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Study bachelor degree online through Open Universities Australia. Explore all degrees, subjects and short courses now.

The Bachelor of Arts (OUA) at Macquarie University is a distinctive course that equips its graduates with knowledge and skills that can be applied in any career or in further study. No other course offers as much flexibility and a wide range of study options as the Bachelor of Arts. You will be given the opportunity to turn your passion into a career while developing a strong set of core transferable skills valued by industry and the society. In consultation with industry, the Bachelor of Arts (OUA) places a strong emphasis on skills for success in the 21st century workplace. You will be taught by active researchers, leading academics and award winning teachers.

Make your degree unique and study what interests you. Analyse critically, think creatively and problem-solve at work or in everyday life. Complete foundational studies then tailor your degree with a major. Create a portfolio and build your connections.

Bachelor of Arts

With our flexible Bachelor of Arts, you can choose from a wide range of majors and minors taught by La Trobe&#39;s passionate and committed staff. This flexible degree allows you to pursue your passion and your profession, while keeping your career options open.Shape your own future with this interdisciplinary course. You’ll specialise in at least one area by choosing a major from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS), and then explore your interests or build an essential skill by choosing secondary majors, minors and electives from HUSS and select other areas of the University. You’ll graduate with your majors and minors listed on your academic transcript, so future employers can recognise your expertise.Create your own path. Want to major in Sociology, with a second major in Marketing, then take a Creative and Professional Writing subject as an elective? Go for it. Or perhaps you’d like to pair Politics and English? Or Crime, Justice and Legal Studies with Linguistics? Build your own future – we’re here to help you achieve your dream. No matter which path you choose, you’ll learn from world-class academics and leading researchers.In your first year, you’ll explore your interests and passions, trying out subjects from a range of different areas. In your second and third years, you’ll delve deeper while also choosing electives and minors that broaden your skills and knowledge. Studying online offers you the flexibility to complete the degree from wherever you’re based. Throughout your degree, you’ll be well supported by La Trobe’s passionate and committed academics, who are experts in their fields. Many of La Trobe’s online subjects in Humanities and Social Sciences also give you the opportunity to log in to live sessions and engage directly with academics and your fellow students in real time.Gain real-world experience and build valuable connections that will shape your career. Take on an industry placement at organisations like SBS Radio, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre or the United Nations Association of Australia or travel overseas for an international sustainability experience.* Many of our exchange programs are financially supported.The world is waiting for you. Step into it. You’ll learn:<ul><li>Critical thinking</li></ul>Delve into complex problems. Experts say critical thinking will be a highly valued skill in the workforce of tomorrow.**<ul><li>Emotional intelligence</li></ul>Understand what drives our decisions. Learn how to connect to others with emotion and intelligence.<ul><li>Creativity</li></ul>Learn how to see new possibilities and turn them into reality.<ul><li>Communication</li></ul>﻿Learn how to connect, communicate and collaborate with your University peers and future colleagues.*Please note: overseas programs may be impacted by travel restrictions.**Forbes, 2019, The 10 Vital Skills You Will Need For The Future Of Work; PwC, 2020, 10 skills you need for future employment

A flexible arts degree offering a large selection of humanities and social sciences majors. Mix it up with minors and electives in business, health, and science. Develop critical thinking, emotional intelligence, creativity, and communication skills.

Critical Thinking

Happiness, Goodness and Justice

The Philosophy of Human Nature

Thinking Ethically

Introductory Philosophy: Moral and Political Philosophy

Politics, Philosophy and Economics

Minds, Brains, and Machines: Contemporary Philosophy of Mind

Introduction to Logic

Biosciences Technology and Society

Making of the Modern Western World View

This subject was previously known as PHIX137 Critical Thinking.Please note: This subject is available in Macquarie Semester 3, which is an intensive semester that spans only 5 intensive teaching weeks, plus a mid-semester recess and an assessment period. Students are advised to enrol in only one or two subjects in Semester 3. Students who would prefer to take the unit over 13 teaching weeks should enrol in the Semester 1 or 2 offering.This subject aims to teach the fundamentals of critical thinking and reasoning. Students will learn how to construct, analyse and critically evaluate arguments; how to detect common fallacies in reasoning; and how to think logically and creatively. We teach these skills by developing practical techniques for the evaluation of reasoning, and applying them to arguments from business, law, science, politics, philosophy and the media. Critical thinking skills are invaluable across all disciplines, and will benefit students in academic contexts and in life beyond university.

