3rd year Assessed Essays 2009
Asif Abbas (0600479)
Philosophy of Mind I
Can type identity theories accommodate the apparent fact that mental states are multiply
realisable in creatures with different physical natures? (2,500 words)
Philosophy of Mind II
Critically assess the claim that introspection provides us with privileged self-knowledge of
our.own mental states. (2,500 words)
Katherine Ashford
(0605525)
Epistemology and Metaphysics
Can externalists provide an adequate account of knowledge? (2,500 words)
Joseph Atwill (0626763)
Philosophy of Religion
What is the difference between an I-It relation and an I-Thou relation? (2,500 words)
Anneka Bates
(0610900)
Ethics II
Is a consequentialist approach to beneficence too demanding? (2,500 words)
Sophie Bell (0602373)
Philosophy of Science
Can causal laws be reduced to laws of association? (2,500 words)
Christopher Benton
(0613343)
Consciousness and Reality
Does Jackson’s knowledge argument succeed in its aims? (2,500 words)
Aesthetics I
In what sense does our experience of the sublime demonstrate the supremacy of our rantional
nature, according to Kant? (2,500 words)
Martha Bicket
(0502388)
Philosophy of Science
“Science aims to give us theories which are empirically adequate; and acceptance of a theory
involves as belief only that it is empirically adequate” [Van Fraassen}. Discuss. (2,500 words)
Tom Acton-Bishop
(0610266)
Wittgenstein
Do Wittgenstein’s rule-following considerations challenge the possibility of a systematic theory
of meaning? (5,000 words)
Richard Birt (0619289)
20th Century Continental Philosophy I
Sartre’s concept of pre-reflective consciousness and bad faith. (2,500 words)
Martin Bowman
(0621439)
Philosophy of Social Sciences
Are there aspects of social norms that evolutionary game theory neglects? (2,500 words)
Victoria Bristow-Smith
(0618041)
Aesthetics II
What are the implications of Scruton’s theory of photography when applied to actual
photographs? (2,500 words)
Sarah Brown (0522401)
Philosophy of Science
“Causal laws cannot be done away with, for they are needed to ground the distinction between
effective strategies and ineffective ones – the difference between the two depends on the causal
laws of our universe and nothing weaker” [Cartwright]. Discuss. (2,500 words)
Jake Capleton
(0606052)
Epistemology and Metaphysics
To what extent can reliably true beliefs be considered as ‘knowledge’? (2,500 words)
Ancient Philosophy
To what extend does Plato construe eros as stemming from luck in the Symposium? (2,500
words)
Chris Clarke (0613028)
Philosophy of Science
What distinguishes scientific laws from scientific non-laws? (2,500 words)
Rebecca Day (0620165)
Epistemology and Metaphysics
What, if anything, is wrong with thinking of commonsense realism as a theory designed to
account for the character of our perceptual experience? (2,500 words)
3rd year Assessed Essays 2009
Bennett Dunn
(0614152)
Epistemology and Metaphysics
How plausible is a projectivist account of truth in ethics? (2,500 words)
Conscience and Reality
Assess Jackson’s Mary argument. What does he think it shows? What do you think it shows?
(2,500 words)
Robert Dunphy
(0620170)
Ancient Philosophy
Tba (2,500 words)
20th Century Continental Philosophy
An examination of Sartre’s claim that the emotions involve a belief in magic. (2,500 words)
Richard Elliot-Cooke
(0406439)
Epistemology and Metaphysics
Is common sense realism properly described as a theory? (2,500 words)
Matthew Ellis
(0603670)
Post-Kantian Continental Philosophy II
Critically assess the role of the fear of death in Hegel’s Master-Slave dialectic. (2,500 words)
20th Century Continental Philosophy I
Critically assess Sartre’s theory of the encounter with the other. (2,500 words)
Benjamin Ellison
(0607667)
Wittgenstein
Does Wittgenstein have a successful critique of the possibility of private language? (2,500 words)
Post-Kantian Continental Philosophy II
Why does the master/slave relation arise, and what are the principal characteristics of the master
and the slave? (2,500 words)
20th Century Continental Philosophy I
A critical assessment of Sartre’s distinction between the ‘For-Itself’ and the ‘In-Itself’. (2,500
words)
Epistemology and Metaphysics
A critical assessment of Sosa’s response to scepticism. (2,500 words)
Sabine Englschalk
(0834702)
Kristine Erta (0609596)
20th Century Continental Philosophy I
A “sudden fall of consciousness into magic”: a brief discussion of Sartre’s theory of the
emotions. (2,500 words)
20th Century Continental Philosophy I
On the possibility of bad faith. (2,500 words)
20th Century Continental Philosophy II
How necessary and successful is Heidegger’s deconstruction of truth in “Being and Time”?
