Dr Guy Longworth

"I am writing to introduce myself as Associate Professor and Director of Teaching and Learning in the Department of Philosophy, which puts me in charge of developing new modules and generally ensuring the high quality of our courses. Over the last year, I've had fun working with current students and colleagues to enhance the range of first year modules that we put on. Part of the aim is to give you a grounding in philosophy that puts you in the best possible position to exploit the wide range of optional modules available in later years of the degree. The first year is very well-designed to help you to develop the skills and knowledge needed to pursue the array of modules that best suits your interests and abilities. An additional benefit of the flexibility of our degree programmes is that you'll be taught by experts who've personally crafted the contents of their modules in light of their world-leading research - you may know that we ranked 1st in the UK for research in the most recent Government assessment exercise!

Recently, I've been talking with students about truth in my Truth, Consequence and Paradox module. We've been having a lively debate about what to do about sentences like "This sentence is false", which seems to be false if true, and true if false; leading to some passionate discussions about the importance of truth. My own view is that truth - and so dealing with the puzzling sentence - are both important, but that view has been coming under pressure during seminars; which is great to hear students challenging my own views!

We look forward to hopefully meeting you at one of our Offer Holder Open Days early next year, and giving you a further insight into life studying Philosophy at Warwick".

Student views

Katherine Sorab, BA Philosophy & Literature (2nd year)

"I originally didn’t apply to study Philosophy actually, I applied to study English and it wasn’t until the summer before I started at Warwick that I changed to Philosophy and Literature. The main reason I applied to do English was that I’d only studied Philosophy for a year at that point, I got higher marks in English and I felt more confident in the subject so in October when I was applying to Universities English seemed like the safer option. However, after a few months more studying I realised I wanted to continue with studying Philosophy.

I felt that the intellectual challenge that Philosophy requires is unique to itself; there are very humanities where I would say your brain feels “stretched” by taking them. Philosophy makes me question my worldview daily and I love having to constantly reassess my outlook on all aspects of existence. I also felt that Philosophy could teach me things that not all subjects can, it teaches you to be coherent in your argument whilst remaining respectful and open to discussion. This is a skill that is really useful outside of academia too, for example dealing with a work issue with managers or a conflict with friends. It allows you to raise your point and disagree with another whilst maintaining a level civility that prevents the whole thing from becoming a massive argument. Primarily, Philosophy just really interests me. I walk out of every lecture feeling immense satisfaction and contentment from knowing I’m definitely in the right place.

The reason I chose Warwick was far less thoughtful, I simply applied to five good Unis. Once I got my offers I then was faced with the rather unpleasant task of choosing between them, I had hoped my offers would have chosen for me but all the offers needed the same results. I went to several offer holder days and the main way I chose Warwick was it simply felt right, in every Uni I tried to separate myself from whoever I was with at the time and walk through the campus or the halls on my own and to see if I could imagine myself doing this daily, if it felt right in a sense. Warwick was the only one where it did. I think it was the campus feel of welcoming community, perhaps it was the progressive thinking and youth of Warwick or perhaps was chance but Warwick felt right for me, which is why I ended firming it."