Undergraduate Programmes in Philosophy

At Trinity, philosophy may be studied under the following four degree programmes, each of which is four years in duration. One can choose to study philosophy on its own, or with another subject. On its own it is known as SHP (Single Honours Philosophy). There are two divisions in studying philosophy with another subject. Phil./Pol. (Philosophy and Politics) is a newly established integrated degree, while TSM (Two Subject Moderatorship) is the traditional way of combining philosophy with some other arts subject (e.g. English, Psychology, History, etc.). Students taking SHP take 20 course components per year in the first and second year and take six courses in the third year. Those doing TSM and Phil/Pol take half that number.

The new four–year degree in Philosophy, Political Science, Economics and Sociology (PPES), organised by the School of Social Science and Philosophy, had its first intake of students in 2008. The PPES degree programme gives students the unique opportunity to study four subjects that are relevant to understanding any society.

The General Aims of the Philosophy Courses at Trinity:

• to give students a solid, scholarly grounding in the classical texts which form the history of western philosophy, which in turn has been one of the primary formative influences upon western culture.
• to teach students to think for themselves by teaching them the fundamentals of both formal and informal reasoning.
• to teach students to question their own basic assumptions as well as to articulate and support their own points of view carefully and thoughtfully, both on paper and in speech.
• to teach students how to subject someone else's viewpoint or theory or argument to careful, rigorous, yet fair critique.
• to give students the confidence to engage in a sophisticated analytical way with the moral, political, aesthetic and religious questions which lie at the heart of their own culture in their own generation.
• to give students a breadth of interests which can only be acquired by studying the thought of both the present and past ages, and of both their own and other cultural milieus.
• to encourage students in the search for (and perhaps even the attainment of) truth.

TR005 – SINGLE HONOURS PHILOSOPHY
(SHP for short)
2012 – 2013 Handbook

This degree up until recently was referred to, within the college, by its traditional early 20th–century title of "Mental and Moral Science". Over the four years, students study philosophy intensively. In the first two years, called Junior Freshman (JF) and Senior Freshman (SF), the students study foundational courses in the history of philosophy, as well as engage with certain fundamental philosophical problems such as the debates about free will and determinism, the nature of morality, the nature of language, the existence of God and the scope and limits of human knowledge. In the final two years, called Junior Sophister (JS) and Senior Sophister (SS), students are able to set their own syllabus in that they are able to select courses from a reasonably wide choice. In this way students can specialize in the areas of philosophy that they have found most interesting and most suitable to their skills. The detailed contents of all these courses, both Freshman and Sophister, are set out in the separate handbook of courses for this academic year.

TR001 – TWO–SUBJECT MODERATORSHIP IN PHILOSOPHY
(TSM for short)
2012 – 2013 Handbook

This degree enables students to combine Philosophy with one other subject from a wide selection, mainly from the Arts and Social Science Faculties. Philosophy can be combined with any one of the following subjects according to two patterns:

Pattern A subjects (where two subjects are studied equally over the four years):

• Geography
• Mathematics
• Sociology

Pattern B subjects (where both subjects are studied for three years but only one is studied in the fourth year):

• Biblical & and Theological Studies
• Classical Civilisation
• Economics
• English Literature
• French
• Geography
• German
• Greek History
• History of Art and Architecture
• Italian
• Latin
• Modern Irish
• Music
• Psychology
• Russian
• Sociology

(It should be noted that some subjects can be studied either under pattern A or pattern B.)

The contents of the philosophy half of any TSM course are set out in detail in the separate handbook of courses for this academic year.

TR014 – Philosophy and Political Science
(Phil. Pol. for short)
2012 – 2013 Handbook

There is a separate intake for this very popular course. Its structure is very similar to that of TSM above in that students may combine Philosophy and Political Science according to Patter A or Pattern B. The contents of the philosophy half of this combined course are set out in detail in the separate handbook of courses for this academic year.

TR015 – Philosophy, Political Science, Economics and Sociology
(PPES for short)
2012 – 2013 Handbook

This new four-year undergraduate degree is a separate intake. Its structure is as follows:

In the Junior Freshman (first) year students take six compulsory courses from within all four subjects. In the Senior Freshman (second) year students choose three of the four subjects and take a total of six courses. In the Junior Sophister (third) year students take two of the four subjects taken in the Senior Freshman year. In the Senior Sophister (fourth) year students choose whether to continue with both subjects (joint honours) or specialise in just one of Philosophy, Political Science, Economics or Sociology (single honours).