Computing Science and Philosophy BSc (Hons)

University of Stirling

However you carry out out everyday functions like cooking, driving or watching television, you are interacting with computers. Our course teaches you the theory and practice of designing, building and analysing such systems and your training will encompass how computers work – programming them to follow our instructions and learning how they fit into their environment. Computing Science courses at Stirling equip you with knowledge of the wide use of computers in business, industry and for personal use. Built around a core of software engineering and development you will learn about Computer Security and Forensics, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Games and Mobile Phone App development, amongst other topics. From day one you will study the broad concerns of computing science: not only how to program computers (in Java) but ‘computational thinking’, the usability and accessibility of user interfaces, and social and professional issues. In your Honours year you will have the chance to pick a number of optional topics, which are regularly updated to be at the cutting edge of computing. These options are often related to research being done at Stirling. How are our minds related to our bodies? Do we really have free will? What is knowledge (as distinct from merely true belief) and what can we really know – about the world around us, about other people, or about ourselves? How can we be confident we know what is right and wrong, just and unjust? And what would it take to live a morally good life? You have just been posed some typical philosophical questions, and if you seriously want to search for the answers then this is the course for you. Our degree course will challenge you to develop a strong set of critical, imaginative and informed reasoning skills, and deepen your understanding of the nature of the human mind, of language, of morality and politics, of art, of science, and of logic. We offer breadth and variety in this course. Some modules focus on particular historical figures, allowing students to really get to grips with one famous philosopher’s ideas – and how subsequent generations have argued over those ideas. Thinkers whom we study in depth include Aristotle, Descartes, Kant, Mill, Marx, Wittgenstein, and Heidegger. Other modules focus on specific philosophical topics, such as the theory of knowledge; logic; metaphysics; philosophy of mind; moral philosophy; philosophy of science; environmental ethics; and many more. During your study at Stirling you will be introduced to the key issues in a wide range of topics within philosophy in your first two years. Then it is largely up to you which areas you wish to focus on – and you will be able, on the basis of what you have learned so far, to make informed choices among the range of higher-level modules available. If, for example, questions about the fundamental nature of reality really interest you, then you might choose modules such as Relativism and Reality or Materialism and Idealism, to name but two. If questions about how we should treat others (including animals and the planet itself), and whether there can be any objective answers to such questions, are what interest you, modules such as Meta-Ethics or Environmental Ethics or Politics, Law, and Society, and others will suit your interests nicely. Or, if you find questions about rationality, logic, and how to think philosophically are especially stimulating, you can choose to take modules on the nature of knowledge; the nature of language; philosophical paradoxes; and so on. The choice is up to you!