B.A. French and Philosophy

Course Content Year One consists in two modules that provide a comprehensive grounding in Philosophy, while not repeating what some students will already have studied. One of these modules, ‘Mind, Thought and Reality’, focuses on the nature of thinking, the relation between thoughts and the rest of the world, and the basic structures of the world. Students address these questions through discussing classic and contemporary writings. The other module, ‘Moral and Political Philosophy’, introduces the central concepts, theories, arguments, and approaches of contemporary moral and political theory through considering such particular issues as global poverty, nuclear weapons, the relations between men and women, medical ethics, and the use of animals.Year Two is designed to build on this foundation through more focused modules that provide a more solid grounding in their particular area. Among the modules currently on offer in Year Two are ‘Epistemology and Mind’, ‘Logic and Language’, ‘Kant and Heidegger’, ‘Modern Moral Philosophy’, and ‘Contemporary Political Philosophy’. There are no compulsory modules. Students are encouraged to follow the interests they developed at Year One, but also to consider what they would like to take in the following year.Year Three is our research-led year, where the modules reflect the current research interests of the staff who teach them. These build on, and are more specialised than, the Year Two modules. Essentially, students are reading and thinking about the very same texts that the module leader is thinking and writing about. Modules currently available at Year Three include ‘The Problem of Consciousness’, ‘German Aesthetics’, ‘Philosophy and Literary Theory’, ‘Moral Psychology’, ‘Metaethics’, ‘Feminist Philosophy’, and ‘Nietzsche’. There is also the opportunity for independent research in the dissertation module.