Course syllabus

On this page you find information about the online masters level courses we offer Spring 2026.

NOTE that only some of the courses we offer this Spring may be of relevance (or even available options) to you. This goes especially for those of you taking courses as part of our online master for the first time.

Here is a film (featuring Peter Johnsen) about how this online master is structured and about what is needed in order to build towards a masters' degree in theoretical philosophy. When choosing which courses to apply for, this film is especially useful. Watch it!

 

Courses This semester (Spring 2026) we offer the following courses:

    • Foundations
    • Topic: Philosophy of Language
    • Topic: Philosophy of Mind
    • Topic: Metaphysics
    • Specialization: Evaluative Language
    • Specialization: Pains & Emotion
    • Specialization: Epistemic Injustice
    • Specialization: Metaphysical Explanation
    • Specialization: the Metaphysics of Mental Properties
    • Thesis Writing Course

All of our courses are given in English and feature a combination of prerecorded lectures and online tasks (some of which are obligatory).  

 

Course Codes The courses we give Spring 26 correspond to course codes as follows:

    • Foundations has course code FTW200.
    • Topic-courses have course code FTW210 or FTW220 or FTW230 or FTW240 - which course has which code depends on where in the order of topic-courses you've taken thus far it falls (the first Topic course you take has course code FTW210, the second FTW 220 etc.).
    • Specialization-courses have course code FTW310 or FTW320 or FTW330 - again, the code is decided by in which order you take them.
    • the Thesis Writing Course has course code FTW410

For more information about how course codes relate to the content of a given course we highly recommend you watch Peter Johnson's prerecorded lecture above!

 

Eligibility in order to be eligible to take one of our Specializations, you must first have taken its corresponding Topics-course. This semester this means that:

    • To be eligible to take the Specialization Evaluative Language you must first have taken Topics Philosophy of Language.
    • To be eligible to take the Specialization Pains & Emotions you must first have taken either Topic Philosophy of Language or Topic Philosophy of Mind
    • To be eligible to take the Specialization Epistemic Injustice you must first have taken the Topic Epistemology course. 
    • To be eligible to take the Specialization the Metaphysics of Mental Properties you must first have taken either Topic Metaphysics or  the Topic Philosophy of Mind course.
    • To be eligible to take the Specialization Metaphysical Explanation you must first have taken Topics Metaphysics.

 

Pace

All of our courses except the thesis writing course are worth 7,5 credits and are given at half pace across 10 weeks. Our Thesis Writing Course is worth 30 credits and is given at half pace across two semesters.

Those of you who plan to take our courses full-time (100%) either take four courses - 2 in parallel on the first half of the semester and 2 in parallel on the second half of the semester - or you take the thesis writing course half time across the entire semester in parallel with one 7,5 hp course on the first half of the semester followed by another on the second.

Those of you who plan to study half-time (50%) either take two courses - 1 on the first half of the semester and a second on the second - or you take just the thesis writing course half time across the semester.

Contact our student advisors if you want to discuss how best to organize your studies (contact information below).

This semester, we give courses as follows (because of what it takes to be eligible to take our specializations as well as because of how things are periodized: if you are taking our courses for the first time you can only be eligible to take the courses highlighted in yellow):

1st Period: Jan 19-March 27 2026

Foundations

Topic: Philosophy of Language

Topic: Metaphysics

Specialization: Epistemic Injustice1

Specialization: Pains & Emotions2

Thesis writing course3

 

           2nd Period: March 30-June 5 2026

 

Topic: Philosophy of Mind

Specialization: Pains & Emotions4

Specialization: Metaphysical Explanation5

Specialization: Evaluative Language6

Specialization: the Metaphysics of Mental Properties7

Thesis writing course, cont.

1 To be eligible to take this course you must already have taken the Topic Epistemology course (Spring 25).

2 To be eligibile to take this course you must already have taken either Topic Philosophy of Language or Topic Philosophy of Mind Fall 2025.

3 To be eligible to take this course you must already have taken minimally one Topic and one Specialization course (it is most likely advisable to have taken more before embarking on writing your thesis - contact our student advisors or Anna-Sofia M aaurin (contact information below) to discuss!)

4 To be eligibile to take this course you must already have taken either Topic Philosophy of Language or Topic Philosophy of Mind on the first half of the semester, or at some earlier time.

5 To be eligible to take this course you must already have taken the Topic: Metaphysics course on the first half of the semester (or at some earlier time).

6 To be eligible to take this course you must already have taken Topic: Philosophy of Language on the first half of the semester (or at some earlier time).

7 To be eligible to take this course you must already have taken either Topic Philosophy of Mind or Topic Metaphysics on the first half of the semester (or at some earlier time).

 

About our Courses

Foundations This course serves to introduce the student to online studies in theoretical analytical philosophy. A special focus is on practicing the important skills of reading and discussing philosophy through various tasks. The course is mainly focused on studying important philosophical concepts and distinctions, in particular a couple of (surprising) combinations of philosophical concepts first defended by Saul Kripke.

NOTE! taking the Foundations course is obligatory if you want to take out a Masters Exam in theoretical philosophy with us (see Peter Johnsen's film for more information about building towards an exam). Even if you don't plan to take out a Masters Exam, starting with this course is in any case highly recommended: apart from giving an advanced introduction to central philosophical distinctions, this course is also an introduction to (i) online tools, (ii) analytic theoretical philosophy, and (to some extent) (iii) the Swedish education system.

