Course summary

The study of philosophy at Durham does not follow one particular school. The Department is unique in the UK in its wide-ranging expertise in anglo-american analytical philosophy and continental philosophy. Each of these has its own distinctive set of issues and approaches to resolving them. We also have special expertise in the philosophy of science, and social science, and the history of science and medicine. So at Durham, you will follow one of the widest-ranging philosophy degrees in the country. Philosophy is a new subject for many students, so in your first year, you follow a range of introductory courses, introducing the fundamental philosophical subject areas. Students taking the BA (Hons) in Philosophy will receive an average of eight timetabled contact hours per week over the course of the degree. Timetabled contact is only a part of the learning process, and its aim is to provide you with the knowledge and skills required to navigate the relevant literature yourself and to pursue independent learning. Lectures and accompanying documents contextualise material and introduce you to topics, positions and debates. At least four hours of additional study per week are recommended for each lecture, which includes reading and the completion of assignments. You are therefore expected to spend around 75% of your study time on independent research. Having done your reading, you return to lecture topics in small group tutorials. These help you to refine your understanding of material, and to develop the reasoning skills needed to formulate, present, defend and criticise philosophical positions. In the first year of study, there are nine hours of contact time per week, consisting of weekly lectures and fortnightly tutorials. All our students are welcomed as full members of the Department’s intellectual community from the moment of their arrival, and attend an induction lecture during the first week of the course. In the second and third years, as you further develop the critical skills required for independent learning, lecture-based modules are complemented by seminar-based modules. Weekly 90-minute seminars place more emphasis on student participation, in the form of group exercises and short presentations. Modules also become more specifically focused, and you are offered a wider range of topics to choose from, especially in the third year. These build upon lower level modules in a coherent, progressive fashion. For example, you have the option of pursuing a distinctive ‘history and philosophy of science and medicine’ strand, which runs throughout our curriculum. In the second year, you will continue to receive an average of nine hours of scheduled contact time per week. However, this reduces to six hours in the third year, when you write a dissertation, which is a cornerstone of the degree. To help prepare for it, there is a lecture in your second-year, explaining how to go about choosing a dissertation topic and supervisor. In addition, you receive detailed instructions via email. In your final year, having selected your topic, you are offered six hours of one-to-one dissertation supervision with an expert in your chosen research area. This teaching includes guidance on suitable reading, critical discussion of relevant sources, detailed advice on how to write a 12,000 word piece of research, and intensive critical engagement with your own philosophical position and argument. Through the process of researching and writing a dissertation, the critical skills that you begin to develop in your first year of study (skills that can be put to work in a wide range of careers) are developed to such an extent that you are able to pursue high-level, independent research.