This module comprises of both oral and aural skills, to be taken alongside the corresponding Written Language module. It builds upon skills gained in the first year.

The module aims to enhance students’ linguistic proficiency in spoken Chinese in a range of formal and informal settings (both spontaneous and prepared). Specific attention will be given to developing good, accurate pronunciation and intonations as well as fluency, accuracy of grammar, and vocabulary when speaking the language.

This module also aims at broadening students’ knowledge about different aspects of modern Chinese-speaking societies, politics and culture, and contemporary issues and institutions.

By the end of this module, we hope you will have enhanced your comprehension of the spoken language, as used in both formal speech, and in everyday life situations including those that they may encounter in Chinese-speaking countries.

This module comprises of both oral and aural skills, to be taken alongside the corresponding Written Language module. It builds upon skills gained in the first year of the Intensive course. Students who have taken the Intensive language course in their first year, normally follow this course throughout the second year.

The module aims to enhance students’ linguistic proficiency in spoken Chinese in a range of formal and informal settings (both spontaneous and prepared). Specific attention will be given to developing good, accurate pronunciation and intonations well as fluency, accuracy of grammar, and vocabulary when speaking the language.

This module also aims at broadening students’ knowledge about different aspects of modern society, politics and culture, and contemporary issues and institutions in order to prepare them for residence abroad in their 3rd year.

By the end of this module, students will have had the opportunity to enhance their comprehension of the spoken language, as used in both formal speech, and in everyday life situations including those that they may encounter in Chinese-speaking countries.

This module comprises of reading and writing skills to be taken alongside the Oral Skills module.

This module aims to consolidate skills gained by students in the first year of study, and enable them to build a level of competence and confidence required to familiarise themselves with the culture and society of countries where their studied language is spoken.

The module aims to enhance your proficiency in understanding written Chinese, as well as in the writing of Chinese (notes, reports, summaries, essays, projects, etc.) including translation from and into Chinese; and the systematic study of Chinese lexis, grammar and syntax.

The module aims to enhance your linguistic proficiency, with particular emphasis on reading a variety of sources and on writing fluently and accurately in the language, in a variety of registers.

This module comprises of reading and writing skills to be taken alongside the Oral Skills module.

This module aims to consolidate skills you have developed in the first year of study, and enable you to build a level of competence and confidence required to familiarise yourselves with the culture and society of countries where your studied language is spoken.

The module aims to enhance your proficiency in understanding spoken Chinese, as well as in the writing of Chinese (notes, reports, summaries, essays, projects, etc.) including translation from and into Chinese; and the systematic study of Chinese lexis, grammar and syntax.

The module aims to enhance your linguistic proficiency, with particular emphasis on reading a variety of sources and on writing fluently and accurately in the language, in a variety of registers.

This module is a non-credit bearing module. If you are a major student going abroad in your second or third year you are enrolled on it during the year prior to your departure, and timetabled to attend the events. These include: introduction to the International Placement Year and choice of activities; British Council English Language Assistantships and how to apply; introduction to partner universities and how they function; working in companies abroad; finance during the International Placement Year; research skills and questionnaire design; teaching abroad; curriculum writing and employability skills; and welfare and wellbeing.

This modules focuses on the ‘must-know’ historical moments, political events and aesthetic movements that shaped Chinese and Sinophone cultures in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

You will hone your skills in cultural analysis via diverse media as we explored four topics:

• Revolutions and Reforms
• Dreams and Futures
• Walls and Spaces
• Identities and Relationships

During the module, you'll consider themes such as power, resistance, trauma, aspirations, wellbeing, urbanisation, the urban/rural divide, migration, individualisation, collectivisation, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, class, and family. Texts, films and art will be studied in historical and cultural contexts, with due regard to relevant global trends such as imperialism, colonialism, postcolonialism, democracy, neoliberalism and nationalism.

During your journey through moments and movements across two centuries of Chinese cultural history, you'll encounter some of the most radical thinkers, writers, filmmakers and creative artists that make the Chinese-language intellectual tradition so distinctive and fascinating. You'll discover a stimulating range of cultural forms and learn how to reflect critically on them as expressions of multi-faceted, nuanced societies.

