MRes Philosophy

Key details

MRES PHILOSOPHY

Start Year

2023

Attendance

Full Time

Award

Degree of Master of Research

Duration (years)

Our Philosophy MRes is ideal for students who want to explore philosophy at a postgraduate level. The flexible course structure allows you to tailor the course to your interests and needs. Whether you’re aiming for a philosophy PhD and a career in academia, research and teaching, or you simply want to continue your studies beyond undergraduate level, this course will take your philosophical studies to the next level.

In this course, you’ll explore your own ideas and interests, develop your ability to think independently, and design your own topics to explore. Our MRes gives you the skills you need to undertake your own research in philosophy. You’ll work closely with your academic supervisors to develop your own ideas and research. Our academics are leading researchers. They’ve published widely and have shaped the development of philosophy across the world. With their guidance, our research-driven programme, and a varied schedule of workshops and events, there is no better place to follow your passions and expand your mind.

You can take the Philosophy MRes by itself, or as the first year of a 1+3 programme if you’re applying for the PhD.

There is also the option to pursue a pathway in literature and philosophy as part of the MRes. This pathway allows you to explore the connections between literature and philosophy, including taking modules from our world-famous School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing. This pathway replaces options previously available as part of the MA in Philosophy and Literature.

About

Whether you’re interested in a philosophy PhD, or you simply want to extend your experience, this course will take your philosophical studies to the next level.

As a Philosophy MRes student, you’ll work week-by-week on essays you choose and plan in collaboration with your tutor. You will work on three modules with at least two different tutors and will undertake a core methodology module. This means you will be able to sample several areas within philosophy and work with different mentors, before choosing your dissertation topic.

The philosophy department at UEA is dynamic, friendly and committed to nurturing your emerging philosophical voice. Our varied and inclusive research team can provide supervision in many areas of philosophy including, but not limited to, the following:

Ancient Philosophy
Applied Ethics
Environmental Philosophy
Epistemology
Ethics
Experimental Philosophy
History of Analytic Philosophy
Logic
Metaethics
Metaphilosophy
Nietzsche
Phenomenology
Philosophy and Film
Philosophy and Literature
Philosophy of Art and Aesthetics
Philosophy of Biology
Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Philosophy of Education
Philosophy of History
Philosophy of Language/Linguistics
Philosophy of Logic
Philosophy of Mathematics
Philosophy of Medicine
Philosophy of Mind
Philosophy of Psychology
Philosophy of Religion
Philosophy of Science
Philosophy of Social Science
Political Philosophy
Wittgenstein

Alongside your studies, you will attend a range of research events and seminars, including the postgraduate workshop (where you’ll share your dissertation plans and provide feedback on other students’ work) and the research seminar (with distinguished visiting speakers from Britain and abroad). You might also join the regular Wittgenstein Workshop, or other specialised research meetings and workshops organized by Faculty.

You’ll have an academic adviser from the advising team throughout the course of your studies. The adviser is there to provide academic and career guidance, and to support your wellbeing.

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Important Information

Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the courses listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the regular review of course programmes. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes, there will normally be prior consultation of students and others. Changes may for example consist of variations to the content and method of delivery of programmes, courses and other services, to discontinue programmes, courses and other services and to merge or combine programmes or courses. The University will endeavour to keep such changes to a minimum, and will inform students.

Assessment for Year 1

We will assess each module through essays or other forms of coursework. For each supervised study module, you’ll submit a package containing the two best essays from the three that you have prepared, having refined them with advice from your tutor.

For the dissertation module, you will submit a more major piece of work of 12,000–15,000 words. Your credits for this module will include your contribution in the postgraduate workshops.

Your degree result will be based on your marks for all your modules and your dissertation.

Structure

You’ll take four taught modules over two semesters, starting with a compulsory module with seminars that explore the different approaches and methodologies that figure in the various traditions of Western philosophy.

Unless you are following the pathway in philosophy of literature, your three other taught modules (one in the autumn and two in the spring) consist entirely of guided study and essay writing with a supervisor, and are taught through one-to-one tutorials. To set up your supervision for these three modules, we match your interests as far as possible with an available expert in the department. You will then meet with the specified supervisor and together you will plan a sequence of tutorial deadlines and essay questions. The typical procedure is that your tutor agrees an essay topic with you, then you research and write your essay for a deadline two weeks later. After you submit the essay, you will attend a tutorial to receive feedback, discuss and agree the next assignment, and so on (much like the Oxbridge teaching system).

In the first semester, you’ll work with one tutor, and in the second semester with two, working on two different areas or topics. For assessment, you will submit two of the essays you have written for each module, after revisions that take account of the tutor’s comments.

