BA (Hons.) Philosophical Studies: an overview

UCAS code: V000

The programme has been developed as a novel educational initiative to respond to both the changing character of academia and also to the rapid transformation of culture and working practices within the modern world. Employers no longer seek graduates who possess specific knowledge or vocational skills, but rather individuals who possess an ability to comprehend, process and communicate knowledge effectively. To be professional and creative in manipulating information, whether in a directorate of an arts centre, in a civil servant's office, publisher's outlet or a college classroom, requires first of all a capacity for rational discrimination and orientation in the "spacetime" of contemporary culture. In the process of researching essay and project material, you will be encouraged to develop this ability in addition to building up a marketable portfolio of transferable skills.

The course invokes the most spectacular achievements of the human mind familiar from traditional philosophy courses. However, knowledge is studied in terms of cultural practices which cut across the established divides of academic disciplines. Systems of knowledge are initially understood as sources of rationality and cultural forces intimately linked to the arts or politics, and themselves subject to powerful cultural influences.

Assessment

The course is built around a core of lecture courses which present the key concepts of philosophical thought and their manifestations in practices of learning, information processing and contemporary culture in general. Assessment is largely by written coursework, a significant amount of which will be project based. The role of these projects is to connect the conceptual content of the programme with the world of things and events as suits the ability and personal career intentions of the individual.

Flexibility

The degree structure is designed to enable the student to take full advantage of the intellectual capital available across a broad range of subjects. The learner can choose to study science, social science, the arts and other humanities disciplines at each stage of the programme. Alternatively, Philosophical Studies also offers a wide range of specialist modules including Consciousness, Art and Technology, the Human and Natural Environment and Knowledge, Power, Desire.

Lecture Content

Stage 1 builds a firm, historical foundation in philosophical theory. Studies begin with the thought of the Ancient Greeks, their views of the cosmos and ideas of a good life before progressing to the early Christian thinkers such as St Augustine. This is closely followed by the works of Descartes, Galileo and Newton before looking at the thinkers of the early Enlightenment, such as Locke, Rousseau and Goethe, and their commitment to independent thought.

Stages 2 and 3 develop this groundwork through the introduction of more contemporary thought and a deeper consideration of philosophical theories. The lectures examine the views of the great thinkers of modernity, such as Hume, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Wittgenstein to name but a few, as well as recent "postmodern" reactions to Enlightenment thinking. Although the emphasis is predominantly on an historical approach, there is ample opportunity to engage in debates about the nature of mind, free-will, truth, knowledge, reality, beauty, personal identiy and rightness.

Project Modules

The project is an important part of the programme which aims to develop a practical bond between conceptual and applied aspects of this programme. You will learn how, in the framework of a specific project, systems of thought inscribe culture, what practices are used to operate knowledge systems, and how to communicate your findings.

The project seminar will be there to integrate all aspects of the programme. It will be a platform for debating regularly and in a systematic fashion all the abstract concepts in a practical context. You will be encouraged to choose the topic for your dissertation yourself and given a great deal of freedom to live up to your full potential. For example, you might like to research the way a publishing outlet responds to the changing cultural tastes of a certain group of readers or survey postmodernism in Newcastle's Metro Centre.

If your ambitions are more academic and you are thinking of a postgraduate course (and many students who have taken these modules have done so), you might, for instance, research a work of a certain key author (poet, philosopher, scientist) or the way a certain class of books are written, how they reflect the crisis of modernism, say, in the current perception of science and technology or art making, and so on.

More information about the project can be obtained by clicking here.