What is imagination and can philosophy define it in any meaningful way? This unit will introduce you to some of the possible answers to these questions and will examine why philosophy has sometimes found it difficult to approach imagination. It will then go on to examine the relationship that imagination has to imagery and supposition, charting where... View course on original website...

How does what you say come to mean something? Does what you say inherently represent what you, the speaker, think it means, whatever that might be, or does what you say carry its own meaning, separate from your intentions in saying it? This unit introduces you to the key questions about how meaning is conveyed in language. View course on original website...

What is emotion? This unit takes a philosophical approach to this question in an attempt to understand why people respond to events in a certain way. Is there a difference between an emotion and a bodily feeling or is one a consequence of the other? View course on original website...

This unit examines the philosophical questions surrounding imagination. You will examine how beliefs have changed over the centuries and be able to contrast the views of Descartes with more modern ideas. View course on original website...

There is a widespread perception in the West that we live in a secular age, an age in which religion is at best an optional extra, if not a false delusion completely out of place. However, religion still arouses passion and causes controversy; it controls and transforms lives. An informed understanding of the contemporary world thus requires an appreciation... View course on original website...

What is a person? This unit examines this philosophical question concerning the nature of personhood. You will examine whether a ‘person’ is the same as a ‘human being’, and look at whether it is our free will that in the end defines us as a ‘person’. View course on original website...

What defines individual freedom in a civilised society? Philosophers have argued over such questions for centuries. This unit looks at various concepts of freedom, asking you to think carefully about how freedom is restricted by our place in society and how it can vary from state to state. View course on original website...

Ever wondered what it would be like to study philosophy? This unit will introduce you to the teaching methods employed and the types of activities and assignments you would be asked to undertake should you wish to study OU course A211 Philosophy and the human situation. View course on original website...

This unit examines Hume's reasons for being complacent in the face of death, as these are laid out in his suppressed essay of 1755, ‘Of the immortality of the soul’. More generally, they examine some of the shifts in attitude concerning death and religious belief that were taking place in Europe at the end of the eighteenth century, through examination of this and other short es... View course on original website...