BA Modules

This is the list of BA modules running in the academic year 2024/25.

Click on the titles below to see more information, including a module description and a provisional syllabus. Module leader email addresses can be found via the staff pages. For times and locations please use the UCL common timetable, which will be updated in early September with seminar group allocations. Modules may be subject to change before the start of session.

Modules are organised into three broad areas: Group A, Theoretical Philosophy; Group B, Normative Philosophy; Group C, History of Philosophy.

First Year Modules (FHEQ Level 4) - Term 1

PHIL0001 Ancient Greek Philosophy (C)

Module Leader: Simona Aimar
Level: 4
Term: 1
Area: C
Assessment: Essay, 400 Words (15%); Essay, 800 Words (25%); Essay, 1500 Words (60%) 

Description: This module deals with some important metaphysical, epistemological and ethical questions by looking to philosophers from the ancient Greek tradition.  Questions we might address include: 

• What is philosophy and how should we approach doing it? 
• What principles should we adhere to when dealing with philosophical texts?  
• What characteristics are we entitled to attribute to a deity?   
•  Can you step into the same river twice?  
• Is it impossible to talk or think about something if it doesn’t exist?     
• Can we ever investigate anything?  If so, how do we go about it?  
• What is the difference between knowledge and true belief?  
• To what extent are we responsible for our actions? 

 

PHIL0005 Introduction to Logic 1 (A)

Module Leader: Andreas Ditter
Level: 4
Term: 1
Area: A
Assessment: Exam, 1 Hour (100%)
Description: This module aims to introduce the student to the main ideas, concepts and techniques of contemporary propositional logic, including syntax, semantics and natural deduction. Please note that the exam will take place in the final week of Term 1.

PHIL0007 Introduction to Political Philosophy (B)

Module Leader: Han van Wietmarschen
Level: 4
Term: 1
Area: B
Assessment: Essay, 2000 Words (100%)

Description: In this module, we investigate three large sets of questions about justice and the importance of liberty and equality for a just society:
(1)  Liberty: What is liberty and why is it important? Which liberties, if any, should a just society protect? Freedom of expression? Freedom from interference? Economic Liberty? Sexual liberty? Political liberty? Can these different liberties come into conflict, and if so, should some have priority over others?
(2)  Equality: What is equality, is it important, and which kinds of equality, if any, should a just society ensure? Equality of opportunity? Equality of income and wealth? Political equality?
(3)  Reconciliation: Can a society ensure the equality and liberty of its citizens at the same time, or are these political values inherently in conflict with one another? If they are conflicting values, which is to take priority?
We approach these questions by studying a sequence of authors including Hobbes, Locke, Wollstonecraft, Betham, Mill, Nozick and Rawls. We then look back and reflect on whether this sequence has ignored important considerations of class, gender and race, with readings from Marx and Engels, MacKinnon, and Delaney. 
PHIL0007 has three main aims: (1) to make explicit the normative ideas that underlie our views about the basic institutions of our society, (2) to evaluate the adequacy of those normative ideas, (3) to try to think and argue in a systematic and reasoned way about these questions together, on a basis of mutual respect.

Teaching Delivery
There will be a weekly lecture, and weekly discussion seminars (± 15 students per group). You will be expected to study readings for each week. The module is assessed by essay.
This module is compulsory for first year single honours philosophy students and for first year PPE students. Students from other programs and other years of study are welcome.

PHIL0008 Philosophical Study Skills: Reading, Understanding and Essay Writing (A/B/C)

Module Convener: José Zalabardo
Level: 4
Term: 1
Area: A/B/C
Assessment: Essay, 2000 Words (100%)

Description: Each tutorial group (maximum 4 students) is allocated to a tutor, usually an advanced PhD student, who meets weekly for an hour to discuss set texts; to improve the students’ understanding of them; to debate; and to instruct the students in essay-writing skills. Each student in the group will write some formative essays in the course of the term and may in addition be required to prepare presentations. The tutor is responsible for deciding – according to their expertise - the selection of texts to be studied, although this is done in consultation with the course convenor. See below for examples. In general, there will be a spread of different philosophical texts, possibly on a common theme, and frequently including both ‘historical’ and more contemporary texts. Assessment method 2,000-word submitted essay, due in on the first day of the following Term. It is possible to work up and submit one of the essays presented earlier in the term, in the light of feedback from the tutor.

First Year Modules (Level 4) - Term 2

PHIL0002 Early Modern Philosophy (C)

Module Leader: Colin Chamberlain
Level: 4
Term: 2
Area: C
Assessment: Exam (100%)

Description: When we open our eyes and look about the world, we often assume that what we see is what we get. We assume that grass really is green, and that violets are blue, in more or less the way they visually appear to be. And similarly for the other senses. In the early modern period (roughly, the 17th and 18th centuries), European philosophers increasingly problematize this assumption. Some philosophers—such as René Descartes, Nicolas Malebranche, Robert Boyle, and John Locke—argue for a radical disconnect between the world presented by our senses and the way it really is. These figures argue that the colourful, smelly, tasty, and noisy world with which we are all familiar is a grand illusion, and that physical reality is in fact colourless, odourless, tasteless, and silent, composed of purely quantitative objects. Other philosophers—such as Margaret Cavendish and George Berkeley—try to rescue something of our naïve understanding of the world, and to save the greenness of grass and the blueness of violets, though they twist themselves into metaphysical knots in the process. This module will investigate the thorny early modern debate between these two camps. By the end of this module you will have gained knowledge of some of the key arguments and theories of early modern philosophy, developed your skills in reading, discussing, and writing critically about challenging texts—and you will be a much better position to decide whether a tree falling in a forest makes a sound. 

PHIL0003 Knowledge and Reality (A)

Module Leader: Sam Carter
Level: 4
Term: 2
Area: A
Assessment: Essay, 2000 Words (100%)

Description: This course provides an introduction to epistemology and metaphysics. Topics to be discussed include: the nature of knowledge, scepticism, the existence of God, whether theism is rational, why the universe exists, free will, personal identity, and the metaphysics of race.

PHIL0004 Introduction to Logic 2 (A)

Module Leader: Andreas Ditter
Level: 4
Term: 2
Area: A
Assessment: Exam (100%)

Description: This module aims to introduce the student to the main ideas, concepts and  techniques of contemporary first-order logic, including syntax, semantics and natural deduction. Extensions of first-order logic with identity and function symbols are also considered, focusing on definite descriptions and non-denoting terms. NB PHIL0005 Introduction to Logic 1 is a pre-requisite for this module.

