Undergraduate Philosophy 2026-2027

What makes an argument a good argument? What are the correct rules for reasoning? How should we revise our beliefs in the light of new evidence? What should we think about paradoxes?

This course provides an introduction to logic and tools for successfully evaluating arguments. Some of the topics covered include validity, soundness, consistency, entailment, provability, belief revision and paradoxes. The language of propositional logic and key ideas in Bayesian epistemology are introduced. The course develops the ability to symbolise English sentences into formal languages and to construct truth tables, truth trees and natural deduction proofs. Logical concepts are applied to everyday thinking as well as to philosophical puzzles and paradoxes.

This is an intensive two-week course in Philosophy, designed to introduce visiting international students to the Western Analytic Tradition in Philosophy. Additionally, the course will allow these students to experience academic life in Aberdeen supported by staff from Aberdeen and from their home institution. There will also be a programme of social events allowing students to engage with Scottish culture and history.

This team-taught course will explore relevant questions of social importance using the tool of philosophical thinking. Students will engage with philosophical arguments and concepts central to various domains, including technology, health care, digital knowledge, migration, and sport.

Why are some researchers arguing that future robots should be considered as persons? What will increased AI mean for the future of work? What might increased AI do to global politics and democracy? Can we trust AI to make important healthcare decisions? What about bias in systems? And who or what is to be held responsible if things go wrong? This course explores some of the most pressing philosophical problems of the modern age. No computer science or philosophy background is required.

This course provides students with an introduction to central issues in metaphysics and epistemology. The emphasis is on introducing some of the central issues in these areas; issues that have shaped the contemporary debate.  In addition to introducing a number of central issues in metaphysics and epistemology, this course also teaches and further develops a number of essential skills including extracting and evaluating philosophical arguments, critical writing, and the application of logical concepts to philosophical problems. 

This course allows medical students the opportunity to explore debates in Medical Ethics which inform contemporary ethical practice in Medicine and Healthcare. Students will be introduced to philosophical concepts and methods which will help them reflect on difficult cases drawn from real-life treatment scenarios and policy decisions.

This course is an introduction to the philosophy of medicine. It focuses on foundational and theoretical issues in medicine. The topics are chosen to provide students with an overview of some of the most central questions in this area. The main topics are the notions of health and disease; the role of sex and race in medicine; the problems raised by genetic determinism and causation; evidence-based medicine and randomized controlled trials; establishing causal claims about diseases; learning from biomedical images; and extrapolating from animal models of human diseases.

This course examines various themes and problems that arise when epistemic agents are situated in a social context. First, we investigate how agents can acquire knowledge through testimonial exchanges with others and especially experts, what rational response agents should adopt in cases of disagreement with other peers. We consider so-called absence-based reasoning on the basis of epistemic coverage provided by news outlets, and we examine whether groups, institutions or organisations are capable of being in states of knowledge themselves, or more generally whether such collectives constitute epistemic agents with a mind of their own. Then we turn to the question of how access to the internet through technological devices on which agents frequently rely can extend or augment their knowledge. Finally, we look at issues to do with epistemic bubbles and echo chambers on social media, trusting the internet, fake news and conspiracy theories. The course will develop further the philosophical skills acquired in previous philosophy courses, and extend the knowledge and deepen the understanding of social epistemology, in particular.

This course surveys a range of topics in global justice. Example questions we may engage with include: What is a human right? Does justice demand that affluent countries redistribute their wealth to less-affluent ones? Why was colonialism wrong, and what should we do about it now? Is feminism necessarily imperialist? Do states have a right to exclude immigrants? Who should be entitled to refugee status? How should responsibility for addressing climate change be distributed? Is national partiality justifiable?

Effective altruism is an intellectual and social movement seeking to use reason and evidence to identify how to do most good, then doing it. In this course we will examine effective altruism’s philosophical underpinnings, its practical consequences, areas of debate and development, as well as examining the views of its critics. Questions to be addressed include: Are we obliged to give away all our excess wealth to those who are worse off? What kinds of impact do different kinds of charitable giving have? Is overseas aid effective at all? How can one do most good with one’s career? Should one seek to minimise existential risk, such as the risk from misaligned artificial intelligence, nuclear warfare or engineered pandemics? Is it right to prioritise the wellbeing of humans who are currently alive over those who will live in the distant future, or is this just an unjustified, short-termist bias? Does doing the most good involve addressing the harm done to animals? And how should we deal with the high uncertainty (or outright cluelessness) regarding the far-future effects of our actions today?

In this course we will explore such questions as the following: What is creativity? How is it best defined? Can it be explained? Is creativity a virtue? What is its value? Can it be taught? What are some of the recent theories of creativity? What objections might be raised to them? Is artistic creativity different from scientific creativity? What is the relationship between creativity and imagination? What role does creativity play in philosophy? How can we foster creativity?

This course examines various themes and problems that arise when epistemic agents are situated in a social context. First, we investigate how agents can acquire knowledge through testimonial exchanges with others and especially experts, what rational response agents should adopt in cases of disagreement with other peers. We consider so-called absence-based reasoning on the basis of epistemic coverage provided by news outlets, and we examine whether groups, institutions or organisations are capable of being in states of knowledge themselves, or more generally whether such collectives constitute epistemic agents with a mind of their own. Then we turn to the question of how access to the internet through technological devices on which agents frequently rely can extend or augment their knowledge. Finally, we look at issues to do with epistemic bubbles and echo chambers on social media, trusting the internet, fake news and conspiracy theories. The course will develop further the philosophical skills acquired in previous philosophy courses, and extend the knowledge and deepen the understanding of social epistemology, in particular.

This course surveys a range of topics in global justice. Example questions we may engage with include: What is a human right? Does justice demand that affluent countries redistribute their wealth to less-affluent ones? Why was colonialism wrong, and what should we do about it now? Is feminism necessarily imperialist? Do states have a right to exclude immigrants? Who should be entitled to refugee status? How should responsibility for addressing climate change be distributed? Is national partiality justifiable?

Effective altruism is an intellectual and social movement seeking to use reason and evidence to identify how to do most good, then doing it. In this course we will examine effective altruism’s philosophical underpinnings, its practical consequences, areas of debate and development, as well as examining the views of its critics. Questions to be addressed include: Are we obliged to give away all our excess wealth to those who are worse off? What kinds of impact do different kinds of charitable giving have? Is overseas aid effective at all? How can one do most good with one’s career? Should one seek to minimise existential risk, such as the risk from misaligned artificial intelligence, nuclear warfare or engineered pandemics? Is it right to prioritise the wellbeing of humans who are currently alive over those who will live in the distant future, or is this just an unjustified, short-termist bias? Does doing the most good involve addressing the harm done to animals? And how should we deal with the high uncertainty (or outright cluelessness) regarding the far-future effects of our actions today?

In this course we will explore such questions as the following: What is creativity? How is it best defined? Can it be explained? Is creativity a virtue? What is its value? Can it be taught? What are some of the recent theories of creativity? What objections might be raised to them? Is artistic creativity different from scientific creativity? What is the relationship between creativity and imagination? What role does creativity play in philosophy? How can we foster creativity?