Core modules
Year One: 90 CATS of core modules, including 30 CATS in English, 45 CATS in Philosophy, and 15 CATS in a combined module. 30 CATS are chosen from options in English or Philosophy.
Year Two: History of Modern Philosophy (30 CATS), options in Philosophy (30 CATS), and options in English (60 CATS)
Year Three: Options in Philosophy (30-90 CATS), options in English (30-90 CATS), and up to 30 CATs of options to be chosen from any available subject.
Year One
Problems in Philosophy and Literature
This module introduces you to the combined study of philosophy and literature, bringing literary theory, criticism and philosophical thinking about literature to the study of epistemology, and metaphysics and ethics. You will study the latter key areas of philosophy as represented by the work of Descartes and John Stuart Mill respectively. You will move on to articulate your own interpretations of texts by authors such as Proust, Coetzee, Nietzsche and Beckett. To read, discuss and write reflectively about philosophical and literary texts, and you will combine the approaches and concerns of the two disciplines.
Modes of Reading
What is a reader? How is our understanding and perception of a text formed? What does it mean to think critically when we read? This module allows you to explore these questions by putting a spotlight on the question of critical thinking in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. By studying a series of literary texts in relation to some of the most influential literary and cultural theorists of the last hundred years, you will take your own position on everything from Marxism, queer and feminist theory to ecocriticism and postcolonial critique.
Introduction to Philosophy (without logic)
You'll have a wide-ranging introduction to philosophy, including ancient, continental, moral and political philosophy, followed by epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind and aesthetics, and logic. You'll learn to engage critically with different viewpoints and critically analyse and evaluate arguments central to philosophy.
Year Two
History of Modern Philosophy
You will discover the metaphysical and epistemological ideas of great Empiricist philosophers Locke, Berkeley and Hume on substance, qualities, ideas, causation and perception. You will then explore Kant's ideas, including metaphysics, space, self-awareness, causation, scepticism and freedom. You will develop skills in critical engagement, articulating your own views of the relative strengths and weaknesses of these arguments and interpreting key philosophical ideas.
Year Three
No core modules.
Optional modules
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:
- Nietzsche in Context
- Philosophy of Photography
- European Theatre
- The Global Novel
- Topics in Philosophy and Literature