Welcome to your Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology course

Here are links to videos that you may find interesting to watch before starting the MA.

Relational Ontology

Video: Carlo Rovelli @ 5x15, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=0aGHG0Jahzc&embeds_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fprojectavalon.net%2F&feature=emb_imp_woyt

Posthumanism and Technology

Video: Francesca Ferrando, Crash Course: ‘The Posthuman’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBS_xNOi5jM

Knowledge and Politics

Video: Michel Foucault: Truth and Subjectivity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0URrVbpjW0

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.

If you’re studying part-time, you will take the module Relational Ontology, with the tutor Dr Joel White. The module covers a wide variety of material in the history of philosophy and science, with an emphasis on contemporary cosmology. Its aim is to introduce a view of the world as composed primarily of relations, and to consider what this means for the way we think. In the first week you’ll read work by Carolo Rovelli about the Ancient Greek philosopher Anaximander, and then in the second and third weeks you’ll look at the ideas of the seventeenth century rationalist philosopher Leibniz. No previous knowledge of science is assumed.

If you’re studying full-time you’ll take Relational Ontology and either Posthumanism and Technology or Knowledge and Politics. You should have an opportunity to choose between these two options when you enrol.

In the first weeks of Posthumanism and Technology you’ll be introduced to the idea of posthumanism through the work of Martin Heidegger and Rosi Braidotti, before reading texts on postmodernity and the posthuman by Jean-François Lyotard. The module Knowledge and Politics is centered on the work of Michel Foucault, and in particular on his conception of critique as an ethical and political practice. In the first weeks, you’ll be introduced to the idea of historical epistemology, and then read Foucault’s essay ‘What is Enlightenment?’ and work by the philosopher of science Gaston Bachelard. If you would like to know more about these modules you can contact Prof David Webb: d.a.webb@staffs.ac.uk.

You will need a computer or laptop (either Mac or PC) and a reliable broadband connection. No specialist software is required.

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As our students are based around the world we cannot hold any course trips. There will be a programme of ‘visiting speakers’ who will present their work online in a live event hosted by your tutors.