PHIL0006 Introduction to Moral Philosophy (B)

Module Leader: Mark Kalderon
Level: 4
Term: 2
Area: B
Assessment: Exam (100%)

Description: This module is an introduction to moral philosophy through a close examination of two key historical texts. Specifically, we will read selections from Hume's Treatise and Kant's Groundwork. The aim is to introduce you to themes in moral philosophy and prepare you for further study in moral philosophy as well as further study of Hume and Kant.
Indicative Topics
The module will cover the following topics:
1. The nature of moral motivation, whether it is reason or desire that moves us to act as morality requires
2. Whether moral requirements can move us to act contrary to our interests
3. Whether moral requirements are universal
4. The connection between self-knowledge and virtue
Teaching Delivery
Teaching will consist in a weekly lecture and a weekly seminar. You will be required to do the reading for each week and participate in seminar.
The student might consult the optional reading for the course, two books based on similar courses, namely, David Wiggins’ Ethics, Harvard University Press, 2009, and John Rawls' Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy, Harvard University Press, 2000.

Second Year Modules (Level 5) - Term 1   

PHIL0011 Applied Ethics (B)

Module Leader: John Vorhaus
Level: 5
Term: 1
Area: B
Assessment: Exam (100%)

Description: This course will examine some selected topics in applied ethics.
The following topics will be covered: abortion, rape, euthanasia, non-human animals, future people, affirmative action, disability, privacy and the ethics of immigration.
Students will be expected to read at least two papers for most topics, and to participate actively in the back-up seminar. Assessment will be by an two-hour examination, in which students will be expected to answer two questions.  This final paper will offer a wide range of questions to choose from, but a question on each topic is not guaranteed.

PHIL0012 Metaphysics (A)

Module Leader: Daniel Rothschild
Level: 5
Term: 1
Area: A
Assessment: Essay, 2500 Words (100%)
Description: This module will examine core themes and debates in contemporary metaphysics. It will equip you not only with an understanding of these core topics, but also with conceptual tools that will help you become a participant in the debate.
Sample topics (may vary slightly year to year):
Objects and Properties Possibility and Necessity Causation Space and Time The Nature of Truth

Teaching Delivery
There will be a one-hour lecture and a one-hour seminar per week. You will be required to read one or two Key Readings each week prior to the lecture. Seminars will be an opportunity to engage in interactive discussion of the week’s topic.
By the end of the module, you should:
    1. Have a sound understanding of a range of core themes and debates in contemporary metaphysics.
    2. Be equipped with the understanding and conceptual resources needed to contribute to these debates yourself.
    3. Have further honed your ability to analyse arguments and construct rigorous arguments yourself.
    4. Have improved your essay-writing skills.
Recommended Reading: In preparation for the module, we advise reading the following core text. 
    This can be found in the UCL Library, but it might be a good idea to buy your own copy:
    Lowe, E. J. (2002): A Survey of Metaphysics (Oxford: OUP) ISBN: 978-0-19-875253-0

PHIL0022 Philosophy of Language (A)

Module Leader: Sam Carter
Level: 5
Term: 1
Area: A
Assessment: Essay, 2500 Words (100%)

Description: This module will introduce you to topics in contemporary analytic philosophy of language. The central questions we will examine concern the fact that language is meaningful – that words can be used to say something about things in the world. How does this happen? In what ways can language be meaningful? How do different elements of language get their meaning? The aims of this module are to examine these questions by looking at the most prominent philosophical theories of the meaning of names, the meanings of sentences, and the different ways that our words can be meaningful.
The module will cover the following topics, which may be subject to variation depending on developments in academic research and the interests of the class:
Meaning and names:
Purely referential theories of names
Frege’s theory of sense
Russell’s theory of descriptions
Kripke’s causal-historical theory of reference
Meaning and sentences:
Grice’s theory of speaker meaning
Implicature (when we say one thing but mean something else)
Speech-acts (the different actions we can perform with words)

Teaching Delivery
This module will be delivered in two ways. There are weekly one-hour lectures for the whole group. There are then weekly one-hour seminars, divided into smaller groups. One of these seminar groups will be taught by the module leader, the others by one or more PGTAs depending on course size. Each student will therefore attend the weekly lecture and one seminar each week. We expect students to read the essential reading given on the reading list, and to be ready to contribute in the seminars where appropriate.

By the end of the module, you should be able to:
Understand and explain the theories of language we cover in the module.
Understand and explain the key arguments given for and against these theories.
Philosophically evaluate and assess these theories and the key arguments given for and against them; evaluate whether these arguments effectively support or undermine the theories they are targeted at. 
Understand and explain how these theories and arguments, and their evaluation, connect with one another and with broader philosophical issues where appropriate.

Recommended Reading
In preparation for the module, we advise reading the following core texts. These can be found in the UCL Library:
William G. Lycan, 2019, Philosophy of Language: A Contemporary Introduction (3rd ed) excluding chapters 6, 8-10, 14-15.

PHIL0024 Ethics (B)

Module Leader: TBC
Level: 5
Term: 1
Area: B
Assessment: Essay, 2500 Words (100%)

Description:  What is the best way to live? What obligations do we have to one another? Should we judge an action by its outcomes or by the intentions of the person who acts? What does it mean when we say that we have a moral duty to do something or avoid doing something? What is the relationship between freedom and responsibility? What entities have full moral status and what does moral status entail? Are there such things as just wars? Is death bad and should it be avoided? What, if anything, could justify killing? Do people have a moral right to have an abortion? In this module, we will think critically about these questions and about potential answers to them. 
The first half of the module will provide an overview of key theories (such as for example deontology and consequentialism), doctrines (such as the doctrine of double effects or the doctrine of acts and omissions) and concepts (such as duty, permissibility, justice and responsibility) in moral philosophy. The second half will include a selection of topics and questions concerning: moral status, freedom, the beginning and the end of life, killing, war, responsibility and luck.

PHIL0028 Topics in Political Philosophy (B)

Module Leader: Joe Horton
Level: 5
Term: 1
Area: B
Assessment: Essay, 1000 Words (25%); Essay, 2000 Words (75%)

Module Description: This module investigates questions that are both central to political philosophy and of current political importance. They include: What does it take for a society to be just? How can we come to own natural resources? Does global inequality matter as much as national inequality? Is it wrong to contribute to climate change? Should states recognise the institution of marriage? What do we owe to future generations?

