Master of Arts in Philosophy

This course seeks to understand the anthropological value and status of affectivity, distinguishing the so-called feelings from emotions, moods, and affects of the spirit. The method of knowledge and access to the affective world and its positive and negative dimensions for the dynamism of personal existence and social coexistence will be explored. In particular, the course seeks to incorporate philosophical knowledge into that of psychology and education in order to better understand sentimental reality.

The course Anthropology of Education has as its central purpose to explore the anthropological dimension that underlies educational work, placing the human person as the essential subject of this process. Fundamental questions are addressed such as: Who is educated? What is education for? Who educates? and How to educate? These questions guide the analysis of the central themes, which include the educability of the human being, the educational agents and the aims of education. The course's approach is based on the idea that education is more than a technical process: it is a profoundly human activity that seeks to "help grow" and develop the human being in all its dimensions. This growth encompasses not only the intellectual sphere, but also the ethical, affective and social. In this context, participants will acquire theoretical tools to analyze educational relationships from a comprehensive perspective that includes the family, school and society as interdependent agents. The relevance of this course lies in providing a deep and critical vision of the educational phenomenon, emphasizing the educator-educatee relationship and the gradual and integral character of education. Likewise, it highlights the importance of principles such as freedom, friendship and authority, well understood as pillars of the formative process.

The course seeks to establish the anthropological keys that articulate economic and business activity. Through an exploration of the diverse anthropological models and the history of organizations, the essence and meaning of the economy will be understood. Along with these realities, the relationship that the economy and business have with family, work, social organization, capital and the State will be studied. The economy here is understood as a highly interdisciplinary reality that manifests the inner human wealth, therefore its relationship with knowledge, directive action and organizational culture is very relevant to understand it in its proper place. Similarly, the relationship between business and humanism becomes strategic for this course in order to put the person at the center of organizations.

This course is covers advanced philosophical paradigms, leading students through the key ideas and advanced texts associated with them, over topics such as Critical Theory, Semiology and Semiotics, Hermeneutics, Psychoanalysis and Deconstruction, Automation, Artificial Intelligence and Algorithmic Design.

For each paradigm, students will examine the theoretical presuppositions at work and consider several prominent exemplars of the approach. The focus throughout is on how these various critical approaches are applied to textual, cultural and historical materials in contemporary scholarship - and how they may be combined with one another in mutually illuminating ways.

This course concerns the theory of knowledge-- epistemology in both the analytic and psychological-social sense.

This course will examine the history of justified beliefs from the ancient Athenian context through the middle ages, the European Enlightenment, and up through the postmodern turn and “Post-Truth” in the 20th century. As we examine each historical epoch we will examine how and why beliefs were acquired, held, justified, and rejected. Then we will compare and contrast the different historical epochs vis-a-vis and attempt to make some authoritative claims about the nature of beliefs and truth.

Of particular interest will be the social dynamic within the theory of knowledge from the psychological and sociological perspective. We will also examine how knowledge is shaped by social actors, campaigns, and institutions who bend or compromise basic epistemological rules in order to create outcomes some of which may be socially damaging.

What is the human being? This question points to the essence of man, so this course is dedicated to studying human life and faculties, both sensitive (with a corporeal base) and rational (intelligence and will); to be able to develop and perfect them. To do this, we will start from the great findings of Greek anthropology (notion of the human soul and faculties), which defines the human being as a possessor on three levels (corporeal, intellectual and volitional), to the hesitations and vicissitudes of modern and contemporary anthropology, passing through medieval anthropology in which the difference and integration of essence and the personal being is made. Likewise, we will delve into these contributions, trying to relate them to the sciences, especially to economics and business, politics, law, education, communication and, in general, the professional fields in which the participants of this master's degree are found, so that by accessing the knowledge of those radical principles of every human being, they elevate the richness of their work experience to the level of theory or anthropological knowledge that applies the heuristic method, together with analysis and the systemic approach, to approach the integral knowledge of the essence of the human being, to be able to understand its great complexity, as well as to try to perfect its human essence and that of those around it, developing all its human dimensions.

This advanced graduate-level course in Philosophy addresses a unique topic on a rotating basis in order to keep the programme at the forefront of scholarly research. Every year the academic staff member will approve of a new topic to be covered. The bibliography will contain not less than 8 peer-reviewed articles or scholarly publications reflecting the current topic.

Current Topic Structuralism and phenomenology are the two great competing philosophical movements of the twentieth century starting with Saussure and Husserl. Both begin with different assumptions: one takes the givens of immediate experience; the other casts it aside in favor of the hidden structures of thought. One begins with thinking as consciousness; the other with thought as language. A few phenomenologists have tried to bridge the difference. Some like Sartre have stuck to their principles. One of the most problematic consequences of structuralism is how to explain the emergence of the subject. The most problematic consequence of phenomenology is how to explain the existence of other people.