Students following the pathway in philosophy and literature will replace one or more of the guided study modules with specialist modules including Criticism/Critique, Philosophy of Literature, Free Speech, Creative-Critical Writing, and more.

Alongside the four taught modules, there are regular workshops for all graduate students. Participating in these workshops is the main activity prescribed for the research training component of the dissertation module. At these workshops you’ll meet and discuss philosophical ideas with PhD students and other Master’s students. Some sessions are devoted to skills in the use of bibliographical resources, career development and research applications.

When the two semesters of taught modules are complete, you will start your dissertation: this is usually your task from May to September. This will be on a topic of your choice, agreed in consultation with the course director and under the guidance of a supervisor.

It is also possible to replace a supervised study module with an appropriate taught master’s level module, or to work with your tutor on language training along with your essay work (for example, developing your ability in Ancient Greek or German).

Teaching and Learning

The main focus of this degree is on developing your independent research skills. So most of your learning is self-directed study in preparation for your essay tutorials. You’ll be able to make use of UEA’s state-of-the-art library facilities, learning how to locate relevant literature for your studies using the online databases and our many subscriptions to journals in the field.

You’ll receive one-to-one tuition on your essays for supervised study modules, and on your dissertation drafts during the summer term. In the core methodology module, you’ll be taught in a weekly seminar or small group session. You’ll receive written feedback on your coursework for this module.

In postgraduate workshop meetings, you’ll share your ideas for your dissertation and receive peer support and discussion. You’ll also discuss and give feedback to other graduate students on their work. These workshops are led by members of academic staff, and include discussions of a wide range of practical topics relevant to Master’s and PhD students.

The dissertation is your opportunity to develop a longer piece of written work. The one-to-one teaching for that task is geared towards advising on bibliography, and giving constructive criticism on draft sections, so that you can revise them and bring them together to form a coherent whole. This builds upon your earlier experience in the small essays for the supervised study modules. It also gives you a sense of what’s involved in preparing a PhD thesis, which might be your next step.

Our distinctive research environment offers an interdisciplinary outlook and a focus on methodological and metaphilosophical reflection. We are a leading center for Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Wittgensteinian tradition, and other staff research specialisms include philosophy of language and linguistics, philosophy of science, environmental philosophy, metaphilosophy, experimental philosophy, philosophy of literature, film and the arts, phenomenology, and ancient philosophy.

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Open Days

Students not wishing to specialise in philosophy and literature are expected to take three supervised study modules. Students wishing to specialise in philosophy and literature may choose to take up to three modules from the philosophy and literature route: Criticism/Critique; Philosophy of Literature Seminar; one of the available AMA* or LDC* modules.

Assessment for Year 1

For the dissertation module, you will submit a more major piece of work of 12,000–15,000 words. Your credits for this module will include your contribution in the postgraduate workshops.

Your degree result will be based on your marks for all your modules and your dissertation.

Compulsory Modules

METHODOLOGY AND EPISTEMOLOGY OF PHILOSOPHY

Code PPLP7000A

Credits 20

As a graduate you will be provided with the methodological foundations for independent philosophical research. Through practical exercises complementing theoretical discussion and philosophical case studies, you will examines various philosophical methodologies from different research traditions, including empirical methodologies, and assesses their strengths and weaknesses. You will also look into the genesis, structure, and status of philosophical problems and theories, as well as the scope, strengths, and weaknesses of both historically important and currently debated philosophical methodologies. On this basis, your module addresses key questions about philosophy: What are the proper aims and purposes of philosophy? In what ways is philosophy similar to, and different from various sciences? In what ways can methods and insights from other disciplines, especially the social sciences, be put to use for philosophical purposes?

MRES IN PHILOSOPHY RESEARCH TRAINING AND DISSERTATION

Code PPLP7010X

Credits 100

This is the dissertation component of the MRes degree in Philosophy, together with a preliminary weekly workshop which will guide you towards the research skills required for doing well at independent work in philosophy. You’ll participate in the workshop during the two teaching semesters, presenting and discussing your work as well as that of your peers, and engaging in the collaborative tasks associated with becoming a critical and collegial member of the research community. You’ll then complete a dissertation proposal at the end of the Spring semester, with a view to being accepted to work with your chosen supervisor on a dissertation topic of your choice. You’ll complete the dissertation of 12,000 to 15,000 words over the summer.

