations.

You will also have the opportunity to hear academics from across the Faculty talk about the problems they have confronted and how they overcame them.

This module is worth 20 credits.

Mastering the Arts introductory video