By the end of this course, researchers will be expected to be able to understand the difference between these two movements and their continued influence in philosophy today. The old dualism between subject and object has morphed into one between thought and language. Can thought be the property of a subject? Or must thought be described as belonging to language itself? The whole problem of the individual and the collective is at stake. Even politics is involved. If we cannot bridge this gap, how can we explain collective action? And if there is no individual who thinks, what becomes of human agency? These are a few of the questions this course will address.

This advanced graduate-level course in Philosophy addresses a unique philosophical figure on a rotating basis in order to keep the programme at the forefront of scholarly research and to reflect the faculty’s research expertise. Every year the academic staff member in charge of the course will approve of a new philosopher to be examined. The bibliography will contain not less than 8 peer-reviewed articles or scholarly publications reflecting the current topic.

This is an advanced course in which students will engage with the ideas of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. His philosophy of immanence will be carefully analyzed such as his notion of the supposed power of the soul to control and to organize bodies. As explained, to make oneself a “body without organs,” in Deleuze’s terms, is to replace the faculty of judgment with an immanent method of comparing powers.

Philosophical Psychology is a discipline that invites a deep reflection on the nature of the human mind, exploring questions of reflection between philosophers and scientists for centuries. The main objective of this course is to analyze the theories and perspectives that have tried to account for such complex phenomena as life, sensations, consciousness or subjectivity. Here we will examine the different conceptions of the human soul and its relationship with the body. Likewise, we will explore the scientific status of psychology and the epistemological implications of studying the psychic. Is the mind a substance distinct from the body or is it an emergent product of biological processes? How can we reconcile the subjectivity of conscious experience with the objectivity of scientific research? What is the relationship of the psychic world with human intimacy? These are some of the questions that we will address throughout the course. At the end, students will have developed a solid conceptual framework to understand the complexity of the human mind and will be able to give a basic foundation to psychological knowledge and to a certain degree its implementation.

The course will allow us to delve into the foundations of psychology, questioning the assumptions that underlie our research and practices. By analyzing the philosophical roots of our disciplines, we can better understand the limitations and possibilities of psychology as a science. In addition, this discipline invites us to reflect on the nature of human experience, exploring questions such as the meaning of life and freedom from an anthropological approach.

Nowadays, acquiring a philosophical realism becomes impossible if anthropology is reduced to a mere understanding of second philosophy. If metaphysics studies the transcendental, anthropology must also be a study of the transcendental considering that human transcendentals are not metaphysical transcendentals. The human being is not the being that metaphysics deals with: it is different, it is «another» being. There is a very radical difference: it is essential to distinguish anthropology from metaphysics and correlatively distinguish the essence of man from nature, from substances, from the real in the universe, from what physics deals with. Physics and metaphysics on the one hand and on the other, in relation, the theory of the human essence and study of personal transcendentals. Achieving this study is the challenge of this course. Modern philosophy detects for the first time, philosophically, the theme of human subjectivity, which is better called a person. However, modernity detects it in an insufficient way: hence its collapse and, as a consequence, the somewhat precarious situation in which philosophy finds itself today. It is convenient to recognize that the intention of modern philosophy looks at a broad theme; but to achieve it, it resorts to categories that the Greeks already discovered. The Greeks discovered that being is the foundation; the moderns have claimed that freedom is the foundation. Certainly today it is necessary to do metaphysics recovering and advancing along the lines of classical metaphysics. But we must also avoid endorsing the categories of classical metaphysics to the personal being, because anthropological transcendentals are different. Therefore, the core of study of this course will be the exploration of the four transcendentals of the personal being: coexistence, freedom, personal intelligence and love.

The genealogical method in philosophy, in the version studied in this course, was created by Nietzsche, developed by Foucault, and is implied in the works of Deleuze and Guattari. It consists of a history of ideas, not focused on original intent, but on the problems and questions that make ideas possible. Key to this notion of genealogy is the idea of “episteme,” each era has a limit of what is thinkable. Certain elements from a previous era will carry over to the next, but with a different significance. By using the genealogical method, philosophers can detect these shifts in meaning, thereby creating a way to think beyond the present-day limits of thought to presage the emergence of a future set of problems and questions. In short, it is a way of thinking beyond our times by reactivating the problems and questions of the past. Its critical force consists in the fact that concepts are not a matter of personal intent. It is not enough to argue about the significance of words and things in order to create a present-day consensus. Genealogy is about discovering the meaning of concepts we did not create out of nothing. Every concept has a history. Tracing the lineage of an idea offers us an alternative to the Anglo-American method of logical analysis. It is not a matter, for the genealogist, what is true. It is a matter of what can become true if we reactivate the concepts from the history of philosophy.