Module Aims: This module is designed to introduce you to some important debates in political philosophy and to help you develop the skills needed to evaluate them. These skills include the ability to reconstruct complicated arguments, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and identify the connections between them. These skills are fundamental in all areas of philosophy, but they are also important in many other disciplines.
Sample Readings:
> Elizabeth Anderson, ‘What is the Point of Equality?’, Ethics 109 (1999): 287–337
> G. A. Cohen, Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality (Cambridge University Press, 1995): Chapter 3 and Chapter 4
> Andrea Sangiovanni, ‘Global Justice, Reciprocity, and the State’, Philosophy & Public Affairs 35 (2007): 3–39
> Paula Casal, ‘Why Sufficiency is Not Enough’, Ethics 117 (2007): 296–326
> Julia Nefsky, ‘Consumer Choice and Collective Impact’, in Anne Barnhill, Mark Budolfson, and Tyler Doggett (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Food Ethics (Oxford University Press, 2018): 267–286

PHIL0030 Topics in Aristotle (C)

Module Leader: Simona Aimar
Level: 5
Term: 1
Area: C
Assessment: Essay, 1500 Words (35%); Essay, 2200 Words (65%)

Description: This course deals with some of Aristotle’s most influential ideas.  We will begin with one of his ethical works, the Nicomachean Ethics, and then move on to his metaphysics in the Categories.  The rest of the term will be spent looking at Aristotle’s ideas about nature, causation, the infinite, place and self-motion in his Physics.  Throughout the course, we will consider questions of interpretation, try to understand how Aristotle’s ideas fit together and engage with his views and arguments critically. 

Provisional Schedule:  

Week 1: Conceptions of happiness in the Nicomachean Ethics 
Week 2: Friendship in the Nicomachean Ethics 
Week 3: Relatives in the Categories 
Week 4: The four causes in the Physics 
Week 5: Teleology in the Physics 
Week 6: Chance in the Physics 
Week 7: The infinite in the Physics 
Week 8: Time in the Physics 
Week 9: Place in the Physics 
Week 10: Self-motion in the Physics 

PHIL0176 Meaning and Interpretation (A)

Module Leader: José Zalabardo
Level: 5
Term: 1
Area: A
Assessment: TBC

On the standard conception of the place of linguistic meaning and mental content in the world, there are facts about what speakers mean by linguistic expressions and about what people believe and desire. Interpretation is the process by which we gain access to these facts—we use the evidence at our disposal to determine what people mean by what they say and the contents of their mental states. On this standard conception, facts about meaning and content are generated by connections between language and the mind, on the one hand, and the world, on the other. These facts do not depend in any way on the interpretative procedures by which we seek to discover them.
Since the last few decades of the 20th century, several philosophers have challenged this conception, arguing that facts about linguistic meaning and mental content are somehow produced by the procedures that we employ for ascribing meanings and contents. The goal of this module is to provide a general introduction to this approach. We will focus on the work of four of its main advocates: WVO Quine, Donal Davidson, Saul Kripke and Daniel Dennett.
Topics covered by the module will include:
1. Quine on the indeterminacy of translation
2. Davidson on truth, meaning and radical interpretation
3. Kripke’s interpretation of Wittgenstein’s rule-following considerations
4. Dennett on the intentional stance
Recommended Reading
In preparation for the module, we advise reading the following core texts. These can be found in the UCL Library:
• Gibson, Roger F. 1998. Radical translation and radical interpretation. 
https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/radical-translation-and-radical-interpretation/v-1.
• Quine, Willard Van Orman. 1960. Word and Object. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, Chapter 2.
• Davidson, Donald. 1973. "Radical Interpretation". Dialectica 27:313-28.
• Dennett, Daniel C. 1987. "True Believers". In The Intentional Stance. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
• Kripke, Saul. 1982. Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language. Oxford: Blackwell.

Second Year Modules (Level 5) - Term 2 

PHIL0009 Aesthetics (B)

Module Leader: James Wilson
Level: 5
Term: 2
Area: B
Assessment: Essay, 2500 Words (100%)

Description: This module aims to provide you with an introduction to aesthetics and the philosophy of art. While aesthetics is occasionally thought as synonymous with the philosophy of art, it examines questions raised by experiences that are appreciated for their own sake in a much wider variety of contexts, including natural environments, and watching sport.
The course focuses on two main themes. First, the nature and justifiability of aesthetic judgements. Questions addressed may include: How should we reconcile the commonly held thought that taste is subjective with the equally commonly held idea that some artworks are nonetheless better than others? Is there a right or wrong way to experience the aesthetic qualities of a sunset or a starfish?
The second theme is the contemporary debates in the philosophy of art. Questions addressed may include the nature and value of art (can just anything count as art if you put it in a gallery?), the aesthetic value of forgeries, what we can learn about life from art, and why we value painful works such as tragedies. 
Teaching delivery
The module is taught by a weekly one-hour lecture, and a smaller one hour seminar. Core readings will be set for each week, and it is expected that you read these before the lecture.
By the end of the module you should be able to:
• Recognise and assess a range of philosophical arguments in aesthetics and philosophy of art.
• Use examples of artworks and particular experiences to reflect on the aptness of some philosophical theories about art and aesthetic experience.
• Reflect independently on, and write reasoned responses to, some central questions in the field.

PHIL0013 Philosophy of Mind (A)

Module Leader: Rory Madden
Level: 5
Term: 2
Area: A
Assessment: TBC

Description: This intermediate level module aims to introduce students to a range of problems, positions, and arguments in the philosophy of mind - the philosophical study of mental phenomena and their relation to the rest of reality.   The first half of term (weeks 1-5) will focus on the mind-body problem - in particular the Problem of Consciousness. The theme for the second half of term (weeks 6-10) will be Self and Other - Where am I?  Where is my mind?  Can I know the minds of others?  Weekly live online lectures will be accompanied by in-person seminars.
Provisional syllabus and readings:
(1) What is the mind?
    * Rorty, Richard 1979 Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature Ch 1 ‘The Invention of the Mind’
(2) Mind-brain identity
    * Smart, J.J.C 1959 ‘Sensations and brain processes’ Philosophical Review
(3) Consciousness I
    * Nagel, Thomas 1974 ‘What is it like to be a bat?’ Philosophical Review
(4) Consciousness II
    * Jackson, F. 1982. ‘Epiphenomenal Qualia’ The Philosophical Quarterly 32: 127-136 
(5) Consciousness III 
    * Montague, Michelle 2017 ‘What Kind of Awareness is Awareness of Awareness?’ Grazer Philosophische Studien
(6) Where am I?
    * Dennett, Daniel 1978 ‘Where am I?’ in his Brainstorms
(7) The Extended Mind
    * Clark, Andy and David Chalmers 1998 ‘The Extended Mind’ Analysis 
(8) The Extended Self
    * Olson 2011 ‘The Extended Self’ Minds and Machines
(9) Other Minds I
    * Duddington, Nathalie 1919 ‘Our Knowledge of Other Minds’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 
(10) Other Minds II
    * Kripke, Saul 1982 Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language Postscript   

PHIL0014 Knowledge (A)

Module Leader: Lucy O'Brien
Level: 5
Term 2 
Area: A
Assessment: Exam (100%)

Description: This module is designed to deal with a variety of topics in epistemology – the philosophical study of knowledge. The curriculum will vary from year to year. Topics include: theories of knowledge; theories of justification or warrant; scepticism; contextualism; sources of knowledge: perception, memory, introspection, testimony.

