Subject overview

Programme outline

This MA offers an advanced general grounding in philosophy, which forms a good basis for further research. It includes courses in both the analytic and continental traditions of philosophy, reflecting the wide range of interests within the Department of Philosophy. You may decide to concentrate on just one of these traditions, or to take courses from both of them. 

If you have a particular philosophical interest, you can choose one of our three designated MA pathways: 

• analytic philosophy pathway
• continental philosophy pathway
• aesthetics pathway. 

Assessment 

Taught courses are assessed by term papers of 5,000 words. At the end of the year you also submit a dissertation of up to 15,000 words. 

Programme structure

We continue to develop and update our courses for 2012 entry to ensure you have the best student experience.

Autumn term: either Phenomenology or Philosophical Topics, plus one of Analytic Aesthetics • Kant • Mind and Reality. 

Spring term: Philosophy Reading Seminar, plus two of Continental Aesthetics • Ethics • Hegel • Language and Truth • Philosophy Special Subject • Political and Legal Philosophy • Texts in the History of Philosophy • approved alternative option (refer to the list below). 

The Philosophy Special Subject course allows you to work at an advanced level on a topic close to a tutor’s research interests. Topics likely to be on offer include Adorno • epistemology • Hegel • Heidegger • Husserl • Kant • Marx • metaphysics • philosophical logic • philosophy of language • philosophy of mind • Wittgenstein. 

One of the spring-term options may be replaced by an approved course from another MA programme, eg Derrida (MA in Literature and Philosophy) • Emotion and Consciousness • Gender and Representation (MA in Media and Cultural Studies) • Marx and Hegel (MA in Social and Political Thought) • Photography and 20th-Century Visual Culture (MA in Art History and Museum Curating with Photography) • Power and Religion: Nietzsche, Foucault, Kafka (MA in Literature and Philosophy) • The Frankfurt School and Critical Theory (MA in Social and Political Thought). 

Summer term: you take the Dissertation Training Workshop and undertake supervised work on the MA dissertation. 

Entry requirements

UK entrance requirements

A first- or upper second-class undergraduate honours degree in philosophy, but related disciplines may also be considered.

Overseas entrance requirements

Please refer to column A on the Overseas qualifications table.

If you have any questions about your qualifications after consulting our overseas qualifications table, contact the University.
E pg.enquiries@sussex.ac.uk

Related programmes

• Literature and Philosophy MA
• Social and Political Thought MA

Fees and funding

Fees

'Home' UK/EU students: £4,950
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £4,950
Overseas students: £12,300

For more information, visit Fees, Fees by programme, Living expenses, and Other costs.

Funding

Refer to Funding, and find out more about our extensive range of scholarships and bursaries in our online funding guide.

Faculty interests

Research interests are briefly described below. 

Lucy Allais Kant; transcendental idealism; forgiveness. Author of ‘Kant, Non-Conceptual Content and the Representation of Space’ in Journal of the History of Philosophy (2009). 

Professor Maggie Boden Philosophy of psychology; artificial intelligence. 

Andrew Chitty Political and legal philosophy; Hegel; German Idealism; Marx. Co-editor (with M McIvor) of Karl Marx and Contemporary Philosophy (2009). 

Ron Chrisley Philosophy of cognitive science; artificial intelligence; mind; consciousness; representation and computation; philosophical logic. 

Paul Davies Kant; phenomenology; aesthetics; philosophy and literature; 19th- and 20th-century European philosophy. Author of ‘A Poem and its Context’ in Textual Practice (2008). 

Katerina Deligiorgi Kant; Hegel; moral philosophy; ethics and literature; contemporary aesthetics. Author of ‘The Ethics of Getting Things Wrong’ in Hegel on Action (2009). 

Gordon Finlayson German Idealism; 20th-century German philosophy; the Frankfurt School; Adorno; Horkheimer; Habermas. 

Professor Jonardon Ganeri Indian Philosophy; metaphysics; philosophy of language. 

Professor Michael Morris Philosophy of language; metaphysics; aesthetics; Wittgenstein; Plato. Author of Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Wittgenstein and the Tractatus (2009). 

Murali Ramachandran Philosophical logic; metaphysics; philosophy of language; epistemology. Author of ‘Descriptions with an Attitude Problem’ in Philosophical Quarterly (2009). 

Sarah Sawyer Epistemology; philosophy of mind; metaphysics; philosophy of language. Editor of Philosophical Quarterly (2009). 

Tanja Staehler Contemporary European philosophy; German Idealism; Plato; continental aesthetics. Author of Plato and Levinas. The Ambiguous Out-Side of Ethics (2009). 

Kathleen Stock The nature of imagination; philosophy of fiction, music and film; aesthetics. Author of ‘Fantasy, Imagination and Film’ in British Journal of Aesthetics (2009). 

Careers and profiles

Our graduates have gone on to careers in arts administration and management, business, charities, the Civil Service, HR and recruitment, investment and banking, IT, journalism, law, local government, management consultancy, the media, NGOs, NHS management, publishing, sales and advertising, social services, teaching, and university lecturing. 

School and contacts

Academic activities 

Graduate students attend regular reading and work-in-progress seminars, giving them the opportunity to discuss their own ideas and work with peers and faculty. There is also a weekly Philosophy Society meeting, showcasing current research both by Sussex philosophers and by internationally recognised philosophers from around the world.