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Migration is one of the fundamental issues for 21st century politics. The module focuses on the ethical and political issues raised by different kinds of migration - refugees, family reunion, labour - as well as arguments concerning border regimes - detention, deportation - and the ethical status of borders.

Migration is one of the fundamental issues for 21st century politics. The module focuses on the ethical and political issues raised by different kinds of migration - refugees, family reunion, labour - as well as arguments concerning border regimes - detention, deportation - and the ethical status of borders.

Migration is one of the fundamental issues for 21st century politics. The module focuses on the ethical and political issues raised by different kinds of migration - refugees, family reunion, labour - as well as arguments concerning border regimes - detention, deportation - and the ethical status of borders.

Migration is one of the fundamental issues for 21st century politics. The module focuses on the ethical and political issues raised by different kinds of migration - refugees, family reunion, labour - as well as arguments concerning border regimes - detention, deportation - and the ethical status of borders.

Migration is one of the fundamental issues for 21st century politics. The module focuses on the ethical and political issues raised by different kinds of migration - refugees, family reunion, labour - as well as arguments concerning border regimes - detention, deportation - and the ethical status of borders.

This module will explore how philosophy as we know it today has been shaped profoundly by past debates over the nature of the world we inhabit and what we can hope to know about it. For example, in the 17th and 18th centuries, Europe experienced enormous intellectual upheaval, driven crucially by revolutions in science that seemed to reveal a gap between the world as it really is and as it appears to be. This was a transformative period for philosophy too, as thinkers across Europe critically explored the emerging worldviews and the place of both humans and God within them. This module will introduce you to the ideas and arguments of a range of prominent philosophers from this era, such as René Descartes, John Locke, Benedict de Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, and David Hume—as well as neglected but important thinkers, such as Margaret Cavendish, Anne Conway, Damaras Masham, and Anton Wilhelm Amo. In doing so, it will reveal the contemporary significance of their answers to such questions as: What is the fundamental nature of reality? How does the mind relate to the body? How does perception relate us to the external world? What is causation? Is there a God? Are there limits to human knowledge?

This module will explore how philosophy as we know it today has been shaped profoundly by past debates over the nature of the world we inhabit and what we can hope to know about it. For example, in the 17th and 18th centuries, Europe experienced enormous intellectual upheaval, driven crucially by revolutions in science that seemed to reveal a gap between the world as it really is and as it appears to be. This was a transformative period for philosophy too, as thinkers across Europe critically explored the emerging worldviews and the place of both humans and God within them. This module will introduce you to the ideas and arguments of a range of prominent philosophers from this era, such as René Descartes, John Locke, Benedict de Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, and David Hume—as well as neglected but important thinkers, such as Margaret Cavendish, Anne Conway, Damaras Masham, and Anton Wilhelm Amo. In doing so, it will reveal the contemporary significance of their answers to such questions as: What is the fundamental nature of reality? How does the mind relate to the body? How does perception relate us to the external world? What is causation? Is there a God? Are there limits to human knowledge?

Mind, Knowledge and Reality offers you the opportunity to explore in detail some central issues and texts in the Western philosophical tradition that address issues in philosophy of mind, epistemology and/or metaphysics. The module may focus on an important text, or a significant body of literature.

Mind, Knowledge and Reality offers you the opportunity to explore in detail some central issues and texts in the Western philosophical tradition that address issues in philosophy of mind, epistemology and/or metaphysics. The module may focus on an important text, or a significant body of literature.

Long before the advent of Artificial Intelligence, the practice of writing was already technological, shaped by tools, systems, and media. This module explores how technology is not only a theme within, but also an unavoidable condition of what we call ‘writing’. From inscriptions rendered as flat durable marks of print to the diverse sensory modalities of the immersive internet, from short bursts of signal produced by a telegrapher to the ethereal infrastructures of the modern social web, from reference dictionaries and thesauri to powerful computers crunching linguistic data at superhuman scales, literature has always been subject to technological change and rupture.

The module combines critical reading with creative practice. Students will read writing about technology, while understanding writing as a type of technology in itself. They will see how technological objects like radio, telescreens, and surveillance cameras alter not only the form of literary texts, but also their modes of consumption. They will undertake weekly writing experiments that place them in direct contact with technological limits and affordances—in a room with a quill, over a typewriter, in front of a mainframe computer, or an 80s word processor, for example. These experiments may involve writing under constraint, composing for specific platforms or interfaces, working with automated or procedural methods, or deliberately engaging with breakdown, repetition, and obsolescence.

A central aim of the module is to challenge the assumption that writing tools are neutral. Students will reflect on how pens, keyboards, screens, software, and platforms actively influence the writing process, shaping pace, style, structure, and even content—yet they will be encouraged to ask at what point the writer begins and ends. By becoming attentive to these factors, students will develop a more self-aware and theoretically informed practice in literary composition.