The humanities were once regarded as having an intrinsic value. As disciplines devoted to the study of cultures and societies, the humanities enjoyed prestige as areas of inquiry that were uniquely placed to probe the human condition. But do the humanities still have a role to play in a world where science and technology appear to be driving political and social agendas? Can they help us address global challenges?

This module encourages you to engage with these questions by examining the history of the humanities in different linguistic and cultural contexts, by exploring the connection between the humanities and other disciplines across time and space, and by engaging with the tradition of critical thinking that is central to the identity of the discipline.

You will explore the intersection between the humanities and other disciplines with the aim of understanding what other disciplines can bring to study of art and, conversely, the value of art in our contemporary, outcome-driven world.

The second half of the 18th Century was a time of fierce debate between the schools of idealism, empiricism, and criticism that extended to the nature of subjectivity and the status of nature itself. This course examines key texts from Hume and Kant, two of the greatest modern philosophers, which all confront the new realities of the modern scientific method. The course will focus on the relationship between knowledge and the natural world and evolution of subjectivity and its grounding of psychology.

This module offers a critical introduction to Chinese philosophy by focusing on its diversity and contemporary relevance. The module introduces the main schools of thought that emerged during the classical era (one of the most vibrant periods of Chinese philosophy), including Daoism, Confucianism, Legalism, Mohism, and the school of names.

Students will be introduced to the main concepts used in classical Chinese philosophy as well as the central issues debated by classical Chinese philosophers, such as whether human nature is good or bad, whether one should engage in society or retrieve from it in order to live a fulfilled life, whether humans are at the centre of the world or simply a part of it, and whether language is enhancing human potential or limiting it, to name but a few examples.

Can we know what it is like to be a fish? Why do we spontaneously try to save a child who is in danger? Is a white horse a horse? Should we rejoice in non-action, engage in politics, or do both at the same time? Is there such a thing as feminist philosophy in ancient China? These are some of the issues that will be discussed during the term.

This module will offer an introduction to feminist philosophy by addressing the question of what feminist philosophy is and providing an overview of some important debates in feminist philosophy including the debate on the concept “woman” and the distinction between sex and gender, the literature on intersectionality and the relationship between gender-based and other forms of oppression, and feminist thinking on care, marriage and the family. These issues are among the most important ones in contemporary feminist philosophy as well as being issues that occupy a prominent place in public debate. Further, discussing them will allow us to explore different traditions and approaches to feminist philosophy, analysing contributions of analytic and continental feminist philosophers, of liberal feminist philosophers and those critical of the liberal tradition, and centring feminist perspectives that are often marginalised.

This module considers a range of issues currently being debated by political philosophers and political theorists. Specific topics may change slightly, but the current plan is cover the following, with attention to questions of freedom and justice throughout:

• Business corporations and employment
• Racism and sexism
• Democracy
• Climate politics
• Structural injustice and sweatshop labour
• Public health and state interventions

Studying this module should improve students’ knowledge and understanding of some key issues in metaphysics as determined by the syllabus. This focuses primarily on some issues concerning space and time, the nature of physical objects and persons, and some key philosophical distinctions. Studying this module should also enable them to see connections between various philosophical issues that should be of value to them with regard to other philosophy modules that they are studying.

This course explores ideas central to any understanding of politics. It focuses on two related themes: Equality, and Community. In the course we will explore the thought of thinkers who are associated with these ideas of equality and community (Rousseau, Marx, the Fabians, and Rawls). By the end of the course, you will have an understanding of the key ideas of the thinkers under review and be able to assess the contribution that these thinkers have made to our wider understanding of politics. You will also be able to recognise the relevance of these thinkers to our current political debates, and be able to employ their ideas within those debates. Additionally, you will be able to evaluate the key features of an argument, be confident to express your own views, and evaluate the responses of others.

Moral philosophy is the systematic theoretical study of morality or ethical life: what we ought to do, what we ought to be, what has value or is good. This module engages in this practice by critical investigation of some of the following topics, debates, and figures: value and valuing; personhood/selfhood; practical reason; moral psychology; freedom, agency, and responsibility; utilitarianism and its critics; virtue ethics and its critics; deontology and its critics; contractarianism and its critics; the nature of the good life; the source and nature of rights; the nature of justice; major recent and contemporary figures such as Bernard Williams, Martha Nussbaum, Peter Railton, Christine Korsgaard, Philippa Foot, Allan Gibbard, Simon Blackburn; major historical figures such as Aristotle, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, G. E. Moore.

