Undergraduate Philosophy 2024-2025

How “real” is reality? How does the mind relate to the world? This course introduces two approaches to answering these questions: rationalism and empiricism. By reading Rene Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, we learn about Descartes’ rationalist approach to knowledge, reality, mind-body dualism, and God’s necessary existence. Through David Hume’s Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding see how Hume grounds knowledge in experience. We read Hume on impressions and ideas, induction, causality, miracles and critically compare and examine Descartes’ and Hume’s arguments by drawing on readers and critics.

We examine questions such as: Is eating animals immoral? Is being a good or bad person a matter of luck? If so, are we justified in punishing bad people? Should anyone be able to set limits on what you can do with your own  body, even if it's ‘for your own good’? Should everyone be allowed to state their mind, even if their views are harmful or offensive? Is censorship ever justifiable? Do you have a moral obligation to help those worse-off? Are you unknowingly biased against underprivileged groups?

What makes an argument a good argument? What are the correct rules for reasoning? How should we revise our beliefs in the light of new evidence? What should we think about paradoxes?

This course provides an introduction to logic and tools for successfully evaluating arguments. Some of the topics covered include validity, soundness, consistency, entailment, provability, belief revision and paradoxes. The language of propositional logic and key ideas in Bayesian epistemology are introduced. The course develops the ability to symbolise English sentences into formal languages and to construct truth tables, truth trees and natural deduction proofs. Logical concepts are applied to everyday thinking as well as to philosophical puzzles and paradoxes.

What does it mean to live a good life? How do we determine what is good or bad, right or wrong? Are some ways of living better or worse for us? In this course we will look at some central philosophical approaches to answering these questions. Traditions we may engage with include virtue ethics, Chinese ethics, deontology, consequentialism, and feminist ethics. Along the way, we will read the original work of some of the most important scholars in the history of moral philosophy. Students will be encouraged to think deeply, and to explore their own views about what it means to live a (morally) good life.

We are living through an environmental crisis. This is well recognised and widely discussed. Most of this discussion focuses on what we should do to deal with the crisis, and rightly so. But it is also well recognised that the current crisis is deeply rooted in how we think of nature and the natural world and why we value it. Environmental Ethics helps us think about these foundational issues and get clear on why - and not just how - we should save the planet.

This is an intensive two-week course in Philosophy, designed to introduce visiting international students to the Western Analytic Tradition in Philosophy. Additionally, the course will allow these students to experience academic life in Aberdeen supported by staff from Aberdeen and from their home institution. There will also be a programme of social events allowing students to engage with Scottish culture and history.

Why are some researchers arguing that future robots should be considered as persons? What will increased AI mean for the future of work? What might increased AI do to global politics and democracy? Can we trust AI to make important healthcare decisions? What about bias in systems? And who or what is to be held responsible if things go wrong? This course explores some of the most pressing philosophical problems of the modern age. No computer science or philosophy background is required.

This course provides students with an introduction to central issues in metaphysics and epistemology. The emphasis is on introducing some of the central issues in these areas; issues that have shaped the contemporary debate.  In addition to introducing a number of central issues in metaphysics and epistemology, this course also teaches and further develops a number of essential skills including extracting and evaluating philosophical arguments, critical writing, and the application of logical concepts to philosophical problems. 

What, if anything, makes states legitimate? What kind of freedom should political authorities respect and promote? Is democracy really the best form of government? How, if at all, should states respond to inequality? In this course, we will explore central questions in Western political philosophy. Topics we may cover include state legitimacy, racial injustice, liberty, democracy, distributive justice, and equality. Readings will include a balance of historical and contemporary texts.

This team-taught course will explore relevant questions of social importance using the tool of philosophical thinking. Students will engage with philosophical arguments and concepts central to various domains, including technology, health care, digital knowledge, migration, and sport.

This course is an introduction to the philosophy of medicine. It focuses on foundational and theoretical issues in medicine. The topics are chosen to provide students with an overview of some of the most central questions in this area. The main topics are the notions of health and disease; the role of sex and race in medicine; the problems raised by genetic determinism and causation; evidence-based medicine and randomized controlled trials; establishing causal claims about diseases; learning from biomedical images; and extrapolating from animal models of human diseases.

This course surveys a range of topics in global justice. Example questions we may engage with include: What is a human right? Does justice demand that affluent countries redistribute their wealth to less-affluent ones? Why was colonialism wrong, and what should we do about it now? Is feminism necessarily imperialist? Do states have a right to exclude immigrants? Who should be entitled to refugee status? How should responsibility for addressing climate change be distributed? Is national partiality justifiable?