Topic Philosophy of Language This course is designed to orient beginning master’s students to some central topics in contemporary philosophy of language. The goal is to provide a basic understanding of several central topics and debates: meaning, reference, truth, language games, intuitions, speech act theory, pragmatic implications, contextualism, and generics. The course is designed as a survey, although intertwining themes and evolving discussions will be highlighted throughout.

Topic Metaphysics This course is designed to orient beginning master’s students to some central topics in contemporary analytic metaphysics. The goal is to provide good basic understanding of several central topics and debates: ontology, properties, substance, mereology, persistence, modality, fundamentality, and grounding. The course is designed as a survey, although intertwining themes and evolving discussions will be highlighted throughout.

Topic Philosophy of Mind This course is designed to orient beginning master’s students to some central topics in contemporary philosophy of mind. The goal is to provide good basic understanding of several central topics and debates: the mind-body problem, monisms and dualisms, identity theory, intentionality, content, behaviorism, functionalism, consciousness, and panpsychism. The course is designed as a survey, although intertwining themes and evolving discussions will be highlighted throughout.

Specialization Epistemic Injustice This course requires the student to have previously taken the Topic Epistemology course. This course takes as its point of departure Miranda Fricker's influential book Epistemic Injustice. Apart from her distinction between testimonial and hermeneutic epistemic injustice, it takes a special look at the role of credibility excess and, in particular, the role of trust. The chief learning outcomes will be gains in the students’ respective abilities to recognize, formulate, and critically assess the key claims and arguments at work in some of the central literature on these topics.

Specialization Evaluative Language This course requires the student to have previously taken the Topic course in Philosophy of Language. Evaluative language includes a wide range of terms and phrases like thin terms (e.g., great and bad), thick terms (e.g., rude and courageous), dual character terms like art and gangster, as well as slurs. This specialization course explores the nature and function of evaluative language, examining how these terms convey descriptive and normative content. We will discuss key debates on the semantics, pragmatics, and philosophical implications of evaluative expressions, including their role in moral and social discourse. The chief learning outcomes will be gains in the students’ respective abilities to recognize, formulate, and critically assess the key claims and arguments at work in some of the central literature on these topics.

Specialization Pains & Emotion This course requires the student to have previously taken the topic course in Philosophy of Language or Philosophy of Mind.  Pains and emotions are among our most familiar experiences, yet their nature remains strikingly contested. This seminar explores three central questions: (1) What are pains and emotions? (2) How can their distinctive phenomenal character be explained? and (3) What roles do they play in human life? We will examine philosophical perspectives on a range of affective states—pleasant and unpleasant alike—including bodily sensations, emotions, and moods. Students will develop their ability to identify, articulate, and critically evaluate the central arguments and claims found in key works of the literature on these topics.

Specialization the Metaphysics of Mental Properties This course requires the student to have previously taken either the Topic course in Philosophy of Mind or the Topic course in Metaphysics. This course will critically examine the relationships among various positions in the ontology of properties and substance, on the one hand, and various positions in the metaphysics of mind, on the other. Intellectually, the point will be to “check” these two areas for interesting connections, benefits, requirements, decision points, oversights, and tensions. Topics to be scrutinized will include, on the property/substance side, bare particulars, bundle theory, tropes, universals, and dispositional theories of properties, and on the mind side, property dualism, panpsychism and panprotopsychism, and physicalism (or perhaps a subset of these, depending on time constraints). The chief learning outcomes will be gains in the students’ respective abilities to recognize, formulate, and critically assess the key claims and arguments at work in some of the central literature on these topics.

Specialization: Metaphysical Explanation This course requires the student to have previously taken the Topic course in Metaphysics. In this course, we take a closer look at metaphysical explanation from a number of different perspectives including: (1) its nature as a kind of explanation; (2) its relationship to so-called grounding relations; (3) its formal (and other) properties; and (4) the prospects of modeling iton so-called causal/scientific explanation. The chief learning outcomes will be gains in the students’ respective abilities to recognize, formulate, and critically assess the key claims and arguments at work in some of the central literature on these topics.

Thesis Writing Course: This course mostly consists in one-on-one meetings with your selected supervisor. Apart from that, we offer a series of prerecorded lectures on the craft of writing a masters' thesis. Depending on the number of thesis writing students, we might also offer live-online draft seminars, where students read and discuss each other's drafts together with an instructor.

 

About our Instructors The courses this Fall will be given by Daniel Giberman (Topic: Philosophy of Mind, Topic: Metaphysics, Specialization: The Metaphysics of Mental Properties), Kevin Reuter (Topic: Philosophy of Language, Specialization: Philosophy of Language, Specialization Pains & Emotions) and Anna-Sofia Maurin (Foundations, Specialization: Metaphysical Explanation, Specialization Epistemic Injustice, Thesis Writing Course). Anna-Sofia is also the person in charge of the overall education on this level. Click on their pictures (below) to get to our instructors' respective research webpages. There you find all sorts of information about what they're up to research-wise.

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Administrative Support Besides the course's instructors, the course also features two excellent course administrators Anja Ehn and Peter Johnsen (pictured below). Click on their respective picture for information about how to reach them!

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