This course covers nineteenth-century philosophy, a crucial period in several ways: there was a new attention to history and the relation between philosophy and history; there was the rise of socialism and its impact on philosophy; and there were philosophical criticisms of Christianity, which were met by explicit defences of Christianity by some philosophers. We explore these issues through the work of six figures in nineteenth-century German and British philosophy: Hegel, Feuerbach, and Marx; Nietzsche, Cobbe, and Besant.

This course introduces students to the thought of some of the most important philosophers in the West, and the implications of their thought for religion. It also trains students to think philosophically about religious issues. Using the work of both classical and contemporary philosophers and religious thinkers, it addresses some of the central philosophical questions raised by religious belief. In addition, students will be encouraged to think historically and contextually, in order to understand the ways in which understandings of the role of philosophy in relation to religion in the west has changed over time. The course introduces students to the work of some of the most important philosophers in the West from Plato to Wittgenstein and the implications of their thought for religion.

This module examines some theoretical issues involved in gaining knowledge about human societies. We will look at the role of theories and models in economics and political science, the special nature of "social institutions," and whether economic and political knowledge can be separated from value-judgments:

• Rational choice theory and models based on it
• Social norms and cooperation
• John Searle’s theory of “institutional facts”
• The nature of money and different accounts of power
• Whether values can or should be kept out of economics and political science
• Some ways in which states and markets are related

This course considers philosophical issues that arise in connection with the sciences. It will consider what scientific method is, how science relates to the rest of knowledge, whether it provides an ideal model for rational inquiry in general, and whether we should think of science as describing reality.

In the first few weeks we will consider traditional accounts of scientific method and theory-testing, and then examine philosophical challenges to the status of science as a rational form of enquiry. We give particular consideration to three of the most important twentieth-century philosophers of science: Popper, Kuhn, and Feyerabend. Next we will consider whether and in what sense we should be confident that our best current scientific theories are accurate descriptions of reality.

It is not assumed that students have an extensive knowledge of science: the relevant scientific concepts will be presented in a simple and accessible way, and there will be no maths.

This module seeks to support you to apply your linguistic and cultural understanding in a specific professional context. This module gives you the opportunity to spend time on a work-based placement in the UK or abroad. You will be given the opportunity to develop, reflect on and articulate both the range of competences and the linguistic and cross-cultural skills that enhance employability by working in language-related professional contexts and reflecting on key issues in relation to their placement organisation. There is the opportunity to join a local work placement developed by the department, or for you to source your own placements (subject to departmental approval). Workshops before and during the placement will provide preparation and guidance on sourcing, confirming and then reflecting on academic work. Students will share their experiences and learning with each other by means of end-of-module presentations.

How do films deal with topics such as immigration, environment, the posthuman and gender? Do they entertain viewers, instruct them, or both?

This module explores European, Latin American, and Chinese films in their social and historical contexts; the topics mentioned are the focus of key lectures and seminars. The module begins with introductory lectures on cinema and society and on film aesthetics and content. The main aim is to make connections between the films and such contexts, not only on the level of narrative, characterisation and dialogue, but also on that of form and technique.

Knowledge is an essential aspect of our social lives. This module focuses on a range of real world social, ethical and political problems involving knowledge. Topics include: problems of epistemic injustice (where people are not believed because of identity prejudice); whether virtues of open-mindedness might provide a solution to epistemic injustice. A proper understanding of the ethics and politics of knowledge requires us to examine both doubt and ignorance. We consider whether systemic racism is sustained by an active kind of “wilful” ignorance. We explore how powerful corporations seek to deliberately engineer doubt to further their interests. We examine political deception and the idea of “Post-truth” politics. In the final section we turn to the limits of seeking knowledge and how to balance the interests that states and corporations have in knowing personal information, against our interests in keeping such information private.

