Philosophy of Mental Disorder

Felicity
UK
Eighteenth-Century Studies MA
When I applied for a place on the Eighteenth-Century Studies MA, there were two main reasons why the course appealed to me. Firstly, as an English Literature graduate, the interdisciplinary nature of the MA - the course covers early modern British and European literature, history, science, medicine, politics, philosophy, art, and more - would both enable me to develop my specific interest in the relationship between the arts and sciences during this era, and make me a better scholar of the period in general. Similarly, because the course was taught by both tutors from King's College and curators from the British Museum, it offered a unique opportunity to be around and improve my understanding of all the incredible artefacts - not just texts, but objects too - whose creation, or re-discovery in many cases, resulted from this ferment of ideas called the Enlightenment.

 

On starting the MA, I found that the course was everything I'd wanted it to be. British Museum curators taught the core modules, and in effect the Museum's showcase Enlightenment Gallery, which displays and interprets objects as eighteenth-century people might have made sense of them, became a vast classroom. King's College tutors taught the optional modules, and many of these were themed - the self, the body, liberty, melancholy, and so on - and ranged across a variety of media - conduct books, novels, philosophical treatises, diaries, portraits and more - to demonstrate how a number of disciplines informed the emergence of each particular idea or experience. The MA organizers were also really good at showcasing eighteenth-century London - there were trips to Kew gardens and Sir John Soane's house museum, amongst others, which was an unexpected bonus.

Aside from the course, the facilities at King's are very good. Its beautiful library is a two minute walk away from its main Strand campus, it has a big and cheap student bar with a view of the river, and it's next door to the Courtauld Institute and just over the river from the British Film Insitute on the south bank, two of my favourite places in London.