(2,500 words)
Felix Faltin (0626494)
Epistemology and Metaphysics
Is Wiggins’ Ethical Objectivism defensible? (2,500 words)
Philosophy of Social Science
Is Pettit’s argument for ontological individualism defensible? (2,500 words)
Peter Fossey (0607829)
Consciousness and Reality
Do McGinn’s arguments for cognitive closure constitute an insurmountable obstacle to our
solving the mind-body problem? (2,500 words)
Wittgenstein
What makes it difficult to learn the normative value of grammar? (2,500 words)
Stuart Glass (0500781)
Ancient Philosophy
What can we learn about what it means to be a philosopher from Plato’s Symposium? (2,500
words)
Nancy Gryspeerdt
20th Century Continental Philosophy I
3rd year Assessed Essays 2009
(0624826)
Analyse Sartre’s two modes of Being, the In-Itself and the For-Itself, and the ways in which they
interact. (2,500 words)
Post-Kantian Continental Philosophy II
Critically assess Hegel’s account of the master-slave dialectic. (2,500 words)
Sam Hawke (0608273)
Wittgenstein
The Private Language Argument. (5,000 words)
Claire Hodge (0606519)
Epistemology and Metaphysics
‘A tomato looks red because it is red’. Discuss. (2,500 words)
Harriet Howard-Leach
(0616661)
Consciousness and Reality
“Assess Charners’ two-concept theory of perception”. . (2,500 words)
Epistemology and Metaphysics
How successful id Davidson’s refutism of scepticism? (2,500 words)
Ravi Shankar Jayaram
(0504442))
Philosophy of Social Science
Does rational choice theory provide a sufficient explanation of why individuals follow social
norms? (2,500 words)
Sophie Jeffery
(0515063)
Wittgenstein
How, according to Wittgenstein, does learning ever happen? (5,000 words)
Martyn Johnson
(0603335)
Philosophy of Science
Critically analyse Price’s arguments as to why there is still a puzzle about the low entropy past.
(2,500 words)
Michael Joyce
(0520308)
Philosophy of Science
Does the thermodynamic arrow of time provide an adequate explanation of causal asymmetry?
(2,500 words)
James Kent ((0506291)
Ancient Philosophy
How does Plato employ the dialogue form to either support or subvert different viewpoint in the
Symposium? (2,500 words)
Corinne Kerr-Allen
(0604137)
Philosophy of Social Science
What is the relation between collective intentions and social facts? (2,500 words)
Wendy Lee (0604440)
Post-Kantian Continental Philosophy II
Why does the master/slave relation arise, and what are the principal characteristics of the master
and the slave? (2,500 words)
Philosophy of Social Science
How do rational agents cooperate? (2,500 words)
Miles Lester-Pearson
(0612617)
Post-Kantian Philosophy II
Critically assess Hazel’s account of the Life and Death struggle and the Master-Slave dialectic in
the ‘Phenomenology’. (2,500 words)
Katie Lilley (0621005)
Epistemology and Metaphysics
Goldman’s contribution to the Gettier debate; a promising reliabilist solution? (2,500 words)
Post Kantian Continental Philosophy
Analyse and critically assess Hegel’s account of Sense certainty. (2,500 words)
Charanpreet Mann
(0608132)
20th Century Continental Philosophy I
Discuss Sartre’s conception of relations with others on Being and Nothingness. (2,500 words)
Epistemology and Metaphysics
How successful is Strawson’s anti-sceptical argument in chapter 3 of individuals? (2,500 words)
Lorenzo Marchese
Post-Kantian Continental Philosophy II
3rd year Assessed Essays 2009
(0612815)
Explain why genuine self-consciousness must take the form of desire and mutual recognition.
(2,500 words)
20th Century Continental Philosophy II
What does Heidegger mean by readiness-to-hand in Being and Time? (2,500 words)
Francesca Di Mattia
(0520231)
Epistemology and Metaphysics
What, if anything is wrong with thinking of common sense realism as theory, designed to
account for the character of our perceptual experience? (2,500 words)
Ethics II
Is Dirty Hands a widespread phenomenon? If so, can it be justified on moral grounds? (2,500
words)
Philip McDonnell
(0622227)
Ethics II
Examine McIntyre’s criticism of rule-consequentialism. (2,500 words)
Christopher Morgan
(0603149)
Epistemology and Metaphysics
Should Gettier cases be taken to put paid to the project of providing a philosophical analysis of
propositional knowledge?
Philosophy of Social Science
Is there a Good Game theoretical explanation of norms following?
