French and Philosophy

French and philosophy is a pairing with deep intellectual roots, because France has been one of the great centres of Western philosophical thought for centuries, and the relationship between French literature and philosophy is unusually close. From Descartes and Pascal through Rousseau, Voltaire, and the Enlightenment philosophes to Sartre, Beauvoir, Camus, Foucault, and Derrida, French thinkers and writers have repeatedly demonstrated that the boundary between literary and philosophical work is porous and productive. Studying both simultaneously allows you to move between them with genuine understanding of each tradition.

At the University of Edinburgh, this four-year full-time programme trains you in French to a high level of accuracy and confidence, engaging with literature, cinema, and contemporary French culture from the medieval period to the present day, while also developing your philosophical training across the major areas of the discipline, including metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and political philosophy. You will encounter the analytical and continental philosophical traditions and develop the capacity to construct rigorous arguments about the most fundamental questions. Edinburgh's philosophy and French departments are both research-active and intellectually distinguished, providing a rich environment for this demanding combination.

A typical entry tariff of 184 points reflects the competitive nature of the programme.

Graduates of French and philosophy programmes are valued for their intellectual precision, their cultural breadth, and their capacity to engage seriously with ideas in multiple languages and registers. Careers span journalism, publishing, the law, the civil service, education, international organisations, and consultancy, as well as academic research in philosophy, French studies, or a related discipline. The combination is also excellent preparation for postgraduate study in philosophy, French literature, translation, ethics, or law, and Edinburgh graduates are consistently competitive candidates for leading programmes at home and abroad.