Optional A Modules

(20 credits)

CRITICISM/CRITIQUE

Code LDCE7010A

Credits 20

This module tracks the notion of ‘Critique’ in philosophical and political thought, as well as literary criticism and artworks’ own self-reflection, from the late 18th century to the present. ‘Critique’, from the Greek term krinein (‘to discern’), brings together questions of philosophical method, from the relation between concept and intuition to the project of understanding a historical moment through its cultural artefacts and practices; however, it also engages the ‘criticality’ of artworks: how they reflect on their own processes and socio-economic conditions. But if these various intellectual projects converge around a shared sense that they are doing ‘critique’, then it is not clear that political critique and aesthetic critique aspire towards the same thing; the concept of critique thus also permits us to grasp discrepancies and points of dissensus between different forms of intellectual, and ‘critical’, praxis. The module starts by providing a historical grounding in debates around ‘Critical Philosophy’, linking Immanuel Kant’s ‘critical’ distinction of concept and intuition to German Romanticism’s model of a ‘literary absolute’ in which literature actualises itself as ‘critique’, such that through its ironic relation to its own linguistic medium, it assumes the place of philosophy itself. We consider Hegel’s responses both to Kant’s critical philosophy and to the literary theorising of the Schlegels and Novalis, with readings from the Phenomenology of Spirit, the Logic and the Aesthetics, before turning to the development of Hegelian thought in Marx. Having established this basic historical narrative, we then trace the different intellectual projects and problematics that the notion of ‘critique’ opens up, from the ‘critical theory’ of the Frankfurt school through thinkers including Althusser, Fanon, Foucault, Braidotti, and Rancière. Against this we encounter an alternative series of responses to ‘critical’ philosophy, notably via Heidegger, Deleuze, and Simone Weil. At the crux of these different approaches to ‘critique’ is the relation between different philosophical, political and literary intellectual movements, and central to this module is the question of how ‘critique’ extends beyond scholarly activity, whether it is the ways in which avant-garde art and poetics incorporate self-critique into their understanding of support, medium, process, etc., or whether it is in practices of political resistance. To this end, the module is overtly forward-looking, not only charting a contested history from Kant to the present, but also asking what forms future attempts at critique can, and should, take.

SUPERVISED STUDY MODULE ONE

Code PPLP7005A

Credits 20

In this module you’ll be trained in research techniques in philosophy and you’ll develop advanced knowledge and understanding in some clearly defined area of the discipline suited to your individual needs and interests, which may be an area previously studied , e.g. at BA level, or a new area to be explored for the first time. You’ll be assigned to work with a tutor with expertise in the selected area. The topics covered, and the manner in which they are covered, will be tailored to your prior experience in the field. Three essay questions, with bibliographical research, will be set for work during the semester, to be submitted as formative work to set deadlines (one essay to be submitted prior to each tutorial). Assessment will be by submission of revised versions of two out of the three formative essays.

Optional B Modules

(40 credits)

GOOD GOOD GIRLS AND GOOD BAD BOYS? AMERICAN FICTIONS OF INNOCENCE

Code AMAL7000B

Credits 20

Oscar Wilde wrote that 'The youth of America is their oldest tradition; it has been going on now for three hundred years'. Is this true? If so, why? This module aims to account for the preoccupation with youth in America, focusing particularly on the concept of 'innocence'. Drawing on a wide array of fictional and theoretical works, you’ll consider the following questions: What is at stake in America's investment in innocence? What power interests and ideologies are maintained by repeatedly describing America as 'innocent'? How is this investment in innocence revised in different historical moments? How is it challenged? How is innocence (and loss of innocence) depicted differently for female, male, white and non-white protagonists? At the end of this module, you’ll have had the opportunity to reflect on these questions in seminars, and pursued your own interests in assessed work (presentation and essay). You will also have developed your communication, writing and research skills.

EAST ANGLIAN LITERATURE

Code LDCE7002B

Credits 20

Throughout the medieval and Early-Modern periods Norwich was one of England’s most important cities – probably second only to London – and East Anglia one of the country’s culturally liveliest and richest areas. In this module you will explore the literature of these periods in its material contexts (the region’s prosperity and power may still be seen in its architecture and in the rich holdings of its libraries and museums) and ask whether there was a specifically East Anglian cultural tradition. You will explore East Anglia’s rich dramatic traditions, its devotional literature and practices (in orthodox forms and in those that brush against the heterodox), and, insistently, the manner in which its literature participates in its broader social and cultural worlds. This module may particularly appeal to you if you have an interest in the cultural traditions of Norwich and East Anglia or, more generally, in the literature of place.

