Bath Spa University

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Philosophy and Ethics

Philosophy and Ethics deals with ultimate questions about the nature of reality, truth, and knowledge, and how decisions can be made about crucial issues facing humanity.

For more information about this course please visit the School of Humanities and Cultural Industries website.

Course Structure and Content

At Bath Spa University we examine Eastern as well as Western philosophies and ethical theories, and include the influences of feminist and ecological thinking in addition to the more traditional Western thinkers.

Philosophy and Ethics provides you with many skills valued by employers such as clarity and precision in thinking, the ability to recognise unnoticed assumptions, the expertise to present a strong case, and to see the ethical issues involved in everyday decisions. Philosophy and Ethics can be taken as a Major, Joint or Minor component component of a Combined degree with another subject.

Year 1

There is one core compulsory module:

• Truth and Value: an Introduction to Philosophy and Ethics.

Year 2

There is one core compulsory module:

• Darshana, Dharma and Dao: Philosophy in the Indian and Chinese Traditions.

There are seven optional modules:

• Ethics, Religion and Humanism: Contemporary Moral Dilemmas;
• Independent Project in Philosophy and Ethics;
• What Women Want: Psychoanalysis, Philosophy and Gender;
• Film and Philosophy;
• Culture and Barbarism: Enlightenment as Disenchantment;
• Religion, Philosophy and Cultural Practices in Korea (summer school);
• Philosophy and Ethics at Work.

Year 3

There are seven optional modules:

• Life and Meaning: Philosophy and the Human Condition;
• From Existentialism to Environmentalism: 20th and 21st Century Being-in-the-World;
• Cultural and Philosophical Manifestations of Evil and Wickedness;
• Becoming Divine: 21st Century Philosophy of Religion;
• Research Project in Applied Ethics;
• Religion, Philosophy and Cultural Practices in Korea (summer school);
• Dissertation.

Teaching Methods and Resources

Lectures introduce key philosophical and ethical arguments and theories, while workshops, seminars and online discussion boards provide a forum for more developed analysis, critical debate and student presentations. The aim of the course is to foster the development of a range of rigorous philosophical and ethical skills by creating diverse opportunities for open discussion and practicing with tools of analysis and argument.

Teaching methods incorporate the exploration of philosophical and ethical perspectives in groups, online and in one-to-one tutorial contexts.

Assessment Methods

A variety of forms, including essays, individual projects, presentations, discussion board participation, examinations and critical reviews.

Entry Requirements

220-280 UCAS Tariff points (eg BCD; BB+AS c), depending on subject combined with.

Alternative qualifications welcome.