Philosophy

Philosophy is a various, contested, self-reflective discipline. It includes many different areas, questions, and approaches to answering them. Metaphysics, ethics, political philosophy, epistemology, philosophy of mind, and aesthetics are just some of the more obvious areas. Philosophers at Lancaster investigate questions about the nature of mental illness, free will, the self, the ethics of new medical technologies, Romantic thought, the emotions, autonomy, and many other topics. Our approaches range across critical reading of historical texts, engagement with special sciences including biology and psychology, conceptual analysis, literary studies, phenomenology, and more.

The aim of this module is to use guided practice in doing philosophy, and in thinking about what we’re doing, to develop the skills and virtues of a postgraduate-level philosopher. We pursue this aim in three strands:

(1) Presentations from philosophy staff on their research work, followed by discussion, to offer a tasting menu of some of the varied questions and approaches in contemporary professional philosophy as done here at Lancaster

(2) Reading and guided discussion of an important text or texts in one or more contemporary sub-disciplines of philosophy

(3) Reflective practice in central philosophical styles of skilled reading, writing, research, discussion, and presentation.

Assessment is by 5,000 word essay.

This special subject focuses on feminist philosophy, aiming to take the participants’ knowledge of feminist philosophy and skills in philosophizing to advanced levels, led by a tutor who has an active research interest in the topic.

What moral obligations do we have towards future generations – to people who are yet to be born, and to merely possible people whose very existence (or non-existence) depends on how we act now? This special subject explores this question by examining both a series of practical case studies and some of the main concepts and theories that philosophers use when thinking about these issues. Questions considered normally include:

• How should we weigh quality against quantity of life? Would a world with a relatively small number of ‘happier’ people preferable to one with many more ‘less happy’ ones?
• Ought we to try significantly to extend the human life span (to 150 years or beyond)?
• Should cryonics be permitted and what ethical issues does this raise?
  • Is there a moral obligation to refrain from having children (e.g. for environmental reasons) and what measures may governments take to encourage or enforce population control? Conversely, might there be a moral obligation to have (more) children?
  • Should we use selection techniques to minimise the incidence of genetic disorders and disabilities in future populations?
  • Should parents be allowed to use these techniques to determine the characteristics of their future children (e.g. choosing their child’s eye or hair colour, or sex selection)?
  • When considering the future, how should the interests of non-human creatures be weighed against those of humans? How strong are our moral obligations to prevent extinctions, and to preserve wildernesses?
  • When considering long-term environmental issues (e.g. climate change, nuclear power) and long-term financial issues (e.g. national debt and pensions) how should we balance the interests and rights of people who exist now against those of future people?

This module will involve an in depth study of a number of contemporary debates in the philosophy of mental disorder. Topics will include the following:

What is mental disorder? Students will be introduced to some of the key accounts of mental disorder: What is the relationship between evolutionary dysfunction and disorder? Are disorders necessarily harmful?

• Antipsychiatry/ postpsychiatry - The antipsychiatrists (and more recently postpsychiatrists) argue that the very concept of mental disorder is dubious. Are mental disorders substantially like physical disorders? Or, do diagnoses of "mental disorder" simply label behaviour that is unusual, socially stigmatised, or bad?
• Conceptualising cultural variations - Do mental disorders vary from culture to culture? Would cultural variation mean that a disorder is less "real"?
• Realism and constructionism about mental disorder - What does it mean to say that a disorder is real or constructed?
• Meaning and the limits of reduction - Can symptoms be reduced to faulty brain states? Or, do symptoms such as "delusion" resist reduction?

Responsibility and disorder - Are those with

This module will look at Indian source texts on politics and ethics. In particular, it will be looking at sources that explore the concept of dharma, a term that incorporates issues of justice, religion, ethics, duty, and law. The module will examine the sources of dharma both in their own historical and cultural contexts, as well as in the context of contemporary debates in political theory and ethics. The texts examined will include: the inscriptions of Ashoka, the Buddhist Nikayas, the Arthashastra, the Law Codes of Manu, the Mahabharata, and the Kamasutra. These sources are examined in connection with modern political figures, such as Gandhi and Savarkar, as well as in connection with recent debates in India about secularism, democracy and pluralism.

The aim of this module is to enable you to develop the skills and virtues of a postgraduate-level philosopher and scholar of philosophy, by guided practice in close reading and reasoned discussion of selected works in moral, political, and social philosophy.

Typically, this module runs as a reading group, where we aim to focus on a small number of high-quality texts that are usually chosen in consultation between the convenor and the group of students taking it each year. In the past, the seminar format has featured a moderated discussion of set reading that has been introduced by a student presentation or by the convenor. Assessment will be by 5,000-word essay on a topic of your choosing, developed in consultation with the convenor.

‘Moral, political, and social philosophy’ will be understood broadly, to cover historical and contemporary philosophical work on a range of topics which may include: modernity, capitalism, liberalism, and alternative possibilities; the nature of human rights; individuality, community, and cultural difference; political authority and the authority of law; nationhood, borders, and cosmopolitanism; human wellbeing; freedom and global unfreedoms; equality and global inequalities; utilitarian, deontological, and virtue ethics; the natures of value, of agency, and of practical rationality.