Philosophy

In this course, Dr Barnaby Walker (University of Warwick) explores the work of the seventeenth-century philosopher John Locke. We begin with a general overview of Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding and its key themes, before ...

In this course, Professor Genia Schönbaumsfeld (University of Southampton) explores the philosophy of the 19th-century Danish philosophy, Søren Kierkegaard. In the first module, we provide a brief introduction to Kierkegaard himself, before thinking about his reasons for presenting his philosophy...

In this course, Professor Cottingham (University of Reading) explores René Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy. In the first module, we provide a brief introduction to Descartes himself and his philosophical system, as described in his Discourse on the Method. After...

In this course, Professor Robert Stern (University of Sheffield) explores Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. The course begins with a discussion of Hegel's life and times and the political and philosophical context in which he lived, before introducing his overall philosophical...

In this course, Professor Susan James (Birkbeck, University of London) discusses Spinoza's Ethics, widely considered to be his magnum opus. In the first module, we think about Spinoza's ontological framework, including his remarkable claim that there is only one substance,...

In this course, Ms Kate Kirkpatrick (University of Oxford) explores Jean-Paul Sartre’s ‘Being and Nothingness’, a text regarded by many as one of the greatest works of 20th-century philosophy. Having introduced Sartre himself and the historical and philosophical context in...

In this course, Professor Chris Janaway (University of Southampton) explores the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, focusing in particular on his World as Will and Representation. After a brief introduction to Schopenhauer’s philosophy in general and to World as Will and...

In this course, Professor Tom Stoneham (University of York) explores the philosophy of George Berkeley, focusing in particular on his ‘Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge’ (1710) as well as his ‘Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonaus’ (1713). The...

In this course, Dr Anna Plassart (Open University) explores the Scottish Enlightenment. In the first module, we think about the Enlightenment as a whole—why it happened when it did, its principle goals and central doctrines—before moving on in the second...