Course information
Course highlights
- Students can choose any of the optional modules offered by the Department, allowing you to choose any combination of philosophical topics.
- Taking a range of modules allows for maximum flexibility when choosing a dissertation topic.
- The St Andrews and Stirling Graduate Programme was ranked the third best Philosophy programme in the UK in the latest Philosophical Gourmet Report.
Teaching format
The MLitt in Philosophy is a one year taught postgraduate programme run by the St Andrews and Stirling Graduate Programme in Philosophy (SASP), taught by staff from both the University of St Andrews and the University of Stirling.
Students on the MLitt in Philosophy have the opportunity to study a broad range of philosophical topics, through lectures, tutorials and reading groups. Modules are taught in small groups of four to ten students, with all postgraduate taught students in the Department participating in the compulsory Current Issues modules. In 2014-2015, there were 35 postgraduate taught students in the Department.
Those on the MLitt in Philosophy may sign up for any of the postgraduate taught modules offered by the department, building a timetable which best suits individual interests. The course offers flexibility for those students who are not yet sure of their research interests, or who wish to gain a broader understanding of issues and debates across the discipline. This flexibility allows students to combine the modules which are of most interest; combining logic and ethics for example, or metaphysics and political philosophy.
The programme consists of six taught modules taken over two semesters (each assessed by coursework) and a 15,000 word dissertation in an area of your choice.
Every MLitt student is assigned an advisor at the beginning of the year. Your advisor will provide you with individual guidance on essay planning and writing, academic conduct, and advice on how best to apply for a PhD place.
Further particulars regarding curriculum development.
Modules
The modules in this programme have varying methods of delivery and assessment. For more details of each module, including weekly contact hours, teaching methods and assessment, please see the latest module catalogue.
Compulsory modules
Students must take three compulsory modules over the course of the programme. These are:
Semester 1 – these two modules are taught in Stirling on Mondays. A coach will take you to and from Stirling without additional cost.
- Current Issues in Philosophy 1 (Semester 1): focuses on epistemology and ethics.
- Research Methods (Semester 1): aims to foster the range of skills required for independent research in Philosophy. Students may choose to join a seminar group most related to their interests.
Semester 2
Optional modules
You will also have the opportunity to choose three modules from all of the postgraduate Philosophy modules across the Department.
At least one optional module must be chosen from:
- Classical Philosophy: topics in ancient metaphysics and ethics concentrating on selected readings from the works of Plato or Aristotle.
- Kant: essential topics and concepts from the Kant’s Doctrine of Virtue, part II of Metaphysics of Morals.
- Origins and History of Analytic Philosophy: examines the works of the founding philosophers of analytic tradition in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Other optional modules include:
- Action and Intention: explores GEM Anscombe's Intention, alongside other seminal essays and debates in the twentieth and twenty-first century philosophy of action.
- Advanced Epistemology: advanced issues in contemporary Epistemology, including contextualist and relativist theories of knowledge, sceptical paradoxes, lottery paradoxes, self-knowledge, fallibilism, intuition, reliabilism and minimalist theories of knowledge.
- Advanced Logic B: Classical Meta-theory: examines cardinality, computability and the limitative results of Gödel (incompleteness of arithmetic), Tarski (non-definability of arithmetic truth), and Church (undecidability of first-order logic).
- Aesthetics: philosophical examination of the questions that arise from the reflection, understanding and evaluation of works of art.
- Formal Approaches to Natural Languages: introduces issues in formal semantics, as well as related issues in syntax and pragmatics.
- Intuitions and Philosophical Methodology: discusses the nature of intuitions, how intuitions are and should be used within philosophy and positive accounts of intuition.
- Justice: Ancient and Modern: introduces the main theories of justice in the Western philosophical tradition.
- Philosophy of Law: examines the central elements in the philosophy of law.
- Moral and Political Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century: studies influential ethical and political ideas of the nineteenth century, based around works by one or more of Hegel, Mill and Nietzsche.
- Political Philosophy: an investigation of liberalism and its critics.
- Topics in Recent Moral Theory: critical discussion of selected works in ethics from the last five years.
Optional modules are subject to change each year, and attendance may be limited (see the University’s position on curriculum development).
If you wish to brush up on your knowledge of logic, or if you have limited prior experience in this area, there is also an optional weekly seminar, Basic Logic, throughout the year.
The modules listed ran in the academic year 2015-2016 and are indicative of this course. There is no guarantee that these modules will run for 2016 entry.
Take a look at the most up-to-date modules in the module catalogue.
Dissertation
The final element of the MLitt is a 15,000 word dissertation. The dissertation should be on an area of philosophy you are interested in; you will be encouraged to start considering a topic for the dissertation during Semester 2. Each student is supported through their dissertation by a relevant supervisor from the Department.
If students choose not to complete the dissertation requirement for the MLitt, there is an exit award available that allows suitably qualified candidates to receive a Postgraduate Diploma. By choosing an exit award, you will finish your degree at the end of the second semester of study and receive a PGDip instead of an MLitt.
Part time studies
The Philosophy MLitt can also be taken as a part time programme. Students will be expected to take three modules per year over two years, working on the dissertation over two summers. For more information about part time study, please contact the SASP secretary by emailing sasp@st-andrews.ac.uk.
