Welcome to your Continental Philosophy course

If you are studying part-time, in semester one you will take the module Transcendence and the Body, which introduces some of the key concepts and problems that have been characteristic of continental philosophy from the late nineteenth to the present day. If you’re studying full-time, in addition to Transcendence and the Body you will also take the module Knowledge and Politics. The module examines how late twentieth century French epistemology and philosophy of science gave rise to innovative approaches to the questions of subjectivity, power, and critique, and how these approaches remain significant for us today. In the first weeks of your modules you will be guided through selected readings from the work of Kant and Hegel or Foucault and Bachelard. During Welcome Week, before the semester begins in earnest, there will be some introductory notes from your tutor to read and some questions to think about. There will also be an online MS Teams event to meet staff and fellow students.

For each module, you will have access to a dedicated space in the online learning platform. This space will contain everything that you need, including a schedule for the work, background information, tutor notes, any videos and podcasts for each week, and a space for online discussion with your tutor and fellow students. In addition, you will have access to the digital resources of the University Library. Each week, you will be expected to read the set reading (you may need to do this more than once), to engage with the materials provided by your tutor, and to take part in the online discussions.

Because we have students from all over the world, living in many different time zones, who often need to manage study alongside a huge variety of work and life commitments, it is impossible for us to hold weekly live classes. There will be some live sessions, as it’s good to meet make some connection with your fellow students, but all the core work is asynchronous; that is, while we expect you to follow the scheduled reading and discussions week by week, it’s up to you how you fit the work into your week.

Your professors will take part in the online discussions. Moreover, you can contact your professors by email for additional help or advice. Finally, there will be occasional special events (e.g. a visiting academic giving a paper) which will be available online and for discussion in the forums.

When you arrive to the Blackboard learning rooms, you will have some short notes and videos to watch to help you with familiarise yourself with the course. If you are studying part-time, you can in advance look up any entry on Kant or Hegel or Foucault in the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy or the Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. There will be more detailed texts on the learning room

The MA is delivered entirely online, you will need a reliable computer or laptop and a reliable broadband connection. For meetings you will need to download MS Teams. Also, we do use podcasts so it would be advisable to download a regular ‘podcatcher’ app e.g. Spotify, Pocket Casts, Acast etc. You may also want to print out notes or texts to read, so access to a printer would be helpful. Finally, you’ll need a comfortable spot where you can settle down to read!

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