Philosophy

This module offers an accessible introduction to some of philosophy's most fundamental and hotly debated topics. It provides students with the skills and historical and conceptual background necessary to access, understand and engage with core debates in ethics, social justice, knowledge and unjustified belief, existence, and topics in the philosophy of mind, language, and religion.

Questions discussed in this module include: What is justice? Can we achieve it for all? What is, if any, the goal of our life? How can we explain the difference between science and pseudo-science? What is the philosophical foundation of human rights? The module will also include philosophical debates and moral dilemmas about immigration, emotions, alternative facts, racism, consent, and criminal justice.

The module emphasises developing critical thinking through the analysis of arguments and concepts, evaluation of competing interpretations, and discussion of objections, counterarguments and competing evidence. It also aims to develop precise, efficient, and coherent academic writing and oral communication skills.

This module begins by tracing the roots of Western culture's shared views and ideas about love and desire. The historical moments considered are Classical Greek and Roman, Medieval, and Modern Philosophy. In this section, we will study the concepts of Eros (erotic love), Pietas (affection), Philia (friendship), the education of desire in Stoicism, and Divine Love in Medieval Philosophy. The second part of the module focuses on contemporary philosophical debates. We will discuss puzzles about the definition of love, socialisation and romantic love, the value of personal relationships, and the ethics of caring for others. The module closes with a section on non-western approaches to love and desire. 

In this module, we will consider the foundation of Ethics as a philosophical discipline, beginning with its origins in the civic and practical speculation of Plato and the theory of Aristotle, who gives it a scientific structure. We will then move on to key variations on that, critically appraising each theory. Key writers are Aristotle (Weeks1-3), Kant (Week 4), and J. S. Mill (Week 5) in terms of historical origins; notable contemporary writers include Elizabeth Anscombe, Roger Scruton, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley and Alasdair McIntyre (Weeks 6-10). Finally, we will examine some issues in current ethical discourse (Weeks 11-12 – Lumet, McIntyre), using what we have studied to think about them.

This module covers some of the most important questions of contemporary political philosophy. These include the following: How should societies and communities, great and small, be organised? How are citizens formed, and how should they be educated? What are the rights and obligations of citizens, and from what do they stem?  What should be the spaces for, goals of, and obligations for civic participation? Who is the global citizen, if one exists, and what is their role and function in society? What is global justice, and how can we make sure it applies to everyone? Does something like intergenerational justice exist, and what is it based upon?

This module offers a complete overview of ancient Greek philosophy in chronological order, from Early Greek to Hellenistic philosophy, including Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

The aim of this course is to complete a survey of the developments in philosophy that occurred through the different periods and locales of the ‘Enlightenment’ in Europe. Particular attention is given to the legacy of these developments today in contemporary research and contemporary society and cultures, as well as to how these developments are being challenged and re-evaluated today from a variety of quarters (philosophy of mind, cogntive science, and phenomenology feminism, philosophy of race, critical and postcolonial theory). In examining such developments of the ‘Enlightenments,’ our focus shall have two components: on the one hand, questions about metaphysics, knowledge, and the theory of science, and on the other, questions about morality and social philosophy.

BA students follow the Off-Campus Programme for both semesters of the third year. This is comprised of international study placement and/or relevant work placement. Philosophy students who wish to study abroad are advised by department staff on the availability of appropriate courses. Guidance is also provided for those who wish to use the opportunity to begin research work for final year projects in Philosophy. 

The aim in this course is twofold: to cover both historical and contemporary philosophical conceptions of science and technology, and to cover and problematise the relation of philosophy to science and technology.

This module focuses on a core area of contemporary philosophy, namely, concerning questions about the nature of the mind or mental phenomena. Some key questions that will be discussed are the following: what is experience, and why is it important? What problems does consciousness raise for both philosophers and other scientists? What are emotions and affects, and what is their relation to desires and values? What is it like to live with and encounter other persons or living beings in our lives? How is interpersonal experience and understanding of others to be conceptualized? In this course, students will become familiar with a broad swath of literature, drawn from both contemporary ‘philosophy of mind’ and ‘phenomenology.’ While the boundaries between the two are sometimes blurry, in exploring a bit of both, students will be introduced to some of the major philosophical issues concerning ‘the mind’ and will be encouraged to question them for themselves. This module thereby furnishes an in-depth exploration of the nature of the mind, primarily examined through the lens of our own human experiences and what these disclose about the many facets, questions, and paradoxes of our mental and embodied lives.

The course falls into two parts: the first focuses on evidence for the existence of God and seeks to understand His relationship with the world; the second deals with the nature of religion as a fundamental human phenomenon. The first part of the course will consider contemporary accounts of the origins of life and the universe; metaphysics and the question of origins; the intelligibility of the universe; randomness and order; the structure of intelligence and the structure of being; the act of unrestricted understanding; Persons and Eternal Thou; personal being; interpersonal relationships and their ground; faith and fidelity; suffering and hope.

