Values & Knowledge (Philosophy)(MA)

The relation between values and knowledge is a central concern for any society. At present, it is widely assumed that the pursuit of knowledge is valuable only to the degree that it has measurable practical benefits as an outcome. Our MA programme offers a context for detailed consideration of this assumption. We identify and question the issues involved in it at deeper levels of analysis than are available through ordinary discussion.

This high level of critical scrutiny is made possible through the programme’s broad philosophical perspective—engaging with questions arising in other disciplines also. More specifically, our programme provides an in-depth study of different forms of values in terms of both their cognitive basis and their relation to other areas of knowledge and activity. We also consider the way in which knowledge has been defined and theorized since the Enlightenment. The programme combines historical perspectives and contemporary critical debates so as to provide a fund of analytic and argumentative skills that are advantageous for further work in philosophy or for competing in the job market. A notable feature of the programme is that students are given the opportunity to organise a peer-reviewed international graduate conference. In so doing, students of the programme engage in knowledge exchange with their international peers.

Subjects in this course are:-

• Required PI6104: Research Methods
• Required PI6106: Dissertation
• Optional PI6102: Political values in the modern world
• Optional PI504.I: Philosophy Seminar: Participation & Management
• Optional PI6110: Ethics and Artificial Intelligence
• Optional PI6111: Public Philosophy and Civic Education
• Optional PI6103: Knowledge and Value in Modernity
• Optional PI504.II: Philosophy Seminar: Participation & Management
• Optional PI6101: The Philosophy of Emotion
• Optional SPA442: Phenomenology of Art and Culture