This module explores cultural and theoretical approaches to queerness and LGBTQIA+ lives, identities, and politics across diverse linguistic and cultural contexts. It includes texts and artworks by philosophers, writers, filmmakers, and artists from the LGBTQIA+ community around the globe, asking how different queer voices and cultures have approached questions such as:

• What does it mean to be queer or LGBTQIA+ today?
• How are human experiences of gender, sexuality, and queer identity conceptualised and expressed?
• How do queer people stand up against oppression and violence, and how have they in the past?
• What might queer tomorrows look like?
• How do LGBTQIA+ people and communities imagine the future?

The module explores key theoretical approaches in queer theory, and gender and sexuality studies, typically spanning cutting-edge fields such as queer environmentalism, postcolonial queer studies, transgender studies, intersex studies, and the queer medical humanities.

This course covers core theoretical questions surrounding the nature and status of normative claims: those involving moral, political, or other values. We explore the whether normative claims admit of truth or falsity, or whether they are merely expressions of preference: whether such claims can be objectively warranted, or are ultimately ‘subjective’. Themes to be treated include: the meaning of words such as ‘ought’ and ‘good’; the relationship between values and facts; the Frege-Geach problem; the place of motivation in value judgments. Key ‘metaethical’ theories, such as naturalistic and non-naturalistic realism, emotivism, and prescriptivism, will be outlined and explored.

This module will introduce students to some of the most well-known women philosophers from ancient India, China, and Greece. The content of the module will be philosophical sources that were either: authored by women, include views, voices, and/or characters that claim to represent a woman’s perspective, or that are explicitly about women. In addition to reading this source material, the module will also develop the awareness of and skills to address some of the unique challenges of studying women philosophers, particularly in contexts where it is not clear if women composed the sources attributed to them.

As part of The International Placement Year you will normally spend at least eight months abroad in your third year. You will have the opportunity to:

• analyse the contemporary relevance of a tradition, contemporary social, political or economic issue, or a living part of the regional culture.
• reflect critically on cultural differences observed in everyday life such as social relationships, politics, attitudes to food, drink, religion, etc., explaining them in the context of various historical, social and cultural developments.
• think analytically about your intercultural position and understanding of the relevant culture(s).
• reflect on language use (different registers, varieties of pronunciation and accents, dialects, vocabulary and idiomatic expressions, and aspects of grammar) and the process of the acquisition of skills in the relevant language(s).

The module also aims to enhance and develop your language skills, with all assessments being written in the target language. If you have started a language as a beginner in year one you will spend a minimum of four months in a country where that language is spoken. If you are a joint honours student who is studying two languages, you may choose to spend the year in either of the two countries concerned or, if appropriate arrangements can be made, you can spend a semester in each country.

Lancaster University will make reasonable endeavours to place students at an approved overseas partner. Students conduct either a study placement at a partner University, a teaching assistantship placement with the British Council or an appropriate working placement with a vetted employer abroad or a combination of placements (please note that there are some restrictions on British Council placements which usually last for the whole of the academic year).

Joint honours degrees

If you are a joint honours student who is combining a language with a non-language subject, your placement year will provide the opportunity to develop your language skills and cultural awareness, but will not necessarily relate to the non-language aspect of your degree.

Lancaster University cannot accept responsibility for any financial aspects of your International Placement Year.

This module includes authentic texts only slightly adapted from the originals, with a special focus on contemporary Chinese society and institutions. You will have the opportunity to learn how to communicate comprehensively and systematically using the appropriate expressions and language norms in the right context.

You’ll have the opportunity to develop your skills in understanding and joining political, academic and journalistic discussions using advanced Chinese language skills. An aim of this module is for you to be able to translate between English and Chinese and develop an idiomatic style of formal writing.

It’s not necessary to have studied the Part I, Chinese Language 2 or 3 modules in order to continue on to this module. However you must have reached a CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) B1-B2 level of Chinese proficiency.

This module is integrated with the Chinese Language 4 module.

This module has two main aims. The first one is to enhance your linguistic proficiency with emphasis on understanding of spoken and written Chinese, the speaking of Chinese (prepared and spontaneous) in both formal and informal settings, the writing of Chinese, and the systematic study of Chinese lexis, grammar and syntax. The second aim is to increase your awareness, knowledge and understanding of contemporary China.

