Students must take the following compulsory first year module alongside other Philosophy modules:
- Reasoning: introduces the essential concepts and techniques of critical reasoning, formal propositional logic, and basic predicate logic. Among the central questions are these: what distinguishes an argument from a mere rhetorical ploy? What makes an argument a good one? How can we formally prove that a conclusion follows from some premises? In addressing these questions, the module will also cover topics such as argumentative fallacies, ambiguity, argument forms and analyses, induction versus deduction, counterexamples, truthtables, truth-trees (tableaux), natural deduction, and quantification.
Students will take at least two second-year modules from the following options:
- Intermediate Logic: aims to further develop students’ understanding of formal logic by the study of a broad array of systems of logic.
- Foundations of Western Philosophy: provides an introduction to central figures, texts and ideas of the period of Ancient Philosophy. Classical Greek philosophy – specifically the works of Plato and Aristotle – will always be at the core of the module.
- Meaning and Knowing: aims to provide a comprehensive foundation in both epistemology (the theory of knowledge) and the philosophy of language.
- Moral and Aesthetic Value: examines moral values, aesthetic values, and the relationship between them.
If you decide to take Philosophy in your third and fourth years, you choose from a wide variety of advanced options, including modules in applied ethics, logic, and the history of philosophy.
Philosophy Honours modules which have been offered in previous years include:
- Paradoxes
- Political Philosophy
- Continental European Philosophy from Descartes to Leibniz
- Philosophy of Perception
- Effective Altruism
- Advanced Logic
- Animals, Minds and Language
- Metaphysics
- Conceptual Engineering and its Role in Philosophy
- Reasons for Action and Belief.
In fourth year, students may also undertake a 7,500-word dissertation on a topic of their choice. This independent project enables you to develop key research skills which are desired by both prospective employers and by graduate schools offering postgraduate degrees.