Provisional Syllabus & Core Readings

Week 1. Knowledge by Testimony
- Hume (1748) Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X
- Fricker (1995) ‘Telling and Trusting: Reductionism and Anti-Reductionism of Testimony’, Mind, 104: 393-411

Week 2. A Priori Knowledge
- Giaquinto (1996) ‘Non-Analytic Conceptual Knowledge’, Mind, 105: 249-68.

Week 3. What is a Justified Belief? I
- Greco (2013) ‘Justification is Not Internal’ in Steup et al (eds.) Contemporary Debates in Epistemology

Week 4. What is a Justified Belief? II
- Feldman (2013) ‘Justification is Internal’ in Steup et al (eds.) Contemporary Debates in Epistemology

Week 5. Knowledge as Justified True Belief
- Ayer (1956) The Problem of Knowledge, Chapter 1, pp.7-35.
- Gettier (1963) ‘Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?’, Analysis, 23: 121-3.

Week 6. Knowledge as JTB+truth-tracking
- Nozick (1983) Philosophical Explanations, Chapter 3, Section 1 ‘Knowledge’ pp.172-96

Week 7. Can Knowledge Even Be Analyzed?
- Zagzebski (1994) ‘The Inescapability of Gettier Problems’, The Philosophical Quarterly, 44: 65-73
- Williamson (1995) ‘Is Knowing a State of Mind?’, Mind, 104:533-65, Sections 1-3 & 5

Week 8. Virtue Epistemology
- Sosa (2017) Epistemology, Chapter 8 ‘Mind-World Relations’

Week 9. Scepticism
- Pryor (2000) ‘The Skeptic and the Dogmatist’, Noûs, 34: 517-49

Week 10. Contextualism
- Lewis (1996) ‘Elusive Knowledge’, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 74(4): 549-67

PHIL0017 Topics in Greek Philosophy: Plato (C)

Module Leader: Fiona Leigh
Level: 5
Term 2 
Area: C
Assessment: Essay, 2500 Words (100%)

Description: The course takes students through the central tenants of Plato’s thought by way of a survey of some of his most important works. The main text will be the Republic, though other dialogues will be assigned from time to time during the course. The topics to be covered will be:

Week 1 – virtue ethics in the Republic
            Primary text: the Republic, books I-IV (excerpts)

Week 2 – Plato’s theory of Forms
            Primary texts: the Phaedo, the Republic, books V-VII (excerpts)

Week 3 – moral psychology in the Republic
            Primary text: the Republic, books III-IV (excerpts)

Week 4 – was Plato a feminist?
            Primary text: the Republic, book V (excerpt)

Week 5 – knowledge and belief in the Republic, part 1
            Primary text: the Republic, books V (excerpt)

Week 6 – knowledge and belief in the Republic, part 2
            Primary text: the Republic, books V (excerpt)

Week 7 – the ‘third man argument’ (TMA) in Plato
            Primary text: the Parmenides (excerpt)

Week 8 – potential solutions for the TMA in Plato
            Primary text: the Sophist (excerpt)

Week 9 – Plato’s banishment of poets from the ideal city, part 1
            Primary text: the Republic, book X (excerpt)

Week 10 – Plato’s banishment of poets from the ideal city, part 2
            Primary text: the Republic, book X (excerpt)

PHIL0181 Epistemology and Contemporary Society (B)

Module Leader: Robert Simpson
Level: 5
Term: 2
Area: B
Assessment: Essay, 2500 Words (100%)

Description: This is an intermediate-level module designed to introduce students to the burgeoning field of Applied Epistemology. We will use philosophical theories about knowledge, justification and belief-formation to explore pressing societal issues. Topics will vary from year to year, but may include:

• When other well-informed people disagree with us, should this make us less confident in our beliefs?
• What can epistemology tell us about online ‘echo chambers’?
• What, if anything, makes conspiracy theories epistemically worse than official theories?
• How should feminism affect the way we think about knowledge and belief?

Background Reading: David Coady (2012) What to Believe Now: Applying Epistemology to Contemporary Issues.

PHIL0185 Protecting Dignity (B)

Module Leader: John Vorhaus
Level: 5
Term: 2
Area: B
Assessment: Exam (100%)

Description: An introduction to questions in applied ethics and philosophy of law about human and animal dignity, and the prohibition on degrading treatment and punishment.

We explore conceptions of dignity and degradation, and examine the characteristics and any wrong inherent in degrading treatment and punishment, as imposed upon prisoners, people held in detention centres, people with dementia and other disabilities, and non-human animals.

The course includes readings in applied ethics, jurisprudence and international human rights law.

The course will include lectures on the following ten topics:

Distinctions: torture, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment

Degrading treatment and punishment

Corporal punishment and bodily searches

Kantian dignity and respect for persons: Korsgaard, Wood, Parfit, Kerstein

Contemporary accounts of dignity: Waldron, Rosen, Hill

Advocates of human dignity: Velleman, Nussbaum, Margalit

Scepticism about human dignity: Sangiovanni, Rosen, McMahan

Unawareness: the dignity of people with advanced Dementia

Dignity and disability

Non-human animals: the ethics of captivity.

PHIL0195 Problems in 17th and 18th Century European Philosophy (C)

Module Leader: Colin Chamberlain
Level: 5
Term: 2
Area: C
Assessment: Essay, 2500 Words (100%)

Description: In 17th and 18th century Europe, philosophers turned old ways of thinking upside down. “Man” went from being the centre of the medieval cosmos to living nowhere special. Philosophers replaced the old Aristotelian world of nested spheres with an austere vision of the universe as an indifferent machine without a centre. They stripped value and purpose from nature, along with colour and other qualitative properties, reinterpreting many of these phenomena as mere human projections. Claims to knowledge and authority became fragile and suspect. Traditional religious beliefs came under increasing scrutiny as philosophers tried to reconcile belief in the existence of God with the manifest fact of evil in the world. Arguments for the education and equality of women picked up steam. Through these and other developments, a recognizably modern worldview was born. In this module, we will trace one or two philosophical problems—such as problems about the nature of the material world, the mind, skepticism, knowledge, God, human equality, and the problem of evil—through this period, with an eye towards the history of these problem and their lasting philosophical significance.