Identify methods used to structure arguments. Beware of fallacies and pseudo-arguments. Prepare for discourses on subjects including science, philosophy and law. Sharpen your approach to thinking critically and producing well-reasoned arguments.

Please note: This subject is available in Macquarie Semester 3, which is an intensive semester that spans only 5 intensive teaching weeks, plus a mid-semester recess and an assessment period. Students are advised to enrol in only one or two subjects in Semester 3. Students who would prefer to take the unit over 13 teaching weeks should enrol in the Semester 2 offering.This subject provides an introduction to major topics in ethics, moral theory and contemporary political philosophy. The first section focuses on the nature of happiness. Is pleasure essential to happiness? Or does the pursuit of pleasure harm our chances of lasting fulfilment? Must we be virtuous in order to be happy? What is the relationship between happiness and duty? The second section explores the nature of moral goodness. Is morality based ultimately in self-interest? What is the relationship between morality and religion? Are there moral principles that everyone is bound by reason to recognise? Or is the validity of moral standards relative to specific societies and cultures? In the third section we turn to questions of applied political philosophy, focusing on questions such as: What principles should govern the distribution of economic and social resources within a society? What are the obligations of wealthy nations to those less fortunate, including immigrants and refugees? And what issues of justice are raised by climate change?

Ask questions about the nature of happiness. Address atheism and religion as you deconstruct what it means to be morally good. Question the relationship between politics and justice. Read up on philosophical arguments by Kant and Aristotle.

Thinking and reasoning are essential components of human life. But much of our thinking and reasoning is biased, distorted, and uninformed. This subject trains you to reason well, to think clearly and independently, and also to engage fairly with others in discussions and debates. You will develop useful skills in presenting, analysing and evaluating different types of arguments. You will learn to apply these skills to real cases from popular culture, current affairs, and philosophy. You will also learn to use diagrams and symbols to assist higher and more abstract levels of logical reasoning and systematic thinking. Because the ability to think and to argue clearly and fairly is central not just to philosophy but to university studies in general, many students find the experience gained in this subject immensely valuable, both within the university and later in employment whatever their subsequent areas of specialization.

Critical Thinking and Innovation

What is knowledge? Why is it valuable? And to what extent is our knowledge of the world affected by social position, power and language?  In this unit, we will explore traditional and contemporary approaches to epistemological questions about what we can know, what we should believe, and whom and what we should trust. Can we trust our individual senses or reflection to provide knowledge of the world, or is knowledge inherently social? When our own intuitions clash with what others say, should we trust ourselves or our community? When should we trust and defer to experts, and how can we tell who&#39;s really an expert to begin with? We will consider philosophical and practical questions about what it is to be a good or bad epistemic agent, focusing on concepts of epistemic (ir)responsibility and epistemic virtues and vices. We will also examine society-level phenomena that may undermine some people&#39;s ability to engage fully as epistemic agents, including systemic material, social, and political patterns that can manifest as epistemic injustice.  Through an examination of issues including political language, propaganda and conspiracy theories, we will consider how our epistemic practices and institutions can lead to injustice or corruption, and what we can do about it.

