The Department has a variety of Web Pages. We hope our pages are clear and organised and that you find what you want. Philosophy tries to find answers for some of the deepest questions about ourselves as human beings and the world that we live in - questions which most thinking people have always asked, although the form which they take varies from one age to another. For example, developments in computing and artificial intelligence raise the age-old question of the nature of human thought in new forms. Developments in medical technology force us to think in new ways about the ancient questions of moral philosophy and so on.
Philosophers often work with specialists in other fields in considering such questions.
Philosophy is always changing, and is always pressing against the outer limits of human thought. That is what makes it such an exciting subject to study. Philosophers have always sought to rely on the unaided power of human thought, making as few assumptions as possible. Teaching philosophy, therefore, is a matter of teaching students to use their own minds, to reason and argue rather than simply asserting things dogmatically or taking for granted what other people say. When we study the classics of philosophy, we do so in order to assess the author's arguments and see what we can learn from them in helping our own thinking.