This course seeks a comprehensive exposition of the various dimensions of freedom, of the main problems it presents and of its various theories throughout history. Of note is the voluntarist and rationalist understanding of freedom and especially the proposal of a transcendental freedom. 1.First, an analytical synthesis of the main philosophical approaches to freedom in Western thought, and the conflict between ancient and modern thought, is presented. With this, it is sought to identify the scope, limitations and aporias that realism faces at our “historical height”, in the face of the understanding of freedom. 2.Secondly, the distinction between freedom of manifestation and action and a metalogic of freedom is explained. 3.Finally, the question of the person as growing freedom is introduced.

The Philosophy Dissertation contains both a research planning phase, ‘The Research Plan’, and a research execution phase ‘The Dissertation’. The Research Plan The Research Plan for the Philosophy Dissertation prepares students to embark upon a substantial, sustained, unified piece of research at the MQF 7 level. The module is taught by the proposed dissertation supervisor as a form of preparation specific to the dissertation and the requirements of its subject matter. This module is not a general introduction to research or research methodologies, but a practical preparation for students embarking upon the dissertation for the MA in Philosophy. Although these skills are highly transferable to other research domains, it remains the case that the purpose of the module is scoped to the needs of the specific dissertation for which it prepares the student. This module marks the end of the taught portion of the degree and the transition to the research portion. It is expected that the topic of research, which is refined during the planning phase, will have arisen out of one of the taught modules’ essays. The planning phase provides a highly structured plan for embarking upon independent research in the subsequent dissertation and more broadly at the MQF 7 level. In order to provide context for the submission of the ‘Research Plan’ (which is the purpose of this phase of module), the student will gain a proficient knowledge of relevant research methods and planning. Thus in connection with the core learning outcomes resulting from the research plan, the student will additionally gain a proficient understanding of the wider context of research methods and evaluate the fittingness of the chosen method. In this phase a student must:

1. Proposes his or her dissertation topic,

2. Identifies a provisional title,

3. Evaluates research methods and selects a strategy,

4. Writes an abstract of the proposed research,

5. Composes a provisional table of contents for the dissertation,

6. Writes a literary survey covering the primary and secondary sources,

7. Schedules a timeline to completion, and composes an annotated bibliography. The dissertation supervisor finally prepares the student for external examination of the proposed dissertation. At the end of the Research Plan is submitted as a portfolio containing six elements:

8. Provisional dissertation title

9. Abstract

10. Expanded table of contents

11. Literature survey

12. Timeline to completion

13. Annotated bibliography The Research Plan provides students with a clear framework to guide their research question, a structure into which they can fit their scholarly research, and a pathway to the completion of the dissertation. During the module, students meet with their supervisor twice per month. The student’s attention is directed to literature on the topic of the proposed dissertation, and thus methodological research guidance, beyond the oral instruction of the student’s supervisor, will be provided within the domain of study specific to the student’s dissertation. This will vary considerably, depending upon the topic of the dissertation, and it forms a natural component of the literature survey. (Thus it is neither appropriate nor possible to list here the bibliographic references that will be needed by the student. We have, however, provided valuable works of general research guidance and reference, and works to aid the student in evaluating the best research method for the dissertation.) Dissertation writing

Upon completion and approval of the ‘Research Plan’, students will have a well-defined research topic, a clear structure to organise their proposed research, a firm grasp of the relevant literature, and a practical timeline in which to conduct their research. In the dissertation module, the aims of the methodology module are fulfilled and a 20,000-word dissertation is written. The dissertation will constitute a substantial, original, independent piece of research, which is clearly articulated in relation to the primary evidence and secondary literature, and which is organised in relation to the plan first envisaged in the methodology module. Regular supervision meetings keep the student on-course with the timeline agreed in the methodology module. Supervisory meetings concentrate on a pre-submitted piece of research in a pattern that continues until the first draft of the dissertation is complete. Although students may request twice-weekly meetings during the first 2 weeks of the dissertation, it is expected (and students typically prefer) not to meet more than twice per month thereafter. This allows the student time to develop their independent research and writing. After the completion of the first draft, meetings focus on the harmonisation of the parts, adjustments to the overall argument, and the supervisor seeks to ensure that the student guides the dissertation with a single, coherent line of enquiry. Dissertations are often shortened down to 20,000 words at this stage in order to focus the argument. The final meetings with the student focus on polishing the editorial aspects of the dissertation, and helping the student prepare for examination.