Classics and Philosophy

Classics and philosophy is one of the most natural combinations in the humanities, since Western philosophy as a discipline grew directly out of the intellectual culture of ancient Greece. Plato and Aristotle, Socrates and the Stoics, the pre-Socratics and the Epicureans: these thinkers established the questions and many of the methods that philosophy still uses today, and reading them in their original linguistic and cultural context gives you a relationship to those ideas that cannot be replicated any other way. Combining classical study, including ancient Greek and Latin, with modern philosophy extends that engagement across two and a half millennia of inquiry.

At Royal Holloway, University of London, you will study Classics and Philosophy in equal parts over three years full-time, developing your linguistic skills in ancient Greek and Latin alongside engagement with both ancient and modern philosophical questions. The classics strand gives you access to literature, history, and material culture of Greece and Rome, and the philosophical strand develops your ability to reason carefully about ethics, knowledge, mind, language, and political philosophy across the full range of the discipline. The programme includes a sandwich year, a year abroad, and work placement provision, giving you the opportunity to gain professional experience and international exposure before you graduate.

The typical entry tariff is 120 UCAS points.

Graduates of classics and philosophy carry a combination of skills that is genuinely valued by employers: linguistic precision, logical rigour, breadth of learning, and the capacity to engage with complex texts and ideas. Law, the civil service, publishing, journalism, academic research, teaching, museum and heritage work, and management consultancy are among the most common careers. Many graduates go on to postgraduate study in classics, ancient philosophy, philosophy, or related fields.