BA Philosophy

What is analytic philosophy? What is its nature and what are its methods? In this course we will seek to answer these questions by examining key contributions from leading historical figures who shaped the evolution of the discipline. The overarching goals are to understand the realism that has for a long time accompanied analytic philosophy and the significance of analysis for analytic philosophy. The course will begin with the origins of the tradition in the early works of Russell and Moore, as a realist revolution designed to overcome the idealism of Berkeley and Bradley, before tracing the development of analytic philosophy until its metaphysical high-point in the logical atomism of Russell and the early Wittgenstein. From this high-point we follow metaphysics decline, or the decline of a certain conception of metaphysics, through the critiques of Ayer, Carnap, the later Wittgenstein and Quine and the valiant rear guard action of Dorothy Emmett’s which anticipates later developments.  

The unit aims to:

• Provide an understanding of the nature and development of the analytic tradition in philosophy;
• Provide historical background for some of the contemporary debates in the analytic tradition;
• Introduce students to some of the key writings in the tradition;
• Introduce students to some of the techniques and methods of analytic philosophy.

One two-hour lecture and one one-hour tutorial per week.

Students should be able to:

• Identify the main philosophical problems which motivated the development of early analytic philosophy;
• Clearly articulate the relevant doctrines of the early analytic philosophers and their critics.

Students should be able to:

• Evaluate the claims and arguments of the early analytic philosophers and their critics;
• Evaluate the lasting significance of early analytic philosophy and its developments;
• Dissect, interpret and criticise both the original historical texts and commentaries on them.

Students should be able to:

• Use research tools to effectively select resources in the preparation of assessments on early analytic philosophy;
• Clearly communicate ideas about early analytic philosophy.

Essay (1750 words) 40%

Exam (2 hours) 50%

Online Multiple Choice Questionnaires (10 quizzes) 10%

The School of Social Sciences (SoSS) is committed to providing timely and appropriate feedback to students on their academic progress and achievement, thereby enabling students to reflect on their progress and plan their academic and skills development effectively. Students are reminded that feedback is necessarily responsive: only when a student has done a certain amount of work and approaches us with it at the appropriate time is it possible for us to feed back on the student's work. The main forms of feedback on this course are written feedback responses to assessed essays and exam answers.

We also draw your attention to the variety of generic forms of feedback available to you on this as on all SoSS courses. These include: meeting the lecturer/tutor during their office hours; e-mailing questions to the lecturer/tutor; asking questions from the lecturer (before and after lecture); presenting a question on the discussion board on Canvas; and obtaining feedback from your peers during tutorials.

• G. Berkeley Dialogues
• F.H. Bradley Appearance and Reality
• B. Russell Problems of Philosophy
• B. Russell Lectures on the Philosophy of Logical Atomism
• L. Wittgenstein Tractatus
• A.J. Ayer Language Truth and Logic
• Dorothy Emmet The Nature of Metaphysical Thinking
• L. Wittgenstein Philosophical Investigations 
• W.V. Quine ‘Two Dogmas of Empiricism’.

Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2027 will be £10,050 per annum. Tuition fees for international students will be £29,200 per annum.

For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

We know that student finance can be complicated. The links below provide further information to help guide you.

Learn more about student finance options for UK students.

Learn more about fees and finance for international students.

As an international student you may be eligible for our Global Futures Scholarships . This is open to students starting their studies in September 2026.