Global Philosophies & Worldviews and International Relations

GLOBAL PHILOSOPHIES & WORLDVIEWS

*This course is for 2025 entry only

*subject to validation

We live in a global society, and every day the apps on our phones and computers bring us new ideas and opinions from across the world. So, how do people negotiate this media-saturated world with its diverse - and sometimes apparently irreconcilable - ways of understanding the big questions? How do people coexist with others whose worldview is radically different to their own? What makes for a global citizen? 

This Major challenges you to grapple with these - and similar questions. You will explore what can be learned from the ‘wisdom’ of different traditions in our pluralist contemporary world - chiefly by asking how other people have worked through questions like these. In responding to this question you will explore in depth how non-Western philosophical and religious traditions have tackled them. 

You will also look at the ways that Western philosophers and Jewish, Muslim and Christian theologians have looked at these issues. Along the way you will look at how people form - and reform their worldview. You will ask such questions as does scientism lead to a reduction in human capacity for engaging with reality? Is the Western secularisation model fundamentally colonialist? 

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Every day, international issues are in the news headlines – this is your chance to become an expert on relations between states, economies, ideas and societies. In a world where nuclear weapons remain primed for use, the world economy teeters on the brink of collapse and delicate ecosystems are under threat, it is little wonder that our International Relations degree is proving a popular choice among students who wish to better understand the world’s most challenging problems.

International Relations is a multidisciplinary subject, which draws in contributions from politics, history, media, sociology, law, economics and religion. Global issues dominate the news headlines on a daily basis and International Relations will allow you to focus on this dimension of politics. This is an opportunity to become an expert in international issues in a historical, political and cultural context.

All our academics are conducting internationally published research. Our key strengths are in Theories of International Relations; Peace and Conflict; British and US foreign policy and EU and UN politics. Our subject deals squarely with some of the most daunting, intractable but important challenges of today.