Good news: I will be a student again!
I have been accepted into a programme for an MA in Philosophy to begin in January 2011.
I already look like a philosopher, don’t I?
Philosophy should be both interesting and challenging enough to enable my brain and my mind to explore new boundaries, something which has been lacking a bit lately. I am especially looking forward to the second year when the focus will be on political philosophy. Another reason why I chose philosophy for my postgraduate degree is that I believe it to be a subject that is rather difficult to study in a foreign language, and I hope that this will catapult my English into the league of near-fluency finally.
After the experience of studying law and for years earning unfounded exclamations of “Ohh!” from everyone who learnt about this, it will be a welcome change to receive nothing more than irritated stares of “???” when I inform people of my pursued studies. Finally, I’ll be left alone instead of being pummelled with questions about employment contracts, child support and how to get out of a mobile phone contract.
I chose the Open University, Britain’s distance learning university, because I want to maintain the flexibility of moving to another city, country or continent during the time that I will work on this degree. For philosophy, you need a brick and mortar university even less, because it is best done alone in a forest or on a beach with a book (and a cigar). The Open University has also been ranked very high in the annual student satisfaction survey, and as a mature student I don’t think I’ll need somebody to hold my hands.
Thinking is so exhausting.
You can accompany me on this inspiring journey, as I shall be bothering you with more posts about philosophy henceforth.
As the first of three modules, I read the “Postgraduate Foundation Module in Philosophy” (A850), in the course of which I wrote the following essays:
- What constitutes a person?
- The Psychological Continuity Account
- The Self-Ownership Thesis
- Philosophy of Punishment
The second-year module was “Issues in Contemporary Social and Political Philosophy” (A851), for which I wrote the following papers:
- Functional Explanation in the Social Sciences
- Egalitarianism versus Sufficiency Criterion
- John Rawls: “A Theory of Justice” vs. his later works
- Punishment and Liberalism
- Is there a Serious Alternative to Liberalism as a Political Theory?
In 2013, I wrote my dissertation (A857) about the philosophical aspects of felony disenfranchisement, that is the practice of barring prisoners or in some cases also former prisoners from voting.
And somehow, this turned me into a certified philosopher:
The Happy Hermit 
Good Luck! I’m sure you’ll do quite well, based on our (admittedly limited) discussions. There is one small problem, though – your English (at least written) is already far more fluent than most people I encounter these days (here in the US). I fear you would have to seriously “dumb down” your writing to have it appear as fluent as most Americans seem capable of in this day and age! :) And please, PLEASE abuse us with as much of your philosophy schooling as possible. Exiled as I am in the midst of redneck country in SE Ohio, I would absolutely enjoy a good philosophical thrashing!
Good luck, Andreas. I can assure you that you will thoroughly enjoy the course, as I did. The hardest part, I found, is constructing essays in the right format. I came from a long background in IT and was used to presenting solutions only, not for and against arguments. Prepare also to have your beliefs challenged: at one point I found myself coming to a rational conclusion which was the opposite of what I thought I believed :)
Have fun.
Tony.
Thank you very much, Tony!
It’s great to read from someone who has completed the same course and who has most importantly enjoyed it. As a lawyer, I should be used to changing my beliefs ;-)
very nice weblog congradulation:)
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You’re not going to a real university.
Why not?
my husband and I truly really like your site and believe you need to have way far more subscribers than you do! incredibly excellent job and maintain operating!
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Hi there, I’ve just stumbled across your site. I am planning on completing the MA in philosophy too with the OU. Could you recommend any pre-reading?
The pre-reading recommendations on the OU website – http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/philosophy-ma/reading.shtml – are really more than enough. I did not read all of these books in full.
I found “Philosophical Writing” by Martinich very helpful.
Thank you Andreas. Please excuse my tardy reply as I had not realised you had responded.
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