Newcastle University

Philosophical Studies

This subject is offered by the Centre for Research in Knowledge Science and Society.

Subject summary

This course is about the relation between humans and things, between reality and description of reality. Here 'science' is not a set of equations for number crunching but a way of generating a worldview, of looking at things, a source of rationality which you will learn to see in action in philosophy, literature, politics, almost everywhere.

We shall invoke some of the most astonishing achievements of the human mind, in cosmology, philosophy, etc. It is not so much because we want you to learn all those formidable doctrines or truths although, of course, you will have to know some of them. Above all we want you to acquire the ability to separate knowledge from opinion, to recognise a clear and distinct thought should you run into it in a novel or in your office, in brief to acquire the most precious skill of all – how to think, how to turn chaos into order.

In the course of researching your essay and project material, you will be encouraged to build up a marketable portfolio of personal transferable skills.

• What can I know?
• What is in the Cosmos?

Answers to such questions, the systems of thought and cosmologies humans have developed depend on our concept of nature and rationality. Newtonian science installed in the 17th century a radically new order of things only to find itself superseded by a very different notion of nature which emerged in the 20th century out of post-Einsteinian physics and philosophy.

This development had led to a number of startling revelations which undermine some of our most treasured certainties. Is it really true that the Universe was created out of nothing? What then, is 'reality' and what is meant by representing reality in cosmology, politics, art? Can life be reduced to reason? Are human minds just sophisticated computers and can a computer be a poet?

Pre-requisites

None.

Examples of Philosophical Studies modules offered