 

Final Year (Level 6) - Term 1

PHIL0025 Logic and its Limits  (A)

Module Leader: Peter Fritz
Level: 6 (co-taught with graduate students)
Term: 1
Area: A
Assessment: Problem Set 1 (25%); Problem Set 2 (25%); Problem Set 3 (25%); Problem Set 4 (25%)

Description: The purpose of this module is to present the basic methods and results of contemporary logic. The emphasis is on the practical skill of formulating and proving results about logical systems. Students are introduced to basic set theory, enumerability and non-enumerability, isomorphisms and cardinality of models, the Compactness and Löwenheim-Skolem Theorems, inexpressibility results, soundness and completeness results.

PHIL0041 Early Wittgenstein (C)

Module Leader: José Zalabardo
Level: 6 (co-taught with graduate students)
Term: 1
Area: C
Assessment: TBC

Description: The purpose of this module is to present some of the central doctrines of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. The module focuses on the account offered in this book of the structure of reality and our ability to represent it in thought and language. We will also study ideas of Bertrand Russell and Gottlob Frege that are relevant for the development of Wittgenstein’s thought.
The module will enable you to understand these important ideas, overcoming the obscurity of Wittgenstein’s writing. This will contribute to your general understanding of the central philosophical issues that Wittgenstein addresses. It will also develop your ability to interpret difficult philosophical texts.
Topics covered by the module will include:
Russell’s dual-relation theory of judgment
Russell’s multiple-relation theory of judgment
Russell and Wittgenstein on forms
Wittgenstein’s picture theory
Frege on unity and unsaturatedness
Wittgenstein on the unity of the proposition
Wittgenstein on the unity of facts
Objects and expressions as common structural features
Substance and simplicity
 
Teaching Delivery
The module will be delivered by weekly two-hour lecture/seminars, combining presentation of material by the lecturer and general discussion of the ideas presented. You will be expected to do preparatory reading for each session.

By the end of the module:
You will have gained a deep understanding of some of the central ideas put forward by Wittgenstein in his early period.
You will be able to connect Wittgenstein’s proposals to contemporary debates in metaphysics, philosophy of language and philosophy of mind.
You will have enhanced your interpretative skills regarding difficult philosophical texts.
You will have developed your ability to grasp and discuss highly abstract philosophical issues.

Recommended Reading
In preparation for the module, we advise reading the following core texts. These can be found in the UCL Library:
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. 1974. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Translated by D. F. Pears and B. McGuinness. 2nd ed. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Original edition, 1961.
Zalabardo, José L. 2015. Representation and Reality in Wittgenstein's Tractatus. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

PHIL0045 Making Sense of the Senses (A)

Module Leader: Mark Kalderon
Level: 6 (co-taught with graduate students)
Term: 1
Area: A
Assessment: Essay, 3500 Words (100%)

Description: C.D. Broad offers a comparative phenomenology of vision, audition, and touch highlighting the important differences between them. We will assess Broad’s comparative phenomenology drawing upon analytic, continental, historical and psychological literature. The aim is to introduce the student to advance themes in philosophy of perception through this assessment of Broad’s comparative phenomenology. The class will be conducted as a seminar with student presentations
For relatively recent analytic discussion of these issues, the student might consult the optional reading Perception and Its Modalities edited by Dustin Stokes, Mohan Matthen, and Stephen Biggs. Oxford University Press, 2014.

PHIL0046 Advanced Class in the Philosophy of Mind (A)

Module Leader: Daniel Rothschild
Level: 6
Term: 1
Area: A
Assessment: Essay, 3500 Words (100%)

Description: This seminar will focus on learning from the perspective of philosophy and cognitive science. The seminar will start by examining the problem of learning as it appears in Plato’s Meno and classical Indian philosophy. We will look at today’s version of these issues as they appear in the contemporary debate over nativism, the idea that the mind’s innate structure contributes explains much of our knowledge and cognitive skills. We will also look at contemporary theories of learning from the perspective of philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and machine learning/AI.

Interesting background reading: Stanislas Dehaene, How We Learn (2018).

PHIL0073 Feminism and Philosophy (B)

Module Leader: TBC
Level: 6 (co-taught with graduate students)
Term: 1
Area: B
Assessment: Essay, 3500 Words (100%)

Description: This course will introduce students to some central topics in feminist philosophy. Topics will include oppression, misogyny, sex and gender, intersectionality, pornography, sexual consent, beauty norms, and work and the family. Through consideration of both classic and contemporary feminist writing, students will be asked to think carefully and critically about feminist approaches to these areas of significant moral, political, and social concern.

PHIL0077 Equality (B)

Module Leader: Han van Wietmarschen
Level: 6 (co-taught with graduate students)
Term: 1
Area: B
Assessment: Essay, 3500 Words (100%)

Description: In everyday moral and political arguments appeals to equality are ubiquitous. But what do these appeals amount to? In this course we will attempt to gain a deeper understanding of equality in moral and political thought. The first part of the course will focus on the idea of moral equality. What grounds all human beings’ equal moral status? What does it even mean to say that all human beings are morally equal? Is the moral equality of all people consistent with our favourable treatment of our children, family, and friends? Are non-human animals morally equal to humans? In the second part of the course, we will focus on the idea of political equality. Specifically, we will consider what the equal status of all citizens implies about how we should distribute power and make political decisions. Does a commitment to the equality of all citizens commit us to democratic rule? If the political decisions made in Community A significantly affect the members of Community B, should the members of Community B have a (democratic?) say in Community A’s decision? Might this commit us to some form of global democracy?

PHIL0083 Dissertation (A/B/C)

Module Convener: Ulrike Heuer
Level: 6
Terms: 1 & 2
Area: A/B/C
Assessment: Dissertation, 8000 Words (100%)

Description: The dissertation module is an optional module that can only be taken in your final year of study. Enrolment requires approval by the Module Convenor. The 30 credit dissertation is a 8,000-word essay on a philosophical topic of your choosing, subject to the availability of a member of staff with appropriate expertise to supervise it, and approval by the Module Convenor. Tuition involves four one-hour sessions of one-on-one supervision by a member of staff. The module is taken over the course of Term 1 & Term 2. The research will be self-directed, though with the guidance of your supervisor. The dissertation submission deadline is 1st day of 3rd term by 4.00 pm

PHIL0084 Guided Research Module (A/B/C)

Module Convenor: Joe Horton
Level: 6
Term: 1 or 2
Area: A/B/C
Assessment: Essay, 4500 words (100%)

