Trinity College Dublin

This course provides an advanced evaluation of psychological knowledge on human reasoning that builds on the foundation provided in the PS1234 Thinking module. It familiarizes students with the core theoretical and methodological issues in the scientific study of human reasoning and decision making. The course helps students to develop a critical assessment of experiments on human social reasoning, including moral judgment, intentional reasoning, and reasoning about social dilemmas. It facilitates students in the formulation of rigorous evaluations of experimental studies of human hypothetical thought, including conditional reasoning, counterfactual thought, causal reasoning, and argumentation. It fosters a critical appreciation of experimental investigations of decision making, including planning and risky choices

This course explores the 18th century's fascination with the body and constructions of the self by considering literary representations of the body. Ideals of beauty are examined, as well as anxieties surrounding sexuality and the roles of both men and women, as masculinities and femininities are debated with regards to cultural production. The course also investigates material considerations, reflecting on clothing and disguise, as well as considering the body in relation to discourses of travel and the military. Slavery, incarceration, and the body in pain are particular concerns in writing from this period, and theories engaging with class and race inform our analysis of various relationships and power structures. Students also investigate how authors consider the physical and emotional response of their readers in achieving their aims, and engage with disability studies in considering these authors and their characters in terms of 18th-century concepts of defectiveness. This course explores the 18th-century body across a range of genres, engaging with novels, poetry, and a play, as well as discussing examples of life writing, including letters and biography.

This course focuses on how various pressures and policies have shaped the development of the Irish economy over time. This is achieved by connecting the forces at work that influence the Irish economy, from local to global, and the options available to policymakers to the outcomes of interest. Policy options include fiscal, monetary/macro-prudential, and trade-related policies, while the “success metrics” of relevance to Irish policymakers include income, population, employment, inequality, and prices.

Students study the broad concepts of sustainable development. This course covers the topics of sustainability as a holistic and urgent societal issue, the role of diets in sustainability, environmental impacts of agriculture, sustainability advances in the food, drink, and drug industry, including how these are assessed using Life Cycle Analysis. This course focuses on societal aspects of a sustainable transition and practical sessions focus on techniques relevant to the biotechnology industry, sustainability of food production, and health indices of global diets.

This course begins with the rise of Brian Boru, who became Ireland's most famous high king, to his fall which occurred at the iconic battle of Clontarf in 1014. Students explore how Irish society and kingship changed in the aftermath of Clontarf as a result of inter-provincial warfare and the changing role of the church. The second half of the course examines the causes and implications of the English (or Anglo-Norman) invasion of the late 1160s, perhaps the single most formative development in Irish secular affairs. Students study the interaction of cultures in its aftermath and the Irish opposition to English rule that saw the emergence of England's ongoing Irish problem through later centuries. The course closes with the most serious challenge to English power in medieval Ireland: the Scottish invasion (1315-18) led by Edward Bruce, brother of Robert Bruce king of Scots.