Future students

Great Ideas is a course reflecting on some of the most exciting, important and revolutionary ideas that have shaped society and culture as it is today. It also considers how those ideas have an ongoing influence. It’s an interdisciplinary course look...

We humans like to think that we’re special -- that we're different from each other, and from rocks, nonhuman animals, and computers. But are we really so special and different? The answers depend on deep philosophical questions about human minds and ...

Sometimes, in a reflective mood, you might sit back and wonder about really “big questions.” What is the meaning of life? Does anything really matter? Can I know anything with 100% certainty? Would it be good to live forever? What is happiness? Does ...

What kind of life should I live? What kind of person should I be? Which actions are right and which are wrong? Answering questions of this sort is the task of ethics, and this course is an introduction to the subject. We will discuss and critically a...

What does it mean for a mind to be healthy or unhealthy? Are mental disorders just like physical disorders? What is it like to be mentally ill – or to be told that you are mentally ill? What do our conceptions of mental health tell us about ourselves...

We’re surrounded by art – not just in art galleries, but in the movies and TV shows that we watch, the videogames we play, the photos we post, and the bands we listen to. Why do we love art so much? In this course we’ll look at the ways that art infl...

Life is full of difficult decisions. Should I buy a car or rely on public transport? Should I study locally or move cities? What can we do about climate change? When facing such hard practical problems, it always helps to have good critical thinking ...

How can we know the difference between what is real and what is not real? In this course we explore this most fundamental question, which is at the heart of the branch of philosophy known as epistemology. What is knowledge? How are beliefs justified?...

We often disagree about what is right and wrong, good and bad. But can there be a theory that settles these disagreements? This course is an examination of some major types of moral theory, exploring their structure and evaluating their plausibility....

This course is an introduction to classical Asian philosophy, with a focus on views about ethics, political philosophy, education, and human nature.

Workforces are changing at a rapid pace with various predictions regarding the future nature of work. In this interdisciplinary course, students will critically examine the changing nature of the work and employment from a range of perspectives inclu...

What is time? What is causation? What is it for an object to have a property? Do abstract entities exist? Do humans have free will? Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that for answers to such fundamental questions, exploring some of the deepest ...

We’re all familiar with moral judgements like “You should keep your promises” or “Violence is wrong.” But what exactly are we doing when making such moral judgements? What’s distinctive about moral language? Can moral judgements be true or false (lik...

Logic is the branch of philosophy that studies and analyses arguments in general symbolic form. This course is an introduction to the field, requiring no prior background in studying philosophy or logic. You will be introduced to the use of technique...

This course surveys the historical and philosophical development of international relations theory and political theory. It will examine foundational texts drawn from thinkers across the range of western political theory, from ancient Greece to the t...

Is waging war ever morally justified, and, if so, when? Do affluent states and individuals harm the global poor? How should New Zealand deal with historic injustice and the legacy of colonialism? What is the fairest and most effective way of addressi...

Where is your mind? What is your mind? Do other people have minds like yours? What about other types of entities? In this course you will explore complex questions like these concerning the nature of minds and how they work. You’ll consider the relat...

This course covers western philosophy from the presocratic thinkers, through Plato and Aristotle, and then passing to the modern period to cover Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume and Reid.

Popular culture is often controversial, and sometimes it is hard to know how to respond to popular art. Is it okay to sing along to music with discriminatory lyrics? Is it immoral to play violent video games? What exactly is wrong with cultural appro...

Data ethics is a new branch of ethics. Students who enrol in this course will study new and emerging ethical problems related to data (including generation, recording, curation, processing, dissemination, sharing and use), algorithms (including artif...

We’re all familiar with moral judgements like “You should keep your promises” or “Violence is wrong.” But what exactly are we doing when making such moral judgements? What’s distinctive about moral language? Can moral judgements be true or false (lik...

This course examines major positions and issues in contemporary political philosophy, including questions about rights, equality, justice, freedom, and democracy. This course is also able to be taken towards a major in POLS. See major requirements fo...

This course examines symbolic languages, which are a foundational pillar of mathematics as well as the basis of computer science. Their semantics and proof theory are studied, explaining the role of logic in describing mathematical structures and for...

Data ethics is a new branch of ethics. Students who enrol in this course will study new and emerging ethical problems related to data (including generation, recording, curation, processing, dissemination, sharing and use), algorithms (including artif...

This course addresses a variety of challenges to predicting and preparing for the future. It takes an essentially interdisciplinary approach, drawing on a wide variety of sources of information about the future. Among its focuses are the biases that ...

Existentialism and Phenomenology are closely related philosophical approaches that emphasise the meaning and value of human existence and experience. These intellectual movements were driven in particular by Continental philosophers of the 19th and 2...

If you’ve ever been in an art gallery and found yourself wondering “Why is that art?!” then this course is for you. We’ll explore some of the big questions raised by great art. Are there objective standards of beauty or must we “agree to disagree”? W...

This course surveys the issues and positions in modern philosophy of science, beginning with a discussion of the history of philosophy of science from Logical Positivism to the present. We then discuss particular problems such as the problem of induc...

What is time? What is causation? What is it for an object to have a property? Do abstract entities exist? Do humans have free will? Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that searches for answers to such fundamental questions, exploring some of the...

There are many philosophical puzzles about the nature of language and its relation to reality. How does a word come to refer to a thing? What does it mean for someone to understand a word? Does our language determine the way that we see the world? Ho...