Module Aims: To provide students with an understanding of an area of current philosophical research and to offer them the opportunity of engaging in the methodology of philosophical research practiced in leading research universities in the world. The student should gain experience of the method of study and instruction expected of a graduate student in the first years of a research degree. Intended Learning Outcomes: The student will produce a significant piece of writing in the relevant research area. The student will gain an understanding of the key issues in that area of the discipline, and will encounter some of the core classical readings and/or some of the most important recent literature on the topic. They will gain an understanding of research methods in philosophy. Module Structure: Students who meet the eligibility criteria outlined below can, subject to space and with approval of the module leader, select a dedicated graduate-level module in term one. The options in term one are:

• PHIL0103: Research Seminar: Philosophy of Mind
• PHIL0177: Recent Work in Moral Philosophy

Module descriptions will be available on the website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/philosophy/current-students/research-programmes/mphil-modules

Tuition: Students will attend all seminars for the module that they select. In recognition of the fact that graduate-level courses are more demanding than undergraduate courses, undergraduates taking the Guided Research Module (GRM) will receive additional support in the form of three tutorials (i.e. small group meetings) with the leader of the graduate module. Assessment: Students will complete a summative essay of the same length as the graduate students (4,500 words) due for submission on the first day of the term following the term in which the module is taken. Eligibility and Selection: To be eligible for the GRM students must have a weighted average of at least 65 in the modules they have taken in their first and second year (modules taken in the second year are weighted three times as heavily as first year modules). A maximum of two undergraduate students may take each of the modules listed above (this may be fewer if the module is oversubscribed, since graduate students will be given priority). In the event that more than two undergraduates with a weighted average of 65 or above apply to take the same graduate module (or more than one if there’s only space for one undergraduate on the module), then the students with the highest weighted averages will be selected.

PHIL0166 Personal Identity (A)

Module Leader: Rory Madden
Level: 6 (co-taught with graduate students)
Term: 1
Area: A
Assessment: Essay, 3500 Words (100%)

Description: What are we? What does it take for one of us to survive from one time to another? Are we material things?  Are we brains, animals, souls, computer programs, or something else?  How do we relate to our bodies? This module addresses questions of personal identity. While some seminal early modern texts will be highlighted, such as Locke’s Essay, we will primarily scrutinize relevant theories and arguments from recent analytic metaphysics and the philosophy of mind.
Background reading for Week 1
    • Locke, J., 1975, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, P. Nidditch (ed.), Oxford: Clarendon Press.  (II.xxvii) ‘Of Identity and Diversity’
    Further reading
    • Snowdon, P. 1990 ‘Persons, Animals and Ourselves’ in The Person and the Human Mind: Issues in Ancient and Modern Philosophy, C. Gill (ed.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 83–107. Reprinted in Crane and Farkas (eds.) 2004 Metaphysics: A Guide and Anthology
    • Olson, E. 1997 The Human Animal New York: Oxford University Press
    • Parfit, D. 2012 ‘We Are Not Human Beings’ in Philosophy 87: 5–28
    • Campbell, T. and J. McMahan, 2017 ‘Animalism and the Varieties of Conjoined Twinning’ in S. Blatti and P. Snowdon (eds.) Essays on Animalism: Persons, Animals, and Identity, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

PHIL0188 Normativity (B)

Module Leader: Ulrike Heuer
Level: 6 
Term: 1
Area: B
Assessment: Essay, 3500 Words (100%)

Description: Many current philosophical discussions, both in practical and theoretical philosophy, centre around the explanation of normativity. In this module we will focus primarily on practical normativity, starting
with the crucial concept of a normative reason and then look into a number of different topics, e.g.
(i) Values and reasons
(ii) Reasons for attitudes and the wrong kind of reasons
(iii) Normative powers and voluntary obligations

PHIL0189 Culture, Heritage and Critique (B)

Module Leader: James Wilson
Level: 6 (co-taught with graduate students)
Term: 1
Area: B
Assessment: Essay, 3500 words (100%)

Description: This module examines key philosophical questions about culture, public art, and cultural heritage. Topics may include: how to define culture and to adjudicate between competing conceptualisations of culture; how to theorise the relationships between cultures, and in particular how to reconcile tensions between local and particularising models of culture, and broader liberal egalitarian commitments to equality and universalism; how best to make sense of ideas of cultural property and cultural appropriation; the cultural, aesthetic and ethical implications of putting artefacts, and human bodies on public display; and when cultural artefacts such as statues should be removed from public display.

PHIL0193 Philosophy in the First Person (C)

Module Leader: Tom Stern
Level: 6
Term: 1
Area: C
Assessment: Group Work (20%); Essay one (1500 words, 40%); Essay two (2000 words 40%)

Description: An ‘essay’ can mean many different things, but for most philosophy students it means an assignment which aspires to imitate the aims and style of an article in a contemporary academic philosophy journal. There is, of course, another kind of philosophy essay, the kind that is usually taken to begin with Montaigne. This other philosophy essay has various characteristics, which mark it out against its academic counterpart. Most importantly, the author appears directly as an idiosyncratic character, writing in the first person, rather than an impartial, authoritative voice. Often, this kind of essay has a particular or quite specific subject, which does not appear to have the universal significance of the academic article or treatise. Montaigne wrote on cannibals, fatherly love, liars and so on, rather than the knowledge or morality. The reader is invited into an ongoing conversation, rather than told, step by step, how things are. While many of the traditional tools of philosophy are used along the way, the reader is not expected to have specialist knowledge, but rather to be an interested member of the reading public. 

One aim of the course is that students will study examples of this other kind of essay, beginning with Montaigne, and including other well-known philosophical essayists from the past (Rousseau, Emerson, Adorno) and present, including recently published personal-philosophical essays. One assignment will take such an essay, and subject it to a standard, academic, philosophical analysis. What is its argument and how might that argument be criticised? What is gained and lost by choosing this particular essay form?

Another aim of the course, however, is that students will write their own personal philosophy essay. As well as studying essays, that is, students will learn about the craft and process of writing an essay like this for a contemporary magazine or journal: choosing a venue; writing a proposal; drafting the essay and responding to editorial comments.

***This module is only open to final year students on Philosophy degree programmes with permission from the module leader.***

PHIL0196 Paradoxes (A)

Module Leader: Andreas Ditter
Level: 6 (co-taught with graduate students)
Term: 1
Area: A
Assessment: Problem Set 1 (15%); Problem Set 2 (15%); Essay. 2500 Words (70%)

Description: This module will be focused on paradoxes. A paradox is a set of jointly inconsistent claims each of which is individually plausible. Paradoxes are not merely entertaining puzzles; they also raise serious philosophical problems. In many cases, they lead us to rethink basic assumptions about some of our most fundamental concepts, including space, time, motion, truth, knowledge, and belief. In this module, we will examine several paradoxes and the philosophical issues they raise. Along the way, students will be introduced to some central conceptual and formal tools that are relevant not only to the paradoxes but also to a wide range of other philosophical debates.