This modules looks at the field of aesthetics, which can be broadly defined as the philosophical study of, on the one hand, experiences of beauty and the sublime, and on the other, experiences of art. The development and current state of aesthetic theory is examined in connection to three important themes: universality, experience, and politics.  In the first theme, questions of the universality, necessity, and subjectivity of aesthetic properties and experiences is explored, both in a historical context and in respect of the contemporary art world. In the second theme, we explore the roles of representation, imagination, and mimesis in aesthetic experience, as well as considering their problematisation in the 20th and 21st century visual arts of painting and photography. In the third theme, we will consider the relation between aesthetic and political experience, in view of the question of whether art can and ought to have political significance or dimension. To explore this last question, we focus on how some contemporary art attempts a reconceptualisation of sexuality, gender, and embodiment, and consider whether and how it reaches that aim.

I started my studies in Mexico City, where I took two years of a BA in Communications (ITESM) before transferring to the BA in Philosophy (Universidad Panamericana), where I graduated in 2006. I then studied for an MPhil in Philosophy (UNAM), graduating in 2010 with an award-winning dissertation on ancient scepticism. The same year, I moved to the UK to study for my PhD in Philosophy at King’s College London, where I graduated with a dissertation on Plato and the Stoics in 2015. I also hold a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP) in Higher Education from King’s College London (Merit 2014) and am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK (2017). In addition, I have spent research visiting periods in the Trinity Plato Centre in Dublin (2019-2020), Sapienza University of Rome and ILIESI, CRN (2019), Princeton University (2018), the Department of Philosophy of the University of Oxford (2015-2016), Cornell University (2013), and Yale University (2012).

In 2021 I became the Head of the Department of Philosophy at Mary Immaculate College. Before that, I worked for three years as an ERC Research Fellow based at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2018-2021), two years as a FAPESP Research Fellow at the University of Sao Paulo (2016-2018), and two years as a College Tutor in Ethics in Oriel College, University of Oxford (2014-2016) and a Lecturer in Ancient Philosophy in the Philosophy Department of the University of Oxford (2014-2015).

My main area of research is ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, from the early Greeks to Late antiquity. I am currently leading two projects. One is about the ethics of arguing for both sides of the same question, a controversial practice developed by Greek intellectuals and philosophers in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE (including Protagoras, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle) and continued during the Hellenistic period by ancient sceptics and dialecticians, but a practice that is still highly relevant today. Allowing space to argue for both sides of a difficult question or case often benefits our understanding, belief formation, risk assessment, and decision-making. However, one might wonder whether discussing both sides of an issue is always morally appropriate. Should we always allow equal time to advocate for both sides? Examples like pseudoscientific theories, political filibusters, and vested interests that manufacture doubt suggest not. But where and under what minimal moral principles should we draw the line? I believe Ancient Greek philosophers can help us develop an ethical framework to answer these questions. This project stems from my previous work on suspension of belief in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, especially the last chapter of my recent book, Suspension of Belief (Cambridge University Press 2024). It also builds upon much of my work on argumentation and scepticism, recently compiled and translated into Spanish in my book Escepticismo, Metafísica y Argumentación [Scepticism, Metaphysics, and Argumentation] (NUN 2024).

The second project examines ancient Greek and Roman ideas about the nature and origin of the universe and their conception of time. This project is a collaboration with Prof Alberto Ross (Universidad Panamericana, Mexico), where we are particularly interested in Plato and Aristotle, the two most influential philosophers of the classical period of Greek philosophy. This work continues the successful collaboration that resulted in the publication of two co-edited books: Cause and Explanation in Ancient Philosophy (Routledge 2024) and Time and Cosmology in Plato and the Platonic Tradition (Brill 2022).

I like to study ancient Greek and Roman philosophy because it offers an immense treasure. On the one hand, it provides an escape from everyday life and the worries of today’s world. The philosophical problems in these texts are so interesting, abstract, and sometimes so challenging that they make everything around me disappear. Ancient philosophy thus serves as a refuge, a secret hiding place where I retreat to think about fundamental distinctions, arguments and concepts. It is also an escape when I divert my attention from the logic of the arguments to the words in the original language and the grammatical constructions to the historical context and the enormous distance between ancient philosophers and their current readers. I enjoy reading each word and sentence as if I were walking through ancient civilisations’ ruins: learning new things at every step, marveling at what I understand and how much I cannot, and how all these aspects affect my interpretation of philosophical arguments.

However, ancient philosophy also offers a way back to our current life and circumstances. Many of the themes it addresses, the questions it asks, and the theories it proposes are as central today as they were then. For example what counts as knowledge? How should we live our lives? What makes an argument a good argument? What is the fairer political system? On other occasions, even if the specific answers are wrong or we do not agree with them, the methods, the structure of the arguments, and the clarity to analyse the concepts provide masterclasses, models and examples that allow us to return to our lives transformed, with a fresh and sometimes sharper vision of the things around us.

The best part of supervising postgraduate students is witnessing their intellectual flourishing. I enjoy guiding and helping them think deeper and more carefully about their research questions, learning from them and discussing their innovative arguments and contributions to the scholarly debate.

Look for a good match between your research project and the research expertise of your prospective supervisor. Prioritise the importance of studying in a welcoming and academically thriving place with a friendly community of graduate students and a supervisor willing to become your mentor and advocate in the academic world.