By the end of this module we aim for you to have an informed interest in the society and culture of the Chinese-speaking world. You should also have acquired almost native-speaker abilities in both spoken and written language.

This is a non-credit bearing module aimed at preparation for coursework and employability. If you are a major student you will be timetabled to attend the events. These include areas such as returning to Lancaster, academic writing after the year abroad, careers information on graduate schemes and postgraduate study opportunities.

This module focuses on selected topics in Applied Philosophy. Applied Philosophy involves the application of philosophical methods and knowledge to a range of problems that face institutions, professions, policymakers and regulatory bodies. Further questions arise about the nature and limits of applied philosophy.

This module will consider different ways in which the concept of ‘dictatorship’ has been understood and critiqued throughout the twentieth century. Considering examples from Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Guinea, Italy, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe, students will explore the differences between the Latin American caudillo, European dictators, and the ‘Big Men’ of Africa. Selected critical and theoretical sources will be drawn upon to develop a more critical understanding of dictatorship, including the work of Hannah Arendt, Roberto González Echevarría and Achille Mbembe.

The module will also examine relationships between dictatorship and cultural production. How have dictators represented themselves in their writing, speeches and literature? To what extent have they controlled cultural production and to what end? How, in turn, have they been represented in cultural production? What role do writers, artists and intellectuals play in evaluating and critiquing dictatorship? In turn, can the writer, artist or intellectual be considered to be a dictator in the particular world view he/she projects and/or the rhetoric he/she adopts?

This module will trace the development of Buddhist thought, from its emergence in India in the fifth century BCE, through its development across Asia, particularly China, but also Tibet and Japan. It will also look at how Buddhist philosophy has been received by Western philosophers from the 19th century. In addition to tracking and analysing key concepts, such as not-self, dependent origination, emptiness, and Buddha nature, this module will examine themes that pervade Buddhist philosophy in its various contexts, such as the relationships between teaching and practice, philosophy and literature, and religion and politics. Although the regional emphasis will change depending on the lecturer, this module will offer students an in-depth exploration of one of the most enduring, voluminous, and influential philosophical traditions of the world.

The module will look at philosophical issues that arise out of Darwin’s theory of evolution. These include questions about how best to understand the theory of evolution, and questions about what evolution implies for our view of the world, and in particular of ourselves. The course breaks down into three broad areas:

• Different ways to understand the theory of evolution, e.g., Is evolution, as some would have us believe, all about genes? Is natural selection the only important factor in evolution?
• Conceptual issues relating to biology, e.g., How do we define ‘function’? Is there one right way to classify living things
• Implications of Darwinism for understanding human nature, e.g., Does the fact that we have evolved affect ow we should see human nature? Why are evolutionary theories of human nature so controversial? Does Darwinism have any implications for moral questions?

PPR.399 provides an opportunity for students to choose a topic related to some aspect of Politics and International Relations, Philosophy and Religious Studies which particularly interests them, and to pursue it in depth. The topic may be related to work that is being done on a formally taught course, or it may be less directly linked to course work. The intention is that students will develop their research skills, and their ability to work at length under their own direction.

Students write a dissertation of 9,000-10,000 words. They are expected to start thinking seriously about the dissertation towards the end of the Lent term of their second year, and to submit a provisional topic by the end of that term. Work should be well advanced by Christmas in the third year. The completed dissertation must be submitted at the start of Summer Term in the third year. To help students prepare for work on the dissertation, there will be an introductory talk on topics relating to doing one's own research and planning and writing a dissertation. A course handout will be available setting out in more detail the requirements for the dissertation and giving full details of lectures, supervision arrangements and assessment.

The aim of this module is to allow students to pursue independent in-depth studies of a topic of their choice, within the scope of their scheme of study. The topic will be formulated in dialogue with one or more external collaborator(s) and may be related to work that is being done on a formally taught course, or it may be less directly linked to course work. Students will develop their employability and research skills, and their ability to work independently at length under their own direction with input from external collaborators and an academic supervisor. The external collaboration will enhance students’ ability to reflect on the impact of academic work. One option is to incorporate work done through the Richardson Institute Internship Programme, but students may also discuss other forms of collaboration with their supervisor.