Paradoxes to be discussed may include: Zeno’s paradoxes about space, time and motion; paradoxes of infinity (the Ross-Littlewood paradox, Benardete’s paradox); the Sorites paradox; logical and semantic paradoxes (Russell’s paradox and the Liar paradox); paradoxes of rationality (Newcomb’s problem, Prisoner’s Dilemma); paradoxes of belief and knowledge (the surprise examination paradox, the preface paradox, the lottery paradox); and paradoxes of personal identity, coincidence, time travel, and modal variation.

Please note that the course combines philosophical and formal elements. A good knowledge of first-order (predicate) logic is presupposed.

Final Year (Level 6) - Term 2

PHIL0052 Regulation of Intimacy (B)

Module Leader: Veronique Munoz-Darde
Level: 6 (co-taught with graduate students)
Term: 2
Area: B
Assessment: Exam (100%)

Description: This optional course will be taught in seminar format, with one weekly two-hour meeting. It is designed to introduce students to some central questions in political and moral philosophy. The topic of the course is the politics of sex. It focuses on general ethical concerns raised by state regulation of intimate relations e.g. in marriage or prostitution. Should some things not be for sale? Is consent the key to legitimate interaction? What is involved in one person ‘objectifying’ another? Are there circumstances in which paternalism is permissible or even required?

Readings include Anderson, Herman, Langton, Nussbaum, Pallikkathayil, Parfit, O’Neill, Satz, Saul, Scanlon, Scruton, Shiffrin, Thomson, Wedgwood.

This course is intended for students with a range of specializations, but some background knowledge in philosophy (normally a minimum of two philosophy courses passed before taking this module). The course is not suitable for conversion students.

PHIL0067 Free Speech and Theories of Autonomy (B) 

Module Leader: Robert Simpson
Level: 6 (co-taught with graduate students)
Term: 2
Area: B
Assessment: TBC

Description: This module investigates two complementary topics: (1) theories of autonomy, as they have been developed by philosophers writing about ethics and the self, and (2) defences of free speech, as they have been developed (and criticised) by legal and political theorists. With respect to (1), we’re interested in what it means to be autonomous, how and why the process of desire-formation has a bearing on a person’s autonomy, and whether it is possible for someone to autonomous desire their own subordination. With respect to (2), we’re interested in what kind of conception of autonomy – and of the individual, as such – different theorists have invoked in seeking to defend free speech, and what kinds of theoretical justifications for free speech can be developed in light of different conceptions of autonomy. The insights into the nature of autonomy that we gain from thinking about the topics in part (1), will inform the critical inquiry that we carry out in part (2). Assessment is via a major essay, and there will usually be some kind of minor, reading-related tasks that you’re required to complete during the term. Classes are a mixture of lectures, small-group discussion, and whole group discussion. Representative examples of readings that we look at during the course are John Christman, “Autonomy and personal history” (Canadian Journal of Philosophy 21/1, 1991, pp. 1-24), and Susan Brison, “The autonomy defense of free speech” (Ethics 108/2, 1998, pp./ 312-39).

PHIL0078 Formal Epistemology (A)

Module Leader: Clara Bradley
Level: 6 (co-taught with graduate students)
Term: 2
Area: A
Assessment: Problem set 1 (15%) Problem set 2 (15%) Essay, 2500 Words (70%)

Description: This module will introduce students to the probabilistic representation of belief and its connection to rationality, evidence, and decision making. Some of the questions that will be covered include: What are degrees of belief? What are the constraints on degrees of belief, and why should we believe that these constraints are rationally required? How are degrees of belief related to action? Can probabilistic reasoning help to solve problems of induction and confirmation?

Provisional Syllabus:

Week 1: Full vs. partial belief

Week 2: Axioms and rules of probability

Week 3: Dutch Book arguments for probabilism

Week 4: Accuracy arguments for probabilism

Week 5: Conditionalization 

Week 6: Priors

Week 7: Interpretations of probability

Week 8: Confirmation and induction

Week 9: Decision Theory

Week 10: Risk

Primary Text:

Titelbaum, Mike (2022): Fundamentals of Bayesian Epistemology

Background Reading:

Hacking, Ian (2001): An Introduction to Probability and Inductive Logic

Skyrms, Brian (2000): Choice and Chance: An Introduction to Inductive Logic

PHIL0079 Advanced Topics on Moral Philosophy: Responsibility, Luck and Excuses (B)

Module Leader: Ulrike Heuer
Level: 6 (co-taught with graduate students)
Term: 2
Area: B
Assessment: Essay, 3500 Words (100%)

Description: We will explore theories of responsibility, in particular their explanations of its grounds, its scope and its limits. We will also discuss some fundamental skeptical challenges to the practice of holding ourselves and others responsible. In light of these general considerations, we will then examine more specific topics, such as responsibility for attitudes, moral luck, blameworthiness, excuses and collective responsibility. The aim of the module is to develop an understanding of the nature of responsibility, and the resources and problems of contemporary approaches.
Introductory readings:
• R. Jay Wallace, Responsibility and the Moral Sentiments, Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press 1996.
• Susan Wolf, Freedom Within Reason, Oxford: Oxford University Press 1990.
• Daniel Statman (ed), Moral Luck, SUNY Press 1993.

PHIL0083 Dissertation (A/B/C)

Module Convener: Ulrike Heuer
Level: 6
Terms: 1 & 2
Area: A/B/C
Assessment: Dissertation, 8,000 Words (100%)

Description: The dissertation module is an optional module that can only be taken in your final year of study. Enrolment requires approval by the Departmental Tutor. The 30 credit dissertation is a 8,000-word essay on a philosophical topic of your choosing, subject to the availability of a member of staff with appropriate expertise to supervise it, and approval by the Module Convenor. Tuition involves four one-hour sessions of one-on-one supervision by a member of staff. The module is taken over the course of Term 1 & Term 2. The research will be self-directed, though with the guidance of your supervisor. The dissertation submission deadline is 1st day of 3rd term by 4.00 pm.

