Global Philosophies & Worldviews and Psychology (with Foundation Year)

GLOBAL PHILOSOPHIES & WORLDVIEWS

*This course is for 2025 entry only

*subject to validation

Liverpool is a gateway to the world. This city is home to the oldest Chinatown in Europe, its links with West Africa and the Americas were forged in the dark days of the transatlantic slave trade, and over one-and -a-half million Irish people passed through its port during the ‘Great Hunger’ of the 1845-52 Potato Famine. Each of the communities that have passed through this city brought with them their own ways of understanding the world their worldviews.

Liverpool, of course, is like nowhere else on the planet; it has its unique accent, a biting sense of humour, and an amazing cultural life. And each community that passes through the city leaves something of itself behind, adding to the cultural mix that makes Liverpool a truly global city. That makes Liverpool the perfect place to study how people today deal with all those different ideas and conflicting opinions that pop into the apps on our phones and computers. The roots of Liverpool Hope lie in the work pioneers such as Catholic Archbishop Worlock and Anglican Bishop Sheppard to bring about community reconciliation in the city. So, Liverpool Hope is the perfect place to ask how people today find their way through our media-saturated world. Here How do people coexist with others whose worldview is radically different to their own? What makes for a global citizen? What can we learn from people who are very different from ourselves? What can the story and the people of this city teach us?

This Major gives you a chance to delve into these 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. This will take you on a journey across the world. You will study in depth how the philosophical and religious traditions of Asia have tackled these questions. You will also look at the ways that Western philosophers and Jewish, Muslim and Christian theologians have explored them. 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?

The course gives its students the chance to step back from the noise of our digital world, and develop the professional skill of being able to engage closely with ideas and worldviews that are often misunderstood or underrepresented in society. So, people who take this course will be well-grounded for the kinds of careers that involve understanding, advocacy and working with different communities – for example journalism, the law, policing, politics, education, human resource management.

PSYCHOLOGY

We provide a number of programmes of study in Psychology, our Single Honours programmes include BSc Psychology, BSc Sport Psychology and BSc Psychology in Education. Combined Honours programmes allow students to combine the core curriculum in Psychology with the core curriculum of many other subjects taught at Liverpool Hope (e.g, Psychology and Criminology, Psychology and Marketing: see the list below for the full range of Psychology Combined Honours courses). Giving our students different options is important to us, and providing a choice of studying Psychology alone or Psychology alongside over thirty other disciplines means students can choose to study Psychology in a way that matches their interests.

Ethical practice and working within a shared set of values is also important to us; our University is committed to serving the common good. We see Psychology as a discipline with the capacity; and responsibility; to make a positive contribution to how people live in everyday life. Through our teaching of Psychology, we strive to enable our students to grow into constructive citizens who are curious about people, and motivated to make a positive difference to the lives of others. Beyond classroom learning, there are opportunities to enrich your chosen programme of study in a way that will help you in developing your psychological thinking. They include going on a placement year, working as a research assistant in a laboratory, travelling to another country as part of Global Hope, or studying abroad.

Our enthusiasm for the discipline is reflected in our consistently high ratings of teaching quality. If our departmental narrative matches with what you aspire to be, then come and study with us at Liverpool Hope University.