Social ontology is the field in philosophy that investigates the nature of the social world. Some questions addressed are: What are social groups? What is the role of language and attitudes in creating the social world? What is the nature of social categories and classifications? What, for instance, are race and gender? Are these features of the natural world or are they socially constructed?  The course will survey recent work in social metaphysics within the analytic and the continental tradition for thinking about these questions.

It seems obvious that many choices you make are entirely up to you. But according to an attractive and currently popular view, we're nothing over and above the physical universe, subject to same laws of nature that govern colliding billiard balls and decaying fruit. But if this is so, how can our actions and decisions be entirely up to us? Aren’t they the result of a string of complex physical, chemical and biological reactions that are outside of our control? If so, then why should we be praised or blamed for them? For further details see the course guide.

Will uploading be the route to eternal life? Should you do it? Would you survive, or just a copy of you? Gaming worlds are (almost) free of ethical responsibility: will virtual worlds be, too? Would you choose to live in a virtual world? How can you know you are not now living in one? Can virtual environments make the ‘real’ world better world? Can they aid education? Can they improve the lives of those in care settings? These are some of the profound and urgent questions we will engage with.

This course examines various themes and problems that arise when epistemic agents are situated in a social context. First, we investigate how agents can acquire knowledge through testimonial exchanges with others and especially experts, what rational response agents should adopt in cases of disagreement with other peers. We consider so-called absence-based reasoning on the basis of epistemic coverage provided by news outlets, and we examine whether groups, institutions or organisations are capable of being in states of knowledge themselves, or more generally whether such collectives constitute epistemic agents with a mind of their own. Then we turn to the question of how access to the internet through technological devices on which agents frequently rely can extend or augment their knowledge. Finally, we look at issues to do with epistemic bubbles and echo chambers on social media, trusting the internet, fake news and conspiracy theories. The course will develop further the philosophical skills acquired in previous philosophy courses, and extend the knowledge and deepen the understanding of social epistemology, in particular.

The dissertation is on a topic in philosophy. The specific topic will be chosen by the student with the approval of the supervisor. The choice of topics is restricted insofar as it must fall within the teaching competence of the supervisor.

Another dissertation or Project course must not be undertaken alongside the Philosophy Dissertation

This course surveys a range of topics in global justice. Example questions we may engage with include: What is a human right? Does justice demand that affluent countries redistribute their wealth to less-affluent ones? Why was colonialism wrong, and what should we do about it now? Is feminism necessarily imperialist? Do states have a right to exclude immigrants? Who should be entitled to refugee status? How should responsibility for addressing climate change be distributed? Is national partiality justifiable?

Social ontology is the field in philosophy that investigates the nature of the social world. Some questions addressed are: What are social groups? What is the role of language and attitudes in creating the social world? What is the nature of social categories and classifications? What, for instance, are race and gender? Are these features of the natural world or are they socially constructed?  The course will survey recent work in social metaphysics within the analytic and the continental tradition for thinking about these questions.

It seems obvious that many choices you make are entirely up to you. But according to an attractive and currently popular view, we're nothing over and above the physical universe, subject to same laws of nature that govern colliding billiard balls and decaying fruit. But if this is so, how can our actions and decisions be entirely up to us? Aren’t they the result of a string of complex physical, chemical and biological reactions that are outside of our control? If so, then why should we be praised or blamed for them? For further details see the course guide

Will uploading be the route to eternal life? Should you do it? Would you survive, or just a copy of you? Gaming worlds are (almost) free of ethical responsibility: will virtual worlds be, too? Would you choose to live in a virtual world? How can you know you are not now living in one? Can virtual environments make the ‘real’ world better world? Can they aid education? Can they improve the lives of those in care settings? These are some of the profound and urgent questions we will engage with.

This course examines various themes and problems that arise when epistemic agents are situated in a social context. First, we investigate how agents can acquire knowledge through testimonial exchanges with others and especially experts, what rational response agents should adopt in cases of disagreement with other peers. We consider so-called absence-based reasoning on the basis of epistemic coverage provided by news outlets, and we examine whether groups, institutions or organisations are capable of being in states of knowledge themselves, or more generally whether such collectives constitute epistemic agents with a mind of their own. Then we turn to the question of how access to the internet through technological devices on which agents frequently rely can extend or augment their knowledge. Finally, we look at issues to do with epistemic bubbles and echo chambers on social media, trusting the internet, fake news and conspiracy theories. The course will develop further the philosophical skills acquired in previous philosophy courses, and extend the knowledge and deepen the understanding of social epistemology, in particular.