Philosophy, Politics and Economics (BA)

This is a blended learning module to provide students with the basic tools and information necessary to embark in their third year dissertation modules.

The aim of this module is to equip you with some analytical and professional skills that will be useful in your economics degree and future careers. The module will also provide information about employability opportunities in your discipline, such as int...

This module will equip students with the central concepts of macroeconomics, building on the foundations laid in ECON1021 Principles of Macroeconomics. Students will gain a clear understanding of the equilibrium behaviour of economies at the macro level. ...

This module will familiarise students with the central concepts of microeconomics, building on the foundations laid in ECON1001/ECON1003. Students will gain a clear understanding of the role of the price mechanism in organising economic activity and of ch...

You might watch a stunning film, hear a delightful song, enjoy a beautiful sunset, read a dreadful poem, attend an elegant dance, or see a garish building. Experiences like this can stimulate thoughts and feelings of great depth, and provide pleasure or d...

For many people, the phrase “American political thought” either has an obvious meaning – some version of liberal democracy, surely – or it is a contradiction in terms – America has politics, but seems to exercise little thought. This module sets the recor...

The 17th and 18th centuries, a period of great intellectual and social upheaval, saw the rise of Modern Philosophy. In continental Europe, the 'Rationalism' of Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz argued for the capacity of reason to arrive at knowledge and und...

The European integration project has achieved a point, at which fundamental questions concerning its near and long-term future need to be urgently addressed. Unfortunately, the current debates are often hindered by the loud and dominant voices of extremis...

The aim of this module is to familiarise you with several important, but competing, theories of justice. Such theories give guidance on important questions of distributive justice (who ought to get what, when and why?), and provide, to varying degrees, gr...

Most states claim to be democratic. This module looks at the theory of democracy, including foundational questions about political inclusion, participation, and equality. As a result, students will develop a greater understanding of what democracy require...

The module will introduce students to the economics of development.

The aims of the module are to develop a simple dynamic framework in order to: (b) give microeconomic foundation to macroeconomic analysis, (a) learn to approach macroeconomic problems from a general equilibrium perspective, (c) enable students to eva...

Epistemology is dedicated to questions about the nature and structure of knowledge and justified belief. Some central questions in epistemology include: - What is knowledge? Why is it valuable? - To gain knowledge from a reliable source, does one n...

Ethics of Global Poverty examines the duties of affluent people towards those living in poverty around the world. Among the questions we will examine are: What obligations do we have to help strangers in need? What bases might such obligations have? Are s...

It is the first time in history that we can approach the problem of European security architecture in terms of governance, rather than hegemony or the balance of power. The proliferation of European and global institutions concerned with addressing differ...

This module gives a comprehensive overview of the modelling of strategic behaviour in modern microeconomics, building on the foundations laid in Intermediate Microeconomics. It will familiarise students with the central concepts in game theory, covering c...

How can we understand the role of gender in political systems? Why is it important to acknowledge the intersections of gender with race, class, sexuality and disability? What can/should be done about male over-representation in legislatures worldwide? Why...

In this module we study the working of imperfectly competitive markets, the behaviour of firms in these markets, welfare implications and competition policy.

This module provides an introduction to the nature and use of empirical investigation in economics. The module will familiarise students with the basic concepts in econometrics as well as outline the statistical theory underpinning econometrics and statis...

Among philosophers in the modern era, Immanuel Kant is widely acknowledged as the most important, original and influential. His challenging book, Critique of Pure Reason, asks what we can know about the nature of reality at the most fundamental level. Can...

Ever since Aristotle, philosophers have been interested in developing formal systems of logic to refine our ability to distinguish valid from invalid arguments and to further our understanding of the nature of logic and validity. The aim of this module is...

We all make moral judgments and think about moral questions. For instance, you might think that torture is typically wrong but wonder whether it may sometimes be right. Whereas normative ethics tries to answer these questions, metaethics is concerned with...

Metaphysics is the study of what kinds of things there and what they are like in the most general terms. We have both a common sense picture of the world and a scientific picture of the world, and sometimes these two appear to conflict. Part of the job of...

Moral philosophy is concerned with questions of right and wrong, good and bad, virtue and vice. Such questions are familiar: can it be right to lie to someone to avoid hurting their feelings? Is it okay to favour my friends and family, or should I be impa...

Philosophy of language explores the nature of meaning, language, and communication. What is it for a word or sentence – things which in and of themselves are simply noises or marks on a page – to mean something? What is it for a word to refer to something...

