PH445
Dissertation Seminar - Philosophy of Science
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Prof Miklos Redei
Availability
This course is compulsory on the MSc in Philosophy of Science. This course is not available as an outside option to students on other programmes.
Course content
The course teaches students to develop the ability to construct sharp analytic arguments and to write structured philosophical essays. It will help students to choose the topic of their dissertation and with how to go about researching the topic and how to write the dissertation. The course starts with reviewing the structure and content of an MSc dissertation in Philosophy, and the grading scheme used for marking dissertations. Students will then first analyse several published papers to understand their structure, and then criticially engage with dissertations from past years focussing on the merits and weaknesses of the selected works and trying to understand why the chosen dissertations received the marks they did. In the final part of the seminar in ST students will give presentations on the progress of their research.
Teaching
10 hours of seminars in the Autumn Term.
14 hours of seminars in the Spring Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.
Formative assessment
A number of assignments whose completion will aid the research into and writing of the dissertation will be set.
Assessment
The course is not assessed.
Key facts
Department: Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method
Course Study Period: Autumn and Spring Term
Unit value: Non-credit bearing
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 14
Average class size 2024/25: 14
Controlled access 2024/25: NoCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.