Philosophy, politics, ethics ba(hons)

Year 1

In year 1 you take six modules that help develop the skills central to your course.

• Historical Inquiry

  This module will introduce you to the practice of historical inquiry through an exploration of various approaches to the study of the experience of crisis and conflict in the mid-twentieth century.

• Philosophical Inquiry

  This module will introduce you to fundamental concepts and basic methodologies in critical and philosophical theory.

• Studying Cultures

  This module will introduce you to fundamental concepts and basic methodologies in cultural studies, focusing on the distinction between ‘lived cultures’ and ‘cultural texts’, grounded in case studies from Britain in the period 1968–74.

• Democracy: From Athens to Baghdad

  This module will introduce you to fundamental concepts and basic methodologies in democratic theory.

  Democracy as a contested term goes to the heart of debates about the exercise of power in the contemporary world, and is not solely about governance. This module will introduce you to the histories and contexts within which the concept and practice of democracy developed. You will study classical, republican, liberal, anarchist, Marxist, communitarian, and global conceptualisations of democracy. In each case the cultural, political and historical context of these practices of government will be critically discussed and their relevance to current circumstances considered.

  The module addresses the cultural preconditions for democratic freedoms and the representation of democratic values in the social and political movements which have fought to establish democratic freedoms. It will also introduce the different forms of inequality that characterise most democracies.

• Understanding Society in a Global World

  In this module you will be introduced to interdisciplinary methodologies in the social sciences, explore theories of international relations and globalisation, and apply these to important questions concerning living in a global world.

  You will interrogate the claims of social scientists to produce verifiable knowledge about the social world, and evaluate the political implications of different methodological approaches for the study of key aspects of global society. You will explore how concepts and theories are applied to contested aspects of global society, notably environmental sustainability and war/conflict.

• Approaching Narratives

  This module will introduce you to key methodologies and concepts in the formal study of narrative, while encouraging you to critically reflect on how narratives construct particular visions of our world.

  The module focuses specifically on issues of narrative structure, ideology, language, and semiotics across a range of visual and textual forms including television and film, news media, imaginative fiction, photography, the internet and a psychiatric ‘case study’. You will interrogate the importance of narrative voice, narrative development and closure in the production of meaning, and critically engage with the role of the reader in relation to critical interpretation and understanding.