Students are expected to start thinking seriously about the dissertation towards the end of the Lent term of the second year, and to submit a provisional topic by the end of that term. Work should begin during the Summer term of the second year and a draft plan must be approved by the end of the Summer term. Work should be well advanced by Christmas in the third year. The completed dissertation must be submitted at the start of Summer Term in the third year. To help students prepare for work on the dissertation, there will be an introductory talk on topics relating to doing one’s own research and planning and writing a dissertation. A course handout will be available setting out in more detail the requirements for the dissertation and giving full details of lectures, supervision arrangements and assessment.

The aim of this module is to allow you to pursue independent in-depth studies of a topic of your choice, within the scope of your scheme of study. The topic may be related to work that is being done on a formally taught course, or it may be less directly linked to course work. You will have the opportunity to develop your employability and research skills, and your ability to work independently at length under your own direction with input from an academic supervisor. The fieldwork element will give you the chance to enhance your ability to reflect on the impact of academic work. One option is to incorporate a study trip typically organised by the University, via the Global Experience office, but you may also discuss other forms of field studies with your supervisor. The completed dissertation is usually submitted at the start of Summer Term in the third year. To help you prepare for work on the dissertation, typically there is an introductory talk in second year on topics relating to doing one’s own research and planning and writing a dissertation.

What moral obligations do we have towards future generations – to people who are yet to be born, and to merely possible people whose existence (or non-existence) depends on how we decide to act now?

In this module, we explore this question in detail by examining both a series of case studies and some of the main concepts and theories that philosophers use when thinking about these issues.Questions considered normally include:

• Is there a moral obligation to refrain from having children (e.g. for environmental reasons) and what measures may governments take to encourage or enforce population control?
• Should we use selection techniques to minimise the incidence of genetic disorders and disabilities in future populations?
• Should parents be allowed to use these techniques to determine the characteristics of their future children? How should we weigh quality against quantity of life?
• Would a world with a relatively small number of ‘happier’ people be preferable to one with many more ‘less happy’ ones?

This course considers conceptual questions around 'health' and 'disease' (and related concepts of 'disability', 'normality', 'medicine', 'treatment') and explores how these relate to issues of health policy. We start by considering concepts of health and disease:

• Does whether a condition is a disease depend purely on matters of biological fact?
• Does a condition also have to be harmful to count as pathological?
• Is there any distinction that can be drawn between mental and physical disorders?
• Is it justified to treat people with mental disorders differently, e.g. in involuntary treatment?
• Should psychopaths who commit horrible crimes be considered to suffer from a disorder, or are they evil?
• What does it mean to say that someone is ‘normal’?

Many critics worry about medicalisation, and think that ever more conditions are coming to be considered diseases. Is this true, and does it matter?

We’ll also consider conceptual issues connected to treatment. ‘Evidence Based Medicine’ aims to employ treatments that have been shown to work. But, how can it be determined whether a treatment works? What should the aims of therapy be? What is the distinction between medicines and other drugs?

This special subject focuses on feminist philosophy and in particular the study of women and feminists in the history of philosophy, using nineteenth-century British philosophy as a case study. The course provides an in-depth understanding of debates around women in the history of philosophy, the relation between feminism and women, and how to research and study historical women philosophers who until recently have been omitted from the canon. This will provide important transferable skills in doing research in the digital world, including working with digital archives and historical journals. The course will allow students to undertake a sustained piece of independent research on a historical essay of their choice by a woman philosopher from nineteenth-century Britain. Students taking this course will not merely be learning about philosophy as done by others; they will be doing cutting-edge philosophical research themselves.

This module will examine key sources in the history of Indian political philosophy from ancient times to the present. We will begin by looking at the most influential political sources from ancient India, including the inscriptions of King Ashoka and the Arthashastra. Some of the questions we will be asking are how the ideas in these texts speak to modern debates about secularism, pluralism, and civil religion. We will then turn our attention to the modern period, reading the political thought of figures such as Gandhi, Ambedkar, and Ashis Nandy. We will look at how these and other modern political thinkers draw from premodern Indian traditions, as well as how they engage with and critique Western political ideas from Indian perspectives.

