Studying Philosophy - What Are Your Module Options?

What you'd ideally like to study and learn in philosophy is different from what your university will allow you to do or offer and run as a module. So what you seem to choose on your degree may not reflect your passions or priorities. 😥

I had to choose 3 module options and so chose Ethics; Aesthetics; Political Philosophy. This was a no-brainer out of the options on offer. The one option I definitely wanted to do from the beginning was Political Philosophy 🙂 because I had already done it at A Level and I've been interested in Politics from an early age. The 20 week module was half history (Rousseau; Marx) and half contemporary topics. I was pleased they added on Aesthetics to the list of options because it was a way for me to build on my art (the module was heavily weighted towards art) and my music (although there was only one lecture on music, so that was disappointing). There was no Philosophy of Dance so, unfortunately, I couldn't build on the A Level Dance I'd started and all the dance that I had done since childhood. But they did cover philosophy of literature and a bit on film. I wouldn't have chosen Ethics as an option because we had already done Ethics in the first year (10 weeks Ethics; 10 weeks Politics for the Ethics/Politics compulsory module). But Ethics does fit with Political Philosophy because sometimes it relates to political topics or political phiosophers, so I chose it to support my political philosophy. Also, Michael Garnett (lecturer in contemporary philosophy) suggested to me at the 1st year summer party that I should choose Ethics to go together with the political philosophy option I wanted to do. In addition, he suggested Aesthetics as a good 3rd option to go alongside them. I could see the point of making the three chosen options cohere, rather than choosing disparate ones e.g. It wouldn't make much sense choosing mind, politics and science! 

Nevertheless, I went through the process of elimination to make sure I was making the right choices. I certainly didn't want to do the philosophy of maths module option, or the Frege, Russell and Wittgenstein option module. I considered the philosophy of psychology and Mind options because I had done (pure) Psychology at A Level but on taking a close look at the course content that I found on the internet, I decided against it. Same was true for the Philosophy of Science option. I think there might have been a Logic module option but I had already done a lot of logic in the first two years and I didn't like the way they prepared us for and set the exam paper on Logic so I discounted that option. 

If Ep and Met had been offered as an option I wouldn't have chosen it! As it was, it was compulsory all the way through the BA module levels and I was pleased when it was over by the end of the 3rd year! 🙂👍 Little did I know I would be doing a lot of Met in my research post-degree, both in Spinoza and Mary Shepherd! 😂

History of Philosophy was compulsory all the way through, which was great 🙂👍👏❤and any module options that were offered previously were cancelled so History of Philosophy was a non-option. I had originally wanted to immediately specialise in the History of Philosophy by choosing it for all my options. However, the only History of Philosophy options were Kant and 19th century German Philosophers and on taking a closer look at these, they didn't appeal to me. I sat in on Kant (Grayling) and Nietzsche (Gemes) lectures to help me assess if I'd want to take these areas as optional modules if they ran, I did the set reading and more etc but I just didn't enjoy either of them at all. There were no Early Modern options. Nevertheless, I can't understand why they didn't offer e.g. Spinoza as an option 😥 since they had a specialist on the staff list (Susan James) who spends all her time researching him, presenting and publishing papers and books on him, and the college does claim you will be taught by specialists who teach their research area, especially if they are currently working on it. In my ideal world, I would have wanted to do a Spinoza module ❤- if Kant can run, why can't Spinoza! 

Prior to starting my BA, I expected to be able to do feminist philosophy since I saw that the department had a SWIP badge of approval. I am baffled 🤔 how they were eligible for that, given they didn't meet the criteria or ethos e.g. Including women philosophers in course content, teaching feminist philosophy, having access to all feminist philosophers on the staff list, having a female friendly environment in the department etc. I wouldn't have applied to study philosophy there had I known that the SWIP award means nothing! So not only was I annoyed 😡 that 'female friendly' couldn't be further from the truth, but also there was no Feminist Philosophy option on the BA and no option on Women Philosophers, despite not teaching them during the whole course either 🙄. That is unacceptable for 2010-13!