CREATIVE-CRITICAL WRITING

Code LDCE7004B

Credits 20

Too often, academic critical writing seems to bring pre-packaged language to bear on works whose whole essence and aim is to change the ways in which we see and describe our world. And too often such writing fails to acknowledge the ways in which it itself participates in the literary ‘creativity’ it is also about. How, then, to write criticism? Criticism which responds inventively to the literature which it analyses? Criticism which registers, in its own form, language, method and the ways in which it has been transformed by the work(s) of art it encounters? Criticism which recognises that it cannot rest on received concepts and categories? In this module you’ll explore these questions. Over the course of the semester we'll read, ponder and experiment with a broad range of possible ways of practising creative-criticism, including the essay form, auto-commentary, conceptual writing, inventive ‘theoretical’ writing, and diaristic writing. Your assessed work for the module will be in two parts: a piece of creative-critical writing of your own and a critical reflection on a particular aspect of the theory and practice of creative criticism.

LUDIC LITERATURE

Code LDCE7006B

Credits 20

The aim of this mixed creative-critical module is twofold: both to explore together some of the major works of playful or ‘ludic’ modern literature across various languages, and to develop our appreciation of style and form by practising various forms of writing that are themselves ludic: creative imitation, parody, transposition from one style and form to another, creative translation. In play, we will find, the boundary between the ‘creative’ and the ‘critical’ becomes unclear. The module is generally taken by a mix of students from the various critical and creative writing MAs, as well as by students in Literature and Philosophy. On the ‘critical’ side, the module traces the evolution of leading postmodernist styles and themes, especially ludic ones, back to their origins in Dostoevsky, Joyce, Kafka, Borges, and Nabokov. Using these enormously influential authors as a starting point, we read a range of ludic authors, passing back and forth between languages, nations, and genres. Each week we usually pair two authors. In previous years we have studied, for example, Dostoevsky against Nabokov, Kafka against Borges, Perec against Queneau and Calvino, Carter against Coover, Muldoon against Heaney, Pynchon against Barthelme, and Ashbery against Mallarmé. There is also a strong philosophical element of the module, you will be encouraged to explore the philosophical theory of aesthetic play in Kant, Schiller, and Nietzsche, and later in Huizinga and Derrida. On the ‘creative’ side in previous years we have, for example, read Kafka’s short tales against Borges’s re-writings of them, tried to write like Kafka or Borges, turned a Kafka story into a Dostoevsky paragraph or a Nabokov poem, explored the various translations of these authors, and played with re-translating them. We have taken a story by Coover and re-written it as a sestina, two kinds of sonnet, and a villanelle. In doing all this, we are asking fundamental questions not only about play but also about style and form, how they shape meaning and make possible certain kinds of writing and thinking. We are also returning to the way in which literature was studied, and creative writing engendered, before the invention of professional literary criticism and creative writing courses in the twentieth century. All students will be encouraged to try their hand at parodying and imitating the texts we are studying, though this is not compulsory. Final assessment can take the form of a 5000 word critical essay or of a combination of a creative piece and a critical essay, to make up 5000 words.

THE NORTHERN RENAISSANCE, 1500-1620

Code LDCE7011B

Credits 20

This module sets out to understand why and how humanism -- the advocacy of the study of the humanities, the Greek and Roman classics -- gave birth to the astonishing outpouring of literature that we call the Renaissance. We will situate English Renaissance literature within the wider context of the humanist literature of France, the Netherlands, and Italy. Questions we consider include: how did the rediscovery of classical texts generate new possibilities for literary writers? How did humanists understand the nature of poetic creation? How did their advocacy of rhetoric create new ways for writers to engage with public life? And what happened when humanists turned philological methods upon the most sacred text of their culture: the bible? Our work will focus on the writings of Thomas More, Desiderius Erasmus, and Michel de Montaigne, but there will be opportunities to read far more widely in the Renaissance literature of the period. Foreign language texts are all read in translation. The might be of interest to anyone who wishes to gain an in-depth understanding of one of the most dazzling periods of European literary history.

PROCESS AND PRODUCT IN TRANSLATION

Code LDCE7014B

Credits 20

Throughout this module you will produce translations in conditions that encourage and facilitate reflection on the process and product of translation. You will be encouraged to think experimentally, not only about the forms a finished translation might take, but also about the ways in which process might be incorporated into the translation. The module has a workshop format and culminates in a series of presentations of the projects on which students have chosen to work. A series of sessions devoted to the discussion and hands-on tackling of practical problems connected with translation and the projects ahead, precede the presentations. One class meeting will take place at the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts and another at the Special Collections of the UEA Library. Throughout the semester you will be encouraged to discuss a variety of texts, both critical and creative, that help illuminate the process and product of literary translation. You will also be invited to circulate your own bibliographies (developed in relation to in-class presentations as well as the main project) to other members of the class, and to bring to our attention any text(s) you encounter that may be of particular relevance. Your final project will engage with the process of producing literary translation, and will comprise a scholarly discussion thereof illustrated by your own translations of a more or less experimental nature. The in-process project will be presented to the class for discussion and feedback in the second part of the semester.

