MA Philosophy Programme 20-21
Purpose of the Course
This MA programme is a continuation of the project established by the late Sir Roger Scruton at the University of Buckingham. It is a one-year, London-based programme of ten evening seminars and individual research.
The course consists of three modules which revolve around topics and areas of research that were central to the work of Roger Scruton. Guest lectures are provided by outstanding academics and internationally renowned philosophers.
Each seminar takes place at the Reform Club, Pall Mall, central London and is followed by a dinner during which participants can engage in discussion with the course director and guest lecturer. Due to Covid-19 we have decided to postpone all seminars to 2021, but we start the academic year in October 2020. In the first three months we will be meeting online. Supervisors will guide students in the research for their MA theses, and during the first three months we will also meet for online seminars on three classics of philosophy: Plato’s Symposium, Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and Sartre’s Being and Nothingness.
Examination will be by a research dissertation on an approved philosophical topic chosen by the student, of around 25,000 words. Guidance and personal supervision will be provided.
Course director: Dr. Alicja Gescinska.
Deputy director: Prof. Dr. Raymond Tallis.
Seminars
| Introduction | ||
| 1. The Purpose of Philosophy: the uses | Alicja Gescinska & | 14-Jan |
| and point(less)ness of philosophy | Raymond Tallis | |
| Module 1: Key Problems in Philosophy | ||
| 2. Persons and Brains | Raymond Tallis | 28-Jan |
| 3. Idealism vs Materialsm | James Tartaglia | 11-Feb |
| 4. Truth and Quasi-realism | Simon Blackburn | 15-Feb |
| Module 2: Human Nature | ||
| 5. Love: The Ultimate Human Value? | Simon May | 11-Mar |
| 6. God, Value and Nature | Fiona Ellis | 25-Mar |
| 7. Guilt and Responsibility | Theodore Dalrymple | 8-Apr |
| Module 3: Aesthetics | ||
| 8. Morality in Music | Alicja Gescinska | 22-Apr |
| 9. Kant’s Aesthetics | Sebastian Gardner | 13-May |
| 10. Taste and Judgement | Barry Smith | 10-Jun |
