Program and courses Philosophy of Humanity and Culture

You will follow 1 signature course (6 ECTS):

• Enlightenment and Counterenlightenment (6 ECTS)

You take 2 common courses (12 ECTS) together with students from the other Philosophy master tracks:

• Ethics (6 ECTS)
• The Canon and Beyond (6 ECTS)

You will follow 7 track-specific courses (21 ECTS):

• Close Reading 1 (3 ECTS)
• Close Reading 2 (3 ECTS)
• Philosophy, Film and Literature (3 ECTS)
• Identity, Race and Gender (3 ECTS)
• Psychoanalysis and the Unconscious (3 ECTS)
• Trauma and Art (3 ECTS)
• Philosophy of Media and Online Culture (3 ECTS)

The Master Seminar (0 ECTS) offers a theoretical and practical deepening and enrichment of the Master's program. For the seminars, philosophers and professionals from relevant fields are invited.

Choose one course of 6 ECTS or two courses of 3 ECTS from the curriculum of the following tracks:

• Philosophy of Contemporary Challenges
• Philosophy of Mind and Psychology
• Philosophy of Data and Digital Society
• Ethics of Business and Organization (in Dutch)

In the first semester, you will receive practical information about the process of writing your Master's thesis and then get to work choosing a topic, developing an outline, and finding a supervisor. In the second semester, you get to work on writing your thesis.

Thesis procedure (in short):

• You can freely choose the subject of your thesis. The topic must be philosophical in nature and consistent with the content of the program. 
• You are matched with a supervisor based on content expertise and availability.
• You have the opportunity, under conditions, to write your thesis in response to a research question from a company or organization.
• The thesis is an academic and philosophical piece of writing and thus the research expected is philosophical in nature (conceptual, argumentative, literature review).

Examples of thesis subjects are:

• Phenomenology of Time: Husserl compared to Heidegger
• Gender matters: Judith Butler versus Irish Marian Young
• The politics of (emergency) art: On aesthetics and anti-aesthetics in contemporary art.
• Derrida, Merleau-Ponty and Contemporary Painterly Practices: The Borders and Limits of Painting and the Interrogation of Perception.
• The death of the author as gesture: On the philosophical method of Giorgio Agamben.

Part-time students usually take two years to complete the master (instead of one year), and three years for pre-master plus master. However, a higher or lower study tempo in the master is also negotiable.

As a part-time student, keep the following in mind:

1. The courses from the Master's are scheduled in such a way that the program can be followed partly in the evening hours as a part-time student.
2. Evening lectures start at 17.45h (or later) and are given on one or two regular evenings during the week. They usually take place on Monday and/or Thursday evening. Lectures that start before the evening (e.g., 16.45h) and end in the evening do not count as evening classes.
3. As a part-time student you will also encounter lectures that are given during the day. These lectures can take place on all working days (Monday up to and including Friday). 
4. Lecturing schedules are drawn up per semester and are usually announced one or one and a half month before the start of the semester.
5. Since lectures can be scheduled every day of the week, during the day as well as in the evening, it is important to have some flexibility in your working schedule when you want to combine this study with a job.
6. The average study load when studying part-time is 20-25 hours per week. This includes lectures, exams and preparation for the lectures and exams.
7. Attendance during the working lectures is not mandatory for part-time students, but it is highly recommended.