This course enables the student to gain an in-depth knowledge of the historical and applied scope of philosophy; students study a broad number of issues and themes in contemporary philosophy and receive a complete grounding in the central intellectual traditions which underpin 20th and 21st century philosophy; the taught modules introduce the student to the key problems and thinkers who have set the tone of contemporary philosophy; specific emphasis is given to problems and issues in the philosophy of language, aesthetics, metaphysics, and phenomenology, post-structuralism and social and political philosophy; students study the work of Wittgenstein, Husserl, Heidegger, Foucault, Deleuze and Derrida; the overall aim of the course is to provide a cutting edge philosophical background for graduate philosophers and to enhance the level of understanding of the ideas, contexts and techniques required to philosophise in both academic and non-academic contexts; the MA is supplemented by a core research practice module; this module is especially useful for graduate philosophers wishing to develop a successful PhD proposal as well as to 1st year doctoral students wanting a general philosophical background to assist them in giving their doctoral project a sharper definition.