Knowledge, Language and Power

This subject discusses the philosophical significance of Virtual Reality (VR) and other related technologies (like Augmented Reality and Video Games). These developing technologies raise many interesting ethical, social, metaphysical, and existential questions. This subject will introduce you to these issues and give you the conceptual tools to evaluate and analyse them, not only now but into the future as these technologies continue to change and evolve. Some of the questions we may look at include: Is a virtual life always less valuable than a real life? Is VR an empathy machine that can help us to better understand the inner lives of other people? Are the objects and events in VR real or fictional? What ethical constraints are there on our actions in virtual environments? In this subject you will also be encouraged to explore some of the virtual worlds we will be discussing (a cheap pair of cardboard VR googles and a smartphone will suffice), and to let those experiences influence your thoughts and philosophical arguments.

Virtual Reality as Philosophy

This subject introduces you to key concepts, problems and arguments in ethics. It encourages you to engage with your own thinking about ethics. It therefore asks such questions as: what is the basis of making an ethical decision? Are actions intrinsically right or wrong, or do outcomes matter more than the means of achieving them? Can we, should we, mix and match ethical responses based on different frameworks? Why does it all matter in a world where we often seem to live in an economy rather than a society? By the end of this subject, you will know enough about thinking ethically and living thoughtfully to reflect upon your own position in Australian society and navigate your way through a constantly changing world.

Take a closer look at what it is to think, act and view the world ethically. Learn about universalist, relativist and pluralist thinking. Write a personal ethical statement. Traverse the blurred lines separating facts, beliefs and interpretation.

This subject introduces students to moral and political philosophy. Drawing on a range of topics, themes, and methods, this subject explores foundational questions within both moral and political philosophy. As such, this subject provides an introduction to philosophy, the world’s oldest academic discipline, and will help students develop their capacity for critical reflection upon the nature of the human condition. This subject complements HPH105 Introductory Philosophy: Knowledge and Reality, but can be taken independently of that subject.

This unit explores some of the major traditions in Philosophical and Scientific thinking about Consciousness and the Self. The unit introduces core questions concerning what consciousness is: What can we know about consciousness through scientific enquiry? How can a physical system, such as the brain, be conscious? How do we situate consciousness in a social and cultural context? The unit also introduces philosophical and scientific thinking about the self and introduces questions including: Is there really such a thing as a Self? Is the self narratively constructed? What is the relationship between the self and others?

Consciousness and Self

This subject was previously known as PHI320, PHIX357 Theories of Justice.What is justice? What is fairness? This unit explores these important questions by examining leading philosophical theories of justice, including John Rawls&#39;s influential model, as well as the main political approaches that are associated with them, such as liberalism, libertarianism, republicanism, and socialism. We assess the capacity of these theories and approaches to respond to pressing social justice issues. We focus on issues of inequality and diversity in society by asking: what degree of inequality, if any, can be justified? We also examine broader questions around social and retributive justice, such as: How can we justify punishing those who violate justice? What are the obligations of democratic citizenship? Is our society and its political institutions racist, sexist, or unfairly biased against cultural minorities? What do we owe the poor in other countries? And is our treatment of animals and the environment a matter of justice?

Weigh up competing philosophical theories about justice and its role in society. Begin with John Rawls' bedrock theory of justice. Spearhead discussions about equality, multiculturalism and gender. Interrogate the obligations of democratic citizens.

Theories of Justice

This unit provides students with the opportunity to engage with cutting edge areas of research in contemporary Philosophy and Ethics. Topics and readings will be carefully curated by leading researchers in the department. You will have the opportunity to enhance your skills of argument and critical reflection as you are guided through these exciting areas of research. Topics might include: The Philosophy of Race; Work and the Good Life; Pragmatism; Embodied Cognition; Virtue Theory; Artificial intelligence; Film and Philosophy; Contemporary Critical Theory; Ethical Issues in the use of AI and Machine Learning; Animal Ethics; Ethics of Emerging Technologies including in Healthcare; Contemporary Challenges in Research Ethics; Climate Change and Environmental Ethics.  Information about current and upcoming topics will be available on the Philosophy Department’s website.

Contemporary Topics in Philosophy and Ethics

Bachelor Degree Philosophy Courses & Degrees | Open Universities Australia

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