Logic / Philosophy

Course summary

In philosophy, we aim to think about big questions carefully and attempt to develop good reasons for holding one particular view rather than another. To help you to get an idea for what philosophy is here's a selection of things that philosophers are interested in, many of which we consider during the course (for the specific course content see the boxes to the right): • Existence - What kinds of things exist, and what are they like? For example, which of the following exist: time, God, the mind, the external world, numbers, colors? (AKA 'ontology'). • Knowledge - What can we know, and how do we know it? For example, can I know that other people have minds like mine?; can I know about the past?; can I know anything at all? (AKA 'epistemology'). • Value / Worth - What, if anything, has value? For example, are things right and wrong, fair and unfair, beautiful and ugly? If so, what is it that makes this the case? (AKA 'axiology'). • Logic & argument - How should we think in order to think well? What makes something a good/strong argument?