What makes a good translation and how do translations do good? This module aims to help you understand the practice of translation as it has evolved historically from the 18th century to the present across European and American societies.

The materials we study include historical textual sources as well as contemporary documents. Our aim is to look at translation as both a functional process for getting text in one language accurately into another and a culturally-inflected process that varies in its status and purpose from one context to another.

We will pay particular attention to the practical role that literary translators play within the contemporary global publishing industry and consider the practicalities of following a career in literary translation in the Anglophone world.

The module provides an introduction to formal logic together with an examination of various philosophical issues that arise out of it. The syllabus includes a study of the languages of propositional and quantificational logic, how to formalize key logical concepts within them, and how to prove elementary results using formal techniques. Additional topics include identity, definite descriptions, modal logic and its philosophical significance, and some criticisms of classical logic.

Ideas about modern manhood have had significant influence around the world since the ‘globalisation’ wrought by colonisation and imperialism in the nineteenth century.

This module focuses on the search for new icons of masculinity in a modernising China, introducing students to key discursive notions such as “Mr Science” and “Mr Democracy” in the Republican era; the worker-soldier-peasant triad in the Mao era; the peasant heroes of the immediate post-Mao years; and the “explosive” nouveau riche, white-collar, migrant worker, and “little fresh meat” masculinities of the market-infused postsocialist era. Students analyse how cultural products present and critique notions of Chinese masculinities. Material is considered for its significance in key debates about masculinities, and may include novels, short stories, essays, graphic posters, art, music, films, TV drama series and reality shows, online dramas, websites, as well as secondary literature from a range of academic disciplines.

This module will address central issues in contemporary ethical (including meta-ethical), legal and political philosophy, and will allow a systematic critical exploration of the connections between ideas and arguments in each of the three areas of the subject.

Topics covered will include some of the following: modern theory of moral motivation, value theory, contractualism, the 'moral problem'; responsibility and criminal liability, the justification of punishment, the proper scope of the law; democratic theory, egalitarianism, justice, nationalism, multiculturalism, liberty and human rights.

This course will examine some of the core philosophical questions raised by warfare and conflict. We will look at the ethics of war and killing, but also at more neglected philosophical issues in this area, and non-Western approaches as well as classic texts in the Western tradition.

We will do so by examining some of the central dilemmas faced by soldiers, policy makers and non-combatants, in the form of a weekly question for discussion. These questions include: Can war be beautiful? When, if ever, should we go to war? What counts as legitimate action in war? What, if anything, do we owe to our enemies? Is soldiering a good life? What does technological development mean for warfare? What should a responsible citizen do when their country is, or looks about to be, at war? Who has the epistemic authority to speak about war? Is war always tragic?

This module will introduce students to the thought of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. As well as providing a firm grounding in Freud's own thought, it will also raise questions about the implications of Freud's thought for philosophy. To this end, it will examine Paul Ricoeur's pioneering work on Freud and philosophy and will also look at the work of subsequent thinkers who have explored the ramifications of Freud's work for philosophy, especially Jacques Lacan, Michel de Certeau and Slavoj Žižek. The module will raise questions about the extent to which philosophy should respond to some of the insights of psychoanalysis.

This module introduces central issues, problems and theories in philosophical aesthetics by critically examining a number of central topics including: the nature of aesthetic experience; the objectivity of aesthetic judgement; emotional responses to fiction; the moral and cognitive value of art; the aesthetic value of nature. In addition to central philosophical discussions, various findings from empirical psychology and neuroscience will also be used. Although examples from all of the arts will be employed throughout the course, the emphasis will be on the wider issues just listed, and not exclusively focussed on art. That is, aesthetics will be explored as an important area of the philosophy of value in general.

This module considers key philosophical issues in the sciences of human mind, behaviour and social structures, such as psychology, psychiatry, sociology, economics and history. Topics to be considered may include the status of reason-based explanations of human behaviour, the legitimacy of psychoanalytic explanations, the understanding of other societies, individualism versus collectivism in social explanation, and the scientific status of social models based on postulates of rational choice.