PHILOSOPHY OF LITERATURE SEMINAR

Code PPLP7001B

Credits 20

In a collaborative seminar or group-study format, you’ll explore (together with the teacher) a range of topics in the philosophy of literature. Topics that you’ll study will typically include: the definition and purpose of literature; the status of fictional characters; the relevance of author's intention and the role of interpretation in fixing meaning; aesthetic evaluation, taste, subjectivity and objectivity; the value of fakes and copies; the emotional effect of literature; whether literature can convey truth and knowledge, and the relationship between aesthetic judgement and ethics. You’ll also look at examples of ‘philosophy in and as literature’, exploring such case studies as the literary Wittgenstein and the philosophical novel. You’ll prepare a package of two essays relating to different parts of the course, preceded by formative drafts and essay tutorials.

SUPERVISED STUDY MODULE THREE

Code PPLP7006B

Credits 20

In this module you’ll be trained in research techniques in philosophy and you’ll develop advanced knowledge and understanding in some clearly defined area of the discipline suited to your individual needs and interests, which may be an area previously studied , e.g. at BA level, or a new area to be explored for the first time. You’ll be assigned to work with a tutor with expertise in the selected area. The topics covered, and the manner in which they are covered, will be tailored to your prior experience in the field. Three essay questions, with bibliographical research, will be set for work during the semester, to be submitted as formative work to set deadlines (one essay to be submitted prior to each tutorial). Assessment is by submission of revised versions of two out of the three formative essays.

SUPERVISED STUDY MODULE FOUR

Code PPLP7008B

Credits 20

In this module you’ll be trained in research techniques in philosophy and you’ll develop advanced knowledge and understanding in some clearly defined area of the discipline suited to your individual needs and interests, which may be an area previously studied , e.g. at BA level, or a new area to be explored for the first time. You’ll be assigned to work with a tutor with expertise in the selected area. The topics covered, and the manner in which they are covered, will be tailored to your prior experience in the field. Three essay questions, with bibliographical research, will be set for work during the semester, to be submitted as formative work to set deadlines (one essay to be submitted prior to each tutorial). Assessment is by submission of revised versions of two out of the three formative essays. The module may also include (wholly or partly) training in language skills for original research (e.g. Ancient Greek, German), in which case language exercises and/or translation tasks may replace some or all of the essay work. Training in logic may also take this form.

FREE SPEECH

Code PPLX7007B

Credits 20

What is free speech? What counts as censorship? What does a plausible free speech principle look like? What deeper values can justify the adoption of such a principle? Is free speech special compared to other freedoms? And to what extent is free speech enhanced or threatened by the Internet? You will critically examine liberal defences of free speech based on values of autonomy, truth discovery, and democracy. And you will explore potential limits of free speech in relation to pornography and hate speech. Contemporary debates around forms of censorship will also be examined including the phenomena of no-platforming, social media content codes, and public shaming. You will examine these pressing issues of political theory, constitutional law, democracy, and Internet regulation by comparing and contrasting the conditions of, and cultural attitudes towards, free speech in China, the UK, and the US. You will also examine human rights instruments protecting free speech as well as key legal cases that have constrained it. The approach will be multidisciplinary drawing on politics, philosophy, sociology, and law. The format will be a weekly two-hour workshop comprising research-led teaching, seminar discussion, practical exercises, textual reading, short videos, and essay writing mini-sessions. The assessment comprises formative feedback on an essay plan and two summative essays.

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Open Days

Important Information

Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the modules listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the annual monitoring and review of modules. Where this activity leads to significant change to a programme and modules, the University will endeavour to consult with affected students. The University may not be able to offer a module for reasons outside of its control, such as the illness of a member of staff. Availability of optional modules may be restricted owing to timetabling, lack of demand, or limited places. Where this is the case, you will be asked to make alternative module choices and you will be supported during this process.

MRes PHILOSOPHY

MRES PHILOSOPHY

About

Important Information

After the Course

Career destinations

Assessment for Year 1

Structure

Teaching and Learning

Assessment for Year 1

Compulsory Modules

Optional A Modules

Optional B Modules

Important Information

Entry Requirements

Degree classification

Degree subject

Additional entry requirements

Students for whom english is a foreign language

Intakes

Fees and Funding

Course related costs

How to Apply

FURTHER INFORMATION

Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies