What are we? What does it take for one of us to survive from one time to another? Are we material things?  Are we brains, animals, souls, computer programs, or something else?  How do we relate to our bodies? This module addresses questions of personal identity. While some seminal early modern texts will be highlighted, such as Locke’s Essay, we will primarily scrutinize relevant theories and arguments from recent analytic metaphysics and the philosophy of mind.

Background reading for Week 1

•      Locke, J., 1975, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, P. Nidditch (ed.), Oxford: Clarendon Press.  (II.xxvii) ‘Of Identity and Diversity’

Further reading

•      Snowdon, P. 1990 ‘Persons, Animals and Ourselves’ in The Person and the Human Mind: Issues in Ancient and Modern Philosophy, C. Gill (ed.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 83–107. Reprinted in Crane and Farkas (eds.) 2004 Metaphysics: A Guide and Anthology

•      Olson, E. 1997 The Human Animal New York: Oxford University Press

•      Parfit, D. 2012 ‘We Are Not Human Beings’ in Philosophy 87: 5–28

•      Campbell, T. and J. McMahan, 2017 ‘Animalism and the Varieties of Conjoined Twinning’ in S. Blatti and P. Snowdon (eds.) Essays on Animalism: Persons, Animals, and Identity, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Philosophy Area A

The manufacture of pharmaceutical products requires the establishment and implementation of an effective quality management system (QMS) or &quot;Pharmaceutical...

The manufacture of pharmaceutical products requires the establishment and implementation of an effective quality management system (QMS) or "Pharmaceutical Quality System" (PQS). The concepts of QA (Quality Assurance), GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) and Quality Control (QC), which are inter-related, form the basis of such a system for the manufacture of pharmaceutical products, from initial development, through clinical trial phases to regulatory authorisation and supply. Regulators expect pharmaceutical manufacturers to perform qualification (Design qualification (DQ), Operational Qualification (OQ), performance qualification (PQ) and installation qualification (IQ) and validation (cleaning validation, material, machine, process and computer system validation). Recent malpractices in the globalised pharmaceutical industry have led to serious data integrity issues. This module provides an insight into recent developments designed to address such an important issue.