Can there be a proof that God exists? Or might phenomena such as suffering serve to show that an omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent being cannot exist? Such questions are central to the philosophy of religion; attempting to answer them leads us to ...

We build our world on scientific knowledge, in fact we stake our lives on it. Every time we board a train, send an email or take a medical drug we reaffirm our trust in the products of science. But what, if anything, gives science the authority it seems t...

An introduction to political thinking, focusing on major thinkers and themes and exploring how to engage in political theorising. Pre-requisite for PAIR3015

Politics is often about conflict, but sometimes that conflict takes place within legislative bodies and other times in the streets. Most of what we study in political science courses focuses on conflict within the electoral framework, but this course asks...

The framing of this module is that Machiavelli has seriously misled modern political thinking by permitting a wedge to be driven between morality and politics. Even if that was not Machiavelli’s intention, that has been the consequence of his ideas. Thus,...

This module will introduce students to the practice of qualitative research in politics and international relations. Students will learn and apply key skills involved in gathering and analysing qualitative data, and reflect on the strengths and limitation...

The subfields of international relations and political theory have a long history of cross-fertilization. Scholars in one field have often developed the ideas and debates that emerge in the other field in interesting ways. Despite this cross-fertilizatio...

One of the main reasons the study of Philosophy is valued by employers is that it develops an ability that is invaluable in all sorts of contexts: the ability to reason rigorously and correctly. All Philosophy modules aim indirectly to develop this skill,...

All over the world the ideal of democratic government has higher support than at almost any time in human history. Yet many citizens of democracies are very frustrated with the way the democracy they live in works. It is one thing to recognise the contemp...

Philosophy of mind explores questions about the nature of the mind and mental states – states such as perceptual experiences, beliefs, desires, and emotions. What is the mind? Is it an immaterial substance? Is it the brain? Is it something like a computer...

To introduce the theoretical underpinnings of the democratic state; to outline theoretical and practical changes and challenges to the democratic state both today and in the future; to draw links between theoretical ideas about the democratic state and de...

Although a ‘common sense’ view of world politics is often presented in non-academic contexts, there is little agreement among experts on what international relations is, and how we should think about the discipline. This module enables students to critica...

The researching and writing of an 8,000-word dissertation provides you with the opportunity to integrate and hone a variety of skills acquired and extended during your studies, and to significantly deepen your knowledge of a topic of your choice. In m...

This module forms the first part of a dissertation in Economics. You will undertake a substantive piece of independent work in composing a literature review on your chosen research topic. You will motivate the research topic, survey and review the relevan...

The aim of this module is to equip you with professional skills and knowledge that will be useful in your future careers, as well as when applying for graduate jobs. The module consists of up to three timetabled lectures per semester plus independent stud...

Students taking this module undertake research on a philosophical topic of their choice (subject to approval by the Department), and write a dissertation of 8,000 words on that topic.

For many people, the phrase “American political thought” either has an obvious meaning – some version of liberal democracy, surely – or it is a contradiction in terms – America has politics, but seems to exercise little thought. This module sets the recor...

To take the principles developed in second year statistical theory and econometrics modules and show their wider application in econometric estimation and model-building.

The module shows economic analysis at work in a number of areas of policy concern and develops simple and more advance models and empirical methodologies that help us both to understand central problems of economic policy analysis and evaluate alternative...

This module familiarises students with central concepts and findings in decision theory. It will explore in detail how decisions should be made, introducing normative benchmarks such as rationality and consistency, and will present how decisions are made,...

Philosophy flourished in classical India for well over a millennium, with figures in this tradition producing works that are on a par with those of figures in ancient Greece and late antique and medieval Europe. In fact, figures in classical India contri...

The aim of this module is to familiarise you with several important, but competing, theories of justice. Such theories give guidance on important questions of distributive justice (who ought to get what, when and why?), and provide, to varying degrees, gr...

Most states claim to be democratic. This module looks at the theory of democracy, including foundational questions about political inclusion, participation, and equality. As a result, students will develop a greater understanding of what democracy require...

This module forms the second part of a dissertation in Economics. You will undertake a substantive piece of independent work in form of composing a piece of economic research on your chosen topic. This is designed to demonstrate your ability to manage you...

This module forms the second part of a dissertation in Economics. You will undertake a substantive piece of independent work in form of composing two reports addressing specific economic questions. This is designed to demonstrate your ability to manage yo...

Specifically the module aims to provide a bridge to the more theoretical articles in finance theory, by offering a simple framework of conceptual knowledge that enables thinking while making financial decisions. As such the module gives an appreciation of...