H Morgan (0601350)
Post-Kantian Continental Philosophy II
Critically assess the role intersubjectivity plays in Hegel’s philosophy. (2,500 words)
Nikkita Mulchandani
(0609620)
Philosophy of Thought and Language I
Does Frege think that there can be names with a sense but no reference? Is he right? (2,500
words)
Philosophy of Mind II
Does trans-world switching present a problem for the compatibilism of privileged selfknowledge and content-externalism? (2,500 words)
Consciousness and Reality
Does Nagel show that doing justice to the perspectivalness of phenomenal concepts requires
postulating a subjective realm of reality? (2,500 words)
Finola Mulligan
(0619060)
Epistemology and Metaphysics
Does Davidson successfully refute external world scepticism with the idea that ‘beliefs are by
nature generally true’? (2,500 words)
Consciousness and Reality
Does McGinn’s argument for ‘cognitive-closure’ remove the philosophical problem of locating
consciousness in the natural world? (2,500 words)
George Osborne
(0606104)
Philosophy of Science
‘Causal laws cannot be done away with, for they are needed to ground the distinction between
effective strategies and ineffective ones …’ [Cartwright] Discuss. (2,500 words)
Tanya Osborne
(0608114)
Epistemology and Metaphysics
What is McDowell’s objection to a projectivist account of ethical truth? (2,500 words)
Aesthetics I
Critically discuss Heidegger’s conception of the relationship between art and technology. (2,500
words)
Parit Patel (0602244)
Ancient Philosophy
Discuss with reference to Diotima’s conception of eros whether Plato’s inclusion of a female
participant in the symposium ranges beyond the significance of her not being a man. (2,500
words)
20th Century Continental Philosophy I
3rd year Assessed Essays 2009
Critically assess Sartre’s claim that “Man is the being through whom nothingness comes into the
world”. (2,500 words)
Georgie Peters
(0600538)
Philosophy of Religion
What is the so called ‘Hume-Edwards’ objection to the cosmological argument? Is it coherent?
(2,500 words)
Kimberley Rennick
(0610784)
20th Century Continental Philosophy
Discuss Sartre’s conception of relations with others in ‘Being and Nothingness’. (2,500 words)
Epistemology and Metaphysics
How successful is Strawson’s anti-sceptical argument in chapeter 3 of Individuals? (2,500 words)
Mate Prath (0629026)
Wittgenstein
The private language argument. (2,500 words)
Louise Riddick
(0627835)
Philosophy of Mind
How can a mental property be causally relevant to bodily behaviour? (2,500 words)
Epistemology and Metaphysics
Does Williams provide a convincing defence of the idea that while ‘science has some chance of
being more or less what it seems; a systematised, theoretical account of how the world really is’,
ethical thought has no chance of being everything it seems? (2,500 words)
David Ridley (0622125)
Wittgenstein
Does Wittgenstein show that a private language is impossible? (5,000 words)
Nikki Rohlfing
(0607067)
Wittgenstein
Does Wittgenstein have a successful argument against the possibility of a private language?
(2,500 words)
Philosophy of Social Science
Can Rational Choice theory explain committed action? (2,500 words)
Max Roane (0508486)
Ancient Philosophy
Is eros a medical matter? A discussion of Eryximachus’ and Alcibiordes’ speech in the
Symposium. (2,500 words)
20th Century Continental Philosophy I
A critical discussion of Bad Faith. (2,500 words)
Natalie Sahota
(0602168)
Philosophy of Religion
Is Tillich’s notion of ‘absolute concern’ an appropriate one for describing the essence of religion?
. (2,500 words)
Josephine Salverda
(0505397)
Philosophy of Science
Critically examine Woodward’s interventionist account of causation. (2,500 words)
Christopher SchulzeSolce (0516209)
20th Century Continental Philosophy I
A critical discussion of the concept of radical freedom in Sartre’s Being and Nothingness.
(2,500 words)
Ancient Philosophy
The philosophical significance of Aristophanes’ speech in Plato’s Symposium. (2,500 words)
Alexander Searle
(0626783)
Wittgenstein
What is the role of Ostensive Teaching methods in Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations”?
(5,000 words)
William Sexton
(0604376)
Ethics I
Explain and assess the Humean concept of sympathy and discuss examples. (2,500 words)
William Spiller
(0501537)
20th Century Continental Philosophy I
A critical discussion of Sartre’s theory of emotion. (2,500 words)
3rd year Assessed Essays 2009
Jamie Vaux (0606177)
Epistemology and Metaphysics
Can the Epistemological contextualist defeat the sceptic? (2,500 words)
Katja Weber (0835762)
Philosophy of Mind I & II
What account should be given of the way in which we acquire knowledge of qualia? (5,000
words)
Post-Kantian Continental Philosophy II
A critical discussion of Hegel’s account of self-consciousness I the “Phenomenology”. (2,500
words)
20th Century Continental Philosophy I
A critical discussion of Sartre’s theory of consciousness. (2,500 words)
Anna Wedin (0602670)
Stephen Wigmore
(0617480)
Philosophy of Religion
What is the so-called Hume-Edwards objection to the cosmological argument? Is it cogent?
(2,500 words)
Ancient Philosophy
Is Diotima’s account of the Ladder of Love compatible with the notion of Love for individual
humans? (2,500 words)
Philosophy of Religion
What is the so called “Hume-Edwards” Objection to the Cosmological Argument? Is it cogent?
(2,500 words)
Adam Wills (0500634)
Epistemology and Metaphysics
Modest transcendental arguments. (2,500 words)
Consciousness and Reality
Critically examine McGinn’s claim that we are ‘cognitively closed’ to the solution of the mindbody problem. (2,500 words)
Post-Kantian Continental Philosophy II
Discuss the master/slave relation in Hegel’s phenomenology: Why does it arise, and what are the
principal characteristics of the master and the slave? (2,500 words)