This is the website for PHIL 30790 Animated Philosophy, a course offered by UCD School of Philosophy and generously supported by UCD College of Social Sciences and Law. The course is designed and taught by Daniel Esmonde Deasy (Associate Professor of Philosophy, UCD School of Philosophy).
The aim of Animated Philosophy is to provide students with an opportunity to take a different approach to learning philosophy; in particular, to use audio/visual creativity, digital competence, humour, and storytelling skills to present philosophical puzzles and theories in non-standard formats such as podcasts; plays; comic books; posters; and animated online 'explainer' videos.
Students who take the course gain invaluable research, design, and team-working skills that they can take into their future careers, as well as evidence of their learning in the form of their own audio/visual project outputs.
The overall approach of the course in terms of teaching, learning, and assessment places an emphasis on discussion and collaboration; teamwork; self-reflection; creativity and design; story-telling and imagination; self-directed learning and goal-setting; and peer-support and peer-feedback.
The content of the course is drawn from themes in metaphysics, the part of philosophy that investigates fundamental questions about reality. Metaphysics is an incredibly broad and exciting area of philosophy, and covers questions as diverse as: what is it for an action to be a morally good/bad one? What is an artwork? What is colour? What is time, and what is change? Is there free will? What is personal identity? What is it for something to exist, and are there different 'grades' of existence?
To explore some of the animations created by students in previous years, simply click on the relevant year in the menu at the top of this page. The most recent set of videos are here. You can also explore some of the solo projects created by students of the course here.
The aim of Animated Philosophy is to provide students with an opportunity to take a different approach to learning philosophy; in particular, to use audio/visual creativity, digital competence, humour, and storytelling skills to present philosophical puzzles and theories in non-standard formats such as podcasts; plays; comic books; posters; and animated online 'explainer' videos.
Students who take the course gain invaluable research, design, and team-working skills that they can take into their future careers, as well as evidence of their learning in the form of their own audio/visual project outputs.
The overall approach of the course in terms of teaching, learning, and assessment places an emphasis on discussion and collaboration; teamwork; self-reflection; creativity and design; story-telling and imagination; self-directed learning and goal-setting; and peer-support and peer-feedback.
The content of the course is drawn from themes in metaphysics, the part of philosophy that investigates fundamental questions about reality. Metaphysics is an incredibly broad and exciting area of philosophy, and covers questions as diverse as: what is it for an action to be a morally good/bad one? What is an artwork? What is colour? What is time, and what is change? Is there free will? What is personal identity? What is it for something to exist, and are there different 'grades' of existence?
To explore some of the animations created by students in previous years, simply click on the relevant year in the menu at the top of this page. The most recent set of videos are here. You can also explore some of the solo projects created by students of the course here.