It is the first time in history that we can approach the problem of European security architecture in terms of governance, rather than hegemony or the balance of power. The proliferation of European and global institutions concerned with addressing differ...

We are all familiar with fictions from Romeo and Juliet to Jaws, from The Hobbit to Harry Potter. Despite this familiarity, the nature of fiction and of our engagement with it appears puzzling. On the one hand, fictional characters do not exist. On the ot...

How can we understand the role of gender in political systems? Why is it important to acknowledge the intersections of gender with race, class, sexuality and disability? What can/should be done about male over-representation in legislatures worldwide? Why...

The European integration project has achieved a point, at which fundamental questions concerning its near and long-term future need to be urgently addressed. Unfortunately, the current debates are often hindered by the loud and dominant voices of extremis...

This module provides a short course in international macroeconomics. We begin by studying exchange rates before turning to wider issues in international macro, such as the costs and benefits of participation in global capital markets; sovereign debt and c...

This module explores key questions in the area of international trade. Should countries trade freely with each other? What are the gains/losses from free trade and are they distributed evenly within the population? What are free trade agreements and what ...

There is a rich and often overlooked tradition of Islamic philosophy, or 'falsafa'. This module focuses on the classical period of the Islamic Golden Age, from Al-Kindi, via Ibn Sina (also known as Avicenna), to Ibn Rushd (also known as Averroes). The cla...

The module will introduce students to key theories in the analysis of labour markets and to develop knowledge of the relevant institutional framework. The module aims to relate both theory and evidence to key policy issues.

Reading the works of Friedrich Nietzsche is both exciting and troubling. He sets out to undermine the basis of many of our beliefs about values. Christianity, he believed, has had a powerfully negative effect on the potential of human beings. His method o...

The science of psychology and the project of artificial intelligence raise profound philosophical issues as they attempt to understand, simulate and even go beyond human thought. Some concern the kind of explanation that these ventures seek: If we underst...

In this module you will explore some major philosophical questions related to sex. We will begin by considering the nature of sex, discussing a range of theories of sex including the traditional view of sex as essentially connected to reproduction and “pl...

Politics is often about conflict, but sometimes that conflict takes place within legislative bodies and other times in the streets. Most of what we study in political science courses focuses on conflict within the electoral framework, but this course asks...

The framing of this module is that Machiavelli has seriously misled modern political thinking by permitting a wedge to be driven between morality and politics. Even if that was not Machiavelli’s intention, that has been the consequence of his ideas. Thus,...

Specifically the module aims to provide a bridge to the more theoretical articles in finance theory, by offering a simple framework of conceptual knowledge that enables thinking while making financial decisions. As such the module gives an appreciation of...

The objectives of this module are to introduce students to the major themes of public economics and to develop their skills in using microeconomic tools to analyse public policy.

Socrates wants to cross a river and comes to a bridge guarded by Plato, who says: “Socrates, if you say something true, I will permit you to cross. But if you speak falsely, I shall throw you into the water.” Socrates answers: “You will throw me into the ...

This module will explore some central issues about rationality, responsibility, and ethics. Questions we shall consider may include: What is it to act? Are all actions motivated by desire? Do we act only in pursuit of what we deem good? What is involved i...

All over the world the ideal of democratic government has higher support than at almost any time in human history. Yet many citizens of democracies are very frustrated with the way the democracy they live in works. It is one thing to recognise the contemp...

We seem to know our own minds - our beliefs, desires, intentions, thoughts, feelings and sensations - in a distinctively secure and immediate way, without having to rely on observation of our own behaviour. Such self-knowledge seems different from knowled...

The climate crisis is one of the most urgent issues facing humanity. Climate change is having an increasing impact on individual lives, and on social and political relations and institutions. This module examines the moral and political philosophical issu...

The main objective of this module is to expose students to the state-of-the-art discussion in a range of macroeconomic topics: growth, unemployment, taxation, and monetary policy. The approach is to study a simplified version of some widely used models in...

This module introduces topics at the intersection between politics and economics. It exposes students to substantive issues in political economy, such as the comparative analysis of different electoral systems, distributive justice, and the moral limits o...

It is commonplace to hear people say such things as, "You should believe that the climate is changing—that's what the evidence tells us", or "You ought not to believe that the earth is flat—that's just not true". These judgements concerning what people ou...

Wittgenstein is the most important philosopher of the twentieth century. He offers a sustained critique of many of the most common assumptions underlying much contemporary philosophy of mind and language. He explores, among other things, the questions of ...