PHIL0084 Guided Research (A/B/C)

Module Convenor: Joe Horton
Level: 6
Term: 1 or 2
Area: A/B/C
Assessment: Essay, 4500 Words (100%)

Module Aims: To provide students with an understanding of an area of current philosophical research and to offer them the opportunity of engaging in the methodology of philosophical research practiced in leading research universities in the world. The student should gain experience of the method of study and instruction expected of a graduate student in the first years of a research degree. Intended Learning Outcomes: The student will produce a significant piece of writing in the relevant research area. The student will gain an understanding of the key issues in that area of the discipline, and will encounter some of the core classical readings and/or some of the most important recent literature on the topic. They will gain an understanding of research methods in philosophy. Module Structure: Students who meet the eligibility criteria outlined below can, subject to space and with approval of the module leader, select a dedicated graduate-level module in term one. The options in term two are:

• PHIL0167: Perception and its History
• PHIL0191: Advanced Topics in 17th and 18th Century European Philosophy 
• PHIL0TBC: Topics in Epistemology

Module descriptions will be available on the website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/philosophy/current-students/research-programmes/mp...

Tuition: Students will attend all seminars for the module that they select. In recognition of the fact that graduate-level courses are more demanding than undergraduate courses, undergraduates taking the Guided Research Module (GRM) will receive additional support in the form of three tutorials (i.e. small group meetings) with the leader of the graduate module. Assessment: Students will complete a summative essay of the same length as the graduate students (4,500 words) due for submission on the first day of the term following the term in which the module is taken. Eligibility and Selection: To be eligible for the GRM students must have a weighted average of at least 65 in the modules they have taken in their first and second year (modules taken in the second year are weighted three times as heavily as first year modules). A maximum of two undergraduate students may take each of the modules listed above (this may be fewer if the module is oversubscribed, since graduate students will be given priority). In the event that more than two undergraduates with a weighted average of 65 or above apply to take the same graduate module (or more than one if there’s only space for one undergraduate on the module), then the students with the highest weighted averages will be selected.

PHIL0129 Worlds, Sentences and Measures (A)

Module Leader: Peter Fritz
Level: 6 (co-taught with graduate students)
Term: 2
Area: A
Assessment: TBC

Description: This module gives an introduction to some of the formal tools most often used in contemporary philosophy. These include probability theory, non-classical logic, and modal logic. A good knowledge of first-order (predicate) logic is presupposed and some familiarity with basic metalogical results (e.g. soundness and completeness) will also be helpful. For undergraduates PHIL0025 Logic and its Limits covers all recommended background, but is not strictly necessary. A main component of the module is regular problem sets on most of which collaboration is encouraged.

PHIL0160 Philosophy of Space and Time (A)

Module Leader: Clara Bradley
Level: 6 (co-taught with graduate students)
Term: 2
Area: A
Assessment: Essay, 3500 Words (100%)

Description: This module covers topics in the epistemology and metaphysics of space and time: How does one gain empirical access to spacetime? What is the relationship between motion and spacetime? Is spacetime substantival or relational? Is geometry conventional? We will look at these topics through a historical lens, starting with views about space and time in Ancient Greece and ending with Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity.

Provisional Syllabus:

Week 1: Zeno’s paradoxes and the Aristotelian conception of space and time
Week 2: The Copernican revolution
Week 3: Descartes’ physics
Week 4: Newtonian physics
Week 5: The Leibniz-Clarke debate
Week 7: Substantivalism vs. relationalism: modern approaches
Week 6: Kant’s views on space and time
Week 8: Poincare and the conventionality of geometry
Week 9: Lorentz’s ether theory and Einstein’s theory of special relativity
Week 10: General Relativity and the hole argument

Primary Text: Huggett, Nick (1999): Space: From Zeno to Einstein

Background Reading:

• Maudlin, Tim (2012): Philosophy of Physics: Space and Time
• Cushing, James (2012): Philosophical Concepts in Physics
• Geroch, Robert (1978): General Relativity from A to B

PHIL0184 Philosophy of Arithmetic and Incompleteness (A)

Module Leader: Tim Button
Level: 6 (co-taught with graduate students)
Term: 2
Area: A
Assessment: Worksheet 1 (15%); Worksheet 2 (15%); Worksheet 3 (20%); Essay, 2000 Words (50%)

Description: Arithmetic is the branch of mathematics which studies the natural numbers — i.e. the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, and so on — and operations on the numbers — like addition and multiplication. This course explores the features that make arithmetic distinctive, and pose unique philosophical challenges. The path through the course is as follows.
1. Arithmetic is infinitary, abstract, a priori and apodictic, necessary, completely general, and scientifically indispensable. You will start by surveying these features, and encounter the general idea of a formal theory of arithmetic.
2. A common sentiment is that, in mathematics, consistency suffices for existence. You will explore this idea, understanding what it means to describe a theory as "consistent", and how one might establish consistency. This will lead into into a discussion of Hilbert's programme, which aimed to provide proofs that (various) mathematical theories are consistent. Famously, this programme floundered when Gödel discovered his incompleteness theorems.
3. You will learn about the technical details behind the incompleteness theorems, including such concepts as: (computable) enumerability, representability, the arithmetization of syntax, Tarski's Diagonal Lemma, Gödel sentences, and consistency sentences.
4. Armed with this technical knowledge, you will assess the philosophical significance of these results, both for Hilbert's programme and for other philosophical positions.
5. To finish the course, you will consider other approaches to the philosophy of arithmetic, and how they deal with the phenomenon of incompleteness.

The course will be based entirely weekly lectures, backed up with classes. Each lecture/class will have compulsory readings.

Please note that the course combines philosophical and formal elements! Although it is not a formal prerequisite, the course will presuppose introductory logic (at the level of first year Introduction to Logic 1 & 2); at the very least, you will need to be comfortable with how first-order logic works. The course will not presuppose any particular prior knowledge of mathematics; only that you know how to count, and can make sense of expressions like ‘x2 + 3x + 2 = 0’ (even if you cannot quite remember how to solve it). Still, if the very idea of looking at an expression like that fills you with horror, this course is not for you. Half of your final grade will be based on your performance in problem sets, which will help to reinforce your understanding of the technical details behind the incompleteness theorems.

In addition BA Philosophy and Philosophy combined-honours students can apply to take the following modules as Philosophy modules (i.e. do not count as a module from another department). Acceptance on these modules is at the discretion of the teaching department.

Information for UCL students from other departments:

The following modules can only be taken by students studying Philosophy degrees (Single and Combined Honours): PHIL0008: Philosophy Tutorials / PHIL0083 Dissertation/ PHIL0084 Guided Research Module and PHIL0085 Advanced Tutorials.

Registration for all modules is via Portico. Some modules are very popular and it is not always possible to offer a space to everyone on their desired modules. In Philosophy, modules are assigned according to the following priority groups. Within each group, modules are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis according to sign-ups on Portico. A limited number of spaces on Philosophy modules are held for affiliate registration in September and January.