Welcome to the website of the Philosophy Department of the Open University. The Department has at present ten full-time members of staff, and over eleven hundred students are currently registered for our four single-subject philosophy courses. Our M.A. was launched in 2002, and there are further students pursuing degrees by research. In addition, many students are introduced to philosophy via the Department's contributions to interdisciplinary courses at all levels, over two thousand per year on the Arts foundation course alone. All members of the Department are actively engaged in research and publication, notably in the areas of mind and language, ethics, aesthetics and political philosophy.

Our current single-subject courses are an introduction to the subject at second level; a free-standing residential school course, and specialist courses on philosophy of mind and political philosophy at third level. Full details of all these courses, and more information about the work of members of staff, can be found on this site, which we invite you to explore.

Updated November 2008

Latest News

Nigel Warburton, in collaboration with ex-OU PhD student Dave Edmonds, has produced a very successful set of podcasts. Some are on philosophy in general (Philosophy Bites), some specifically on ethics (Ethics Bites), and some on the history of philosophy (The Classics). They regularly feature amongst the most popular podcasts on i-Tunes both here and in the US.

A new 15-point course on Ethics in real life was presented in April 2008