BA (Hons) PHILOSOPHY AND POLITICS

Is democracy broken? Can we achieve environmental justice? Should media be under tighter control? 

The big questions facing society are both political and philosophical. The political arena is guided by big ideas, so bringing the rigour of philosophy to your political thinking will have great benefits for you, the political animal. That could be you as a citizen with a vote, as a politician campaigning for office, or as an activist trying to change the terms of the debate. At UEA, you’ll work with world experts in both politics and philosophy, choosing options from a range of fascinating historical and contemporary areas in philosophy and in political theory, including international relations. 

About

Our Philosophy and Politics degree is designed to allow you to engage equally with both disciplines or to swing the degree slightly more to one or the other subject. You have a wide choice of modules in each. 

Furthermore, you won’t just study each subject separately; you will also be invited to bring them together. The philosophy experts at UEA are particularly engaged in issues that relate to the future of our planet – and to future generations. Alongside the Western intellectual and cultural heritage, from the Ancient Greeks to the great works of modern political thought in the West, you’ll be invited to take a module in world philosophies that covers an array of thinkers from the Middle East and Asia. The philosophy of literature, cinema and art is also an area of philosophical focus here. 

Then, with our experts in political theory, you’ll study democracy’s philosophical underpinnings, the clash between different world views, and the philosophical basis of utopian political systems. 

Taught by academic leaders in their fields, you’ll be able to choose from a range of fascinating historical and contemporary areas in both philosophy and in politics, including international relations. You’ll come to understand why philosophy is so central to politics – and why all politicians should have a better grasp of it. After all, politicians and commentators are often let down by sloppy thinking, their inability to detect and deflect the shoddy rhetoric of the interviewers, or their simple misunderstandings of basic distinctions: traps that someone who had studied philosophy wouldn’t fall into. 

By year 2, you’ll be ready to decide which aspects of philosophy and politics you want to pursue further, depending on your interests and talents. You can take either equal numbers of modules in each subject or weight it a little in one direction or the other. You will take one compulsory keystone module, Philosophy of History and Politics for Second Years, which will invite you to combine the skills, methods and concepts from philosophy and politics. If this proves interesting to you, you can choose to follow it up with the complementary module in the following year, Philosophy of History and Politics for Third Years. 

In your final year, you’ll also have the opportunity to take research-led special subject modules or to write a dissertation on a topic of your own choosing. 

Placement Year and Study Abroad

You could expand your horizons by choosing to spend a semester of your second year studying abroad at one of UEA’s partner universities. You’d spend the autumn semester completing three modules at UEA, then transfer overseas in the spring. 

You will not only experience life in a different country and make international connections, you’ll also make yourself even more attractive to prospective employers, who value the skills of resourcefulness and resilience that studying abroad will bring you. 

For further details, visit the Study Abroad section of our website. 

After the Course

Our Philosophy and Politics graduates go on to do great things in a wide range of professions. The reasoning and communication skills developed in this course will prepare you for many different roles, within and beyond politics. They include: 

• Precise and effective communication skills 

• The ability to analyse data and information 

• Reasoning, problem solving and persuasion skills 

• Listening carefully to others, with empathy and rigorous attention to detail 

• Innovative and original ideas supported by reason 

• A commitment to justice, fairness, integrity, and the desire to do things that are praiseworthy. 

Career destinations

A degree at UEA will prepare you for a wide variety of careers. We've been ranked 1st for Job Prospects by StudentCrowd in 2022.

Examples of careers you could enter include: 

• Politics 

• Journalism 

• Civil service 

• Cultural industries 

• Teaching or lecturing 

• Charity and environmental work