MA Philosophy

NCH, with its lively and inter-disciplinary research culture and faculty including the philosophers A C Grayling, Simon Blackburn, Daniel Dennett, and Peter Singer, small-group seminars conducive to stimulating debate, and focused supervisions, offers a distinctive environment which is exceptionally conducive to the successful study of philosophy at PhD level.

The compulsory courses are designed to engage students with classic philosophy texts and debates and to develop in them the research, speaking, and writing skills that underpin a career in the philosophy profession and (more generally) support an informed, reflective and thoughtful approach to life. Each optional course surveys a different area of philosophy, with students encouraged to specialise further within each course through choice from assignment topics and support through associated individual tutorials.

The structured dissertation provides an opportunity for an extended piece of research on a topic of the student’s choice culminating in a 10,000- to 15,000-word dissertation.

Students who are enrolled full-time should anticipate devoting approximately 35-40 hours per week to their studies for the duration of their degree. In Michaelmas and Hilary terms, this will include approximately six to seven formal contact hours per week, with the remainder consisting of structured independent study.

Independent study primarily comprises preparing both formative and summative work, though it may also include participation in Philosophy Society meetings, Philosophy Research seminars, and professorial lectures. In Trinity term, students predominantly work independently to write their dissertations.

While we try to make the part-time study as flexible as possible, our Masters programmes are demanding and we advise students that, if they intend to work alongside the course, their work should be flexible.

In the case of the MA Philosophy, the curriculum has been overseen and developed by Dr Naomi Goulder BA, MA (Cantab), PhD (Lond), Head of Philosophy Faculty & Senior Lecturer in Philosophy.