Philosophy |
www.essex.ac.uk/philosophy | E
admit@essex.ac.uk | T +44 (0)1206 873666
National Student Survey placed us joint first in the UK, achieving 100 per cent overall student satisfaction; we were thrilled to improve on our second place position of 2009.
What do our courses cover?
Philosophy is concerned with the basic problems which we come up against in every area of human life. Some of these are moral problems: Is violence ever justified as a means of achieving our goals? Must we always obey the law? Can we sacrifice the life of an embryo to save the lives of other human beings? Are there any absolute standards of right and wrong?
Philosophy also asks many other fundamental questions, such as: Can we be absolutely sure of anything we believe? Is the world discovered or constructed by us? Can the whole of reality be explained in material terms? Could there be an afterlife? Is there a God? Are human beings really free to choose their lives, or are we determined by our environment or our genes? How have science and technology changed our experience of the world?
First in the UK for student satisfaction. Why is philosophy at
Essex different? The Department of Philosophy at Essex is unusual in the British context for its pluralistic outlook and the wide range of courses it offers. Whereas most UK philosophy departments concentrate on Anglo-American, or ‘analytical’ philosophy, at Essex you can discover the variety of philosophical traditions which have developed on the continent of Europe. We do not ignore Anglo-American philosophy, of course, but you will also be able to study the work of thinkers such as Marx, Nietzsche and Freud, or take modules on existentialism and phenomenology (perhaps known to you through the work of writers such as Dostoijevsky, Kafka, Sartre and Camus).
186 | Undergraduate Prospectus 2012
Philosophy on the continent is often directly driven by social and political concerns, and confronts questions of personal value systems, social critique and moral life. We are interested in these aspects of philosophy, alongside the traditional problems of knowledge, ethics and the nature of reality. In addition, we believe that philosophy thrives when its relation to other disciplines is taken seriously. We offer a range of courses which explore the connections of philosophy with other branches of enquiry, such as film, literature, politics, sociology, psychoanalysis and law.
We have an international reputation for the quality of our teaching and research. In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (2008), we were ranked tenth out of 42 departments overall, and first for continental philosophy. The 2010
Our courses will teach you how to think about these issues systematically, whether you have studied philosophy before or not. As you study and learn, you will acquire important key skills in areas such as oral and written communication, critical reading, constructing and defending an argument, and independent research. These skills, and the intellectual and imaginative range which comes from studying philosophy at Essex, will be valuable to you whatever your future choice of career or sphere of activity.
How are the courses structured?
All our courses have a common first year, which provides you with an accessible pathway into philosophy, whether or not you have studied it before. You will take our Introduction to Philosophy module and we also strongly recommend our first-year module Death, God and the Meaning of Life. If you are taking a joint honours course, you will take a module in your other discipline, plus an option or options.
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