This course examines central themes in the liberal branch of contemporary Anglo-American analytic political philosophy. The liberal positions on justice, liberty, equality, the state, power, rights and utility are all explored. The approach is philosophical rather than applied; its focus is on the ideas of liberal politics: how individual liberty can be maximised while not harming others; how an individual philosophical position can guide political determinants of a society and places the developments of liberal ideas in their appropriate historical contexts. The course also examines the connection between the ideas of liberalism and the idea of democracy to explore the philosophical tensions between the two and how these might be resolved. The course is a survey of major topics and concepts in Anglo-American liberal political ideas. The syllabus will include the following topics: questions about justice; visions of the state; negative and positive liberty; equality, utility and rights; toleration and multiculturalism; neutrality and the market.

The question at the heart of Sinophone Studies is “What is Chineseness in the modern world?” This question has played out in different fashions across the various Sinophone cultures.

Sinophone cultural production offers crucial counterpoints to the depictions of Chinese identity in mainland Chinese, Han-centric creative works. Drawing from the work of scholars in the nascent field of Sinophone studies, this course understands Sinophone cultures as existing in the “minority nationalities” of China; in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and other locations in the East Asian “Sinosphere”; and in the significant Sinitic-language immigrant populations of the Americas, Australasia, and elsewhere. It recognises Sinophone cultural production as multilingual and multi-ethnic.

This module introduces key Sinophone literary works and films including novels, short stories, and films. Discussion focuses on the diverse ways in which Chineseness is imagined, negotiated, or resisted in these works, and the alternative cultural identities that they put forward.

DELC338 Spirits in the Material World: Cultures and Sciences

This module lives in the space between the here-and-now and a future made possible by science. You’ll explore perceptions of science across different languages and cultures, from Asia to Europe to the Americas, and explore relationships between the spiritual and the material.

You’ll look at some intriguing questions about science and the twenty-first century human condition such as: Where is AI taking humanity and are we already robots? Are science fiction writers a form of contemporary shaman? What possibilities do modern medical advances offer for transformative queer and trans healthcare?

You’ll find out about differing views on these and other topics from a wide range of source materials, such as speculative fiction, graphic novels, film, philosophical essays, and online talks. Themes typically cover Spirit and Matter, Speculative Fiction, The Post-Human, Philosophy, Art and Neuroscience, Biomedicine and the Hospital.

.

This module critically explores a range of key topics in the ethics and politics of communication. In the first half of the course, we begin by an introduction to some basic concepts in linguistics and philosophy of language – especially to do with the practical side of communication. We then focus on (a) how certain kinds of communication can bring about ethical change (e.g. making something permissible); (b) upon whether lying and other kinds of deception are permissible, and if so, when. In the second half we turn to some broadly political issues: whether political lying is justified in a way that everyday lying is not. We consider three domains where freedom of communication is both important and contentious: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom on social media, including the challenges posed by “content moderation”.

In the Twentieth Century, Western philosophy underwent a number of fundamental “turns” — the linguistic turn, the phenomenological turn, the postmodern turn. Some of these changes were viewed as “revolutions” in philosophy. At the extreme end, there were even arguments that Western philosophy, as conceived since Plato, was finished. In this module we explore some of these key transformations. We consider the “linguistic” turn, and the formation of “analytic philosophy” at the turn of the C20. One central figure of this linguistic turn is Ludwig Wittgenstein. But Wittgenstein shifts from being at the centre of analytic philosophy to arguing that philosophy is finished. At the same time, philosophy also undergoes a phenomenological turn. We focus on how this leads, via Sartre, to a revival of existentialism. The contrasts between French philosophy and English-speaking philosophy become even more pronounced in the final third of the C20, with post-structuralism and post-modernist philosophy viewed by the “analytic” philosophy community as not even being a kind of philosophy. We assess the roots of, and justification of, this “analytic/continental” divide.

This module covers key debates on how television shows are consumed both nationally and transnationally, the appeal of crime dramas, cultural translation, and in particular the concept of domestication. Theoretical frameworks are applied to examples from television series produced in languages that are taught to degree level at Lancaster and are available in English via dubbing or subtitling. Selected case studies are devoted to the exploration of a particular theme. Typically, such themes may include aspects such as the sympathetic perpetrator, setting, local colour and exoticism, gender, race and ethnicity.